Episode Report Card Gwen: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT As we learned in Clueless and Cocoon...
By Gwen | Season 4 | Episode 9 | Aired on 01.07.2001
Over at Larry's office, John asks Larry to help get the Engblooms back together. He babbles about how great their marriage is while Ally makes myriad weird faces at Larry. Then Ally tells John that Larry will take the case. John thanks Ally and the two of them leave. Larry throws a pencil at Ally but, sadly, he misses.
On the way to a court conference room, John chastises Nicolas for not mentioning that Brandy had thrown him out of the house. Then they and Ally sit down with Melanie the Tourette's Girl, who is played by Anne Heche. Ms. Heche still has the same unflattering, too-blonde hairdo. Nicolas says that she doesn't speak to him at all. John introduces himself as Jonathan, then John. He makes inane statements. His nose whistles. He does his stuttering routine. He introduces Ally as his brother. All the while, Ally smiles as if she isn't so hungry that she faints on set. Melanie interrupts John's blather by screaming "Woo!" John repeats the "Woo!" He apologizes, explaining that he himself might have Tourette's Syndrome, and that he mimics the tics of others. Well, that explains a lot. Melanie throatily tells him, "I believe you." John wants to settle. Melanie doesn't. She says she'd rather be considered a murderer than insane. John goes over the specifics of her case. During this, we get about ten tics from Melanie, two of which are saying "midget" and "pipsqueak" in John's direction. ["That's funny, because I saw almost exactly the same thing a couple of weeks ago on an A&E rerun of L.A. Law, on which David E. Kelley worked. The difference was that the Tourette's sufferer then wasn't a murderer, and the whole issue was managed much more tastefully." -- Wing Chun] We also get about a million totally unnecessary reaction shots of Ally. I guess they have to do that so that they can keep the show title the same, though. Melanie refuses to settle. Her trial will begin after lunch. Gotta love that speedy American justice system.
Back at Fish & Cage, Richard asks Mark how Elaine is in bed. Richard says that he's been meaning to find out on his own, but that he's been too afraid of catching something. Mark is appropriately aghast at such rudeness. His hair is longer and now contains gel, though.
Ally rubs her coffee cup against her lower lip as she leads John and Nicolas off the elevator. Nicolas is congratulating John for connecting with Melanie. Elaine informs them that Brandy and Larry are awaiting them. I have nothing bitchy to say about this scene. Oh, wait -- get your coffee cup off your mouth, Ally. Quit touching your damned mouth. It's not sexy. It's annoying. There.