After Rene agrees to hire a youth whom her boyfriend Bill mentors, she discovers that Bill is not divorced - only separated. M.E. feels guilty when she develops a crush on another man, but Colliar is confident that their marriage is safe.

Past: M.E. and Rene witness Martin Luther King's march on Washington.

Rene and Bill argue over how much they should spend on a house. After learning how much money Rene actually has, Bill begins to feel threatened. He decides to let Rene choose whichever house she wants, but Rene is left uncertain as to whether she and Bill are really right for each other. M.E. believes that her male boss at the magazine is ignoring her suggestions and favoring a young male intern, so she pulls a bold stunt to get his attention. M.E. is also angry because Rene has become so focused on Bill. Colliar convinces M.E. to give Rene some space.

Past: M.E. is forced to fight, literally, for Colliar, when a new girl tries to win his affections.

M.E. and Colliar face increasing financial problems because a client of Colliar's has gone bankrupt. M.E. is humiliated at the grocery store when she finds out she's on their bad check list. Meanwhile, Kelly tries to buy a car from her boyfriend against M.E.'s wishes. Bill's first homicide case involves trying to get a murder witness to testify. Bill asks Rene to talk to the woman, but his plan backfires when Rene advises the woman that she doesn't have to testify if she fears for her life. The situation puts a freeze on Rene and Bill's already rocky relationship. During the case, Rene becomes jealous of Bill's new female partner. Matters worsen when Bill comes to Rene's house drunk and she asks him to leave.

Past: A seamstress working on M.E.'s sister's gown tests the girls' faith in God when they learn about the horrors of the Holocaust the woman has suffered through. The girls set up their own test for God.

M.E. is frustrated when her daughter, Kelly, won't talk to her about her relationship with her boyfriend. Rene is caught in a bind when Kelly confides in her instead of M.E. When M.E. and Colliar's sex life hits a low point, M.E. suggests they go out on a date. She's disappointed when Colliar turns it into a double date with a potential business client and his wife. The situation becomes more awkward when the couple approaches M.E. and Colliar about partner-swapping. Meanwhile, Rene pursues a famous singer (and longtime crush) when he comes to town.

Past: M.E.'s Aunt Harriet dies and leaves her a scary doll. M.E.'s sister, Theresa, catches M.E. and Rene trying to bury the doll; she then uses this information to try to blackmail M.E. and get her own bedroom.

Present:

M.E. is upset when Rene hires a black contractor instead of Colliar to do some renovations on her house; M.E. is put in the middle when Colliar sues one of Rene's clients for reverse discrimination when he loses out on a job to a black contractor who submitted a higher bid; April is diagnosed as bipolar, but resists taking her medicine; Kelly and Ajoni start dating again.

Past:

Inspired by their favorite mystery books, Rene and M.E. decide to play detective and follow James, and accidentally help him to discover that the F.B.I. is tapping his phones.

When interviewing a Baptist minister for an article, M.E. discovers he doesn't practice what he preaches. Now a candidate for district attorney, Rene faces her first critics when she refuses to drop a client who is an illegal alien.

Past: M.E. threatens to break up with Colliar if he doesn't let her join his band. She's surprised when he dumps her.

Present:

The road not taken intrigues M.E. and Rene as they wonder what would have happened had they switched houses and destinies many years ago. Rene sees herself in a loving marriage with two children as she struggles to maintain her own priorities in her father's law firm and pleads with her parents to accept Elston. M.E. is single and an extremely wealthy, successful, and prolific writer who owns a newspaper. After she is reunited with Colliar at his father's funeral, she realizes how much she regrets missing the opportunity to make a life with him.

Past:

M.E. fears that she will never see Colliar again after he and his mother leave Birmingham to escape being beaten by his father; Rene realizes that Henry is not the boy for her.

Present:

Events put a damper on Rene's plans to move into a new office suite; Kelly brings a new dimension to nervous new motherhood and exhausts her parents with her constant, frantic calls; Rene loses an employment discrimination suit for her deaf client, but manages to gain a new case clerk and a new associate from the experience; inspired by Colliar's pillow talk and unwilling to sit down and take the absence of romance in their relationship quietly, M.E. devises an innovative way to spark up their marriage; Joe and one of his Harvard classmates become new associates in Rene's firm; at the first Jackson & Associates staff meeting, Rene discovers that her skills in researching and interviewing prospective employees could use some work.

Past:

Colliar, Tully and the girls endure the torture that is freshman hazing on their first days of high school; Rene joins Black Students Unite, and M.E. joins the pep squad.

Rene takes on big business when she represents a group of children diagnosed with lead poisoning. M.E. and Davis share some quality mother-son time together. In the past, the girls perform in the school play.

Present:

M.E. is forced to reexamine her views on capital punishment when Glenn arranges for her to witness the execution of a man convicted of a rape-murder and to write a column on her emotional reaction to the event. When Davis comes home to Birmingham to protest the execution, he clashes with Collar and M.E. on the topic and tensions run high in the family. After visiting the prison and speaking with the mother of the victim and the mother of the man on death row, M.E. writes a column which reveals that she has completely changed her point of view on capital punishment. She reconciles with Davis before he returns to Wisconsin.

Rene represents a student who was kicked off a university women's volleyball team because she violated the athletic code of conduct by working as a stripper to pay her tuition. When she proves in court that male athletes who had also violated the code of conduct were not punished in the same manner, Rene is successful in obtaining a reinstatement to the team