In Dreams is the eleventh episode of Season Two and the thirty-fourth of Ally McBeal.
Synopsis
An ailing former teacher of Ally who prefers living in her dreams seeks a court order that would force a hospital to place her in a coma. Meanwhile, Ling informs Fish that Nelle has tired of Cage’s lack of sexual aggressiveness.
Plot
As a contented Ally sleeps in her bed, snuggled next to her inflatable 'date', the telephone suddenly rings. Ally is informed that her old high school teacher, Bria Tolson, has been admitted to the hospital. She makes her way to the hospital, where she greets Bria, a frail but mentally alert seventy-year-old. Bria introduces Ally to Father McNamara, who has been constantly keeping an eye on her. As Bria drifts off to sleep, McNamara informs Ally that Bria hasn’t long to live. As they converse, Bria begins hallucinating. Ally realizes that Bria is conversing with Henry Lane, an imaginary man who lives only in her dreams. Meanwhile, back at the firm, Nelle approaches Cage in the unisex and tells him how public places excite her. As Nelle begins undoing Cage’s neck tie, the toilet seat rises and falls in a rapid manner. Cage excuses himself and enters the stall, interrupting Nelle.
Bria confides to Ally that in her dreams, she and Henry married. Bria closes her eyes and suddenly, machines begin to beep and a medical team charges into the room. Moments before she receives a jolt from the automated external defibrillators, Bria opens her eyes. The doctor is taken aback, as the machine shows a flat line. McNamara realizes that a monitoring wire became disconnected. Moments later, Ally realizes that the physician who rushed into the room is none other than Dr. Greg Butters. Ally has a fantasy in which her tongue pops out of her mouth, if only a small amount and flitters.
Greg informs Ally that Bria’s body is shutting down and that she has anywhere from a week to three months left to live. Shortly thereafter, Bria tells Greg that she would like to go to sleep and never wake up again so that she can be with Henry and her children. Ally pursues the idea of medically-inducing a coma. Greg however informs her that the hospital would never approve of such a procedure. Back at the firm, Ally informs her colleagues that she will go before Whipper to present her case. In court, she argues that when Bria goes to sleep, she will enter a better place.
Back at Cage & Fish, Ling approaches Fish in private. She tells him that she believes Cage is gay, as he does not respond to Nelle’s sexual advances. Fish argues that no one thinks twice when a woman rebuffs a man’s advances. Yet when a man refuses sex, he is labeled as being homosexual.
Whipper agrees to speak with Bria in person. In her hospital room, Bria recounts how she first invented Henry when she wasn’t asked to the high school prom. As time went on, she began dreaming about her imaginary lover, until she reached a point where she couldn’t wait to fall asleep. She finds it ironic that anyone would think her crazy for wanting to live in such a better world. Whipper rules that Bria is of sound mind but the hospital refuses to induce a coma. Ally then decides to seek a court order that would force the hospital to put Bria to sleep.
Attorney John Woodson questions hospital Chief of Staff Mark Harrison on the witness stand. Harrison argues that it would be ethically immoral for the hospital to explicitly place a patient in a coma. He also points out that there is no guarantee a person would continue experiencing his or her dream patterns once the coma was induced. Afterwards, Ally counter argues that hospitals increase morphine drips to accelerate the deaths of terminally ill patients. She wonders why a hospital would have an ethical problem with aiding a patient fall asleep.
Cage tells Nelle that he has avoided a sexual relationship because he fears it would ultimately lead to the end of their relationship. He states that, ultimately, he is more excited by the prospect of not going down that road, so that it will always remain the road ahead. A confused look thus passes over Nelle’s face. Later, Nelle closes her eyes and gives the 'inner world thing' a try. In her fantasy, she envisions Cage getting thrown into a dumpster. She then informs Cage that their relationship is over. Ling tells Nelle that she is emotionally inept and that she likes Cage because he will never find her 'defrost button'. She also believes that Nelle likes sex because she mistakes it for passion. But Nelle insists she is neither cold nor inaccessible.
Greg allows Bria to leave the hospital temporarily so she can be present in the courtroom during final arguments. In court, Woodson argues that if Bria wins the case, it would set a precedent that might one day allow people to take a pill that induces happy dreams. But in her closing statement, Ally argues that the court must not rule on the 'big picture', but instead focus on one single case. Shortly thereafter, Bria tells Whipper that the risk of not waking up again does not frighten her. Whipper grants Bria’s request for a period of one week.
Cage approaches Nelle in her office. He tells her he is willing to risk their relationship by progressing beyond the platonic stage and the idea pleases Nelle. At the hospital, Greg places Bria on a sodium pentathol drip. Moments later, Bria loses consciousness. Ally notices a little smile on Bria’s face as she sleeps.
Trivia
It was rated as one of the top five worst episodes.[1]
Goof
In Theme of Life, Dr. Butters was a surgeon. Here he's a doctor in an intensive care unit. He could not have changed roles so fast.
Script
Full transcript can be found here and here.
Songs
- Dream Lover | Vonda Shepard (cover, originally performed by Bobby Darin.]
- At the start, as Ally sleeps.
- Wicked Witch of the West theme |
- Ling's Theme Song.
- In Dreams | Vonda Shepard (cover, originally performed by Roy Orbison.)
- Performed at the bar.
- You're the First, the Last, My Everything | Barry White
- Nelle working in her office.
- Dream Baby | Vonda Shepard (cover, originally performed by Roy Orbison.)
List of songs in the episode can be found here and here.
Starring
- Calista Flockhart as Ally McBeal
- Courtney Thorne-Smith as Georgia Thomas
- Greg Germann as Richard Fish
- Lisa Nicole Carson as Renée Raddick
- Jane Krakowski as Elaine Vassal
- Vonda Shepard as Herself
- Portia de Rossi as Nelle Porter
- Lucy Liu as Ling Woo
- with Peter MacNicol as John Cage
- and Gil Bellows as Billy Thomas
Recurring cast
Guest starring
- Eileen Ryan as Bria Tolson
- James Greene as Father Robert McNamara
- Joel Polis as Attorney Woodson
- Sam Anderson as Mark Harrison
- Renée Elise Goldsberry as Backup Singer #1 (formerly Ikette #1)
- Vatrena King as Backup Singer #2 (formerly Ikette #2)
- Sy Smith as Backup Singer #3 (formerly Ikette #2)
- Carla Barnett as Nurse
Producers
- David E. Kelley - Executive Producer
- Jeffrey Kramer - Co-Executive Producer
- Jonathan Pontell - Co-Executive Producer
- Roseann M. Bonora-Keris- Associate Producer
- Kim Hamberg - Associate Producer
- Mike Listo - Producer
- Steve Robin - Producer
- Pamela J. Wisne - Producer
- Peter Burrell - Coordinating Producer