Just Looking is the eighth episode of Season Two and the thirty-first of Ally McBeal.
Synopsis[]
Cage and Fish go undercover at Ling’s mud wrestling club while Ally gets stuck in the unisex toile and Georgia finds herself attracted to a man she once dated.
Plot[]
An overwrought Ling enters the office complex in search of Nelle. It turns out that Ling’s mud wrestling club has been slapped with a legal claim. A group called MOPE, or Mothers Opposed to Pornographic Entertainment, is seeking to close the establishment for good. As the judge will most likely schedule a hearing, someone from the firm must go undercover on a fact-finding mission. Cage and Fish eagerly volunteer for the assignment. Meanwhile, Elaine shows Billy and Cage her newest invention: a high-tech toilet device. It features a seat warmer, an auto-flusher and a seat that raises and lowers at the push of a button and all of the functions are controlled by the same remote.
As Georgia walks through a court corridor, she bumps into Raymond Brown, an old boyfriend. Raymond, it turns out, is quite the eligible bachelor and is representing the women of MOPE in court. As the case gets underway, Raymond handles himself in an impressive manner, managing to attract the attention of both Ally and Georgia. Afterwards, Ally tells Georgia that Raymond is very cute. Georgia explains that she and Raymond went out on one date but found they had few similar interests. Georgia offers to arrange a date between Ally and Raymond. Later, one of the MOPE members, Marie Stokes, insists that mud wrestling is degrading to women. During cross-examination, Nelle points out that R-rated movies often feature steamy sex scenes. Marie Stokes from MOPE views movies as something entirely different, as actresses who perform love scenes are paid a great deal of money for their work and are therefore not degraded.
A normal talk between the girls in the unisex. it soon going to continue when Ally walks to the stall. Undies already pulled down, her butt cheeks about to rest on the throne and suddenly the toilet seat suddenly rises and she plunges into the bowl. Butt-naked and stuck in Elaine's invention. Elaine tells about the prohibition of the unisex bathroom due to Ally's crisis. Already next surrounded by firefighters and her friends her only salvation are Georgia and Billy who distract Raymond from entering the unisex. Cage's horrified to know that his toilet seat has to be cracked open. In the middle of this, a wrong button makes Ally's privates get splashed by the toilet. Meanwhile, Cage and Fish make their way inside Ling’s mud wrestling club. Fish outbids the other men in the audience for a chance to square off against one of the extremely attractive female wrestlers. As the match gets underway, Fish delights at tickling his opponent’s wattle.
With all Elaine's mockery, Ally finally gets out that toilet. Billy, Georgia, Ally and Raymond make their way to the bar. Raymond asks Ally to dance. She declines, as she has yet to recover from the toilet incident. Georgia volunteers instead and the pair head out onto the dance floor. Ally begins to suspect that the two of them may still be attracted to one another.
When Cage and Fish return to the office, they announce that there is no nudity or sexual contact inside the mud wrestling club, just men ogling buxom and wet women. On the witness stand, Ling defends her operation insisting the mud wrestlers make good money by teasing the opposite sex who are at the mercy of their 'dumb stick'. She also insists that women are already exploited by everything from the high heel shoe to painted eyelashes. But Nelle counters that mud wrestling clubs do not help the problem. She refuses to deliver the summation, as she suspects that Ling no longer believes that she can sell the case to the jury.
Georgia admits to Ally that she misses the little 'date highs' she would get back in the days before her marriage. Ally warns her that what she is doing with Raymond is a version of an affair. Nelle calls Jack Clooney, a male stripper, to the witness stand. Jack is surprisingly an attorney. However, he prefers the life of a dancer because of the money and because of the gratification he receives from the way women respond to his looks. He insists his line of work is not degrading. Raymond approaches Ally and asks her out on another date. However, Ally declines the offer.
Nelle asks Fish to deliver the closing argument. She believes his gender and his experience in the mud wrestling club, will give them an advantage, especially since the judge is a man. In court, Fish argues that being in a room filled with other ogling men is a liberating experience, as sexual desire is not deviant behavior; it’s normal. The judge agrees with Fish and Ling wins the case.
Inside the courthouse, Raymond and Georgia end up in the same elevator. Raymond states that out of all the bad dates he has gone through in his life, the one he had with Georgia was the most intriguing. He then hits the elevator’s stop button and asks Georgia for one kiss just so he will know what it would have been like if they had pursued the relationship. However, Georgia talks him out of the idea. With that, Raymond lets the elevator run but moments later, Georgia hits the stop button. She quickly changes her mind once more, and turns it back on. Moments later, Raymond hits the button, stopping the elevator. He leans in for a kiss. As they inch closer, the elevator doors open. The two pull apart, not having kissed and they go their separate ways.
Script[]
Full transcript can be found here.
Songs[]
- Secret Agent Man | Vonda Shepard (cover , originally performed by Johnny Rivers.)
- Foolish Little Girl | Vonda Shepard
- At the Bar.
- Hawaii Five-O Theme song
- One Fine Day | Vonda Shepard (cover , originally performed by Carole King)
List of songs in the episode can be found 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
- with Peter MacNicol as John Cage
- and Gil Bellows as Billy Thomas
Recurring cast
Guest starring
- Justin Theroux as Raymond Brown
- Tony Plana as Judge Warren Figueroa
- Christine Ebersole as Marie Stokes
- Eric Scott Woods as Jack Clooney
- Reese Selley as Fireman
- Renée Elise Goldsberry as Backup Singer #1 (Originally Ikette #1)
- Vatrena King as Backup Singer #2 (Originally Ikette #2)
- Sy Smith as Backup Singer #3 (Originally Ikette #3)
- Tawni Graf as Jennifer
- Brad Grunberg as Emcee
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