Troubled Water is the fifth episode of Season Three and the and the fifty-first episode of Ally McBeal.
Synopsis[]
Ally learns that Georgia kissed her father and of her mother's and father's infidelities.
Plot[]
Ling and Nelle are talking in the unisex about Billy's 'big change.' When Ling asks why his behaviour is such a big deal, reminding her friend that women change hair colour all the time, Nelle points out that when men change their hair it's because they are going through some sort of crisis. Ling curtly answers that Billy is incapable of crisis, having "all the personality of a nail...minus the sharp end." The toilet flushes behind them and the 'New Man' himself struts out, wondering aloud why neither of them have learned to check under the stalls before speaking about someone. Nelle teasingly asks him to show her the "boo-boo" so she can kiss it and make it better. Billy tells her he's tired of the way she treats him, asking if it's to titillate him or just to offend Georgia. She smiles coyly, saying that since Georgia's not there, it must be to titillate him. Smirking arrogantly, Billy tells her that if she wants to turn him on, she should try acting more mature than a high school sophomore. Nelle slinks forward and brings her knee directly into his groin, causing him to double over. He grunts in pain, running from the unisex.
Meanwhile, Georgia is meeting with the suave mystery man, George, in the bar. She asks him what his wife thinks of him staying out so late at night. He tells her that she thinks he's just working late, observing that he should go before it gets TOO late. When she asks if they can meet tomorrow, he reminds her that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. He gets up to leave and lingering, looking into her face. "If your husband were to catch you kissing another man, that'd make him pretty jealous, wouldn't it?" They lean forward slowly, looking into each other's eyes and kiss.
At the lawyer's usual bar, Georgia rushes in, asking her friends if they know where she can get a turkey at the last minute. "How could a wife forget Thanksgiving?" Fish wonders. Ally invites her and Billy over to her place for Thanksgiving dinner and refuses to take no for an answer. Elaine, Nelle, John and Whipper. Fish and Ling sulk until Ally, feeling guilty, finally also invites them.
The guests start arriving at the apartment for Thanksgiving. When Ling enters with Richard, she immediately locks horns with Whipper, making rude comments until the older woman asks, "What did I ever do to you? Can I ask you that?" Tensions flare all over the room: Nelle starts trying to moderate the fight, Renee snaps at her for trying to make rules in someone else's house, Ally frantically works to break it up, John stutters 'Poughkeepsie' and Elaine gleefully watches the ruckus. Billy and Georgia enter and things are temporarily smooth once again. Ally's mother next arrives and Ally introduces her to everyone, saying that she probably remembers Richard Fish from when she visited the college. Both Ling and Whipper balk at Richard, then turn on each other, bickering furiously. Peace is briefly re-established, however, when Ally's father walks in, who locks eyes with Georgia who freezes. She stares back like a deer caught in headlights. George recovers quickly, saying that she looks exactly like the daughter of a client and it stunned him for a moment.
Later, as Elaine and Billy sing karaoke to Swing on a Star, Georgia slips away to Ally's room. George follows her, trying to calm her down, saying that now that it's certainly not anonymous between them anymore and they'll end it immediately with no harm done. Suddenly, they hear the door close behind them and turn to see Ally standing in the doorway, shocked. Both immediately try to explain but Ally is too upset to hear it, telling Georgia to get out so she can talk with her father. Appalled, she asks her dad if he cheats on her mother. He doesn't give a straight answer at first, saying that he doesn't owe her one, then confesses that he had one affair after Ally had left for college. He asks Ally to give him a break and she explodes, shouting he had an affair during marriage with her mother. George's eyes widen as he looks past Ally to see his wife standing in the doorway Frustrated, he asks if there's anyone else who hasn't heard. Ally's mother answers they should just catch everyone up right now, going out into the living room and announcing to Billy that his wife kissed her husband. Ally instead asks everyone but her parents to leave, Richard asks if he can take the turkey, while Ling surreptitiously starts gathering all the food she can carry out of the apartment. They evacuate, and Ally is left alone with her parents.
George starts by trying to explain to his wife that it wasn't an affair this time instead, they start fighting. When Ally asks if her mother knows about her father's affair, George answers affirmative and that he knows about her affairs as well. Shocked again, Ally, confronts her mother. Jeannie McBeal vehemently admits she had a fling after she discovered George's affair. Ally asks if they still love each other, and they tell answer that they do, but their words lack conviction. When her mother says that maybe Ally should just stay in her little dream universe, where everything is ideal and perfect, Ally retorts she knows reality from her dreamworld.
Ally sits in her room later on, staring into the mirror and remembering the good times with her father as a child. Her mother enters behind her, trying to explain why she had the brief affair so many years ago, however, Ally will not listen. Her mother quietly says that, in all these years, she's never asked her daughter for help but she needs it now. George has just asked for a divorce. Meanwhile, the rest of the group have gathered around a table elsewhere to eat their Thanksgiving dinner. Ling verbally goes for Whipper's throat once again, unable to take it anymore, the former judge gets up and leaves, informing Richard that they need to talk in private.
Back at the apartment, Ally and her parents are arguing again. Her mother admits that the first affair wasn't just "an attached penis," she actually fell in love with another man, but she broke it off because she had kids. Confused and upset and unwilling to let her parents get divorced ,Ally says that they will all go see her therapist and work it out. Ally isn't the only one confused and upset. Whipper is pleading with Richard to explain to her what's going on, whether he's still with Ling, how things stand between them. True to form, Richard says, "For companionship, or emotional support, there's nobody like you. You're like a soul mate. But when it comes to what's really important in a relationship..." When she asks what that is, he tells her it's sex. Whipper nevertheless isn't fooled as she's seen him act this way before, hiding his emotional insecurity with abruptness and apathy. She storms out, and Richard goes after her.
Ally and her parents are now in Tracy's office. The dubious therapist rehashes all the details with all the personality of a talk show host, casually insulting George. When he gets up to leave, she grabs her handy remote control and his section of the couch slides forward, knocking his legs out from under him, preventing him from leaving. Tracy says that the couple needs to concentrate, not on their relationship twenty-six years ago but on their relationship at present. George attempts to explain the strength of their relationship. His wife still reacts angrily to his words, and another family squabble ensues. Ally's mother accuses George of being unfaithful long before her transgression when he put his feelings for Ally so far above hers.
Elsewhere, Georgia is talking with Billy about their marriage. She is realizing now that their problems were never about Ally, and when she kissed George, that was to get back at him. Growing up, everyone always classified Georgia as some kind of Barbie Doll, and she's been fighting that image for a long time. .Now as 'the new Billy' has been talking about her that way, she can't handle it anymore. So she's giving Billy this chance to leave her and he walks out of the room quietly.
Back in Tracy's office, George is defending his love for Ally. However, that still doesn't excuse the fact that he stopped showing affection for his wife. The point is driven home by the way he keeps pointing out how he didn't have his affair while Ally was still at home. Ally still sees it was a betrayal to her mother. George then tells Ally that, when he was no longer as much a part of her life, it hurt him. Tracy states that George's relationship with his wife might not be fixable, but he must understand that he has a choice: he can come clean with his wife, or he can go back to the bar and try to pick up girls his daughter's age. He angrily says he refuses to be bullied by Tracy and gets up, dodging the moving couch and storming out.
Georgia walks into the room where the rest of the group is finishing Thanksgiving dinner. She asks Renee if she and Whipper will be hiring associates soon and if there is a place for her at the firm. She asks Renee to think about it. Renee gives a positive answer so Georgia leaves.
Ally's mother walks in on her retreating into her head again, this time remembering the night twenty-six years ago when she found her mother in bed with another man. She tells Ally that she and George are going back home, but they'll be fine. Ally asks if that's how she characterizes her marriage, that it 'survived', her mother says simply that there are certainly worse descriptions. She apologizes sincerely, saying that no three-year-old should have had to see what Ally saw.
Billy walks down the Boston streets, as Swing on a Star plays in the background. He comes upon his new assistant and he invites her to have a cup of coffee with him. Meanwhile, across town, Richard Fish runs up the front steps of Whipper's apartment knocking on the door. When she answers, he desperately tries to explain, saying, "I just don't see it! Not with you and me, not with anybody! My married friends, they all seem to grow angry, the relationships don't work, they seem like work! They all have the same ending to them!" She asks if that's all he came to say, he pauses and stutters, obviously fighting hard to let himself speak but just cannot. On another lonely street, Georgia walks alone, thinking...
Trivia[]
Final appearance of Tracey Ullman as Ally's therapist.
Script[]
You can find a transcript here and here.
Songs[]
- New Man In Town | Vonda Shepard (cover, performed by Mighty Sam McClain)
- In the unisex as Billy talks to Ling and Nelle.
- Swinging on a Star | Gil Bellows and Jane Krakowski (cover, performed by Bing Cosby)
- Billy and Elaine singing karaoke at Ally's home.
- Lida Rose | James Naughton and Amy Castle (cover, song from the Movie Man musical)
- Flashback. Young Ally singing with her dad at her parents' home.
- Swinging on a Star | Levi Stubbs and Vonda Shepard (cover, performed by Bing Cosby)
- Dulcinea | Calista Flockhart, James Naughton and Vonda Shepard (cover, from Man of La Mancha)
- At the end. Ally starts, playing the piano in her apartment.
Cast[]
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
Special Guest Star
Special Appearance By
- James Naughton as George McBeal
Recurring Cast
- Amy Castle as Young Ally
- Dyan Cannon as Whipper Cone
- Gina Philips as Sandy Hingle
Guest Starring Jill Clayburgh as Jeannie McBeal
Producers[]
- David E. Kelley - Executive Producer
- Jonathan Pontell - Co-Executive Producer
- Shea Farrell - Associate Producer
- Roseann M. Bonora-Keris- Supervising Associate Producer
- Jeffrey Kramer - Producer
- Mike Listo - Producer
- Steve Robin - Producer
- Pamela J. Wisne - Producer
- Kim Hamberg - Co-Producer
- Nat Bernstein - Consulting producer
- Mitchel Katlin - Consulting Producer