Present: Uncle Jimmy dies and M.E. ensures that he's not buried with any Klan insignia; Rene refuses to assist Joe with the case of a wheelchair-bound man who feels discriminated against when a strip club won't allow him to get a lap dance; Rene represents Ajoni's teammate Richie when he is arrested for manslaughter in the death of a teenager he hit during a post-game fight, and mounts a self-defense trial strategy based on Richie's fearing his life was in danger after the other teen hurled a highly charged racial epithet at him. Past: The O'Brien family continues to mourn the loss of Johnny; Teresa devises a highly effective plan to keep the O'Brien girls out of having to go to an all-girls Catholic high school; M.E. is outraged and disgusted when the veterans parade to which Uncle Jimmy invites the O'Briens turns out to be a Klan rally; Rene is excited at the prospect of being named valedictorian.

Present: Rene represents Lakeisha's boyfriend when his employer fires him for adhering to the tenets of his Rastafarian religion by wearing dreadlocks; Kelly quickly gets burned out working double shifts to support herself and Emmett, so M.E. and Colliar bring her back home to live with them; Ajoni is living with his parents and still not working, so he tells Kelly that they should give up their apartment to save money; She agrees, heartbroken that their marriage seems to be coming to an end; M.E. and Sara disagree with Rene's decision to hire a wedding planner, and join forces to convince her that M.E. is the woman for the job; Colliar has difficulties getting M.E. to schedule some time to make decisions about the interior of their new house. Past: When M.E. is turned down for a job just because she is a girl, she becomes galvanized by the women's liberation movement and enlists Grandma Otis's help in organizing a protest. M.E.'s excitement that there is now a cause that she can share

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A mentally disabled man seeks Rene's help when the state threatens to separate him from his aunt and place him in an institution. M.E. faces the severity of Alzheimer's disease when her father arrives for a visit. In the past, Port Dixie is invaded by Rene and M.E.'s new high school friends.

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.

Present: Rene and Bill discover that they have very different points of view about parenting; Rene wonders if she's cut out to be a mother when she can't get Bill's daughter to warm up to her; Bill is unsettled when Rene decides to keep her birth name after they marry; M.E. tells a white lie for a colleague which results in a story they worked on about child safety seats being inadequately researched before it is printed, and Glenn's firing an innocent employee, and ultimately both of them, when he discovers the deception. Past: M.E. wears Rene's ""Blue Belle"" uniform to help her sell candy in white neighborhoods; the girls can't understand why Colliar is acting so strangely until they see him being abused by his drunken father.

Present: Rene represents an elderly couple facing eviction from their retirement community for publicly displaying their affection. Rene and Turk take the big plunge and make their relationship public. M.E. writes a spirited column defending Dixie, which brings an offer from the Cross-Bearers of the Confederacy to make a speech at their Confederate Flag Memorial Rally. Unsure of whether to accept the offer, she ponders the symbolism and meaning of the Confederate flag and discusses it with her family and Rene. She finally agrees to attend the rally as long as Rene comes with her. During her speech, she questions the wisdom of the South's defining itself by the Civil War, and urges the audience to adopt a new symbol for the South -- ""one that unites and points to a future healed by peace and tolerance instead of a past wounded by war and racism"". The speech proves wildly unpopular, and M.E. and Rene flee the rally in a hail of boos and racial epithets. Past: Teresa's chance meeting with

M.E. and Sarah think Rene is avoiding making wedding plans and confront her on it. Rene reacts by suggesting to Bill that they run off to Paris to elope. He reluctantly agrees. M.E. and Colliar invite Rene and Bill over for dinner and the foursome play ""I Never"" - a game in which you confess things you've done or never done. M.E. is heartbroken to learn she has not been Colliar's only lover. During the game, Rene admits that when she was 28 she married a pro-basketball player on a whim in Las Vegas, though the marriage was annulled two days later. Bill is furious that Rene kept this from him. They postpone the wedding indefinitely and Rene signs the mortgage papers to their new house - without Bill. Past: A white civil rights activist stays at Rene's home. M.E.'s Uncle Jimmy threatens to take serious action if the Jacksons ever house another white person. When the activist disappears without a trace, Rene fears M.E.'s uncle is to blame.

Rene defends a young man charged with vehicular manslaughter: He hit a pregnant woman and she lost her baby. The case becomes more complicated when Rene discovers that the woman was on her way to get an abortion when the accident occurred. This issue stirs an emotional and personal debate between Rene and M.E. M.E. must decide whether to attend a school play starring her daughter, Kelly, or an important writing seminar that she has already paid for. Rene moves into her new house without Bill and must tell her mother that the wedding has been postponed. Past: A popular friend of M.E.'s sister takes M.E. under her wing. However, the girl insists that M.E. give up her friendship with Rene.

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: M.E. is elated when her book sells out at the local bookstore and she's invited to appear on a local tv show; Rene is accepted as a mentor in the Girls at Risk program, but things don't go smoothly with her mentee April. Past: After losing the captaincy of the cheerleading squad, Teresa decides to become a nun and makes Rene the unwilling receipient of her acts of charity.

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.

Present: M.E. is distressed when Davis joins the football team; Rene is conflicted when she represents a client who confesses to a murder he committed in self defense 34 years earlier; M.E. helps Davis's parentless friend find a new home. Past: M.E. and Rene discover that they share ownership of Port Dixie with a homeless woman who claims to be a Hungarian princess, and argue; Rene is skeptical about her stories, but M.E. is enthralled by every word.

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.

A tornado ravages the Sims house while M.E. and Rene are trapped inside Rene's law office with a parolee. In the past, Sara discovers that young Rene is dating an ""older man,"" and Teresa contracts chicken pox.

Present: M.E. disagrees with Colliar's teaching Davis about guns and taking him on a hunting trip; Rene represents a teacher removed from teaching for practicing Wicca outside the classroom. Past: Rene wants to change her look for her first day in middle school and faces opposition from Sara; M.E. is less than thrilled when Catherine buys her a bra.

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: Rene creates a firestorm a few days before the election when she admits during a call-in radio show that she experimented with drugs during the seventies; M.E. struggles for creative control when Kelly's sixth grade teacher asks her to sanitize the adaptation of ""Port Dixie"" that M.E. has been asked to create and direct for the Fall Drama Festival; Rene catches April smoking a joint and April admits that her mother is incarcerated on a drug-related charge; after visiting April's mother in prison and hearing her story, Rene campaigns for more equitable drug offense prosecution and sentencing; M.E. does her best to support and educate Kelly during the early stages of her pregnancy; Rene loses the election. Past: M.E. and Rene decide to emulate the Vietnam War protesters they see on television by chaining themselves to Port Dixie when they learn that it's to be carted away to make room for a housing development, but Grandma Otis shows them another way that their beloved hideaway

Present: M.E. and Gail politely jostle over planning Emmett's first birthday party, but get into a really serious disagreement over his racial heritage. Gail insists that Emmett is a black child with a white mother and that everyone who looks at him will consider him black as well. M.E. maintains that he is biracial -- both Irish-American and African-American. When Kelly and M.E. find out that Emmett's birth certificate lists him only as black, they enlist Rene's help in getting it changed, so that Emmett will always know that he is part of two families that both love and fully accept him for all that he is. At the birthday party, the two grandmothers come to an understanding and agree to start new traditions for their families, blended and bonded by their love of Emmett. Rene takes on a sexual discrimination case on behalf of a woman whose group health insurance carrier will cover the cost of Viagra, but not the cost of contraceptives. Joe is reluctant to take on the case at first, bu

Present: M.E. goes on a campaign to convince a very reluctant Rene to go to their high school reunion, and enlists Joe to escort Rene and pose as her husband after Rene cites her single status as the reason she's not attending; Lakeisha learns the perils of getting a tattoo under the influence; M.E.'s elation over having her book accepted by a publisher turns to despair when she realizes that it's a vanity press; Colliar gets his old band together to play at the reunion; M.E. doesn't react well to the combination of too many Harvey Wallbangers and too many catty comments from Colliar's ex-flame Della Mae; Rene reconnects with her high school prom date and is astonished when she finds out how much has changed over the years, and how she was an inspiration in ways she never imagined. Past: Rene is apprehensive about attending a predominately white high school; M.E. goes on a hunger strike to convince her father to let her attend South Birmingham High School; wanting to see the world, Joh

M.E. and Colliar practice tough love with Kelly when she and Ajoni are unable to find a babysitter; and Rene defends the civil rights of the dead. In the past, the girls experience the hippie movement.

Present: When a friend from college spends the weekend, Rene finds out some unpleasant truths about herself and her relationships; Rene is unhappy when Sara rents out a room to fellow church member. Past: M.E. becomes attached to her family's new maid, leaving Rene feeling abandoned.

M.E. decides to change her will after she is sent to the hospital for having a life-threatening allergic reaction. Meanwhile, Rene takes a step in getting over Bill by pursuing a relationship with M.E.'s Norwegian doctor. Past: Young M.E. and Rene open a secret box and discover some shocking news.

Present: Lakeisha misrepresents herself as an attorney in Rene's office to help out the non-profit Girls at Risk program, and Rene fires her. Nevertheless, Rene agrees to serve as her character witness when Lakeisha is brought up before the Bar Association. After Lakeisha expresses remorse for what she's done, the Bar Association puts her on probation, and Rene agrees to rehire her. While Colliar is away on a job, M.E. is mugged at gunpoint at work and suffers from post traumatic stress. After getting back together with Bill, Rene realizes that she no longer has any feelings for him, and ends the relationship for good. Past: Lured by lots of easy cash, Rene and M.E. agree to act as lookouts for a small time crook, and learn to play poker in the process. Flush with money and their new-found skill, they challenge Colliar and Tully to a friendly game of cards. When they lose everything to Tully and he threatens to squeal on them if they don't pay up, they are forced to scramble for ways t