Season 4

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: Stacy introduces Rene to a handsome and opinionated judge, who ends up hearing the case of a Native American artist Rene represents when a controversy arises over a Holocaust mural he painted for a museum; M.E.'s back goes out, and she wiles away her recuperation by making friends with her new neighbor's little boy. Past: Rene tries to keep her father from discovering that she's dating a senior.

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 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.

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.

Rene fights for the rights of a homeless woman, while the newly homeless M.E. and Colliar search for shelter and comfort. In the past, unwelcome guests crash the girls' pajama party.

Present: While the future hangs over M.E.'s head like a storm cloud, Colliar looks ahead to growing old with his wife in their dream house. Meanwhile, Rene defends Joe in court. Past: Colliar and the girls take aptitude tests with less than desirable results.

Present: Rene and Turk have a spirited disagreement over potential candidates for a Girls At Risk scholarship before Turk finally gives in to Rene's choice; Sara busily plays matchmaker even though Rene vehemently tries to discourage her; Rene's ex-husband comes into town on a three day business trip and tries unsuccessfully to woo her until her resistance finally fails, and they fall into each other's arms; the next morning over breakfast, they agree that although they are great lovers they are not in love with each other, and Rene somewhat reluctantly sends him back home to Houston; M.E. and Colliar struggle to adjust to living in an apartment building with noisy, incense-burning, chanting neighbors as well as airplanes flying closely overhead, a smelly carpet, and plumbing problems. Past: ""Bob Goodie's Dance Machine"", a TV dance show, is coming to Birmingham and Teresa desperately wants to be one of the featured dancers on the show; in exchange for dance lessons from Rene, Teresa pr

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: As M.E. visits Fillmore to speak with Davis's teachers about his slipping grades in the aftermath of the tornado, she is caught in the middle of a school shooting; shocked and devastated by having to watch a student die in the gunfire, M.E. turns to food for comfort; after Rene suffers an arrhythmia while they're on a date, Turk insists that she see a cardiologist; on the strength of the article M.E. writes about the shooting, Glenn offers her a weekly column; Rene inspires her neighbor Muriel to take the positive step of creating an animal rescue organization after Muriel's beloved dog is accidentially put to death at the pound. Past: Colliar is bullied and beaten when he supports Rene's running for Freshman Class Representative; after trying to help Colliar during the beating and getting a black eye herself, M.E. is angry when he succumbs to pressure and votes against Rene.

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.

Present: Rene starts down the long slow road to recovery at breakneck speed. Although she is weak and in pain, she is determined to tough it out on her own without any help from anyone, both at home and the office. While she is in the hospital, she dreams that her father is at her bedside telling her, ""My little soldier can take care of herself"", something he said often when she was younger. Despite pleas by Sara, M.E., Turk and Joe to take it slowly and let them support her, she remembers her father's words and rushes to regain control of her life and get things back to normal, even after Sara tells her that her normal has changed. Against the advice of her doctor, she insists upon getting a copy of the videotape that was made during her surgery. As soon as she is home, she shoos everyone anyway and watches the tape. The stress of seeing the video, coupled with how hard she has pushed herself to recover, causes her to collapse and be rushed to the emergency room. When she returns from

Present: Rene returns to work and finds that her illness has shaken her self-confidence. Several clients, concerned about how much her health may impact her ability to represent them, have left the firm, and she is scrambling to retain the ones which remain. She is particularly troubled by an obnoxious client who is suing his employer for wrongful termination and is being countersued for sexual harassment by his supervisor. After a pre-trial deposition, she realizes that her client is lying and that his lawsuit is frivolous. With the help of a little pep talk from Joe, Rene rediscovers her spunk, tells her client just what she thinks of him, and fires him. At home, her self-consciousness about her scar initially creates a barrier to intimacy with Turk before she finally regains her sense of herself and her trust in his love. M.E.'s whining and self-pity about her weight reaches a fever pitch, and she starts to drive everyone crazy. While she acknowledges that she's ""sad, angry, despera

Present: After M.E. is selected for jury duty, she mounts a one-woman jury nullification campaign when she refuses to convict an elderly woman who was charged with drug trafficking for growing and distributing marijuana to cancer patients; Rene represents Charley Majors when the U.S. Attorney's Office goes after him for painting pictures of U.S. currency; M.E. continues to meet with a therapist to uncover the reasons for her eating disorder; Rene wonders exactly what she and Turk are to each other, and begins to pull away when he introduces her to his former flame as a ""friend and colleague""; Turk tells her he loves her and is determined not to let her go, even though she is afraid to get close to him; after a few days apart, Rene realizes how much she loves him, and they are reunited. Past: M.E.'s and Rene's teacher begins to date Uncle Jimmy, and Rene suffers the consequences when they tell her that he's a member of the Klan.

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

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: Rene represents a 14-year-old boy in a custody dispute; M.E., Colliar, Rene, and Turk go to a night club where the ""comedian"" targets M.E. and another woman with offensive comments about their size; when the other woman asks M.E. to join her in a class-action lawsuit to protest this harassment, M.E., with the help of a little straight talking from Rene, is forced to face the truth about about her body image and weight obsession issues; Colliar and M.E. take turns speaking to Turk about his intentions towards Rene; after M.E. gives her some wise advice about marriage and relationships, Rene faces the truth about her feelings and proposes to Turk. Past: Rene and M.E. trace their family histories for a school project and discover the historical links between their races; after Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated, the girls arrange for their mothers to meet, and Sara and Catherine realize that they share a common bond of grief over his death.

Present: Stacy and two other women are groped by a crowd of men during a convention. When the police don't arrest the men, Rene files a civil suit on behalf of the women. Rene meets Turk's sister, Rita Gail, who gives Turk an ugly family heirloom to use as Rene's engagement ring. After Turk and Rene agree that the ring has to go, he presents her with the ring of her dreams. When Ajoni is offered a promotion, but quits his job instead because he is angry about missing college, M.E. urges them to talk things out. Ajoni decides to move out temporarily, but his angry wife tells him not to come back. Past: Rene wears a revealing go-go dress to a party against her mother's wishes, and she and some other girls get groped by the boys in attendance. Rene's parents find out when one of the girls goes home in tears, and the adults blame what happened on Rene for wearing the dress. Rene and M.E. unsuccessfully attempt to organize the other girls against being victimized.

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.

Present: M.E.'s and Rene's attempt to have Catherine and Sara resolve their issues only results in creating conflict between M.E. and Rene; an angry M.E. decides not to participate in the wedding in any fashion; Rene's in the middle of a controversy over a slave burial ground and the hearing on the case is set for her wedding day; Kelly and Ajoni add to M.E.'s misery when they announced that they're moving to Atlanta; Colliar presents M.E. with her dream home; M.E. and Rene patch up their differences. Past: Rene enters a pageant, despite M.E.'s disapproval; Elston comes home for a visit.

Present: M.E. takes over the wedding plans when Rene is forced to attend a hearing; Rene returns home to a perfectly planned wedding, and marries Turk; Catherine and Sara make peace; Kelly and Ajoni announce that they're staying in Birmingham; M.E. and Rene reminisce about their friendship. Past: Teresa wants to move to Hollywood in hopes of becoming a movie star; M.E. plans to run away to Atlantic City to attend a march; Rene is barred from a pageant because she's black.