Once and Again

rc: Jennifer, Naomi, Annie

Lily Manning, separated from her husband, and Rick Sammler, divorced for 3 years, meet by chance when her daughter, Grace, injures her ankle in a soccer game. They go out on a date, and are instantly attracted to each other.

rc: Jennifer

Rick and Lily ponder taking their relationship to the next level.

rc: Jennifer, Naomi

Rick and Lily's families gather at the school carnival. Lily and Karen, who don't know of each other at this point, are paired to work together in a booth there.

rc: Jennifer, Annie, Mali

After meeting Rick, Judy expresses to Lily her misgivings about Lily's blossoming relationship with him.

Rick introduces Lily to his kids under awkward circumstances.

rc: Naomi, Mali

Lily faces the reality of being on her own and Judy begins to pull away from her Lily. This happens after Rick offers to remodel the bookstore and Judy feels like the "odd man out" because Lily and Rick's relationship, she feels, leaves her little time to spend with Lily.

rc: Lloyd

Being divorced means Karen and Rick must both go to Eli's weekend basketball tournament, creating some awkward moments for them.

rc: Phil

Lily and Rick deal with the ghosts of their failed marriages. Rick's becoming consumed with a project at work triggers Lily's memories of Jake doing the same thing in their marriage, causing its downfall. Meanwhile, Eli's frustration with his schoolwork reaches new depths.

rc: Jennifer, Annie

While Lily is at a convention, Judy allows Grace (and Rick and Karen allow Eli), to go to a party that ends up with bad consequences.

rc: Phil, Barbara

Lily's father decides to invite Jake to Thanksgiving at Lily's house against her wishes. Her father has difficulty in deciding whose side of the divorce to support.

Jake gets into trouble with his business. A small fire at Lily's house causes a lot of worry. Karen struggles with Eli's moving into the basement.

rc: Naomi

Lily tells Jake she wants a divorce, and tells Rick about her one-night stand with Jake. Rick can't forgive her, putting their future in jeopardy.

rc: Jennifer

Jake and Lily begin mediating their divorce.

rc: Lloyd, Jennifer

Eli feels tempted to cheat on Jennifer. Karen feels attracted to a younger co-worker.

Rick and Lily begin to mend their relationship. Judy meets a man who might fulfill her dreams.

rc: Annie, Phil, Naomi

Lily hires a divorce attorney. The last straw is after Jake reneges on his promise not to max out their credit card. She finds this out after it's rejected at a store. Grace meets a boy who seems to think like her.

rc: Phil, Barbara

Lily and her family cope with a life-altering accident.

rc: Phil, Barbara

Aaron proves to be a source of comfort and renewal for the Manning family; Lily gains ground in the divorce proceedings.

rc: Naomi

Karen pushes herself far beyond her comfort zone when her involvement with Leo becomes more serious. Eli plays his parents against each other in order to get into a bar to see his friends' band play. He gets in trouble when he sees his mother, and she sees him, there. Rick finds out that Karen said no and Eli didn't tell him that, getting Eli in trouble with Rick as well.

Lily's new job helps her put her priorities in order. While talking to Grace, Tiffany lets it slip that her relationship with Jake started BEFORE Lily and Jake split up, possibly altering her relationship with her father forever.

rc: Mali

When Judy's continuing affair with Sam is discovered, she takes steps to prevent any more pain from entering her life. Lily realizes just how much she's taken Rick for granted when he's sick in the hospital. Grace continues to have difficulty with accepting her father's past infidelity.

rc: Naomi, Jennifer

Lily says that the kids in the two families should meet. So they schedule a night for that. Zoe is concerned about the environment. Grace again has conflicting feelings about Eli. Jennifer reveals to Grace that Cassidy is cheating on Eli. Grace is hesitant about telling Eli this information. Two of Cassidy's friends, Rachel and Lisa, warn Grace not to tell Eli what's going on (or else!). Naomi starts a book group and invites Karen, instead of Lily to be in the group because she feels that she and Lily have been drifting apart. Miles lets it be known to Rick that he doesn't want David involved on his project. Work pressures threaten to unravel Lily's plans for the meeting and they leave Rick on edge. Judy and Karen have a heart-to-heart in the bookstore about their two families. Eli finds out for himself that Cassidy's been cheating on him. Pressure from Miles forces Rick to cancel the dinner. A passage from the book the group is reading makes everything clear to Lily and Rick and Karen. The episode ends with the two families standing in Lily's doorway across from each other ...

2nd Season 2000

rc: Annie, Julie, Christie

Lily and Rick try to blend their families together, but it doesn't go smoothly. Jesse has trouble adjusting to high school.

rc: Tiffany, Lloyd, Christie

Judy turns the bookstore into a "book club for singles." This attracts an interesting clientele, including Jake (who's tiring of his girlfriend Tiffany) and Lily's boss Christie. Judy isn't sure of her attraction to the handyman who's fixing up the store.

rc: Leo, Jennifer

Parental pressure bears down on Eli to get his act together for college. However, Eli wants to form a music group.

rc: Barbara

It's Thanksgiving and that means both the Sammler's and Manning's get together for dinner, whether they want to be there or not. It turns out that the two mothers get along quite well. It's Rick and his mom that have issues. She questions whether Rick knows that his children aren't doing as well as he would like to think. Barbara sees her son Aaron for the first time since Phil's funeral.

Changes in the design of Miles' building that Rick's firm are designing means a dinner meeting for Rick - and a reluctant Lily -- with Miles and important clients. When Lily puts her two cents worth in at the dinner, it makes for an awkward evening for Rick.

rc: Leo, Julie

Jesse is taken to a psychiatrist to find out why she isn't eating. Karen's firm is hired to oppose the building of Miles' building -- the one Rick is designing.

rc: Tiffany, Carla

Grace gets her learner's permit. She has a crush on Pace, a boy from her driver's education class, who seems oblivious to her feelings. So she goes out with Paces' annoying friend, Spencer, in an attempt to maybe make Pace jealous enough and have him ask her out. The date is a disaster. Tiffany breaks up with Jake when it becomes clear to her that their relationship wasn't going to go beyond the physical attraction.

rc: Carla

Lily thinks she might be pregnant, and the reaction she gets from Rick wasn't what she was hoping for. She begins to think that he's not who she thought he was. Grace has an accident in Rick's vehicle after being distracted spotting Carla and Eli together. So Grace starts to rethink her opinion of Carla. The episode ends with Rick and Lily making up, and Eli and Carla in the back seat of a car...

rc: Christie

Layoffs at her workplace make Lily even uneasier there. But the new management consultant reverses those firings, putting Christie on edge and making Lily look foolish for speaking up at a staff meeting. Christie fires Lily for meeting with Graham behind her back. Judy accuses Lily of taking her BookLovers idea and using it for the magazine at work. Zoe feels abandoned because Grace doesn't want to baby-sit and stay home all of the time. In the end, the investors liked Graham's presentation, and Grace and Zoe (and Lily and Judy) make peace with each other.

rc: Carla

Judy finds herself drawn between two men: the intellectually stimulating Paul, and the physically stimulating Will. Eli grows tired of Carla always wanting to get into trouble.

rc: Carla, Miles, Christie

Jessie's glitter is missing, and Grace and Carla are the prime suspects. Rick discovers some unsettling news about both sides of his project with Miles. Evidence is discovered concerning Jessie's progress in therapy.

rc: Leo

Jesse doesn't want to go to a dance by herself, which frustrates Karen because they bought a dress for it. Christie and Graham continue to clash at work. Karen's worried that her relationship with Leo isn't building towards something. Lily is uncomfortable with Graham's flirting and when she goes to establish that their relationship is purely a working one, he confesses his feelings for her. Rick interrupts him before anything else can happen. When she tells Christie, Christie basically tells her it's no big deal. Later, Graham kisses Lily unexpectedly. When Leo shows up late for a museum trip with Jesse, Karen is really upset with Leo because she knows that Leo means a lot to Jesse. She finally decides to break up with him. Lily angrily confronts Graham about it, with Christie present.

rc: Carla

Rick and David are served with a notice to get an injunction to stop the Atlantor project - and the hearing is on Valentine's Day. Grace is troubled by the fact that a building that is helping those who need help is being torn down to build Miles' (and therefore Rick's) project. David is frustrated that no one but him thinks that they have a serious problem with the project and the injunction to stop its construction. Rick sees Grace protesting and they have an argument. David quits the firm because of his opposition to the project. The court's decision makes no one happy, with the possible exception on Miles. Rick proposes to Lily, but she feels it's not the right time.

rc: Spencer, Carla

Tensions between Benny (a busboy) and Giancarlo (the chef) at Jake's restaurant boil over. Jake separates the two and tells Benny to go home. He returns with a gun to confront Giancarlo. But he isn't there and can't be reached, so Benny holds everybody hostage. Over the course of the night, Tiffany hands Jake some surprising news, Grace and Spencer (who's there for his grandma's 75th birthday) become closer, and Lily realizes her feelings for Rick and accepts his proposal. At the restaurant, at the end of the night, Benny lets everyone go... and then puts the gun to his head...

rc: Spencer, Tiffany

Rick and Lily celebrate their engagement. Tiffany reveals to Grace that she's pregnant, but Grace pretty much had that figured out when she heard Tiffany throwing up in the bathroom. Lily and Rick tell their kids about the engagement, and Rick and his kids moving into Lily's house. Lily finds out Tiffany is pregnant. When Rick tells Karen about his engagement and move, she seems less than thrilled. When the rooming arrangements are discussed, not everyone is happy with the decisions. Disagreements about where to put things come up also. Rick and Jake put a hole in the wall for a possible bay window, Lily gets upset at Rick for "making all of the decisions," assuming she'll just go along with them. A family meeting at the end of the episode resolves a few issues.

rc: Spencer

Aaron returns for an extended stay and impresses everyone with his improvement. Grace and Spencer go back to the restaurant to write about their experience there, but Spencer gets nervous (because he was scared then) and goes home. The voices that have haunted Aaron for so long return at dinner and he freaks out. Shelley returns and says that despite the dinner outburst, he is getting better.

Will returns to repair ice damage to Lily's house, making for awkward moments for Judy. Judy runs into Paul (the guy who went off on her when she broke it off with him), creating more awkwardness for Judy. Lily grows agitated with Graham's constant flirting with the office women. Judy tells Karen that she thinks that Paul is the one calling her late at night. When Jake finds out that part of the repair might include a workspace for Rick in the attic, he says that he won't pay for the repairs. Judy hears noises outside her store and calls Jake. Jake confronts Paul and tells him to stay away from Judy and assaults him in the restaurant's kitchen. Lily angrily tells Graham that he has a real problem when dealing with women. Lily was going to give Tiffany Grace and Zoe's old baby clothes, but decides to save them for Judy's (future?) kids. Will reveals to Judy that it was he who was doing the calling and the noises. He angrily tells her she was wrong to dump him, among other things, which totally humiliates Judy into apologizing for her behavior towards him.

Lily and Rick begin their wedding plans and want Judy to help, but Judy seems hesitant. Jesse faints and falls in the girls' locker room. Grace learns of it and voices her concern to Judy. Judy tells Karen, who tells Jesse, and argument ensues. Dr. Rosenfeld tells Rick and Karen to put restrictions on Jesse's activities until she eats what Rick and Karen ask her to. Jesse, of course, doesn't like this either. Judy reveals to Jesse that she was bulimic when she was younger. Judy finally blurts out that she doesn't trust Rick enough to watch Lily get married to him. Karen makes the decision not to let Jesse go on the ski trip with her classmates. This makes Jesse even more upset. Judy and Rick settle, somewhat, their differences. Dr. Rosenfeld makes Karen realize that she can't control every possible aspect of her and Jesse's life. Lily and Judy make up, and Karen lets go enough to allow Jesse to go on the ski trip.

rc: Christie, Miles

Karen finds out that a grand jury is being impaneled to investigate the Atlantor project. The District Attorney wants Karen to help them, but she is reluctant. She acts nervously around Rick and refuses to discuss the investigation with him. Rick is subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury investigation of Atlantor. Allegations of bribery and arrests are floated about. Lily forces Christie not to print an unsubstantiated story concerning the grand jury. Rick fills his kids in on the situation. He finally talks to Miles, but Miles doesn't give him any assurances or definite answers. However, he does reveal that he has cancer, and it's advancing throughout his body rapidly, so he might not be around if the case goes to trial. Rick undergoes five hours of questioning by the grand jury. The episode ends with the Cook County sheriff arriving with a search warrant to search Rick's apartment...

rc: Miles

Miles gets indicted and work on the Atlantor project is indefinitely suspended. Rick is invited to appear on a local talk show to tell his side of the story. But instead, he gets ambushed by the host on the air and leaves in the middle of the interview. The DA working on the case does everything but say that he is interested in Karen. They steal a "moment" at an awards dinner they both attended. After drinking a lot a a bar with co-workers, Rick comes home and get into an argument with Lily. Rick goes to Miles' suite and angrily confronts an obviously dying Miles. Rick rambles on to Lily about why she shouldn't marry him, but Lily tells him that she does want to marry him - faults and all.

rc: Carla

Rick and his kids start to move their stuff to Lily's and Lily gets a call to sign the divorce papers. Carla tells Eli that she's not going back home because she's convinced that her parents hate her. So Eli asks Grace to ask Lily about staying at Lily's house. Eli gets his reply from the University of Illinois about admittance, and it's not good. Lily's hesitant about Carla staying with them. Eil tells his dad about the letter, at the dinner table, and neither one of them is happy now. Carla is worried that her plans to travel in Europe in the summer might not happen. Lily discovers medicine missing from her cabinet. Suspecting Carla, she goes to Carla's bag and finds them. Carla confesses to Rick about the pills. Lily goes to visit with Carla's stepmother and finds out some reasons for her problems. Carla tells Eli, in the middle of school, that she is leaving town immediately for Portland, Oregon. Eli says he wants to go with her. They plan to meet at the bus station that night. Rick finds out about the plan. He finds Eli at the bus station, still waiting for Carla. They get into a heated argument. Eli finds out that Carla left without him. To Rick's relief, Lily signs the divorce papers.

rc: Tiffany, Barbara, Phil(in Lily's dreams)

As the wedding approaches, hardly anything is finalized. Lily's father appears to her in her dreams. He asks her to ask Jake "what's been lost". Grace gets a letter from Carla, who's living with her brother, saying that she misses Grace, but not Eli. Grace lies to Eli and says Carla does miss him. Rick finds out that he's really low on cash and his attorney asks about scaling back the wedding plans. "What's been lost" is Jake's restaurant. He tells Lily this when she goes to pick up the cocktail napkins. Judy finds out details about Will's past through Tiffany, like that he has a daughter he gave up for adoption. Disagreements about who's staying where and who's paying for what prompt Lily and Rick to call off the wedding. Eli finds Carla's letter. Jesse calls Karen to tell her that the wedding is back on, and Karen sheds a tear. Jesse knew that her mother was secretly hoping that Rick wouldn't go through with the wedding. Lily's mother surprises everyone by showing up. Lily sees her at the ceremony and is overjoyed. Will, it turns out is an ordained minister, so he performs the ceremony. Rick says his vows in Hebrew. Everything goes off without a hitch as Phil looks on...