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Temptation Law Firm

Ally McBeal started this week with a boyish squabble - as Fish and Cage skirmished over a baseball mitt. The fight only served to illustrate that handsome new attorney Jackson Duper (played by Taye Diggs) is much more of a man than the two diminutive partners who've hired him.

Of course, such comparisons with Jackson, whether implicit or explicit, bother Fish to no end - especially since he learned during last week's show that Ling and Jackson had once "gotten Biblical" together. But this episode, Fish seems helpless to repair his relationship with Ling. Rather than romancing her, he contents himself with shooting nasty barbs at Jackson and everyone else in the vicinity. And rather than try to repair the damage to his relationship with Ling, he only tries to repair the damage to his relationship with Cage - which should, perhaps, be his second, not his first, priority.

Jackson, for his part, continues to make Fish & Cage's women as happy as he makes its men miserable - making the viewer wonder how long he can possibly last at the firm, which is, after all, run by men.

First Thing We Do, Let's Fire All the Male Lawyers

Jackson is pitted against Renee this week - he represents a female law firm partner who fired all the male lawyers at her firm, and is therefore being sued for gender discrimination, while Renee represents one of the fired male attorneys who are the plaintiffs.

Again, Taye Diggs' courtroom presence demonstrates that had he not decided to become a fantastic actor, he could have been a fantastic lawyer. He comes off as courteous, incisive, and accomplished - which puts his style in sharp contrast to the flustered incompetence of most of the rest of Fish & Cage's attorneys.

Renee's client, Mr. Mackie, claims that he was fired because the partner, Ms. Albright, wanted to end the "sexual currents" in the law firm. Jackson, on cross-examination, quizzes Mr. Mackie about whether he has fantasized about having sex with Ms. Albright. Mackie blurts out, "What normal man wouldn't?" Then Mackie confesses, on Jackson's prompting, that he fantasized about Renee too, while he was working with her to prepare his case - and Mackie admits that he certainly would fantasize about Ling if he worked with her, too.

Jackson is an adept lawyer, but Mackie is also a terrible witness. He easily makes admissions that are damaging to his case. Indeed, he's so terrible that his terribleness is unrealistic - virtually any witness, I think, would at least pretend not to have sexual fantasies about his co-workers.

Ling later complains to Jackson that she's been used as a "fantasy prop" - even though she's wearing a blouse exposing skin down to her navel. But she doesn't seem quite sincere; it's clear she's still got a thing for Jackson. (The undertone here is somewhat unpleasant - it seems women don't really mind being exploited for their sexuality if the man doing so is attractive, according to David E. Kelley, who seems to subscribe to the "It's Not Harassment If He's Good-Looking" theory.)

Meanwhile, sparks fly between Renee and Jackson, too, though Renee complains he's been "inappropriate." The Janet Reno-esque female judge also admonishes Jackson - but only, it turns out, for failing to use her as a sexual prop. She feels hurt, "as a woman," she notes, for being excluded from the general exploitation of every other woman in the courtroom. (Say it after me: It's Not Harassment If He's Good-Looking. Right, girls?)

When Ms. Albright, Jackson's client (played by Kelly Lynch, last seen as the villainess in Charlie's Angels), takes the stand, she complains that "men think about sex all day," and argues that a single-sex company, like a single-sex school, can sometimes function better. She also testifies that women are better at dispute resolution, and better at avoiding men's "insipid little warrior instincts."

In an effective cross-examination, Renee gets Albright to admit that she fired all the men at the company only months after her husband left her - suggesting that Albright is simply a man-hater, plain and simple. Wisely, during the next court recess, Jackson and Ling urge Albright to settle the case by paying $50,000 to the fired male attorney (and presumably, then, to every other male attorney she fired), but she can't be persuaded.

After the client meeting, more sparks fly between Ling and Jackson; the exchange creates more sexual tension in about two minutes than Ling and Richard Fish have had in their entire relationship. It's like Ally McBeal meets Temptation Island - with Jackson as the "fantasy single."

Then we're back in the courtroom where Renee, in her summation, focuses on all of Albright's generalizations about men. Jackson, for his part, says these generalizations are not evidence of bias, for they're actually true-"Men do get more easily distracted by sex" - and he contends, mirroring his client's testimony, that if single-sex schools work, a single-sex law firm should work too.

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Later in the episode, at the firm's usual piano bar haunt, Jackson and Renee have drinks together, and he assures her his fling with Ling is over - but Ling starts to turn green with envy watching Jackson and Renee's tete-a-tete. Meanwhile, Fish is still ignoring Ling - to play catch with Cage again. Wouldn't it be interesting if Fish ended up being gay? Interesting, or horrifying, I can't decide which.

Jackson in the Middle

Marc, meanwhile, continues to be upset that Elaine flirts, and literally sweats, whenever Jackson appears. Marc responds by curtly breaking up with Elaine, and then being harsh to Ally - remarking that Larry, who's moved to Detroit, has basically broken up with Ally, too. (Wrong-O, Marc. Larry's back next week in a special, weird, dream episode of Ally. Don't you watch next week's previews?)

Later Ally catches Marc examining his own butt in the co-ed bathroom. (Can Ally McBeal fall no lower?) Marc explains that his butt has declined since college when he used to "do a lot of squats." Marc also complains that "women shouldn't lust." He holds this view, and yet he started dating Elaine? Was the man blind?

With Ally's urging, Marc brings the issue up with Elaine directly, asking that even if she is "flamboyantly sexual" (as with the Vi-bra), she at least not openly lust after other men. After their frank discussion, they get back together. But Marc watches a drop of sweat fall from Elaine's nose as she does work for Jackson, and again he's agitated.

In the end, though, Marc and Elaine do stay together, and Elaine draws on Ally's advice on having a "real" relationship as opposed to the purely sexual trysts Elaine is used to. As if Ally is good at having "real" relationships; until she met Larry, the only lessons she could really offer were in neurosis and anxiety!

Partners in Therapy

Meanwhile, Fish's Jackson-inspired nastiness is getting so severe that Cage's girlfriend Melanie (played by Anne Heche) urges Cage to go to couples therapy with . . . Fish. Last week, she refused Cage's marriage proposal. Seems like she's trying to tell him something, yes?

Eventually, Fish and Cage do decide to go to therapy together - to sort out ownership of the baseball glove, if nothing else. Cage complains Fish is "vapid," centered on "sex and money." Fish complains Cage is "this funny little dull person."

Their somewhat unctuous therapist responds by asking them if they are "lonely," and they admit they are. The therapist explains that each of the men - rejected by his woman - is scared of having to fall back on relying on each other. "Go to your women! Repair what's wrong there! Veer away from codependency!" the therapist urges. Feeling rather insulted (for the therapist notes that being stuck with either of them would be pretty awful), they skulk away.

But therapy does have its effect. Fish admits that being Cage's "best friend" means more to him than "all my money." (For Fish, this huge concession is virtually a marriage proposal in itself). They bond over cigars, and Cage invites Fish into his secret law firm hideaway. Touched, Fish offers the endearment "Mambo Cat" - Fish's father's cryptic code for "I love you." They show no sign of "going to their women." I ask again: Wouldn't it be interesting if Fish ended up being gay?

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