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	EPISODES ~ Season 2
	Family Ties #219 ~ April 14, 2000 by PapaC
	The show begins with Syd dreaming. She is at her med school reunion, and is eyeing the guy all the girls hoped to catch. She explains to her mom that another girl reeled him in, but he's recently single again. Her mom encourages her to go for it, but she says it will never happen: she's too dedicated to her job at the clinic. At breakfast, she asks Joannie and her dad which dress she should wear to the reunion. Jim chooses the black one, saying red would look inappropriate. Joannie asks if she's hoping to catch the eye of the recently single classmate; she knows about him because he has just sent flowers for Syd! Jim leaves the room, and Joannie says to definitely choose the red dress. Syd goes to the clinic before her trip to the New York reunion. A 19 year-old African-American girl is her patient, and is 31 weeks pregnant. She's having problems, and her blood pressure is high. Syd tells her she's probably pre-eclamptic. The girl says she hasn't had any medical care since the first visit, and saw someone in a south side clinic. Syd asks her to come back the next day for a complete run of tests, which will be done by the doc filling in for Syd while she's away. For now, they take a blood test. After the patient leaves, Izzy tells Syd that there's no way that girl is from the south side - people from there don't wear $1500 watches. The girl's blood labwork comes back indicating an incompatibility between mother and baby, which is life-threatening to both mother and baby. Izzy tells Syd her replacement can't come the next day, but another doctor is filling in. Syd says that doctor has no bedside manner, so she stays on to deal with her patient. Izzy tries to find out more about the patient, because she has given no medical history. She finds out she was a student at Princeton. Syd sees her the next morning and reveals that she knows she was a student at Princeton and had been seen there. The girl admits she was seen there when she was 3 months along, but then she dropped out and hasn't been seen since. Syd explains the condition and refers her to a specialist at the hospital. Syd is about to leave for her reunion the next day, and stops by the hospital to see her patient. The specialist says she never showed up, but has seen the Princeton medical record, which is from a few weeks ago, not many months ago, and this girl is in serious trouble. She needs a blood transfusion right away. Syd goes to her apartment. The girl admits she lied, and that she knew about the incompatibility, but that she had come to Syd as a second opinion. Just then, the girl's boyfriend, who is Caucasian, arrives home. She demands that Syd leave. Syd tries once again to leave for her reunion, but this time the boyfriend shows up. He wants her help. His blood type is incompatible and he can't give her the transfusion. The patient's mom died when she was 4, and she was raised by her father, who absolutely hates the boyfriend. He will not help her. The boyfriend wants Syd to talk to the father. So she goes to his architecture firm and talks to him. The father adamantly refuses to help unless his daughter agrees to never see the boyfriend again. He thinks the boyfriend is holding her back from all the dreams he had for her: Princeton, law school, etc. He explains that he worked hard to get out of the south side of town and into a well-paying profession and nice house. He won't let her just give it up and live with her unambitious boyfriend. She goes back and tells them this, which they already know. Before Syd can make one last attempt to go to the reunion, her patient collapses and is brought into the clinic by the boyfriend. They send her by ambulance to the hospital, where she is stabilized but they tell her they cannot save the baby without a transfusion. Syd goes to the father and tells him this, and the boyfriend shows up at the architecture firm while they're talking. He tells the father that they're naming the baby Camilla, after his late wife (the ultrasound revealed it's a girl). He also tells the father he will agree to never see the daughter again if he will give her the transfusion. The father goes to the hospital. After seeing his daughter, he tells Syd he isn't sure he knows what's best for his daughter anymore. Syd tells him he does, and he turns and catches the boyfriend before he leaves the hospital for good. Happy ending. Meanwhile, Doug has had a big project at work: he came up with an idea for collars for dogs and cats that will make them like each other better, but he needs support from Joannie to present it. She gives him a pep talk, and he comes back saying he went too far and told them he had a prototype, which he doesn't. She closes the shop and helps him make them. They then go together to the test demonstration. It seems to fail - the cat hisses at the dog and the dog chases it out of the room. The next day, when Joannie opens up shop, there sits Doug, thinking. She tells him it's okay to get fired - it's happened to her before. He tells her he wasn't fired: he was promoted. The collars worked! The dog ended up knocking over the water cooler, and once the collars had been moistened, they worked. She's excited, but he tells her he's being moved to corporate headquarters in Ohio. He asks if she'd be willing to come. She tells him they can't be together till he's all together, but when he is, she'll come running. Back at the Hansen house, Heather has been away volunteering for two weeks for Earth Day, so Robbie has been her replacement. He is driving Jim up a wall, talking on the phone, messing up messages and Jim's schedule. Jim leaves Robbie to lock up, and tells him a girl is bringing in her prize hampster, Moneybags, and Robbie is to make sure his cage is secured because he manages to get loose often. The girl brings him in, and, as Robbie sets down the cage, the phone rings and he runs to answer it. It's Jim, checking on things. He returns to the hampster, and it's gone. He looks for it, unsuccessfully, then rushes out to a pet store to try to get another one like this rare breed. The owner says he can get him one from a connection in Boston for a few hundred dollars. Robbie says okay. At this point, we see Jim sneak back into the clinic and pick up Moneybags and take him away. Jim concocted this charade. Robbie brings the new hampster in the next day, and Jim asks why the hampster is so much bigger all of a sudden. Robbie says he must be eating a lot, and is obviously nervous. The girl calls and says she's on her way in to pick up Moneybags, and Robbie suddenly decides he's ill. Jim tells him he should take the day off, he'll see him tomorrow. Robbie says he doesn't think he'll be in at all - maybe he'd better get a temp. He runs out. Jim laughs and the girl comes in for her hampster. He thanks her for participating in his plan. Apparently, the entire hampster happening was a plan for Jim to get Robbie to quit. He gives the girl the new guinea pig - apparently Robbie got a guinea pig by mistake! - as a friend for Moneybags. At the end, Syd comes into the kitchen, where Joannie is making hot drinks with brandy. Joannie tells her about Doug moving away. Syd has missed her reunion, and the chance to see the great guy. Just then, the doorbell rings. It's the guy from her reunion, who just had to see her... only now he's balding, grey, sloppy-looking, beer-bellied, and can't stop talking about himself. He invites himself to stay with her. The End!
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