The BEST episodes of Once And Again
Every episode of Once And Again ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Once And Again!
A divorced father and a soon-to-be divorced mother meet and begin a romantic courtship which is always complicated by their respective children and their own life problems.
#1 - Gardenia
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/11/2002
A tragic accident shakes Karen from her deep depression and sets her up for the toughest battle of her life. This makes Eli and Jessie learn the hard way that their parents are more fragile than they'd thought.
#2 - Destiny Turns On The Radio
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/2/2001
A boy in the play school play asks Jesse out. Grace is less than happy with the news, because she thought that the boy was flirting with her during rehearsal. Karen is upset that Rick didn't left her out of the loop on this. Les takes over a talk show after the host leaves following an argument between the two. He asks for Lily's opinion on a call (while on the air), which leads to her taking over the show that night, and a once-a-week gig after that. Rick and Lily argue about her discussing Jesse's ""date"" when it hasn't been decided if he'll let her go. Grace thinks about quitting the play (over her sorta-feelings for Tad and the whole Tad-Jesse thing), but that's not what she tells Mr. Dmitri. He convinces her to stay. Grace is irate that Lily offered to loan Jesse Lily's pearl necklace when she wouldn't let Grace borrow it earlier. Grace is starting to think that Lily likes her stepdaughter Jesse more than her. Karen accuses Lily of using Jesse's personal life for radio ""mat
#3 - Experience Is the Teacher
Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 4/1/2002
The prospect that Grace may be romantically involved with her creative-writing teacher troubles Lily, infuriates Jake, and imperils the career of the instructor.
#4 - Tough Love
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/7/2001
When Eli loses his job and Grace's teacher questions her acting, they both learn the hard way that real self-confidence can be one of life's toughest accomplishments. Both learn that tough love can be a powerful motivator.
#5 - The Gay-Straight Alliance
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 3/11/2002
Grace pursues her teacher and Jessie develops an attraction for her friend Katie.
#6 - Chance of a Lifetime
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/15/2002
Rick and Lily face more life-altering decisions when he is offered a major architectural position in Australia and she is offered a chance to take her Chicago-based radio show into national syndication. The Series Finale Episode concludes with this show's traditionaly black and white breaking of the fourth wall but this time, its the actors and not the characters as they speak about the realtionships formed amid the cast and what the show has meant to them.
#7 - Acting Out
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/19/2001
Jessie and Grace both audition for the same role in a school production of ""As You Like It."" Mr. Dimitri throws them a curve when he announces that he is planning a musical version of the play. Judy and Sam Blue spend the night together and Lily suspects there is something going on. Judy would like a real commitment from Sam, but he's not quite ready yet. Grace tells Mr. Dimitri that Jessie can't handle the stress of the play because of her eating disorder and eventually lands the lead role.
#8 - Best of Enemies
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/4/2001
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.
#9 - The Awful Truth
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/5/2001
Grace doesn't know what to make of her new teacher. Judy asks Lily to work at her planned bookstore/cafe. Lily also interviews at a radio station. Karen brings up the idea of hiring Jake to work on the bookstore/cafe. Lily isn't sure about that idea or where she wants to work. She gets hired at the radio station, so she has a decision to make. Jessie becomes increasingly annoyed by Grace and Eli's behavior when they're around each other. Judy and Lily argue about working together. Judy and Jake resolve the dispute they had the day before and Jake agrees to work on the bookstore/cafe. Will tells Judy that he found his daughter in Florida and that he's moving there to get to know her again. Eli becomes the subject of Grace's journal entries. Judy finally realizes that she has to do the bookstore/cafe without Lily.
#10 - Food for Thought
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/5/2000
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.
#11 - Moving On
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/25/2001
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. Ric
#12 - The Second Time Around
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/2/2001
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 a
#13 - Falling in Place
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 3/4/2002
Jessie's anxiety and guilt about her mom's slow recovery causes tension with every member of the family, especially Lily. Meanwhile, Eli is in denial about the seriousness of his mother's condition.
#14 - I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/14/2000
Parental pressure bears down on Eli to get his act together for college. However, Eli wants to form a music group.
#15 - Won't Someone Please Help George Bailey Tonight (2)
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/18/2001
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.
#16 - Armageddon (1)
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/11/2001
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...
#17 - The Other End of the Telescope
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 3/7/2001
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...
#18 - Taking Sides
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/4/2002
Flashbacks in the series' interview style recall a telling incident in the lives of Rick, Karen, Sam Blue's estranged wife Jeannine, and Sam himself, who rues another dalliance. Also, when Sam and Judy's relationship becomes the talk of the whole family, Sam finally realizes he wants Judy to be more than just a friend. Meanwhile Karen's loneliness and discomfort is compounded when Jessie cancels plans with her mom to stay at Lily's house.
#19 - Aaron's Gettin' Better
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/21/2001
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.
#20 - There Be Dragons
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/19/1999
Rick introduces Lily to his kids under awkward circumstances.
#21 - Booklovers
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/31/2000
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.
#22 - Love's Laborers' Lost
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/24/2001
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.
#23 - Thieves Like Us
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/31/2001
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.
#24 - Suspicion
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/7/2001
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.
#25 - Jake and the Women
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/9/2001
The women (and Grace and Zoe) want to hold a baby shower for Tiffany. This doesn't excite Jake. He doesn't want Grace - and especially Zoe - to have expectations about him and Tiffany. So Jake discourages the idea of having Zoe at the shower. So she calls Lily to cancel the shower, which upsets Zoe. Jake tells Tiffany that she shouldn't go home to have the baby just because of him and Zoe. Lily convinces Tiffany to have the baby in Chicago and to have the shower also. Jake wants Lily to butt out of ""his business"", but because the kids are involved, he relents. Judy goes to her doctor to see how many ""baby years"" she has left. She even tells Lily that she's considering in-vitro fertilization. Zoe is upset over Jake's seeming indifference about his upcoming baby. Jake goes ballistic in front of all the women and kids when he and Zoe get home and the ladies discover that he didn't get a gift. Lily reassures Jake that he is still a good father despite his outburst. Jake does g