Have you ever stopped to consider that things might have turned out differently if you had not made the decision you made? Three members of Crane, Poole, and Schmidt, they are about to find out.
When Shirley Schmidt (Candice Bergen) and Paul Lewiston (Rene Auberjonois) go to a bar, they hear a young woman singing about how special her father is to her. Paul seems troubled at the words. When Shirley inquires, he says that he is affected by sentimental songs. A few minutes later, Shirley asks him about his daughter, Rachel (Jayne Brook).
Roll opening credits.
The next day, Shirley finds Paul in his office admiring the view. He tells her that Rachel had a drug and alcohol problem at one time and stole from him to feed her habit. She remarks that despite all the pain she put him through, Rachel is still his daughter.
Paul had hinted at a decision he made in haste, when he counseled a man who was suing Daniel Post not to let anger get the best of him (The Cancer Man Can). He decides to make an effort to fix the seven-year breach with Rachel. She lets him into her home, and has a surprise, a three year old daughter. The father abandoned her, but is paying child support. In perhaps one of the most telling lines of this episode, as he leaves he says to her that she must have been very angry at him not to tell him. He has yet to realize that two people were at fault.
He still wears his wedding ring, I noticed. But when he and Rachel talk about his wife, he mentions her illness. Will viewers find out what happened, if anything, to her? Stay tuned....
Shirley discovers that her ex-husband, Ivan Tiggs (Tom Selleck in a guest star role), is getting remarried. He asks her to be his "best man". She points out that a) she is female, and b) he cheated during their honeymoon. She is clearly reluctant, but does not say no.
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