The second season of Northern Exposure, following the misadventure of a Jewish New York doctor marooned in the rural no-man’s-land of Cicely, Alaska, is a consistently entertaining work with no real weak episodes and at least one classic – Episode 2: The Big Kiss
1. Goodbye to All That
On the eve of a two week trip to New York, Elaine, Joel’s fiancée, sends him a Dear John letter, detailing her love for a retired judge, sending him into an almighty funk, and prompting Ed (with the assistance of Holling and Maggie) to seek to ease his pain; at the same time, Shelly becomes addicted to television, when Holling buys her a giant satellite dish.
On the eve of a two week trip to New York, Elaine, Joel’s fiancée, sends him a Dear John letter, detailing her love for a retired judge, sending him into an almighty funk, and prompting Ed (with the assistance of Holling and Maggie) to seek to ease his pain; at the same time, Shelly becomes addicted to television, when Holling buys her a giant satellite dish.
2. The Big Kiss
After a viewing of Boys Town (1938), Ed becomes curious about the identity of his parents, and sets out to find them with the aid of his 256-year-old spirit guide, One-Who-Waits, who also advises Chris, who has had his voice stolen by a beautiful stranger passing through Cicely, that he must sleep with the most beautiful girl in town (Maggie) in order to remedy his situation.
3. All Is Vanity
When a John Doe drops dead in Joel’s office, the town’s populace, led by Chris and Maurice, take it in turns to watch over the body until a decision can be made about what to do with it; a stray comment from Shelly has Holling contemplating circumcision in order to please her; and Joel reluctantly agrees to play the part of Maggie’s boyfriend, when her judgmental father comes for a visit.
4. What I Did for Love
When Maggie has a dream about his death in a plane crash on the eve of his trip to New York, prompting the town’s populace to begin saying their goodbyes to him, the usually unsuperstitious Joel, already full of suspicion about his too-good-to-be-true temporary replacement, begins to rethink his travel plans, whilst also investigating Maurice’s breathing difficulties, reported to him by an astronaut groupie who visits him annually.
5. Spring Break
Just before the ice breaks, an event celebrated by the Running of the Bulls, the residents of Cicely become gripped with unusual passions – Joel and Maggie struggle to resist each other; Shelly develops a taste for reading; Maurice falls for a domineering state trooper; the usually placid Holling is itching for a fight; and somebody is stealing all of the town’s radios.
6. War and Peace
Nikolai Ivanovich Appalanov, a Russian singer loved by all but Maurice, arrives in town for a vodka-fuelled good time and, if the former astronaut agrees to it, a deadly serious game of chess; elsewhere, Ed falls for bad girl Lightfeather Duncan, and begins to woo her with the aid of Chris’s two-wheeled erotic poetry; and Holling, beset with vivid, unsettling dreams, struggles to get a decent night’s sleep.
7. Slow Dance
Further credence is given to idea of Maggie being cursed, or at least to all of her beaus being cursed on her behalf, when Rick is killed by a falling satellite; Maurice’s delight at finding buyers, with whom he has a great deal in common, for a property of his is soon tempered by the revelation that they are gay, prompting him to reconsider his decision to sell to them; and Shelly becomes the green-eyed monster when an old flame of Holling’s, who is closer to his age and has more in common with him, arrives in town. Iain.Stott
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