Northern Exposure

Ed asks Dr. Fleischman to help him convince his uncle, a traditional tribal medicine man, to seek medical treatment for a health problem. A self-reliant Maggie chides Joel about being helpless around the house. Chris angers Maurice when he reads some poetry by Walt Whitman and uncovers some facts about the poets life that Maurice would prefer not knowing.

Joels mind is on helping Maurice sell Alaska as the ""new Riviera"" to two Japanese businessmen in hopes of becoming the ""attending physician""--and playing golf--at their proposed resort. Meanwhile, Holling has proposed to Shelly when he learns that she is carrying his child, when the wedding day arrives, he is somewhat reluctant to go through with ceremony.

A young man from Saskatchewan further rocks the already delicate relationship between Shelly and Holling. Ed suffers from writers block and a lack of focus as he tries to begin work on his blockbuster movie. Maggie and Rick tiptoe around ""Maggies curse"" when he shows symptoms of a serious medical problem.

The approach of the Aurora Borealis and the constant light produces some strange behavior among the residents of Cicely. Chris abandons the radio station to build an unusual piece of modern sculpture and to get acquainted with a new soul mate that has come into town on some predestined mission. Joel journeys into the back woods to visit an isolated forest ranger and, when he gets stuck coming home, remembers the stories of a strange Bigfoot-like creature named Adam rumored to be roaming the area. Joel is rescued by Adam, who turns out to be real and a damn good cook, only when he returns to town no one believes him.

Eds wish to know who his parents were summons up a 256-year-old Indian spirit named ""One-Who-Waits"" who offers to help him find out. Chris finds his voice has been stolen by a beautiful woman passing through town, and comes to believe in a folk cure he hears about-that he must sleep with the most beautiful woman in town, Maggie.

Joels plans for a vacation to New York are sidetracked by Maggies dreams about his death in an airplane crash and his suspicions about the enthusiastic doctor sent to temporarily replace him. Maurices annual visit from an astronaut ""groupie"" is interrupted by his sleeping problems.

A Soviet celebrity returns to Cicely for some relaxation, some borscht and a deadly serious chess match with rival Maurice. Holling suffers a bout of torturous dreams and Chris helps Ed win the heart of a farm girl with his erotic imagery of a motorcycle.

Maggie is devastated when the unveiling of a statue in Ricks memory uncovers his life and loves away from Cicely. Maurice stumbles in his pursuit of Officer Semanski when she learns he favors tax loopholes. Joel is kidnapped and held prisoner by the reclusive Adam and his hypochondriacal mate Eve.

Maggie and Joel are forced to rough it when her plane is forced down by mechanical problems, and Shelly receives a visit from her former best friend, who is seeking a divorce for her boyfriend, Shellys husband back in Saskatchewan.

On Halloween Joel hits his head, presaging a visit from his twin brother Jules. Chris and Ed set out to meet a criminal from Chris hometown in West Virginia, and Holling pays an old debt.

Joels former fiancé Elaine, now a widow, comes to visit. Chris half-brother Bernard returns just as Chris is having dreams of Africa. The reclusive Adam takes a job with Holling to pay his insurance premiums.

A stranded bus of carnival performers brings romance to Marilyn, doubts about her future to Maggie, the mysteries of magic to Chris, and a break to the studious Joel; Shelly however, is pained when Holling becomes fixated on her large feet.

Maurice hires a colorful but questionable new investigative reporter for his newspaper, Maggie tries to enlighten Joel about the ""talking"" trees, and Chris becomes a co-owner of the Brick when Holling needs money to pay an unexpected tax bill.

The death of his uncle sends Holling out to his still and into an orgy of self-doubt, Joel feels isolated as he searches for proof of other Jews in Alaska, and Ed widens his own horizons when he films Ira Wingfeather producing his unique wooden flutes.

The mayoral incumbent, Holling, faces opposition from an old friend with a long memory. Chris grows eloquent over the democratic process. Ed worries over casting his first vote. Election commissioners Joel and Maggie argue over the decor of the polling place.

The hypochondriac, Eve comes to town to ask about her latest symptoms, but Joel is preoccupied with the ghost of a lonely old soul haunting his cabin. Maurice receives a visit from his old Army commander, who needs to borrow money.

As spring blossoms, Shelly suffers from a skin rash, Holling gives away eggs, Joel gets a new outlook on patient care from a tribal medicine man and Maggie experiences a spiritual and physical re-awakening with a handsome stranger.

Joel foresees sophisticated delights when he travels to Juneau for a medical conference but winds up with good old Maggie, meanwhile back in Cicely, Chris finds himself tongue-tied with the return of Bernard, his cosmic doppelganger.

Joel meets an old man whos returned to Cicely after many years. The man tells him the story of two remarkable women, Roslyn and Cicely, whom transformed the town into ""the Paris of the North"" back in 1909.

Joel is charged with energy as the sun hasnt set and he uses his pent up energy to try to coach Cicelys basketball team to victory. Holling is distracted by Shellys cheerleading outfit. The traveling salesman/tailor comes back to Cicely to sell his wares and he romances Ruth-Anne.

A heavy metal rock star comes to Cicely and gets Ed to make a documentary on a rock festival he is holding with local Indian drummers. Shelly is star struck by the arrival of this star. Meanwhile Chris mentor, Tooley, comes to Cicely in a crate and Chris ponders how to eulogize, bury and send him to the great beyond.

The ever-quiet Bob returns to Cicely, with "The New Perception Players" and still hopes to win Marilyns affection. Maurice receives a package from his son and it reminds him that he needs to adjust his will to cover his Korean offspring. Maggie tries to develop her relationship with Mike, by helping him with the revisions to Maurices will. Ed is suffering from a creativity block and finds a ring with the initials F.F. engraved on the inside, and then he begins to have Fellini-like visions.

The Indians in Cicely celebrate Thanksgiving by throwing tomatoes at white people. Joel is Eds first victim and he is angered because in his words he is "definitely not white." The town gets decorated with skulls and pumpkins as they also celebrate "The Day of the Dead." Joel also gets bad news in a letter telling him that he must serve another year on his contract. Mikes latest reactions to the environment are caused by something he cant trace so he thinks about moving to Greenland. Chris waxes nostalgic and decides that the something missing from his life is "the joint" when he finds a can of beans that he remembers from Thanksgiving.

Chris is taken into custody for an extradition trial to bring him back to West Virginia, where he currently has a parole violation. Chris knows he is guilty and really isnt interested in his defense. Mike comes up with an angle that he can prove to the judge that the Chris Stevens that skipped bail is different from the Chris Stevens standing before her.

Ruth-Anne pays off her store which gives her great satisfaction and Maurices great pain; however, Ed feels the most pain when these two old friends begin to fight after she begins to change the store and he finds himself caught in the middle. Chris goes to religious retreat to become a monk for a couple weeks. He thinks he has a problem when really feels an attraction for one of the other monks. Joel is going stir crazy when no one in town has sick for two weeks.

Joel accompanies Maggie as her "boyfriend," in a trip to back to Michigan, where he has been promised tickets to a Knicks - Pistons game. Maggie goes to attend her grandmothers 80th birthday party; for the event, "Grammy" has locked herself in the upstairs bathroom and Maggie is the only one allowed access.

After breaking his nose, twice, Joel and Maggie have a wild fling in her barn. Chris saves Maurices life, a debt that he is set on repaying. After witnessing that event and surrounded by psychic instability, Ed thinks about death in its many forms. A shepherds flock wanders into town and he talk to the locals about his problems, Ruth-Anne thinks he is having a mid-career crisis.

Joel goes on strike when the state of Alaska will not allow him time off for a Caribbean vacation he was planning. Chris has trouble seeking inspiration for his new sculpture. A vagrants presence on Main St. outrages Maurice, when he learns the man is an ex-marine he tries to become his benefactor. Maggie debates about having sex with Mike. Holling spends his time in hibernation. The town of Cicely strikes back against Joel.

Maggie is excited when she thinks she has "cured" her latest beau, as opposed to killing him; however she is crushed when he tells her that he leaving to work for Greenpeace in Murmansk. Holling is disgusted by Shellys redecorating of their bed & bathroom. Maurice moves his childhood home to Cicely and it stirs up memories of his brother.

Joel seeks out other Jews to help him mourn his uncle and Maurice calls out the troops to go out and round some up. Chris gets Bernard to help settle a 150-year-old feud between the Millers and the Stevens; something Bernard has some trepidation about participating in especially since it involves fighting, something hes never done. Marilyn drafts Holling to be her partner in a Cajun dance contest.

Maurices son comes to ask for his permission on his choice of a bride. There is a little hitch, Ron thinks that the new bride maybe the daughter of North Korean Colonel Pak Soon Ye, the butcher of Yang Dok. To help in the preservation of his native tongue, Ed decides to dub The Prisoner of Zenda. Hollings "needs" (an average of 4 times a day) are being held back and he seeks a way to relieve them. Ed runs into trouble with the star of his movie, a man with experience working in Hollywood and no time for Eds inexperience. Maurice runs into mixed emotions on his feelings about his own personal feelings and the feelings of his son.

Ed wakes up in strange places with no clues about how he got there. Joel contracts "glacier dropsy" which gives him the feeling of pins pricking his nose, a fear of shrimp, a tender groin and other strange symptoms. Shelly loses her singing voice just when she needs it. Leonard treats Joels patients and Eds "sleep flying" which maybe and indication of a greater purpose.

Maurice is chosen to be a wax figure at Madame Tussauds, in London, for their rugged individualists exhibit. Chris is faced with having to live longer than he planned on, a consequence he has trouble dealing with. The dentist comes to town, which puts everyone on edge.

Maggie is asked by the three guys in Cicelys high school senior class to be their homecoming queen and she accepts. Ruth-Anne faces an IRS auditor who besides trying to figure out her practice of accepting goods and services for payment is undergoing stress from her own marital problems. Maurice tries to outsmart a wealthy American Indian in a land deal. Joel is stuck out in the wilderness without his tape recorder.

Ed hits an impasse in his film career when Maurice has him begin to organize Cicelys first film festival and he cant seem to get things going to Maurices satisfaction. Joel makes excuses for why he cant join the volunteer fire department and goes on the offensive when his truck bursts into flames and the volunteers are nowhere to be found. Leonard becomes frustrated as he researches the healing properties found in white folklore.

Chris suffers an anxiety attack during the written part of the exam, when he decides to become a pilot. Holling and Ruth-Annes friendship undergoes a strain when a diary that Ed has found shows that his grandfather ate hers during the blizzard of 1897. Joel is in search the thief of forty dollars in petty cash.

An agent stops by to see Ed about his idea for "The Shaman" but he wants a few "little" changes made to better sell the script. Chris seeks to discover his feminine side. Joel and Maggie "discuss" motherhood. Shelly flees her baby shower as all the pressures of motherhood begin to show themselves to her, when Eve and others tell their child birthing experiences.

A musician tries to stop Maurice from storing, in his safe, a 1.6 million-dollar violin hes just bought as an investment. Maggie becomes obsessed with ridding her house of dust mites after she develops an allergy to them. Chris struggles to find inspiration for his latest sculpture. Joel and Maggie have their first date, which ends early because of talk about things microscopic.

Ruth-Anne and Walt take the long way back home when they pick up a couple of oak display cases; however they run into vehicle trouble. Before giving birth, Shelly goes on a spiritual journey at the Laundromat and meets up with "The Pooper" at different stages of her life. Joel and Maggie get frustrated as they try too hard at making a go of their relationship.

Ruth-Anne tries learning Italian, so she can read Dante, and gets some help from Shelly. Walt needs sunlight to overcome his depression, so he gets his light glasses and becomes addicted, so Chris & Holling perform an intervention. Caribou block Main Street, so the mayor takes action. While waiting out a storm in the airport cabin with Maggie, everything is going Joels way, until Ed shows up.

Maurices home catches fire and after its extinguished there is a danger of asbestos, so he takes some space at Holling and Shellys place. Later when Holling wont accept any remuneration he becomes outraged. Chris chooses not to shoot a buck when he has an easy shot; he later seeks out the deer again when he receives a bottle of Buckhorn whiskey for his trouble. Joel makes a medical discovery but has no other physicians to share his good news with, so Maggie brings another doctor to town that he can talk shop with.

Ron and Erick are getting married but the preparations are driving them apart. Holling undercuts another caterer for the wedding reception, but when he realizes the cost of the ingredients, for the dishes they want, he tries a few substitutions. Maggie thinks that Joels kindness is making her ill. Maurice tries to duck out of the wedding. Marilyn is taking a writing class and keeping a journal, which Joel worries about the content regarding him.

Though he promotes it on the air, Chris has reservations about making a donation for Maurices blood drive. Ed discovers his rare blood type is shared by another person in town, so he hires a P.I., Renaldo Pinetree, to dig into her past and find out if she is her mother. Maggies old "tiller mate" from Grosse Pointe comes to Cicely after her affections and he offers Joel the incentive to leave Cicely for good. Joel loses his touch for drawing blood as Cicely nears the amount Maurice needs to win his bet with a neighboring town.

Joel takes a spiritual journey to New York City after drinking orange juice that contains some Indian folk medicine and sees how life might have been. There he and his wife Shelly, a corporate lawyer, give a dinner party. Maurice is their doorman and Eugene their elevator operator; Maggie is the au pair for their kids; Bernard is in fashions and Chris is an inarticulate fashion photographer; Ed is a corporate raider; Ruth-Anne runs the internal medical partnership that Joel is trying to join; Holling is a singer whos got agoraphobia (fear of open places). Through the course of the evening, they begin to transform into their Cicelian characters.

Maurices plans for a fox hunt with his visiting English noblewoman must be put on hold when the fox escapes and gets into the protective custody of Ruth-Anne. Firing Marilyn and his lack of concern for Haydens well-being are two items that haunt Joel, Dickensian style, during his celebration of Yom Kippur. Meanwhile Holling yearns to make amends for past misdeeds.

Satan comes to Cicely as a whirlpool salesman; he offers to fulfill Shellys fantasy of making the Brick a major casino. Ed makes a mistake and skews the results of a cold medicine test that Joel is running for John Hopkins. Chris gets a ventriloquists dummy and adds him to his radio show, but the dummy becomes more popular, because he "shoots straight from the hip." Maurice is convinced that Joels cold medicine contains a new appetite suppressant and he presses Joel to tell him what it is. When that doesnt work, he gets Hayden to try to steal the information. To make her fantasy come true, all Shelly must do is burn Hollings old bathrobe.

Maurice welcomes his young cousin Maurice to Cicely, hopefully to take over the family business. Charges of static electricity generate a new interest--and a new art project-- for Chris. Meanwhile sparks fly between Joel and Maggie on a Russian airline bound for St. Petersburg, where Joel is scheduled to speak at a medical convention.

A new doctor and his wife move to Cicely to take over Joels practice and his house. While settling in, they get to know some quirks of the people and their new environment. After eating a trout, Ed starts to see the future. Holling tries to join the "Sons of the Tundra" and Shelly dislikes the "men only" aspect. Joel stops by and trades Holling pelts for a new knife.

Maggie decides to go and see Joel in the Manonash village after she begins to have visions of him dying. The Capras are having a small get together, but the whole town seems to turn out. Marilyn brings along two friends to the party, and because theyre snowed in, they stay with the Capras, whom try to figure out how to get them to leave. Eds shaman cure for shingles has Phil intrigued, he goes to Eds to find out the secret but finds Eds filing system less than perfect. Using a computer, to database these notes, makes Ed afraid.

The state of Alaska admits to Joel that they were wrong in over-extending his contract. With his release secured, Joel returns to Cicely to collect his things. Phil notices there is something wrong with Maurices new bottled water; the effect causes males and females to reverse roles. Cal escapes and becomes a fugitive in search of an audience. The area where Joel goes does not contain a village named Greenwich.

Joel finds a map and brings Maggie with him on a quest to find a mythical city. They meet a belligerent gatekeeper and when faced with a crossroads, Joel sees his future and departs. Phil cleans out some impacted earwax for Chris but Chris sues him for malpractice when his inner ear is damaged. Maurice lets Holling know that Michelle is writing an article on restaurants for Alaska Highways magazine but she cant find any good words to describe the food at the Brick.

Maggie outbids Maurice for the ownership of the towns rundown theater which she begins to run with help of Ed and Heather. When two professors come to Cicely for the oral examination for Chris masters degree, they clash over Chris dissertation. A young Canadian Air Force lieutenant claims that Holling is his father, something proven because Holling sent his mother money every month for 25 years. However, thats just covering up a secret from his past. The theatre business causes stress for Maggie.

Ed resents Maurices advice about his relationship with Heather. Chris believes that Maggie needs a new bowling partner so he holds tryouts and gets the woolly mammoth professor to be her partner. Michelles success at bowling threatens Phil; they fight about it and she moves out. Chris becomes jealous of Maggies new partner. Lesters wants to produce Eds script for "The Shaman" with one change that makes Ed think about what Maurice said to him. Michelle moves out of the house.

Ed learns the responsibilities of parenthood when he begins caring for a lost bear cub. Maurice discovers that Cicelys population is declining. Chris uses a device that allows him to manipulate his dreams and work out some issues in his relationship with Maggie. Michelle waitresses at the Brick while continuing to work out her issues with Phil.

Maurices plans to ask Barbara to marry him while spending the weekend at his new summer home are in jeopardy when her style clashes with the way he wants his guests treated. Phil and Michelle continue to try to work out their differences and Ed, in his Shaman capacity, and Joels Rabbi offer some advice. Chris is on the loose when Maggie doesnt make the journey to Maurices but soon realizes that he is a changed man. The Vincoeurs stay locked up in their room when Holling is in heat.