"Fire and Ice"
Airdate: January 7, 2000

The title of this episode represents a lot of things. There is Dr. Morris' (Dennis Haysbert) generally frosty personality contrasting with Michael's (Eric Close) genuine friendliness. Then there's the barren and chilly existence Michael has been forced to live since his death which is in opposition to the warmth of a family he once enjoyed. And this week, for Dr. Morris, Michael, and Lisa, it symbolizes the deep, abiding, fiery passion of love and then the bleak, frigid emptiness experienced when that love, that closeness, is lost.

The usually eloquent and dynamic Dr. Morris finds himself tongue-tied and timorous in the presence of the beautiful Dr. Lauren Rivers (Ellen Bethea), a fellow scientist he meets when testing Michael's endurance at a meteorological research laboratory. Taking pity on his keeper, Michael plays Cyrano with a salesman's edge and manages to help Theo make a good second impression. He is also instrumental in helping the doctor overcome the single mother's qualms about her baby and this new man in her life.

Unfortunately the sweetness of the episode is tinged with bitter as well, for during this time Michael and Lisa, again in their own worlds of pain, contemplate their upcoming 18th wedding anniversary. It is only when Dr. Rivers decides that she must try and make another go with the father of her child that Theo truly begins to empathize with the anguish that Michael suffers as a result of being apart from the woman he loves.

Scientist and Science Fair Project may not be full allies yet, but at least there is more of an understanding.

In a more genre vein, we are allowed to see two people become the victims of spontaneous combustion and the previews for the next episode show that both Michael and Dr. Morris are on the case. And in danger.

This is such an emotional episode that you feel the loneliness of each character almost down to your bones. While it might not elicit tears, there is an ache in my heart for Michael, Lisa, and Theo. Dr. Morris' temporary burst of joy is in stark contrast to the longing that Michael has for his wife and makes Theo's eventual loss all that more tragic, for his task as jailer is now tinged with the first-hand knowledge of the pain his creation feels.

-- Linda M. Najera

Now and Again airs at 9pm EST, Fridays on CBS.

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