Rene takes the case of a 14-year-old boy who is on trial for murder. The prosecutor wants to try him as an adult. M.E. is frustrated with her lack of control when Colliar quits her job for her and gives her an allowance.

Past: M.E. and Rene experiment with alcohol; disaster ensues

Present:

When Rene is pulled over on a mistaken warrant and humilated by the police officers, she sweeps it under the rug despite the urgings of Lakeisha and M.E. that she file a complaint. When she witnesses a college student going through the same ordeal shortly thereafter, she offers to represent him pro bono in a lawsuit against the police department for racial profiling. When he challenges her to stand up for her own rights, she finally files her own complaint against the police. Davis dates an older woman and seeks Colliar's advice for putting the brakes on the relationship. Glenn assigns M.E. to a story about road construction in a neighboring town and Kelly offers to help her research it.

Past:

Elston clashes with his father over Malcolm X and his becoming a Black Muslim; M.E. wants to support the civil rights movement by forming a group of White Muslims consisting of Colliar, Tully and Bobby; the Jackson family grieves together when Malcolm X is assassinated.

Present:

M.E. is elated when her book sells out at the local bookstore and she's invited to appear on a local tv show; Rene is accepted as a mentor in the Girls at Risk program, but things don't go smoothly with her mentee April.

Past:

After losing the captaincy of the cheerleading squad, Teresa decides to become a nun and makes Rene the unwilling receipient of her acts of charity.

M.E. is shocked when a Vietnamese man named Tuan appears in Birmingham and claims that her brother Johnny is his father.

Rene represents a man who is trying to gain full custody of his children by enforcing a prenatal contract he made with his ex-wife.

Past: When Johnny finishes boot camp, he comes home for a short leave before heading off to Vietnam. When Colliar and M.E. get into an argument, Colliar turns to Johnny for advice on women, so Johnny agrees to double-date with Colliar and M.E. Before he leaves for the war, Johnny makes M.E. and Colliar promise they will stay together forever.

Present:

Tillie Sims arrives for a visit and once again puts her son in jeopardy when a loan shark follows her from Florida looking for the money she owes him, prompting M.E. to give Tillie an ultimatum; worried that April's incoherent behavior means that she has a substance abuse problem, Rene forces her to take a drug test, which turns out negative; when April begins to exhibit delusional behavior, Rene gets Mrs. Samuels' permission to take her to a doctor.

Past:

After James is attacked by the police during the march on Selma, Elston and James disagree about the effectiveness of non-violent protest; after federal troops are sent in to protect the marchers, the entire Jackson family joins the march; Rene is forced to reconsider the practice of non-violence when she is tormented by Tully's constant bullying; Colliar's mother doesn't intervene when he is abused by his father.

Present:

M.E. is upset when Rene hires a black contractor instead of Colliar to do some renovations on her house; M.E. is put in the middle when Colliar sues one of Rene's clients for reverse discrimination when he loses out on a job to a black contractor who submitted a higher bid; April is diagnosed as bipolar, but resists taking her medicine; Kelly and Ajoni start dating again.

Past:

Inspired by their favorite mystery books, Rene and M.E. decide to play detective and follow James, and accidentally help him to discover that the F.B.I. is tapping his phones.

Present:

M.E. decides to write a book about the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement after learning about Mrs. Samuels' experience as a cleaning lady for Dr. Martin Luther King.

Rene is reunited with a friend who was once an active student leader at Morehouse but is now serving a life sentence.

Past:

M.E. and Rene learn how involved Sara is in the civil rights involvement after James is arrested during a protest and Sara steps in to take his place as a leader. Rene is surprised when she sees her mother step back into the background upon her father's return.

Present:

The fur flies at the Sims and Williams households when M.E discovers Ajoni asleep in Kelly's room one morning, even though both teenagers insist that nothing is going on between them; Ajoni's parents are upset about the interracial relationship and concerned that Kelly will keep Ajoni from attending college; after Ajoni's father throws him out of the house when he persists in dating Kelly, M.E. and Colliar allow him to stay with them; Rene and Joe explore the possibility of expanding their relationship.

Past:

Rene incurs the wrath of her beloved Cookie Grandma when M.E. reveals that Rene has a crush on a white boy.

Rene and M.E. take a road trip that turns sour when they are car-jacked and Rene is arrested for car theft. When Rene calls Lakeisha for help, she discovers that she has been asked to run for district attorney. At home, Colliar struggles to hold things together when Kelly loses Rene's dog and Davis announces he wants to be a priest.

Past: M.E. and Rene explore the possible existence of aliens

When interviewing a Baptist minister for an article, M.E. discovers he doesn't practice what he preaches. Now a candidate for district attorney, Rene faces her first critics when she refuses to drop a client who is an illegal alien.

Past: M.E. threatens to break up with Colliar if he doesn't let her join his band. She's surprised when he dumps her.

Present:

When Kelly follows in her mother's footsteps, M.E. and Colliar are thrilled by her being elected to the homecoming court and have a complete meltdown after she reveals that she's pregnant; Rene is appalled when she discovers that rapes are being deliberately underreported by the police and underprosecuted by her opponent.

Past:

M.E. and Colliar go through a difficult patch; Rene gets a new boyfriend named Henry.

Present:

Nick hires an election strategist who rubs Rene the wrong way when she attempts to ""lighten up"" Rene's image by setting her up for an endorsement by a politically influential group whose color-struck policies and members she abhors; although the Sims and Williams families agree to support Kelly and Ajoni in keeping their baby, Colliar continues to have a hard time dealing with Kelly's pregnancy.

Past:

M.E. humiliates Rene in front of Henry when she pushes her in the pool and ruins her hair, so Rene forces M.E. to sit with her through the four-hour ordeal of getting her hair relaxed.

Present:

Rene creates a firestorm a few days before the election when she admits during a call-in radio show that she experimented with drugs during the seventies; M.E. struggles for creative control when Kelly's sixth grade teacher asks her to sanitize the adaptation of ""Port Dixie"" that M.E. has been asked to create and direct for the Fall Drama Festival; Rene catches April smoking a joint and April admits that her mother is incarcerated on a drug-related charge; after visiting April's mother in prison and hearing her story, Rene campaigns for more equitable drug offense prosecution and sentencing; M.E. does her best to support and educate Kelly during the early stages of her pregnancy; Rene loses the election.

Past:

M.E. and Rene decide to emulate the Vietnam War protesters they see on television by chaining themselves to Port Dixie when they learn that it's to be carted away to make room for a housing development, but Grandma Otis shows them another way that their beloved hideaway

Rene embraces the holiday season, but things turn sour when her attempts at planning a holiday party for the lawyers association fall flat. Luckily, she is still able to have a great Christmas with Elston, his partner and their son, Victor. M.E. is determined to have one more old-fashioned family Christmas, but things go awry when Ajoni proposes to Kelly on Christmas Day.

Past: The girls begin a tradition of donating gifts to those who are less fortunate.

M.E. is outraged and decides to fight the school board when Kelly is asked to switch to another school because of her pregnancy. Rene meets an interesting man while representing Kelly.

Past: Rene and M.E. get to ""first base"" with their boyfriends, but M.E.'s Catholic sex (mis)education deters them from going any further.

Kelly and Ajoni announce that they are getting married in 10 days, but M.E. and Colliar refuse to sign the parental consent forms. Rene's identity gets stolen.

Past: Rene and M.E. learn more about the Vietnam War when Elston runs away to Canada to avoid the draft.

Tension runs high as M.E. helps Kelly get ready for the wedding. Rene tries to convince one of her clients to leave her abusive husband. Ajoni and a very pregnant Kelly get married and spend their wedding night at the Sims house.

Past: M.E. smokes Theresa's marijuana, mistaking it for a cigarette. Rene and M.E. argue about courage as Rene prepares a care package for Elston in Canada.

Colliar tells M.E. that he's moving out. When he returns after a few days with an idea to give Kelly and Ajoni $5,000 so they can get their own place, everyone is furious with him and accuse him of being a racist. M.E. and Colliar have a huge fight which ends with M.E. moving into Rene's house; Meanwhile, Rene represents the a woman who accuses the new district attorney's nephew of rape.

Past: A bewildered M.E. and Rene watch Colliar and Henry become supercompetitive at the Spring Fair.

Present:

The road not taken intrigues M.E. and Rene as they wonder what would have happened had they switched houses and destinies many years ago. Rene sees herself in a loving marriage with two children as she struggles to maintain her own priorities in her father's law firm and pleads with her parents to accept Elston. M.E. is single and an extremely wealthy, successful, and prolific writer who owns a newspaper. After she is reunited with Colliar at his father's funeral, she realizes how much she regrets missing the opportunity to make a life with him.

Past:

M.E. fears that she will never see Colliar again after he and his mother leave Birmingham to escape being beaten by his father; Rene realizes that Henry is not the boy for her.

Present:

Uncle Jimmy dies and M.E. ensures that he's not buried with any Klan insignia; Rene refuses to assist Joe with the case of a wheelchair-bound man who feels discriminated against when a strip club won't allow him to get a lap dance; Rene represents Ajoni's teammate Richie when he is arrested for manslaughter in the death of a teenager he hit during a post-game fight, and mounts a self-defense trial strategy based on Richie's fearing his life was in danger after the other teen hurled a highly charged racial epithet at him.

Past:

The O'Brien family continues to mourn the loss of Johnny; Teresa devises a highly effective plan to keep the O'Brien girls out of having to go to an all-girls Catholic high school; M.E. is outraged and disgusted when the veterans parade to which Uncle Jimmy invites the O'Briens turns out to be a Klan rally; Rene is excited at the prospect of being named valedictorian.

Present:

Rene's defense of Richie has everyone in town talking; after Richie is acquitted of manslaughter and sentenced to one year's probation for criminally negligent homicide, Rene decides to expand her practice and specialize in civil rights law; Colliar apologizes to M.E. and Kelly for his recent bad behavior and reconciles with both of them; Kelly is hospitalized for pre-eclampsia and has an emergency C-section; Kelly and Ajoni's premature baby boy goes into respiratory distress soon after his birth.

Past:

Rene's school cancels graduation rather than name her as the valedictorian, so Sara and James have a private ceremony at home; when Colliar schedules his graduation party on the same night as Rene's and his father refuses to allow her to attend, Rene becomes angry when M.E. chooses her boyfriend over her best friend and attends Colliar's party instead of Rene's.