Caroline in the City

Caroline hires Richard as her new colorist, and takes Annie's advice to try getting a date by throwing fruit out her window.

Richard is mugged and robbed of his wallet and portfolio - containing Caroline' s drawings.

Richard takes his paintings out of the closet when Caroline and Annie convince a gallery owner to consider them for an exclusive show - which turns out to be for gay artists only; Annie becomes entangled in Caroline's search for a new hair dresser - and her old hairdresser (Lerner) spots her at the gallery opening party.

Richard and Del bend over backwards to help an injured Caroline complete her work in time for a deadline, but things go from bad back to worse when medication dulls her pain - and her mind - so Richard and Del have to finish the strip for her.

Being too picky could cost Caroline the chance to reclaim money she lost at a malfunctioning ATM, since she doesn't really want to bank staff to see her picking her nose on the videotape record of the transaction. Meanwhile, Richard may end up in the doghouse after he attempts to dump the clinging Shelly on the pretext that he is allergic to her beloved dog.

Caroline must face dinner at Remo's with Del's parents alone when Del doesn't show up; Del is trapped on a stalled subway with Charlie, who insists on sharing his ideas for greeting cards for pets; and Richard's non-plans for his 30th birthday change when Annie visits to exchange swapped video rentals.

Three months have passed, and Caroline is thinking about advertising for a new assistant, so Charlie tries to demonstrate he would be perfect for the job and knocks Salty out the window. Sparks fly between Caroline and the vet who treats Salty, despite her fears that at 24 he is much too young for her. Meanwhile Richard, having failed as an artist in Paris (his only customer is knocked into the Seine just before buying some paintings), returns to New York and is forced to take a menial job in an ice cream parlor, where he just misses seeing Caroline on her first date with Joe, during which they helped raid an animal experimental laboratory and were arrested. (One of the participants is Shelly, still wistful about Richard, in her final appearance to date.) Caroline wakes up in bed with Joe and is unable to sneak out before he wakes and demands to see her again that evening, and on her way home she and Richard suddenly meet face to face.

Realizing Caroline never received his love letter, Richard labors to retrieve it from her friend's apartment.

Richard tries to adjust to his new apartment, where he is plagued by noisily amorous neighbors; Joe tries to adjust to the fact that Caroline plans to remain friends with Del; and Annie frantically tries to adjust her financial records when she is notified that the IRS is auditing her for 1993, a year she barely remembers. Her bad-tempered auditor is under fire for being too lenient with his clients, but when he learns she is a dancer in Cats, he strikes a deal: she'll ""never have to pay taxes again"" if she can get him an audition for the show. Enter 'producer' Del and 'director' Charlie. Meanwhile, disturbed by Joe's jealousy, Caroline makes up her mind to break a date with Del by telling him she's been called out of town.

Realizing Caroline never received his love letter, Richard labors to retrieve it from her friend's apartment.

Upset that Caroline's strip is not being merchandised aggressively, Del finally stands up to his father who promptly replaces Del as president with his sister, who in turn immediately fires him. Excited about forming his own company (with Charlie as his sole employee), Del assumes that Caroline will jump ship with him, particularly as he kept forgetting to renew her contract with his father's company. When Del calls his former cartoonist clients to a meeting in his crummy new office, they promptly desert him, leaving Caroline in the lurch how can she tell Del she values her income more than their friendship? Meanwhile, Richard is excited about being chosen to paint a mural for the city, even when he discovers he was the only applicant, but he's not prepared for the hostile reaction by the local denizens of the 'hood in question. He finally wins them round by agreeing to incorporate both Dennis Rodman and one hood's girlfriend into the mural, and even Annie is impressed at the unveiling

Joe refuses to accompany Caroline to an award ceremony because one of the sponsors uses animal products; so she calls former date Willard, whom she dumped because he was fat and balding. After Charlie takes him to a Jewish singles event by mistake, Del lies about his background to date an attractive woman who parents will only allow her to date Jewish men. Willard shows up a reformed hunk who only came to tell Caroline to go to hell - ""And I'm rich, too!"" Aghast that Del plans to tell Risa the truth only after they spend a weekend together, Caroline points out delicately that if they sleep together Risa will know only, because Del is a ""turtleneck kind of guy."" So Del books himself into hospital, telling Risa he needs his ""tonsils"" removed; but she shows up to confess that she is eloping with her former boyfriend, who isn't Jewish either. A reluctant Richard escorts Caroline and even more reluctantly dances with her. Just as they seem about to have a tender moment, Joe appears, having

An anxious Caroline, not aware that Julia intercepted his message, waits for Richard's response but isn't prepared for his ""Oh, why is it so difficult to say three words - I got married!"" Devastated, Caroline calls Del in the middle of the night and he rushes over - still handcuffed to his date Kristin, and must be released by an amused Annie with one of her collection of keys. Caroline impulsively throws a reception to honor the happy couple, at which she gets drunk, but things turn serious when Julia's wealthy father's chauffeur arrives and summons her to talk - and for the first time in her life Julia turns down her father's money and announces she will stay married to the man she loves.

When Richard shows up wearing a ridiculous shirt Julia forced him to wear, Caroline advises him to talk to her frankly about the compromises inherent in marriage - and Julia leaves him. Meanwhile, Charlie is upset that Del still treats him as an underling rather than a partner, and Annie tries to cope with unemployment by finishing The Grapes of Wrath - which she started in eighth grade.

Caroline's date reads more like a Shakespearean tragedy after she tells a lie to James, an attractive novelist she runs into during her book signing, and must then desperately cover for the fact that she hasn't actually read his novel; Richard tables his own remedy when Julia's job at Remo's is a disaster and he has to replace her as waiter; it's bad fortune for Annie when a fortune cookie leads Charlie to believe they share a recipe for love; and Del inadvertently becomes third party on a honeymoon.

Julia throws a surprise birthday party for Richard by inviting everyone in his address book, under the impression that they are his friends, which results in a gathering chiefly of his ex-therapists - one of whom is interested in Annie, to Richard's horror. Meanwhile, the discovery that she has been getting illegal free cable for years puts Caroline in a moral spin, since the rest of the building is hooked into her outlet and anxious for her not to do the right thing.

Julia tries to cheer up Caroline by setting her up on a blind date, which Richard does his best to sabotage. Meanwhile, Annie prepares to realize her dreams of revenge at her high-school reunion, with an overly coached Del in tow pretending to be her highly successful husband.

Caroline's former colorist Jeannie comes back to town on a mission: she and her husband can't conceive, so she wants Caroline to donate an egg; Annie naturally seizes the opportunity to make Richard paranoid that Caroline plans to re-hire Jeannie. Meanwhile, Del has a close encounter with his old Porsche and gets himself hired as a male escort for the company that now owns his former automotive love.

Acting as narrator, the Elevator Lady brings us up to speed on the events at last season's close culminating in Richard and Caroline's first kiss. Desperately aroused, Caroline and Richard pause only long enough for Caroline to run to the bathroom to brush her teeth; but once there she is confronted by a vision of four men: ex-boyfriend Trevor, the first man she ever slept with, the high school coach she had a crush on, and the first little boy she ever kissed. An angry dialogue ensues, and an inflamed Richard, overhearing, strips down - only to be walked in on by an angry Annie, who accuses him of exploiting Caroline's vulnerable state. Then Caroline emerges from the bathroom naked, only to be confronted by Annie and Charlie, the latter having arrived with an urgent message from Del: Eagel Greeting Cards is going out of business. A mortified Caroline dresses and rushes to comfort Del, only to discover that he is celebrating the sale of his company to a major conglomerate, and to be pr

When Carol can no longer stand the pressure Del is putting on her to work out of her new corporate office instead of her home, a reluctant Caroline discovers that Richard has been sleeping there: his vengeful father-in-law has stripped him of apartments, possessions and credit cards, and Charley has been using Richard's old apartment as a makeshift hotel for visiting Russians. Then Richard falls afoul of the militaristic office manager Plum, who subjects him to standard employment tests, including a visit to the staff psychologist - who finds Richard's behavior a little odd.

Caroline settles into her new workplace, where she inadvertently - and immediately - ticks off office manager Plum, who banishes Caroline and Richard to the basement. Meanwhile, Annie lusts after her yoga teacher Jonathan, but learns from Angie that he is a former porn performer.

It's just not Annie's day: she gets fired from Cats after eight years and is immediately dumped by her agent. To get back some self esteem, she agrees to go out with her dry cleaner to his dry cleaners' annual banquet, but when she attempts to strut both their stuff on the dance floor, she succeeds only in fracturing his leg. Meanwhile, since sales of her greeting cards are down, Del talks Caroline into attending a focus group which some wild new ideas about Caroline's cartoon strip. Richard is aghast to find Caroline seriously considering some of them (turning Salty into a dog, giving Caroline super-powers); then Del announces that all greeting card sales are down, Caroline's less than most.

On Halloween, Caroline and Richard go on their first date, but she's disappointed when she thinks he didn't plan anything special; Del fears he's going to be fired. MacDermott: Edmund L. Shaff. Zorro: Clint Carmichael. Caroline: Lea Thompson.

Del has hired Caroline and Annie to provide the voices for his new promotional video, but when he comes to pick them up it turns out they have to perform it for the boss first as a puppet show - about menstruation. While Annie is in her office, Caroline searches in Richard's desk for a highlighter and finds his divorce papers, and Richard angrily denounces her invasion of his privacy. Of course Annie immediately lifts the papers, is forced to hide them from Richard, sees them dumped down the corporate mail chute, and has to enlist Caroline's help to wheedle them back from the bizarre and hostile mail room staff - leaving a reluctant Richard and a strangely eager Charlie to act out the puppet show for Mr. MacDermott, who reveals that he is only doing the animated cartoon as part of a community service sentence. Discovering that the divorce papers are two months old but that Richard has not yet signed them, and is therefore technically still married, Caroline confronts him - and he confe