Billy and Ally forever. I cried so hard at this episode.
3 Reviews
Still one of the saddest episodes
pshel5211711 October 2020
Emotional Moments
DKosty12330 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
When this series started, Ally the child has her life long love, Billy. Then as things unfold early on, he leaves her. Ally finishes law school, goes to Boston, and somehow winds up joining the Fish and Cage law firm. Then -presto, the love of her life- Billy is working there too. Then the dream gets interrupted like a scratched record. Billy married the beautiful Georgia when he left her. Presto, she is working there too.
Ally, always a little on edge and the ultimate self-centered woman. Meanwhile, she makes friends with Billy's wife. This triangle has given us a lot of entertainment. Shocks have been building though as Billy suddenly seems to be going off the end even deeper than Ally. He loses Georgia and starts seeing even more things than his soul mate Ally.
Now the triangle is totally destroyed. Ally and Georgia have both gotten to where they are not really into Billy because he has become so strange. Turns out in his case, Billy has a brain tumor. Realistically, like in real life, the tumor is getting worse and worse. Something needs to be done.
Unfortunately, the climax is here. While the Doctor is supposed to operate soon, it's too late. The tumor takes Billy away. Ally reacts predictably really. She embellishes the memory of Billy before he had the tumor after his tragic death, in court. His last lines are even an emotional stab at Ally's heart with him saying in court they are married 12 years with children.
Partly because of his last behavior, she regresses backward to remember the good things. Ally and the series will miss Billy, and in fact it makes the Cage and Fish firm weaker. Still this is a climax which is going to make the series evolve from here in new directions. It is like Henry Blake leaving MASH. Billy will remain in Ally's heart and try to kick her into a harsh reality, that she desperately needs to move on now.
Ally, always a little on edge and the ultimate self-centered woman. Meanwhile, she makes friends with Billy's wife. This triangle has given us a lot of entertainment. Shocks have been building though as Billy suddenly seems to be going off the end even deeper than Ally. He loses Georgia and starts seeing even more things than his soul mate Ally.
Now the triangle is totally destroyed. Ally and Georgia have both gotten to where they are not really into Billy because he has become so strange. Turns out in his case, Billy has a brain tumor. Realistically, like in real life, the tumor is getting worse and worse. Something needs to be done.
Unfortunately, the climax is here. While the Doctor is supposed to operate soon, it's too late. The tumor takes Billy away. Ally reacts predictably really. She embellishes the memory of Billy before he had the tumor after his tragic death, in court. His last lines are even an emotional stab at Ally's heart with him saying in court they are married 12 years with children.
Partly because of his last behavior, she regresses backward to remember the good things. Ally and the series will miss Billy, and in fact it makes the Cage and Fish firm weaker. Still this is a climax which is going to make the series evolve from here in new directions. It is like Henry Blake leaving MASH. Billy will remain in Ally's heart and try to kick her into a harsh reality, that she desperately needs to move on now.
Beautiful Billy Boy
jayraskin11 January 2015
Warning: Spoilers
From the first episode, this series promised to be about Ally and Billy and their love. Billy and Ally were childhood sweethearts and Billy broke Ally's heart when he went off to college and married another woman. Now they were working together at the same firm. Would Ally win Billy back from his wife Georgia? That was the original premise, but the series ran wild with quirky and bizarre and lovable characters that the original premise was soon forgotten and Billy became a secondary character. He underwent a drastic personality change in season two that reduced him from romantic lead to just another quirky, but not particularly likable, character. Suddenly making this sensitive and handsome man to be a man chauvinist was funny, but pretty much destroyed the premise of the show. I think showing that his behavior was the result of a brain tumor was a pretty clever way to explain things. It allowed the series to return to its original romantic premise and to allow Ally to love him again.
(Extra Spoiler alert: Don't read the next paragraph if you haven't watched the show yet. It will totally ruin it for you.)
The newspapers at the time said that Gil Bellows was leaving the show to explore feature film opportunities. It made it sound that he wanted to leave the show. It would be interesting to know if that was true. He seemed pretty happy with the show before that.
I thought the death of Billy was handled in a fantastic way. He got to do a terrific scene before dying and his death was natural and totally believable. The script had set us up to believe that he was going to have a brain operation, so one expected him to die in the hospital. Instead, he dies in the courtroom during a summary of a case. This was the perfect way to end it.
Ally McBeal is wildly uneven with half the episodes being great and half the episode being only just cute or silly. Three or four shows in every season are really original and thrilling. This is one of the three or four shows per year that make Ally McBeal one of the best television series ever.
(Extra Spoiler alert: Don't read the next paragraph if you haven't watched the show yet. It will totally ruin it for you.)
The newspapers at the time said that Gil Bellows was leaving the show to explore feature film opportunities. It made it sound that he wanted to leave the show. It would be interesting to know if that was true. He seemed pretty happy with the show before that.
I thought the death of Billy was handled in a fantastic way. He got to do a terrific scene before dying and his death was natural and totally believable. The script had set us up to believe that he was going to have a brain operation, so one expected him to die in the hospital. Instead, he dies in the courtroom during a summary of a case. This was the perfect way to end it.
Ally McBeal is wildly uneven with half the episodes being great and half the episode being only just cute or silly. Three or four shows in every season are really original and thrilling. This is one of the three or four shows per year that make Ally McBeal one of the best television series ever.
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