Another Christmas episode. Another Ally & Larry episode. Another FANTASTIC episode. It could have been a disastrous one, but David E. Kelley always seems to know just what to do. Why could it have been disastrous? Well, because Larry's ex-girlfriend..... a.k.a. Jamie...... a.k.a Mother of His Son...... a.k.a. The Evil B*tch Monster of Death....... shows up out of nowhere. You know how it goes on television shows. When things are going really well for a couple, something (or someone) has to show up and ruin it.

Ally and Larry are happy, happy, happy! Larry even turned his office into a Christmas Wonderland just for Ally, complete with music and a mistletoe. But of course, when Ally and Larry are kissing, who should walk in but....... :::: cue Jaws theme music :::: Jamie. Much to Ally's dismay, Jamie turns out to be very pretty and very sweet. She says she's in town for a deposition but as we find out later, it's all a big fat LIE. Nope, Jamie has an agenda..... an agenda which consists of five letters...... L-A-R-R-Y. Yup, she wants him back. For their son's sake.... and for hers.

The thing that can be a little frustrating about Ally McBeal is that they are very scarce with spoilers. If you watch soap operas like I, um, do.... (don't tell anyone!), then you know that the spoilers they give out practically reveal the whole storyline. Ally McBeal spoilers are very vague. Ultimately, I think it's a good thing because it really is better not to know what's going to happen. It's better to watch a show and be genuinely surprised. But then there are times when you just need to know. I honestly had no idea what Larry was going to do. Would he go back to Jamie? It probably was tempting, not so much for her, but for his son. I understand that a parent's bond with his/her child is probably the strongest thing in life, and knowing that Larry missed his son terribly..... I just didn't know what he was going to do.

In trying to piece together Larry and Jamie's relationship.... we could conclude a few things. They went to college together. Jamie is the one who dumped Larry. I found their conversation at the bar a little interesting. Jamie admits to Larry that she lied to him about her being in Boston for work..... she's there for him. She still loves him and she wants him back. Larry doesn't think what Jamie is doing is fair. We find out that while Larry and Jamie may have had their moments together in the past, they were not compatible at all. Jamie tells Larry that she wasn't even jealous when he got married to someone else. Hmmm, could that have been a rebound? But Jamie confesses that she is very threatened by Ally. Jamie states that when Larry talked about Ally on the phone with her last week, and when she saw Ally in his office that morning..... she knew that there was something special about her. Jamie is now terrified of losing Larry forever to Ally. Don't you wish you could have listened in on their phone conversation when Larry was telling Jamie all about Ally? I would've liked to have heard what he said. Anyway, what's going to happen now? Is Larry going to fall prey of Jamie's vulture-like advances?

But boy, was I proud of Ally in this episode. She has really developed into a mature human being, and I think being with Larry has helped her with this development. She was ready to step back, forsake her own feelings, and let Larry be with his son. Which brings me to the scene in her office towards the end of the episode. I'm sure you know which one I'm talking about. This ranks right up there as another one of the CLASSIC Ally & Larry moments. When Larry confesses to Ally that Jamie wants him back, it was the beginning of a whirlwind of emotions for Ally. When she asked Larry what he thought about it and he answered that he thought if there was any way to work things out with Jamie, then he should......... THE LOOK ON ALLY'S FACE. Take a snapshot of the look on her face and plaster it into a dictionary under the word HEARTBREAK. You could almost see her heart shatter into two pieces. Calista Flockhart was amazing. And Larry...... he had me going there. I thought Ally had just lost him. Which is what made the next few moments all the more powerful when he walks right up to Ally and says that he doesn't think there was any way to work things out with Jamie because he is so totally in love with somebody else. Aaaahhhhh!!! Somebody give me a kleenex! Heck, just give me a whole box of tissues. And again, the look on Ally's face spoke a thousand words.

So that was one stumbling block out of the way. Ally sent The Evil B*tch Monster of Death back to Detroit. Little did they know that she'd be back again. But for the time being, Ally and Larry's relationship grew all the more stronger. Larry had professed his love for Ally and all was right with the world. A very Merry Christmas to them, indeed.