Episode
Touched by an Angel: A House Divided
Overview
Andrew, on assignment as a sixth-grade teacher, resides over a parent-teacher night at the school. A simple game the parents plat turns into a scene when a divorced couple, Martin and Janet, argue over who better knows their son, John is humiliated in front of his classmates, but quietly hides his grief as Tess and Monica watch, unseen. As Andrew builds a relationship with John, he begins to understand the tug-of-war that is John's life. John lives with his mother and her new husband Phil, and spends the weekends with his father. When Martin and Janet do have to deal with each other, their communication is riddled with subversion and insults. One weekend while John and Martin eat pizza at a local restaurant, they run into Andrew and Monica, who describes herself as an ""advocate"", someone who helps people. When Janet arrives at the restaurant to deliver John's homework another fight erupts, and John decides that he would like to enlist Monica's services to help him divorce his par
Details
- Series
- Touched by an Angel
- Season
- Season 6
- Episode
- Episode 13
- Air date
- 2000-01-23
- Runtime
- 48 min
Episode context
A House Divided is Episode 13 in Season 6 of Touched by an Angel. It aired on 2000-01-23. The runtime is 48 min.
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Episode 12: With God As My Witness
In Tess and Monica are on hand to witness their next assignment, Jim Sullivan, get fired from his job as a construction foreman. Trying to warn the project managers of potential safety hazards, Jim instead incurs their wrath. Tess reminds Monica that humans value themselves for what they do, rather than for who they are. In light of this, the angels must keep Jim from making any desperate decisions. Unable to find more construction work, Jim takes a low-paying job as a limousine driver and worries that he will be unable to financially support his wife and two daughters. As the bills pile up, Jim does make a desperate decision. Tailing his co-worker's advice, Jim decides to drive a questionable by generously-tipping client around for the evening. Monica, the limo dispatcher, warns against it, but the promise of quick cash is too tempting to refuse. Stuart Deane, Jim's passenger, is secretive about his business and appointments. Jim learns too much when Deane leaves their last
Episode 14: Buy Me a Rose
Greg and Ellen Sawyer have been married for 19 years. Tess and Monica's assignment is to make sure they stay married well past twenty. Greg, a successful Portland developer, is often to preoccupied with his work to notice Ellen. But when securing a business deal takes precedence over their 20th wedding anniversary celebration, Ellen begins to question her marriage. When Monica, working as Ellen's assistant, helps her go through some old boxes, Ellen discovers love letters from an old boyfriend, a musician named Denny. The passionate letters reawaken Ellen's sense of romance and she begins to wonder if she made a mistake in marrying Greg instead of Denny. Meanwhile, Andrew refuses to sell Greg a lucrative piece of property that would cement Greg's plans for a waterfront condo. In the ensuing negotiations, Greg barely notices when Ellen leaves to celebrate their anniversary alone at their cabin in the woods. Instead of going to the cabin, Ellen detours to Oregon City, in hopes of
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Episode 11: Millennium
At a New Year's Eve party in the final minutes of 1999, the angels meet Angela, their new assignment. Tess tells Monica that Angela is reluctant to enter the new millennium because she does not want to give up the past. Tess also informs her that Angela has forgotten about an important appointment that she has made many years ago. in the crowded chaos of the party, Andrew, working as a waiter, accidentally spills some champagne on Angela's dress. Angela graciously retreats to the ladies room where she meets Monica, the attendant, who is able to clean her dress. Monica recites a poem to Angela, ""Oh! To be alive in such an age!"" and this triggers a childhood memory about Angela's father. When she leaves the ladies' room, the commitment-weary Angela becomes nervous when she oversees her escort, Nick, showing Andrew an engagement ring. Later, on the terrace, Angela tells Andrew about her father, Carl, whom she idolized. He was full of spirit and had a love of great poetry. Angela
Episode 15: Life Before Death
Monica is ecstatic to be assigned to help her beloved Ireland, where she first set foot on earth. Her assignment is a group of teens from Northern Ireland, whom she hopes to persuade to come to the United States through a program called Project Children. However, the group of teens is made up of both Catholics and Protestants, religious groups that have been fighting a bloody religious war for centuries. Recently, a peace treaty was signed, but peace is dependent on the youth of Ireland. Monica interviews teenagers of the program, and finds bitterness and prejudices on both sides. She hopes that two particular teenagers, Tommy, a Catholic, and Rose, a Protestant, will be able to lead the others into peace. Tommy's brother Gavin, whom Tommy greatly admires, also encourages Tommy to work towards peace by accepting the trip to America. In America, the teens find that their prejudices are strong, and they are reluctant to overcome them. The first night, Tommy and Rose both wake fro
Episode 10: The Christmas Gift
Robert and Brianna return to their impoverished hometown of East St. Louis for the Thanksgiving holiday. This tradition annoys Brianna, who worked hard to leave this city behind, and wishes that Robert's widowed mother LaBelle would come to their safe and wealthy neighborhood instead. Monica and Tess watch unseen as Robert welcomes in the season with a beautiful carol played on his treasured trumpet. When a local homeless man named Gabe is drawn to the music, LaBelle welcomes him in for dinner, much to Brianna's chagrin. LaBelle tells Brianna that she is happy in East St. Louis, where she knows her neighbors and volunteers at the soup kitchen. After the holiday, Robert and Brianna work hard to afford their home by selling water filters. Though money is very tight, Robert buys LaBelle a cell phone for safety reasons. She calls him late one night to tell him that a vandal has broken a window in her home, so Robert promptly leaves for East St. Louis. Hours later, Andrew, a policem
Episode 16: A Perfect Game
The angels arrive at the Cherry Lanes Bowl-A-Rama where they meet Ziggy, the unhappy owner of the alley. Despite the fact that it is technically the angels ""night off,"" Monica takes immediate interest in helping the cantankerous woman. Ziggy, who is too proud to ask for help from anyone, refuses Monica's offers to watch the counter. At the same time, Darrell, a security guard, is led into the bowling alley blindfolded. Darrell's friends have brought him to Cherry Lanes to celebrate his birthday, unaware that Darrell and Ziggy, though once best friends, haven't spoken in years. Ziggy's resentment of Darrell is immediately apparent. As Andrew and Tess teach Monica to bowl, she's ecstatic when she knocks down one pin, but even more excited to learn that she gets a second chance at the remaining pins. On another lane, Tess counsels Renee and Warren, a newly engaged couple, who argue about whom to invite to their wedding. Monica questions Ziggy about her anger toward Darrell and sug
Episode 9: Then Sings My Soul
In Andrew gives a tour of Taffy Town to a group of young schoolchildren. Taffy Town seems like a wonderful place, as evidenced in the warm video that plays for visitors hosted by the founder, Uncle Dudley. He is known to children as the man who makes all the taffy in the world. Tess reveals that when Uncle Dudley died five years ago, the spirit behind Taffy Town died with him. Monica meets Bo, son of Uncle Dudley and the current owner of Taffy Town. Bo has never been able to live up to his father's genial image, and has come to hate being saddled with the responsibility of Taffy Town. To make matters worse, Taffy Town is losing money, and Bo hires Monica as an efficiency expert to figure out why. Monica starts to interview the employees of Taffy Town, and finds the veteran staff to be hard working, yet a little lacking in spirit. Clarence, a blind man, works as the taste tester. Susie, following in her family's footsteps, works the big taffy machine while nursing a quiet love
Episode 17: Here I Am
Monica, Tess, and Andrew find themselves in a New York art museum, each assigned to a different individual. The museum is full of visitors of all ages, including a class of young children on a field trip. Keeping a wary eye on these youngsters is Bud, an older security guard whose retirement begins at the end of the day. Bud has emotional walls between himself and the rest of the world, and it is Tess's assignment to help knock them down. Monica is talking to Antonio, an artist who despises his displayed painting, a modern art piece compromising of yellow and above black whose dividing line is flawed by a solitary bump. In another wing, Andrew has revealed himself as the angel of death to Constance, a woman who has just discovered that she has cancer and is trying to determine what she has contributed to the world. Tess discovers that Bud is obsessed with a painting of a little girl holding flowers. Bud protects this painting more than any other in the museum, and even makes the
Episode 8: The Whole Truth And Nothing But...
Monica, Tess, and Andrew sit on a Chicago park bench reading the Chicago Daily Guardian, a tabloidesque newspaper with the motto: ""If It's The Truth, It's News."" The angels cringe at the sensational headlines and Tess notes that there is more to the truth than just the ""facts"" these articles portray. According to Tess, Liz Bradley, the editor of the Guardian, is suffering from a contagious disease, cynicism. She is Monica's assignment. When Monica arrives at the Guardian to interview for a reporter job, she meets eager young Ray, who works as a gofer while awaiting his big break as a reporter. Liz is impressed with Monica and hires her, assigning her to a story about possible shady dealings between Mayor Hunley and some Taiwanese officials. Liz teams Monica with the Guardians' star reporter Lauren, who is also Liz's younger sister whom Liz raised. Lauren feels that Liz is to obsessed with her work, and as a result, the sisters fight frequently. Soon after Lauren and Monica
Episode 18: Bar Mitzvah
Ross Berger, an 83 year old owner of a successful chain of exercise gyms, credits his recovery from a stroke to his own physical strength and will. He considers himself a self-made man and believes religion is for the weak. Ross' son Alan, on the other hand, is a man of faith in God and a well-respected college professor who deeply values his Jewish heritage. Alan's son Aaron, who is preparing for his bar mitzvah, admires his grandfather's physical strength more than his father's spiritual faith. Monica and Tess agree to help Ross produce an exercise video for stroke victims, while Andrew tutors Aaron in Hebrew, teaching him the true meaning of the bar mitzvah, the acceptance of his new responsibilities as a man of God. Alan's wife Connie is worried about Ross' influence on Aaron, but is even more concerned about Alan's frequent dizzy spells, one of which results in a serious car accident. When Alan receives the news that he is dying from a rapidly growing brain tumor, he confide
Episode 7: Voice of an Angel
In New York City, Tess and Monica enjoy the vocal talents of some street performers, but when Monica tires to join in Tess points out that, clearly, singing is not one of her gifts. Monica reminds Tess that she has always prayed for a beautiful singing voice, and when she hears one echoing down the halls of Carnegie Hall, she believes God has finally answering her prayer. much to her disappointment, Monica finds the voice really belongs to a rude English orphan named Alice. Alice is in New York to perform in a vocal contest with her choir, and Monica's assignment. Tess tells Monica that she is to give Alice a ""singing lesson."" Monica reluctantly agrees to be Alice's chaperone for the day, and they start to explore the city. Alice, who remembers a song her father taught her, wants to see Herald Square, and Monica, trying to be friendly, takes her there. At Herald Square, Monica meets Andrew posing as a mime and relates a story. Centuries ago, in heaven, Monica was kicked out of
Episode 19: True Confessions
As Monica and Tess discuss the end of winter, Tess reminds Monica that in some places winter lasts all year round. One such place is the Kewanee Women's Correctional Facility where Monica's assignment, Carla Robinson, is doing 25 years to life for murder. Monica joins the prison staff as a social worker and begins to implement a prison theater program. With Tess' help as a prison guard, Monica is able to get a small group of the prisoners to open up about themselves and their crimes. Carla though claims to be innocent and spends her time trying to get a pardon. Meanwhile, Andrew is a hospice nurse to Santos Gonzales, the father of Orbie, the man Carla was convicted of murdering. Even after several years, Santos is still bitter about Orbie's death. At the prison, Monica chooses to play ""Agnes of God"" for the women to perform for the rest of the inmates. ""Agnes of God"" tells the story of a young nun who becomes pregnant as a result of being raped. Agnes is accused of murdering t