Episode
Melrose Place: With This Ball and Chain
Overview
Jo faces murder charges following Reed's death. Jake is angry when Amanda refuses to help Jo because she could be implicated through her financial ties to Reed. She later has a change of heart, hiring her accomplished family attorney to represent Jo and putting up the apartment building as collateral for her bail. The charges are eventually dropped; the D.A. knew that Jo's crime was self-defense, but wanted to press her for information about Reed's associates. Alison accepts Billy's proposal. Billy tells Amanda that he wants to tell Alison about their one-night stand (but doesn't follow through), so Amanda confesses to Jake. At the engagement party, Jake decks Billy after being asked to serve as best man. Amanda explains the situation to Alison. Alison is stunned by the news, but forgives Billy. Sydney continues to charm everyone at the hospital, and even convinces the chief of staff to let Michael return to surgery. Despite his protests, Syd decides that she and Michael are getting m
Details
- Series
- Melrose Place
- Season
- Season 2
- Episode
- Episode 22
- Air date
- 1994-02-23
- Runtime
- 45 min
Episode context
With This Ball and Chain is Episode 22 in Season 2 of Melrose Place. It aired on 1994-02-23. The runtime is 45 min.
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Episode 21: Swept Away
Reed plans to start over in Mexico after one last major drug deal. Jo knocks him overboard with a harpoon, but the boat runs out of gas. When Reed climbs on board and holds her at gunpoint, Jo is forced to shoot and kill him. She is arrested when the Coast Guard raids the boat. Alison accepts Billy's explanation about his date, but breaks up with him again when he wrongly assumes that she is moving to New York. He follows her back to Los Angeles and surprises her with a marriage proposal. Sydney presents her blackmail demands and moves in with Michael.
Episode 23: Otherwise Engaged
Sydney and Jane get into a catfight in the pool after Syd tries to take Jane's wedding dress (a family heirloom). Their mother comes to town, but cannot talk Syd out of the marriage. Michael and Sydney are married at the beach house, with only Matt in attendance. Inspired by a dream, Michael decides to take Syd on a honeymoon and murder her. Jo learns that she is pregnant with Reed's child, and plans to have an abortion. Jake takes her to dinner instead of dining with Amanda and her boss. Amanda is jealous of the amount of time Jake is spending with Jo, until she learns about the pregnancy. Jo decides to have the baby. Billy's co-worker Celia and Alison (inspired by a comment from Amanda) lay a guilt trip on him until he buys Alison a more expensive engagement ring.
More episodes from this season
Episode 20: Parting Glances
Jake and Amanda pull out of Reed's business when Jake discovers some inconsistencies in his story, but Jo accuses him of jealousy. Reed picks up a shipment of drugs on the boat while Jo is sleeping on board. When Jo discovers drugs stored in a compartment below deck, Reed assaults and kidnaps her. Sydney overhears a semi-comatose Michael babbling about his plea for Matt to change his blood alcohol results. She lays the groundwork for a blackmail scheme. Frustrated by her inability to get in touch with Billy, Alison flies to New York to surprise him. She is stunned to find him having drinks with another woman. Jeffrey is transferred to the east coast after coming out of the closet.
Episode 24: Love, Mancini-Style
Michael attempts to kill Sydney during their honeymoon in the mountains of northern California, but fails twice. Matt pursues them in the hopes of preventing the crime. Michael has the chance to push Syd off a cliff, but cannot go through with it. Sydney vows that he will love her one day. A guilt-ridden Matt tells Jane that he altered Michael's blood alcohol records after the accident. Jane uses a signed confession from Matt to blackmail Michael and Sydney into staying married. Jo is haunted by visions of Reed, and is angry when she learns that Jake has decided to start a charter service on Reed's boat, the Pretty Lady. He convinces Jo to face her guilt head on, and she visits Reed's grave site to offer her forgiveness. Amanda erupts after seeing Jake comfort Jo. Alison decides that she and Billy won't sleep together again until after the wedding.
Episode 19: The Young Men and the Sea
Amanda and Jo invest in Reed's business, and Jake is hired as chief mechanic. Jo displays a lack of trust toward Reed after he leaves a suitcase of personal possessions in her care. Michael becomes addicted to painkillers. Jane files a restraining order against him. She calls the police when Michael shows up at her apartment, but Sydney gives him refuge. After Michael talks Syd into getting him more pills, she finds him passed out on his bathroom floor. Alison refuses to move to New York with Billy, and suggests they try a long-distance relationship. Jeffrey fears that his relationship with Matt could jeopardize his career.
Episode 25: The Two Mrs. Mancinis
Billy ignores Alison's wishes and tags along when she heads to Wisconsin for her father's fiftieth birthday party. He is furious when Alison refuses to share the news of their engagement. When Alison's ex-boyfriend Adam serenades her during the party, Billy announces the engagement. Adam warns Billy that the Parker family is ""weird."" Alison is haunted by nightmares after returning to L.A. Jane and Sydney's grandmother dies. Jane learns that she is to inherit $100,000, and decides to start her own design firm. Her plans are complicated when Syd and Michael seek a cut of the money because it is willed to ""Dr. and Mrs. Michael Mancini."" Michael confronts Matt about his confession to Jane, and they duke it out. Jo's potential romance with a model is quashed when he learns about her pregnancy.
Episode 18: Arousing Suspicions
After Michael shuns her, Sydney tells Jane the truth about her involvement with prostitution and Michael's scheme against Robert. Jane blames herself for Sydney's problems, and throws Michael out. Sydney is acquitted because of an incompetent prosecution team. Jo is angry when Reed approaches Amanda as a potential investor in his charter boat service. Jake confronts Reed about his intentions toward the two women in his life. Billy wins a promotion, but learns that the job requires a move to New York. Matt is annoyed by the bizarre behavior of his new love interest. He learns that the man is a closeted Navy officer.
Episode 26: In Bed With the Enemy
Alison turns to a psychiatrist for help coping with her nightmares, but Jo warns that she seems to be developing romantic feelings for the man. Amanda resolves Jane's financial dilemma by making Michael her business partner. Jane asks her accountant to falsify the design firm's financial records to keep Michael and Syd from cutting into her profits. Sydney takes over Lauren's operation after the madam is arrested. Amanda hires a young man named Ted Ryan as building manager. She fires him when he continually exhibits strange behavior, but he lurks around the building and watches Amanda in the shower.
Episode 17: Michael's Game
Alison complains to the brass about Amanda's mistreatment of her. After the FBI shows up with questions about her father's disappearance, Amanda is ordered to take a vacation. She heads to Hawaii with Jake, but returns because she fears that Alison is after her job. She goes to Billy and threatens to expose their one-night stand unless he gets Alison to back off. He refuses to cave in, although Alison ends up apologizing to Amanda anyway. Sydney sets up a hooker with an unknowing Robert during a business trip. Jane receives a videotape of the two together and breaks up with Robert. Reed and Jo sleep together. He later decides to start a charter boat service.
Episode 27: Psycho Therapy
Jake makes amends with Billy before leaving for a weekend fishing trip. Ted continues to creep around in the crawl space above Amanda's apartment. Jo realizes that someone is in Amanda's apartment; and she and Amanda catch Ted trying to escape. Amanda refuses to allow Jo to call the police until Amanda has tied up Ted and emotionally tortured him. Billy warns Dr. Miller not to interfere in his relationship with Alison. Alison ends their sessions, but not before Dr. Miller makes an astute observation about her relationships with men. Michael learns that Dr. Levin is a client of Sydney's business, and uses this information to blackmail his boss into appointing him chief resident. Michael tells Sydney that he wants to give their marriage a chance. As they kiss, Kimberly observes them from the beach below.
Episode 16: Reunion Blues
Billy tells Amanda that he and Alison are back together. Amanda responds by removing Alison from the Microcomp account because she was romantically involved with the client. Amanda moves forward with her plans to evict Jake, but Jo refuses to testify against him. Amanda relents when she needs Jake's help with a plumbing problem. Palmer confesses his guilt to Amanda and skips town. She goes back to Jake. Jo goes to her ten-year high school reunion and runs into Reed, an old boyfriend who has just been released from prison. He later turns up at her apartment. Michael has a breakthrough at a physical therapy session, and regains the use of his legs. Sydney is busted for prostitution. Michael bails her out and agrees to keep quiet if she helps him break up Jane and Robert.
Episode 28: The Bitch Is Back
Michael is astonished when Kimberly pays him a late-night visit. She reveals that she was in a coma for months, and that her mother claimed that she had died to keep Michael away from her. Michael dumps Sydney without explanation. When she brings a police officer to the hospital to have Michael arrested for manslaughter, Kimberly enters the room, prompting Syd to faint. Kimberly is plagued by headaches, and removes a wig in the bathroom to reveal a nasty scar on the side of her head. Amanda fires a model after learning that she is from the agency Models Inc., and is reprimanded by her boss. She reveals that her estranged mother, Hillary Michaels, is the head of the agency. Amanda rejects Hillary's overtures, but Jake later convinces her to give her mother a chance. Alison takes back her decree about not sleeping with Billy until their wedding night. Alison's parents hire an obnoxious wedding planner, but Billy and Alison fire her and decide to marry in the courtyard of the apartment bu