"Before" on Now and Again, an old lady gets vaporized, Dr. M. is skeptical that spontaneous combustion exists ("Just poof, gone!"), and a man and lady fight ("You're going to hell," "No. YOU'RE going to hell!") just before the man goes poof and is gone.

A buzzer sounds in an office we have never seen before. A man we have never seen before sits behind a massive desk with a cigarette smoldering in a crystal ashtray. A lady enters. The man asks, "Is it warm in here?" The lady asks, "Do you want me to turn the heat down?" No, the man wants to know "[her] opinion." Is it extra-patronizing to ask an underling to assert herself? I thought so. The lady is comfortable, and some ominous violin music starts up as the man behind the desk breathes loudly. "Just as I thought," he puffs. "It's just me." He feels warm, get it? The lady prepares to exit and then says very deliberately, "I just want you to know that I've enjoyed working with you, Mr. Delongpre." You'd better start de long pray if you think you're going to survive this scene, Mr. Delongpre! He manages, "And I you, Vanessa," between puffs and she exits. Then he gets on the phone, makes some vague plans that probably have no consequence (except for his closing line, "You stay cool too"), and then smoke starts seeping out of the sleeves of his jacket. Oh no! Could it be? The spontaneous combustion is dragged out quite a bit; Mr. Delongpre smokes for a while, screams "No! No God! Not this way!" for a bit, and yells for help. Vanessa, who for some reason is wearing a skirt shorter than Ally McBeal's, is squatting outside the office so it's just about hiked up to her hips. Flash! Sex sells! She rocks back and forth as she listens to her bosses' dying screams. Then we hear a "poof!" And I guess Mr. Delongpre is gone.

From a patient-on-the-operating-table's vantage point, we see Dr. M.'s head in a scrub cap. He has one of those cool reflector things on his head. An actor who looks like Ahmet Zappa sticks his big bald head into the frame and starts gushing about how cool an open skull looks. "So that's the brain huh! Look at that!" Dr. M. notes dryly that he "had nothing to do with that," but the other thing in there is from Radio Shack. Hey, I got my answering machine from Radio Shack! I can so identify with this show!