Last season on The Practice: George Vogelman, a former date of Ellenor's, shows up at the DYD&F offices with a woman's head in his doctor's bag; Vogelman is charged with the murder of Susan Robbin, a woman he'd met at a bar the night before; Vogelman tells Ellenor he didn't kill Susan; Vogelman's found not guilty; alone at the office one night, Lindsay is stabbed and seriously wounded; in the hospital, Lindsay tells Bobby a man in a nun suit stabbed her; we see George Vogelman cruising the streets of Boston in a nun's habit.

In the season opener, we see a nervous Fonzie (Henry Winkler) in the DYD&F offices asking Jimmy if it's "so terrible if they see the videotape." Jimmy tells him it's likely to inflame the jury. Lindsay, who doesn't seem much the worse for wear after being stabbed almost to death, comes charging out of Bobby's office with Bobby behind her. She tells them they better get going, and Bobby asks Fonzie where his wife is. Apparently, Jimmy told Fonzie that since this was just a hearing, she didn't need to be there. Bobby instructs Fonzie to have his wife and kids there for the trial. Lindsay nags them out the door. As they disappear, we see George Vogelman standing there. He enters the office hesitantly: "Ellenor?" She looks up, surprised, and without any further pleasantries on his part, he tells her his co-op association just evicted him on the grounds of moral turpitude. Apparently, despite his acquittal, in their minds it's not at all clear that he's innocent, so they're kicking him to the curb. George is obviously distraught. "How many times do I have to keep paying for something I didn't do?" They gave him thirty days' notice; he asks if what they're doing is legal. Lucy predictably snipes, "I wouldn't want a killer living on my floor." Ellenor predictably admonishes her. Lucy quickly turns to George and starts backpedaling, "Well, not that you are one..." Ellenor banishes Lucy to her desk by pointing her finger commandingly. George says he knows it's not a big case but asks Ellenor to represent him anyway. Ellenor looks weary, but she's such a soft-hearted person that of course she says she will. They go off to the conference room to discuss the case. Off to the side, Eugene and Rebecca are watching this exchange. Eugene says flatly, "He's back." Rebecca gets to gesture doubtfully with her head. Could such a talented actor be more underused? I'm sure DEK will give us the chance to find out this season. Credits, commercials.

The first thing we see is black-and-white video footage of an attractive woman, lying dead in a dentist's chair, with some sort of dark-coloured schmutz all over her mouth and neck, which would look somewhat like blood if it wasn't so lumpy.