Season 5

When Amy is transferred to criminal court, Bruce stays behind in juvenile court, and she inherits Spencer, an insolent clerk; Lauren has an extremely unhappy first day at junior high, but things brighten up on day two when, much to her mother's dismay, she finds a boyfriend who is a year older; after accepting Stuart's proposal, Amy begins to have nightmares about the wedding; recently unemployed as a result of budget cuts, Donna helps Peter care for his sons while Gillian languishes in a coma; Ellen, D.C.F.'s newest employee, uses her experience as a former foster child to help Maxine deal with a teenager who's run away from her foster home; fed up with his impudence and disloyalty, Amy fires Spencer and hires Donna, who's recently graduated from law school; Amy's predecessor in the criminal division threatens her with retribution after she considers overturning his decision to suppress evidence in a capital murder case; Gillian finally emerges from her coma.

After she's released from the hospital with a clean bill of health, Gillian reveals that she had a near-death experience during Walt's delivery, but can't seem to find anyone who believes her; when Amy claims that she has no time to organize the wedding, Stu volunteers to make all the arrangements; tragedy occurs when Maxine's pleas to the police to publicize the disappearance of a foster child fall on deaf ears; it's apparent that there's no love lost between Stu and David when they end up at the same cocktail party; Kyle and Lily have an intense encounter in a hospital elevator; Amy's frustration with the difference between the criminal and juvenile court systems increases as the Hawkins trial concludes; Kyle is unsuccessful in his attempt to get Lily to change her mind about moving to New York.

Maxine criticizes Amy's ruling that an emotionally-fragile girl is competent to serve as a witness in her mother's murder trial. Kyle, who doesn't know how he himself made it safely home after a night of heavy drinking, has to give medical treatment to a drunken driver who killed one of his hospital co-workers on the road. Lauren receives a poor grade in math and blames it on the teacher.

Amy presides over the case of a prominent athletic star accused of rape. Maxine, feeling the pressure to find a new place to live, considers selling the diner. Kyle tries to locate a kidney for a young patient who needs a transplant. Stu and Amy still can't come to terms on where to go for their honeymoon, with their wedding only a month away.

Still grieving over the loss of Jared, Maxine finds it difficult to listen to Amy and Stu plan their wedding; Bruce is less than thrilled working for Judge Bell; Gillian is sad and irritable that she's having difficulty bonding to Walt, and can't seem to talk to Peter about what's troubling her; Kyle feels betrayed when Lily makes her decision about the new attending physician; Amy teaches Lauren and her friends a harsh lesson about popularity, friendship, and the cruelty of cliques; after Zola seeks Amy's help in reaching out to Bruce, he confesses that her role in the Jason Darby case may have put an end to their relationship; Kyle is put in legal jeopardy when he saves the life of a man injured in a bar fight; Maxine overcomes her initial skepticism about the latest claims coming from a young boy known for filing false complaints against the men in his mother's life, and discovers that this latest accusation may have merit, much to the dismay of the boy's mother, who doesn't wa

In court for the sentencing phase of a capital murder trial, Amy must decide whether to stop the proceedings when one of the lawyers makes inappropriate remarks in the course of his closing argument. In a private dinner with Lauren, Stu reveals a hitherto hidden fear of children. Kyle feels awkward on meeting his new boss, who he discovers he already knows from an AA meeting.

Forced to substitute for an ailing colleague just two days before her wedding, Amy presides over a felony murder case involving a 14 year old boy and makes a controversial decision to overturn the jury's verdict; Stu's groomsmen are less than thrilled when they realize that they'll be wearing kilts instead of tuxes at the wedding; Kyle hatches a plan to surprise the rest of the family with Vincent's presence at the wedding, and gets a surprise himself when he walks in on Vincent and Heather making out; Amy forgets to get a sub as the judge on call, and ends up signing one warrant after another for David; Maxine's search for an apartment goes poorly, and the attempts of a co-worker and Stu's mother to be helpful only make things worse; Amy's pre-wedding jitters turn into a full scale panic attack as the ceremony begins; realizing that she doesn't want to marry Stu, she calls the wedding off; later that evening, Vincent tells Amy that Carole has left him for her oncologist.

Back in Hartford after a few days in Maui to collect herself, Amy is faced with returning a room full of wedding presents, dealing with friends and family who can't resist commenting on her train wreck of a life, and trying to reach an ex-fiance who refuses to speak with her; a reluctant Kyle, saddled with the job of firing one of the nurses, ends up being threatened with a lawsuit after bungling the job; realizing that her recent career change is a bad fit, Amy returns to juvenile court and presides over the case of feuding teenagers who have been spurred on by their mothers; Maxine is at a loss in dealing with a teenager who is angry about being removed from an abusive foster home; Donna inadvertently keeps interrupting Bruce's attempts to explain why he missed Amy's wedding.

Maxine confronts the D.C.F. commissioner over his budget cuts when she discovers that young girls in the foster care system are being moved from group homes into a locked psychiatric facility to save money that is evidently being redirected towards decoratating the commissioner's office; when Todd is about to be fired for bucking hospital protocol in an effort to save a young boy's hand, Kyle stands up for him despite their ongoing conflicts; after an Amish teenager becomes pregnant during rumspringa and decides to return to her community with her daughter, the child's father countersues for sole custody, and Amy must make the incredibly difficult choice between having the mother be shunned by her family and the father never seeing his child again; fearing that Maxine is spinning so out of control that his job is in jeopardy, Sean cuts back her hours and strongly urges her to see a therapist; concerned about the effect that peer pressure at her public school is having on Lauren, Amy go

Amy presides over the custody case of a young boy whose mother thinks he is being harmed by the Neanderthal on-air posturings of his shock-jock father; Maxine discovers that becoming a therapist in lieu of becoming a patient doesn't work out for anyone involved; Kyle mends his fences with Heather and helps her bring some solace to her dying father; Gillian begins to doubt her feelings for Peter as she strikes up a friendship with the father of one of Ned's playmates; Amy becomes flustered when David doesn't seem to be interested in a relationship, and makes a fool of herself in confronting him with a complete misinterpretation of his reasons.

The rift between Peter and Gillian widens at Walt's christening; Maxine overcomes her resistance and resumes therapy; when a tree that's been neglected crashes through Amy's kitchen window, she mistakenly calls in a landscape designer who reveals a keen insight into the state of both Maxine's garden and her soul; a young girl appears in Amy's court charged with reckless endangerment for running a pro-anorexia web site; Maxine is disturbed when the frustrated mother of a boy with a chronic neurological disorder turns from conventional medical care to a dubious faith healer in an effort to help her son; Amy is mortified when an upheaval during her sushi dinner date with David ruins both the evening and David's new and very expensive shoes.

Maxine takes a chance in placing a young boy about to be released from juvenile detention back with his formerly negligent mother; Amy substitutes for another judge in criminal court and soon realizes that she has a prior relationship with each of the attorneys in the arson case she's been assigned; Kyle and Heather give their relationship another try; Amy buys David a new pair of shoes to replace the ones she ruined, and he asks her out on another date, which goes quite well; after Maxine decides to hire Ignacio to work on their yard, he insists that he needs to know her better before he can create a garden that's perfect for her, and they go out dancing together.

Ignacio says it with flowers as he continues his gentle pursuit of Maxine; Heather begins to act erratically around Kyle, who's shocked when he discovers the reason; Lauren and Peter each find a new perspective on life during a trip to the mall, and when Amy expresses displeasure at the look of things look upon their return, her brother gives her an earful; Maxine is perplexed by a father's reaction when she investigates a possible case of child abuse in a family with a history of violent behavior; a teenager tries to pull a fast one over on Amy in an effort to prevent his mother from gaining additional visitation time; Bruce puts his foot down when Amy once again attempts to cast him in the girlfriend role as she obsesses over her relationship with David.

Despite their protests, Maxine and Amy fail to convince anyone that that dinners out with Ignacio and David don't constitute dating; Amy is asked to decide if a man in the Witness Protection Program can regain custody of his eleven year old son after the boy's mother dies; Lauren and Victor are unhappy when they discover that their parents are dating; Maxine races against time to prevent the participants in a suicide pact at a local high school from carrying out their plans; Shelby's band gets a gig at a local bar, and Peter's invitation to his mother and sister to hear him play provides the opportunity for the relationships between Amy and David, Maxine and Ignacio, and Peter and Shelby to grow and intensify on the dance floor and stage.

Donna gets a little too invested in the future of Amy's relationship, or lack thereof, with David; a teenager charged with larceny and criminal mischief for destroying a bike belonging to her brother's girlfriend unleashes a terrible family secret during a hearing in Amy's courtroom; Rebecca lets the cat out of the bag when she reveals that the real reason Mia has asked Bruce to stay at his house for a few days is not that she's visiting her sick aunt nearby, but that she's bankrupt; Kyle has difficulty adjusting to the idea of becoming a father; Maxine investigates the home environment of some foster parents after discovering that they participate in costumed sexual fantasy role-playing conventions; Peter is less than thrilled at the blossoming romance between his mother and Ignacio; after some prodding, David finally gives Amy the kiss she's been anticipating, and confesses that he's still grieving deeply over the loss of his wife.

Peter is still unhappy about Maxine's dating Ignacio; on the anniversary of his wife's death, David asks Amy to accompany him to a support group meeting; Maxine teaches a young artist under DCF's care the true meaning of family and reaching out for love and support; Amy and David attend the bench bar dinner together and hear news about Stu that upsets Amy; Maxine discovers that her new beau is quite wealthy as she meets Ignacio's mother, ex-wife, and children; despite being in counseling, Peter and Gillian continue to quarrel, especially after Gillian disparages Peter's joining the band; Amy presides over an emotional abuse and neglect petition brought about by a grandmother who is seeking custody of the child conceived when her son raped the boy's mother; Kyle seeks out Peter for some advice on being a father after Heather complains about Kyle's negativity toward her and their baby, and realizes just how upset she is when he can't locate her to apologize; Amy and David come to an agre

Kyle disregards Maxine's advice at his own peril when he bends the rules for a new mother who wants to hold her newborn baby just once before she's returned to prison; when the tension and awkwardness between Amy and David as they keep bumping into each other in the court house becomes more than she can bear, Amy withdraws her consent to the breakup and they decide to reconcile; Matthew asks Gillian out on a date, and she nervously turns him down until she seeks out Donna for some single mother bonding and realizes what she really wants to do; Maxine asks Ignatio to family dinner, and is surprised when he shows up with a disapproving Isabel in tow; Kyle is wary when Todd offers a hand in friendship; Amy devises a creative way to allow a young mother to retain custody of her children as she struggles to earn a living hampered by idiotic provisions of the ""Welfare to Work"" program.

Tensions run high as the family prepares for Ned's birthday party; a shoplifting trial in Amy's court exposes a prostitution ring in a group home for teenage girls; Maxine enlists the assistance of a former client to help a dedicated foster mother as she struggles with illness; Bruce gets testy when Amy's unsolicited advice about his conflicts with Mia over their living arrangements hits too close to home; Gillian resists Matthew's temptations; compelling new evidence and a new witness force Amy to grant Danny Hawkins a new trial and cope with David's resistance to handing the case over to another prosecutor.

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Amy fusses over Lauren's overnight school field trip to Philadelphia with Victor; Bruce is in for a shock when an old friend comes for a visit; Amy confronts David after Lolly Wetzel repeats Greenwich rumors that connect him with his wife's murder, and he finally tells her the horrifying details of Kelly's death; when Ignacio's pictures get mixed up with another family's at the photo lab, Maxine sets off to investigate if the pictures of a woman with a black eye indicate spousal abuse, and ends up learning more than she wants to about the woman's interests; Amy presides over the pre-trial hearing for a troubled teenager accused of killing her babysitter; against Todd's advice, Kyle takes time off to see if Heather is with her father in Boston, and is stunned when Mr. Labonte tells him that Heather has a troubled past with a history of telling lies, including that he had cancer; when Amy goes to David's office to accompany him on a visit to his therapist, she learns that he has left to

Amy is dismayed when the courthouse cleaning lady tries to fix her up with her son amid gossip about David's departure; Lauren pesters Amy to send her to rock star camp; political posturing makes life at D.C.F. more miserable than usual until Maxine comes up with an inspired solution to the problem and is able to reunite a mother with her sons; when Amy presides over a shoplifting case, she discovers that the case is rooted in the neglect of two children -- the plaintiff and the daughter of the plaintiff's famous defense attorney; David sends Amy a postcard from Houston; Kyle quits his job to reassess his future after he discovers that his father died never having pursued his true passion in life; Maxine has a little tiff with Ignacio over his qualms about Courtney's dating Sean because of their cultural differences, and Amy is surprised when Bruce agrees with Ignacio; Maxine grieves the loss of her brother, and is especially saddened when her sister-in-law asks that she not attend th

Despite David's protests, Amy puts an end to their romantic relationship when he finally returns to Hartford; Maxine realizes that a teenaged client who was abused as a young child has become mentally ill when the girl makes a series of false rape accusations; Kyle has a career epiphany after he meets a fellow traveler at the airport who happens to be an undercover police officer; at her 89th birthday celebration, Isabel Messina is as rude as ever to Maxine, but completely charmed by Sean as he sings her an unusual birthday song; Amy hears the case of a teenaged boy who keeps running away to join the circus; Amy and Kyle lend David support when a critically injured Victor is rushed into surgery after being struck by a car.

Unwilling to let a poor client go to extremes to get prompt medical attention for her daughter, Maxine finds a way to get D.C.F. to cover the surgery the girl needs; David declares his love for Amy; Maxine gets shocking news about Ignacio and breaks off their relationship; Amy tragically miscalculates a teenager's propensity for violence; increasingly jealous over Peter's involvement with Shelby, Gillian confronts him about the future of their marriage, and doesn't like the response she gets; with the help of Buck and a little gunfire, Kyle finally finds a career path he can get excited about; the Grays receive a very unexpected, and very welcome, visitor.