Synopsis of All Good Dogs Go to Heaven


Written by TK

Sydney has a dream that Kyle comes to her window at night, but her mother pushes his ladder off the house and he falls.

Jim wakes up in the morning and finds the box for his wedding ring tucked away in a drawer. He takes off his ring and puts it in the box. When he comes downstairs for coffee, his daughters can immediately tell something is wrong, but he won't talk about it. He asks Sydney if she'd like to pick up an old high-school tradition and go out for chocolate sundaes that night. She says she'd love to.

Kyle comes by Sydney's work and asks her to lunch. She doesn't have time, but they make plans for dinner at 8pm.

Sydney is treating a surly girl whose asthma is no longer responding to medication. Sydney charms her, and girls opens up a little about her life and her dream to study drama and move to California. Syndey says she'll give her all her California books since she no longer needs them. It turns out that the girl is suffering from something much more serious, and Sydney realizes that if she doesn't do something drastic, the girl is not even going to make it to the hospital alive. She opens the girl up right there in the clinic and does some quick heart manipulations and saves her life. She is heralded as a hero, and is reminded of why she loves being a doctor.

Robbie meets a beautiful blonde with a gimpy ferret, and brings the ferret by his dad's office for treatment.

Jim is treating a bull-dog named Buster whose owner of many years just died. Buster is not eating or drinking much, and the owner's daughter who brings him in says he used to occassionally share a beer with her dead father in the evening. Buster is extremely listless, and Jim tells him that he has to find the will to live without his owner. Jim knows how he feels. He tries giving Buster some beer, and when Buster takes no interest in it, he tries bringing Buster up to his bed surrounded by his old clothes since the owner's daughter said Jim sort of reminded Buster of his old owner. Nothing works. When the owner's daughter comes back, Jim has to tell her that Buster died. Jim is more upset about it than the owner's daughter, and she ends up comforting him.

Jim tells Joanie that he is going to take the rest of the day off, but before he leaves he asks how many sleepovers they have tonight. Joanie lists off the five dogs that will be spending the night. Jim goes to Robbie's bar with the mended ferret. Although he doesn't normally drink, he starts throwing back scotch. Robbie gets worried and follows him when he leaves the bar even though it means leaving the blonde, but loses him a little while later.

Joanie, having been given the rest of the day off by Jim, is eating some noodles and watching her favorite soap opera, "General Trauma." The doorbell rings, she opens the door, and standing there is the soap star she was just watching on TV. He says that Syndey is his doctor, and he's looking for her to get a checkup. Joanie is star-struck, but says that she'll try to find Sydney. When she can't, the soap star, Bo, takes off.

Sydney finally gets home, worn out, and Joanie tells her about Bo stopping by. They are worried about their dad since Robbie told Joanie he was drinking in the bar. Kyle comes by for their date and Sydney has to take a rain check. She falls asleep on the couch and has a dream involving Kyle and her mother again. She wakes up at 3am to Joanie telling her there are strange sounds coming out of their father's room. They peek in the door and their father is asleep, fully clothed, surrounded by sleeping dogs.

The next morning, Sydney goes to check on her patient in the hospital from the day before. The patient is grateful, and Sydney promises to bring by the California books later in the day.

Bo, the soap star, hunts down Sydney at work, and tells her that his eye-job needs a checkup. She realizes he's lying, and he tells her that her ex-boyfriend Jerry, who is his agent, hasn't been the same since she left, and he's being a lousy agent. He begs her to at least write Jerry a nice letter or something. He says he'll do anything for her. She says, "Anything?"

Bo shows up back at the front door of the Hansen house, and when Joanie answers, he says that he saw Sydney, and she checked his eyes, and he had a few more hours before his plane left, and Sydney said Joanie might be willing to show him around Providence. Joanie would be glad to!

Jim comes to pick up Syndey for their postponed date for chocolate sundaes. Sydney says she just needs to stop by to see her patient from yesterday to give her the California books. She goes by the hospital, and it turns out that her patient took a turn for the worse, had to go back into surgery, and didn't make it. Sydney is devastated.

Finally, over chocolate sundaes, Jim tells Sydney what a hard time he is having figuring out how to live without the woman who was his companion for so many happy years. They go together to her grave where he gives her back his wedding ring.

Sydney is trying to get to sleep and has a dream where her mother tells her she was very touched by what she and her father did this evening. She says she has to go now, though, because she has to help a bull-dog find its owner. She and Buster walk off as Sydney falls asleep.

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