Synopsis of Tying the Not
Written by TK
Sydney has a dream that she's getting married, only she hasn't found a boyfriend yet.
Joanie excitedly announces at breakfast that she is going to marry Richie, the father of her baby, tomorrow. She went miniature golfing with Richie the night before, and he was so great with Hanna, that she decided if she made her next putt, she was going to marry him. She got a hole in one, so they're getting married tomrrow because he only has two more days before he has to go back out on the fishing boat. She gets mixed reactions. Robbie insists that they should prevent the wedding somehow. Jim is resigned. Sydney decides to make the best of it and tries to make a nice wedding for her sister.
Sydney goes to the clinic and treats a sweet young Italian man named Marcello who is suffering from dizziness. He has been imported by the mayor of Providence from Venice to run the city's first gondola, and his dizziness it making it very hard for him to do his job. Sydney thinks he might be suffering from seasickness, and prescribes a patch to take it away. He becomes quickly enamored with his pretty doctor.
Robbie is playing basketball at a local park, and a kid wanders by. The kid is being followed by an enthusiastic dog who he keeps telling to go away. The kid challenges Robbie to a game of basketball. Robbie asks the kid if the dog belongs to him. The kid says the dog is just following him, and he would want such an ugly stinky dog anyway. Robbie and the kid play basketball, and the kid is pretty good. Right before the winning shot, another bigger kid comes and starts chasing Robbie's opponent. Robbie and dog run after them. The big kid has the little kid cornered, and picks up a two by four as a weapon. The dog attacks the big kid, and the big kid hits the dog with the board. Robbie rushes to the dog to his dad's office.
Jim has been trying to talk to Joanie about love, and whether or not she really feels it for Richie. She thinks she's in love with Richie, but she's really not sure how to be sure, and Jim, trying to talk about his own marriage, is not really being helpful. Luckily, he gets interrupted by Robbie arriving with the dog.
Joanie and Sydney go wedding dress shopping. Joanie tells Sydney that she's moving in with Richie. Sydney realizes that she hadn't considered that part of Joanie's marriage, but that it makes complete sense that she would be living with her husband, even though he's so very seldom in town.
Sydney is at the clinic, and Marcello comes in with a bad cut on his forehead. He says that he got dizzy and fell in his gondola and hit his head. Sydney tells him that he needs to get stitches, and she wants to run some other tests since it doesn't seem like she cured his seasickness. He tells her about his girlfriend back in Italy whom he hasn't spoken to in awhile who didn't want to come to the U.S. with him. She suggests that maybe Marcello is homesick.
The dog is okay. The kid, Eldon, stops by to visit the dog. He pets it, but insists that it's not his dog and he doesn't want it.
Sydney and Joanie are packing up her things to move. They come across an old book that Joanie wrote about herself when she was seven, and talk about Buckie who lives under the bed. They hear someone serenading from outside, and realize that it must be Richie being surprisingly romantic. They go outside, and it turns out to be Marcello.
Sydney asks Robbie to talk to Richie and make sure that Richie is really in love with Joanie and not just marrying her out some sense of "doing the right thing." Robbie talks to Richie, and Richie asks him to be his best man, giving him the rings to hold until the ceremony. Robbie asks Richie if Richie loves Joanie. Richies says, yeah, sure, why not. Robbie pushes him a little, and it becomes clear that Richie is only marrying her out of duty.
Eldon stops by again to visit the dog, and on his way over wistfully looks at a man and his son playing catch on their front lawn. Jim asks him if he wants to name the dog. Eldon reluctantly names the dog Worm like Dennis Rodman. Jim and Robbie try to convince Eldon to take the dog home, but Eldon gets upset and runs away.
Marcello comes by to visit Sydney at the clinic with flowers. She tells him that he's lovesick and he should call his girlfriend in Italy.
Sydney and Robbie manage to find a last minute cancellation at the place where their parents got married, so Joanie is able to have the wedding there. It's raining on the day of the wedding, and while Jim is reminiscing about his own wedding, Joanie doesn't seem so excited anymore. Robbie comes rushing in and tells Sydney that she has to talk to Joanie, because Richie isn't really in love with her. First Syd tries talking to Richie, and asks him if he really wants to go through with this, and Richie says of course he does. So then Sydney talks to Joanie, and she's still committed to it.
Marcello tracks Sydney down at the wedding and proposes marriage to her. She tells him that he can't be in love with her, that he's just in love with the idea of love. He admits that he doesn't really have a girlfriend in Italy. (This was like the stupidest storyline ever.)
Robbie realizes he has left the rings and home and goes rushing back for them. Meanwhile, they begin the ceremony without him. At home, Robbie opens the door to Eldon, who tells him that he's afraid to take the dog and love the dog because he loved his father and his father died. Robbie assures Eldon that it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. (Okay, he wasn't that cliche about it, but he basically tells Eldon that that's not a good reason never to love again.) Then Robbie rushes back to the ceremony, bursting in just as the priest is asking if there is anyone who has any reason for this couple not to get married. Robbie hands the priest the rings, sits down, and the priest reiterates his question. Robbie nudges Sydney to say something. Sydney is about to open her mouth when Joanie says, "I do." The priest says they haven't gotten to that part yet. Joanie says that she knows that, but that she has a reason that they shouldn't get married. Richie says that he agrees. They have a great time at the reception, unmarried.
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