Recap: Billy wakes up to the sight of Alison standing in his bedroom wearing a silky negligee. She rips open his bedroom curtains, starts babbling about love songs, and tells Billy that he blew it, aka she's currently living/canoodling with Keith in Seattle. Billy cries, "Alison!" and wakes up for real...then climbs out of bed and wanders around the apartment (sans furniture) with a sad, dazed expression on his face. At the hospital, Kimberly is bitching to Michael about her shitty landlord who keeps neglecting to fix her damaged water pipes. Michael tells her it just so happens that there's an opening at Melrose Place apartments if she's interested in roommating with Billy - but Kimberly makes an ew face and says she's a little old to be living with a roommate. Michael suggests they go to dinner with Billy so she can feel out the situation...and when she asks if he's planning to invite his wife along, he's like, "Well duh." Rhonda drops by Terrence's new house in the 'burbs and is dismayed to find him flirtily chatting with Carrie, his wacky interior decorator...'cause, yep, somehow that storyline is still taking up air time. Rhonda looks around at the girlish decor and asks whaddup with all the purple paint and lilac themed wallpaper, and Carrie gets all weird and animated as she explains a recent dream she had about Terrence frolicking among lilacs, then decided 'why not paint the man's entire house purple?' Terrence smiles stupidly in agreement and says he has to get to work now, leaving an incensed Rhonda staring daggers at Carrie. During dinner, Michael works overtime trying to convince Kimberly that Melrose Place would be a great new home for her, and - to Jane's annoyance - gushes endlessly about what an awesome, unobtrusive roommate Billy would make. After dinner, the foursome heads over to Billy's apartment so that Kimberly can check it out...and while that's happening, Billy gets a call from him mom telling him that Papa Campbell just had a heart attack. Billy's all, "Ack!" and tells Michael et. al. he needs to rush over to the hospital to deal with this unexpected family crisis. Billy arrives at the hospital and quickly finds his mom and his father's physician. Dr. Stevens steers the two into a private waiting room and gently breaks the news that Papa Campbell's heart attack was too massive for the doctors to do anything about. As Billy stares into space with a dumbfounded expression on his face, Mama Campbell wails, "Noooooo!! What am I gonna dooooooo?!" and collapses into her son's arms.
The next morning, Billy returns home and runs into Matt, who tells him how sorry he is about his dad and asks if there's anything he can do. Billy politely replies that he's got everything handled, then enters his apartment to listen to his phone messages. He gets one from his sister Celeste, who gives him her flight info and asks him to pick her up at LAX this afternoon. A few seconds later, Michael and Jane stop by to express their condolences, followed by Jake and Jo...and Billy suddenly gets visibly wigged out by all the visitors inside his apartment and brusquely tells everyone he's off to the bathroom to take a shower. Billy arrives at LAX to pick up Celeste, who tearfully babbles about their deceased father and what kind of flowers they should select for the funeral. Billy tells her he's thinking about taking over the managing of their father's furniture store, and Celeste tells him that's a dumb idea, not least 'cause he's never demonstrated any interest in or cognitive ability to run a business of any kind. At the hospital, Kimberly tells Michael she's decided to not move in with Billy 'cause, cold-hearted as it sounds, she has zero interest in getting involved in a man's life unless she's hitting the sheets with him. Michael says, in that case, he'd be happy to stop by her apartment and fix her damaged water pipes, and she perks up at his helpful offer. While playing pool at Shooters, Billy tells Jake that his father's death is a wake up call for him to grow up and finally enter the world of responsible adulthood...and as they walk home, Billy says he's strongly considering taking over the running of his father's furniture store. Jake shrugs disinterestedly and says he should do that if he really wants to...and as soon as Jake disappears inside his apartment, Amanda steps out of the courtyard shadows and coos to Billy how sorry she is about his father and hopes they can still be friends. He mumbles, "Thank you" and says he's exhausted and really needs to get to bed...and she's like, "Great idea!" and invites herself to spend the night. LOL. Billy politely declines and says he'd prefer she not do that, and she scrunches her face in disappointment and says she'll be thinking of him. She leans in and gives him a kiss on his unresponsive lips, then dejectedly slinks home. Billy listens to a message from Alison on his answering machine - but when he calls her Seattle number, Keith tells him that Alison's not around at the moment.
The Melrose Place gang (plus Amanda) attend Papa Campbell's funeral...and a few minutes later, Alison arrives at the graveyard by cab. Billy sees her and stares sadly at her from across the lawn, and she sadly stares back at him. Amanda ambles over to Alison to say hey, exchange pleasantries, and asks her if she's back to stay...and Alison says she just came back for the funeral and to emotionally support Billy. Amanda remarks how exhausted Billy was last night (thereby implying their togetherness) ... and when Billy wanders over, she tells him to call her if he needs anything. As soon as she's out of earshot, a bemused Alison says, "I thought you broke up with her" and Billy wryly says he did, then invites her to bunk in her old bedroom while she's in town. Michael tells Jane he needs to stop by the hospital and check on his patients...and by check on his patients he means go to Kimberly's apartment and fix her kitchen pipes. In the next scene, Michael is finishing up repairing Kimberly's pipes and asks her if anything else needs servicing...and she's all 'hee, nothing you're probably available for' and invites him to stay for dinner. He looks intrigued by the prospect, but declines and says he should probably go home to his wife. Terrence insists to Rhonda that he wasn't flirting with Carrie and tells her that if she wants the overzealous decorator out of their lives she'll have to fire her herself. Off camera, preferably. Alison asks Billy whaddup with Amanda showing up at his father's funeral, and he just shrugs and goes, "I dunno" and tells her his boring new life plan is to take over the management of his father's furniture store. She chuckles and asks whatever became of his dream of being a writer, and he gets all pissy and tells her it's not her problem and that she should go back to Keith and Seattle and leave him the hell alone. Alison chides him for trying to scare her off, says she deeply cares about what happens to him, and agrees that they both need to get out of the house for awhile. Alison and Billy head over to a local amusement park...and after winning a stuffed bear at a ball throwing game, Billy does his best to scrunch his face miserably and squeeze out a couple of tears as he tells Alison how much he regrets not telling his father he loved him, and laments that the man never lived long enough to see his only son become anything resembling a success. Alison assures him that Papa Campbell was proud of him if for no other reason than he turned out to be a big sweet dummy, and Billy hugs her and tells her he's missed her sooooo much [ever since leaving L.A., um, yesterday].
Jo drops by Billy's apartment bearing the gift of a coffee maker...and then the two engage in a conversation about what happens to a person when they die. Jo says she thinks of death as a transfer of energy - and that after her mom died, she used to imagine that heaven was a fun summer camp. Matt invites his dad to have lunch with him at a diner...and a suspicious looking Papa Fielding is all, "Why exactly are we here?" LOL. Matt explains that they haven't gotten together since the holidays and [after hearing about Papa Campbell's untimely demise] wants them to reconnect and become friends. Papa Fielding mulls that over and decides that that might not be the most objectionable proposition he's ever heard.
Billy brings Alison to his mom's house to sit in the backyard to further contemplate Papa Campbell's death with his mom and sister. Mama Campbell informs Billy that she sold the furniture store to the employees, then urges him to follow his dream of becoming a writer. She hands Alison a letter than Papa Campbell wrote to Billy about a year ago and asks her to read it aloud for everyone...and it's a saccharine note expressing how much he loves Billy, is proud of him, and every night thanks God for giving him such an all around awesome boy-child. Billy drives Alison to the airport and walks her to the escalator leading to departures...but she turns around and complains that she hates Seattle, has no friends or job...and suddenly realizes that she belongs in Los Angeles. Billy woots happily and offers to take her home, and is so excited to get his roommate back that he picks her up and swings her around happily...and her flailing legs narrowly avoid hitting whoever happened to be walking alongside them. Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
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MELROSE PLACE HOMEPAGE
Recapper: Isabel K. French 
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