Chicago Hope

Jeffrey is distinctly unpopular with his fellow surgeons in the wake of his psychological problems. Jeffrey operates on one of Hancock's patients. Nyland performs the wrong operation on a patient. Birch offends everyone in his parenting class by offering unsolicited advice. Shutt's father brings a patient to Chicago Hope in the hopes Aaron will operate on her. Dr. Kronk participates in a charity bachelor auction, where he's 'purchased' by Dr. Kate Austin, new CT surgeon at the hospital.

The wife of a comatose patient seeks to impregnate herself to preserve her husband's legacy. Nyland squares off against a patient when he refuses to fill her Demerol prescription. An inquisitive Kronk discovers that Nyland is the one who got the patient hooked on the drug in the first place. It's a battle of egos when Geiger meets with Austin. Aaron and Camille mutually agree on divorce. Alicia, Alan's child, has her baptism.

Watters causes permanent damage when he participates in a charity boxing match. Diane intervenes when Billy wants to amputate a patient's leg. Dr. Grad suggests sewing maggots into the leg. Aaron and Camille make their divorce final.

Kronk and his dog move into Nyland's posh apartment after Billy's place burns down. Yvette White (ep. #2) initially agrees to donate her late son's organs to others, but withdraws her consent when she discovers his heart will go to a Nazi-in-training. Birch finally gets up the nerve to invite Diane to lunch.

Jeffrey becomes even more antagonistic towards Austin, believing she's out to get him. Camille considers heading up a new outpatient program. Birch gets up the nerve to express his feelings to Diane when her old boyfriend shows up. Aaron grapples with his feelings for both Camille and Kate.

The staff is forced to operate under duress when the lights go out and the building begins leaking. Billy and Maggie team up against Nyland after Danny throws Billy out of his house. New obstetrician John Sutton joins the staff.

Laurie invites Jeffrey, Aaron, and Camille to her wedding, which needs to be held soon due to the minister's impending transfer out of the asylum. Dr. Sutton operates on a fetus. Birch and Watters testify at a hearing on medicare, but are surprised when they're ambushed by a politically minded senator. Camille displays signs of depression.

Alan Birch is shot during a mugging while Diane watches. Diane can't control her rage toward the shooter. Camille cares for Alicia while Alan recuperates. Jeffrey begins to reconsider his priorities. Camille asks Hancock for sleeping pills.

Dr. Watters remains 'sick' three days after Birch's death. Alan's sister Marguerite surprises Phillip, striking up an immediate friendship with him. Dr. Austin, the interim 'interim chief of staff', abuses her power to first stop a procedure, then give it the go-ahead. The unconventional procedure, performed on Multiple Sclerosis patient Joe Springer (Richard Pryor), goes forward. Diane, still suffering from the effects of the shooting, is sent home by Kate. Austin later reveals that she was raped many years ago, trying to let Diane know that she knows what it feels like to be powerless. The new obstetrician throws a 'healing' party to try to help the staff attain closure with Jeffrey.

Dr. Austin is to blame when she inadvertently leaves a clamp inside a patient that later dies. Kate struggles over the dilemma of whether to stay silent and protect both herself and the hospital, or tell the patient's parents. Billy and Danny search for a street 'doctor', after one of his patients is brought in with severe internal damage. Dr. Grad successfully inoculates an ape with the AIDS virus using a vaccine she created. Harold Aldrich is temporarily hired as Birch's replacement. Camille asks Nyland to write her a prescription for sleeping pills.

Nyland and Hancock deliver a Christmas present to Ricky Jackson for Kronk. Gunfire erupts while they're in the apartment, forcing the doctors to stay until the gunfire abates. While there, Nyland does his best to save a man impaled on a pipe, while Dennis braves bullets to bring in medical assistance. Diane worries that she might have contracted HIV from Bam-Bam, a laboratory animal. Camille is brought in after suffering a seizure while dancing. Billy treats a high-school baseball phenom with possible colon cancer.

Kate's ex-husband, Tommy Wilmette, sues for custody of Sara. A possible heart transplant comes to the hospital. With Austin tied up in court, Nyland 0–1 in transplants (ep #9), and Kronk inexperienced, Phillip calls Jeffrey in to perform the transplant. Jeffrey's titanic ego meets its match in Wilmette's. The new OB brings in a 'hidden patient', a woman six months brain dead, kept alive to deliver her unborn child.

Aldrich begins acting bizarrely, leading the staff to conduct a series of tests to figure out what's wrong. Nyland's 'love of his life', Nurse Amy Peletier, comes back into his life and disrupts Camille with her radically different ideas.

Dennis is vilified by the media when he performs an abortion to save a mother's life. The mother sues, despite the fact that she gave consent, plus the fact that the child was already dead. Dr. Kronk treats a female impersonator suffering from AIDS. Nyland has his hands full with an abandoned six-year-old.

Aaron and psychiatrist Bix Konstadt plan to operate on a young boy with obsessive compulsive disorder in an attempt to cure him. Aaron worries when Bix admits she's a manic depressive off her medication. Watters, Nyland and Kronk have their hands full with a woman who may have been abducted by aliens. Heart transplant recipient Henry Alden (#34) is brought in complaining of pain. Alden insists on speaking to Robert Malzone, the husband of the woman who donated the heart.

Annie Rueman (#18) comes back into Billy's life. Annie is worried that her estrogen pills aren't working. Kate treats a young man with a crush on her. Aaron and Bix present their proposed operation for Eric to the board, sending a very agitated Bix into a depressed state.

Bix is reduced to a mere shell of herself without her lithium. Aaron goes ahead with the procedure on Eric Dipretto. Kronk files a sexual harassment suit against Austin after she bullies him yet again. Nyland and Billy try to perform an intestinal transplant against Austin's and Watter's wishes. Dr. Austin campaigns for head of surgery.

Four stories of sexuality make up the plot of this episode. Camille comforts a rape victim while Austin, who is a colleague of the accused rapist, refuses to believe the alleged victim. Billy and Diane counsel a newlywed couple on the best ways to engage themselves in bed. Sutton is in disbelief when he discovers Dennis has been tolerating a 30-year-old dating and living with a 14-year-old. Finally, Shutt is the victim of mistaken identity when a 3rd year resident mistakenly assumes Shutt is gay.

Kronk and Grad wake up in bed together. Diane finds out about Kronk's night with Kate. Dr. Watters treats a young girl suffering from kidney damage. Watters tries to bring her feuding parents together to help her psyche. Kate discovers her ex-husband plans to move to Boston with Sara. Camille invites Dennis on a date.

Dr. Austin struggles to make her father, a Christian Scientist, listen to reason when he refuses to let her operate on his heart. Aaron grapples with his feelings toward his father in the wake of his death. Meanwhile, Dr. Sutton delivers a child of indeterminate gender, forcing the infant's parents to make a difficult decision. Jeffrey Geiger provides comic relief, returning as a member of a performing clown troupe.

Dr. Geiger and his clown troupe entertain injured children. Ricky Jackson, Billy's ghetto protege, visits the ER for a look at real medicine. A psychotic, abusive, insane family of four pays a visit to the ER when a session with their therapist really goes bad.

Dr. Sutton is shocked when his three ex-wives arrive at the same time, two of him tell him they're lovers, the other is admitted to the ER. Austin pursues the chief of surgery office with zeal. Hancock's sister comes in after being beaten by her husband. Danny Nyland hits on the fiancée of a wealthy patient.

Kate is incensed when her ex-husband, Tommy Wilmette, announces plans to buy the hospital. Danny treads thin ice when he continues his relationship with Valerie. Kate tries to convince wealthy patient Jack Calverton to buy Chicago Hope before Wilmette does. Hancock's brother-in-law visits his battered wife, taunting Dennis.