Nick's case at CLS involves Ethan Ritter, a gay teenager who's in need of shelter. Nick doesn't like his lack of cooperation and threatens to refuse the case. Ethan tries to call his bluff, but he's not bluffing - and what's more, he knows that he's been selected as the fallguy on this case. No wonder he's taken on a new attitude this week: instead of hanging his head while receiving the requisite ticking-off, this time he sticks up for himself - against James and then twice against Alvin.

Ethan wants to seduce Nick and discuss pissing into cups, while Nick, who will get to say 'sexual relations' three times in quick succession in this episode (in an unrelated court appearance), decides to check out Ethan's choice of foster parents, a gay couple called Mr Matthews and Dr Downs (let's call them Ed and Dave). These guys are a therapist and a guidance counselor respectively - I don't know about you, but if I were a teenager that would sure sound like hell to me. Nick is thoroughly uncomfortable during his visit (and not because of the couple's choice of careers). He can't even bring himself to casually fork his food like Dave, but instead holds his cutlery properly, in the formal European manner, as he was raised to do.

Burton, when he's not giving fashion advice to anyone who'll listen, is busy having a birthday. Nick has never seen a naked lady before, so Burton tries to protect his son's innocence when a stripper shows up. Nick gives him a pen, which has been thoughtfully engraved with the following (at $1.95 per letter, plus tax):

Dear dad, thanks for being the greatest dad there ever was. Love always, your devoted son, Nick.

The offering of this gift seems to cause Nick more discomfort even than taking lunch with the gay couple. He doesn't hang around long enough for a thank you from his father. Later, Burton produces the famous picture of Simon - um, I mean Nick - in second grade, and the female viewers (that would be 99% of the audience, I suspect) give a collective sigh as their hearts melt into warm little puddles. What a cutie! Burton is at least making an effort, you see, and his despondency as Nick walks out is heart-rending. He knows as well as we do that that lunch date they just talked about is never going to happen.

Not content with prowling the bizarre underworld of The Eagle (a gay bar), Nick heads off to see Ethan's creepy mother. I say 'creepy', because this woman scared the hell out of me. But let's give her some credit - she's only trying to save her son's soul. Who could blame Judge Smitrovich for taking the advice of a mother who refuses to raise her own son, by sticking Ethan in a possibly abusive group shelter, instead of allowing a gay couple to take him in? How much sympathy can you expect from a guy who, in another life, was a Ferengi called Quark?

Judge Smitrovich contemplates the evidence

Beware: Switch off before the last scene if you're allergic to warm and fuzzy endings.

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* Gives his dad a nice pen for his birthday.

* Compliments Laurie Solt in what can only be described as a dry yet playful manner.

* Advances Amanda's career by making her first chair in a sexual harassment case.

* Braves a gay pick-up joint to try and find Ethan.