The Very Important Storyline concerns Mr Hassan and his daughter, whose restaurant is vandalised by a love-struck teenager. It's kind of refreshing to see a teenager raised in a strict religious household who is not rebelling against that upbringing (oh boy, was that sentence hard for me to write!). The problem here is that two other compelling storylines get short shrift because so much time is spent on this one (which in the end is resolved because the people involved turn out to be unbearably reasonable, once their respective lawyers finally shut the hell up). None of the regular cast is tested, or learns anything, or grows as a result of this case. That's not right, unless we're watching Law and Order, and we're not, because that's on Thursday night. The story would perhaps have been more fitting to The Guardian had it been told from the children's perspectives. Having said that, Nick's petulance when Alvin takes cruel delight in making him work with Ms Archer on the case makes up for everything.

And now to the new Associate Director of Legal Services herself. It seems one cannot mention Lulu without also giving an opinion about whether one falls into the anti-Lulu or pro-Lulu camp. Let's just say that on first impressions I quite liked her. You don't have to look too hard to notice the sizzling sparky fireworks-type chemistry between Simon and Wendy Moniz (or maybe you do, because apparently many people don't see it). Compare with Simon and Erica Leehrson (Amanda) – zippo, unless you count his double-take and smirk when her breasts take a seat beside him, but that's just Nick being a guy (or was that just Simon being a guy?). Lulu has issues with this 'community service jerkoff's' moral fibre. He calls her a 'girl' and thinks she's an emotional ditz. He finally gets his revenge for all the dressing-downs he's received over the weeks, but unlike him she doesn't hang her head at the finger-wagging. She bites back.

I have no objections to TV-land romances that start off with two people hating each other, by the way – hey, I'm old enough to remember Maddie and David. It works, it's fun to watch, and it serves the purpose of keeping the sexual tension alive and kicking. There's nothing more boring than watching two people fall politely in love.

I'm prepared to make allowances for Ms Archer's heightened emotional state. After all, she's just discovered that she's going to be Nick Fallin's boss – wouldn't that heighten your emotional state, too? Is she perhaps already trying to figure out how to 'mount' him (Nick's word, not mine!) without risking a sexual harassment suit? And these events are set in the context of September 11, so a little extra passion is excusable. Nick disagrees. He becomes increasingly distressed watching her strut her stuff in court (she's gonna blow, she's gonna blow…) and discounts every word she utters for the sake of being contrary. He just can't forgive her for taking over his precious broom closet, can he.

The other interesting subplot, which really should have been the main plot, concerns Burton's staff defecting to Kirk & McGee. I would love to have seen more on why Nick is supposedly so unhappy at his father's firm that he agrees to even meet with McGee – it's disloyal of him, and to this point we haven't seen disloyalty as being one of his flaws. (I'd also love to have seen the scene where Nick has to explain to his father how he managed to scare Ms Archer away from the job at F&A.) While Burton grows ever more stuffed and incoherent sweet-talking his clients over company lunches, Jake prepares to play one firm off the other and ends up with a bigger office and new furniture (Burton doesn't even give his own son an office, so Jake really struck gold there); and Amanda is wooed by slimy former F&A partner Larry Hines, who has an orgasm just by touching her hand. Whatever turns you on, pal.

There are two soon-to-be-classic Nick/Burton scenes towards the end that are well worth the wait. Burton gives his son The Speech. Nick goes positively white in the face with anger and retaliates with a few home-truths about what a lousy father he is. It's scary, facing up to dad like that, but Nick finally lets it all out. Later, Burton insists that he only hired Nick because he'd be an asset to the firm, not because he was family: business comes first. Nick follows suit by quitting on the spot. It's painful to watch as they rip each other apart piece by piece, but it is so Fallin of them. As Nick walks out I'm left wondering if Burton has any inkling of why that just happened.

One quick question: what's with Nick's shirt and pants in the final scene? Okay, so he looks scruffily gorgeous – but there is such a thing as designer jeans, you know, for those casual moments in life.

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* Tells Perry to do the right thing and tell Mr Hassan that his parents are dropping the lawsuit.

* Helps clean up the restaurant... in an open-necked shirt... with rolled-up sleeves (is it hot in here?).

• Nick has been at Fallin & Associates for four-and-a-half years. Jake has been there seven.
• Kirk & McGee and Fallin & Associates have, until now, always got along well, referring clients and keeping out of each other's business.
• Larry Hines, former partner at F&A, mounts soccer moms.

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