Season 1, Episode 09:
The History of Gil and Rachel
Stephanie and Mark are out jogging in the city, and discuss how happy they are to have moved from Seattle. As they go back to their apartment, Carrie is revealed to be spying on them from a nearby vehicle and follows them in. When Stephanie goes for a shower, Carrie enters the apartment and attempts to seduce Mark, though he rejects her advances and throws her out.
Allan and Linda are bickering at their residence. She threatens to get a divorce from him for buying her painting in secret, and he laughs it off, countering that she would never be able to before he heads to work. After he leaves, Linda calls Nikki and goes off on the latter when she asks about her commission. Linda pledges to make Allan's life hell.
At Communique, Carrie co-opts Rachel's office after getting her job back from Stephanie. When Stephanie attempts to broach the matter with Allan during a sales meeting, he rants at her for not doing her job before blowing the matter off and leaving in anger. During a story meeting later on, Carrie pitches a story about Mark writing about his experiences moving from the West to the East Coast, to Stephanie's exasperation.
Nikki is at work attempting to negotiate a deal with a client when Allan calls and reveals to her that he is aware of her discussions. She realizes that he's tapping her phones and is horrified to discover that Allan might know all of her personal conversations. She is eventually forced to flee her apartment after she takes a bath and realizes that Allan installed surveillance cameras inside.
Mark visits Carrie at her apartment and attempts to dissuade her from seeing him anymore, but she reveals that she put his name forward for the feature article in Communique. Despite his hesitation, he embraces her and they begin to kiss. He goes to Stephanie afterwards and tells her that he'd be interested in writing for the magazine, and she reluctantly agrees to allow it. Afterwards, she goes back to the office and confronts Carrie, telling her not to reveal editorial decisions with people outside the office.
Peter and Gil are walking to work when the latter reveals his relationship with Rachel and how she's been using him to get information on Peter. After Peter thanks him for coming clean, he meets Rachel for lunch and delivers completed immigration paperwork to her, then tells her that he can't return her affections.
Rachel drinks heavily after Peter leaves, then stumbles into Gil's workplace and causes a scene. He sees what's happening and pulls her into the conference room, where he tells her that she needs to get over Peter and that he loves her. She tells him that he's an amateur before storming out. Later, she relents when he picks her up for a luncheon in a limousine and tells her how much he wants to be with her.
Peter brings Alex over for dinner with his parents. The mood is soured when Linda is bothered by Alex's outspoken nature and Allan is still dismissive of her. After they leave for the night, Linda calls Peter and attempts to get him to break off the relationship, but he has none of it and hangs up. Alex refuses to apologize for her actions before she leaves for work.
Nikki discovers that Allan has installed surveillance cameras in her house and is forced to flee. She runs to Peter's apartment and asks if he can look after her for the night, and they end up sleeping together after emotion comes over them. The next morning, she reveals that Allan is the one she was seeing. Despite his shock, he pledges to help her make a clean break from him. Peter goes to Allan's office and confronts him about the matter, threatening to send the District Attorney's office after him unless he stays away from Nikki.
After he leaves, Allan calls Alex in for a meeting and reveals that Peter has been sleeping with Nikki. She refuses to believe him and storms off...
At the Communique offices, Rachel discovers that Carrie and Mark (who were having a meeting about his feature article) were having sex in the former's office and locked the door. When they leave, she notices them hastily pulling themselves together and smiles, realizing that Stephanie has no idea what's going on...
Tropes:
- Always a Bigger Fish: Nikki asks for Peter's help to stop Allan from stalking her, and he eventually goes to the latter and threatens to bring the D.A.'s office down on him unless he backs off.
- Anguished Declaration of Love:
- Rachel once again tries to admit her feelings to Peter, who rejects her again before leaving.
- Later on, Gil does the exact same thing when Rachel confronts him in his office.
- Dress Hits Floor: Done when Nikki goes to take a bath.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Rachel does this after Peter rejects her advances towards him.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Carrie attempts to seduce Mark in his and Stephanie's apartment while the latter is taking a shower, though he rejects her and throws her out before the action gets very far. However, she eventually seduces him later behind Stephanie's back at the Communique offices.
- Modesty Bedsheet: Alex has one when she's in Peter's apartment the day after they have dinner with Linda.
- Nepotism: Played With. Stephanie initially refuses to let Mark write an article for Communique, on the grounds that it would be a conflict of interest. She eventually relents after a guest at a party she's attending tells her that nepotism is the lifeblood of New York.
- Oh, Crap!: Nikki's reaction after she discovers that Allan is stalking her.
- Relationship Upgrade: Gil and Rachel.
- Stalker with a Crush: Allan.
- Tempting Fate: Allan brazenly claims that Linda would never get a divorce from him at the beginning of the episode. However, he's soon taken aback when she actually follows through on her threat and leaves him.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- As the series was put on hiatus by CBS after this episode, Nikki's story ends with her randomly disappearing until midway through the second season. The rest of her storyline was addressed in
unaired episodes from its initial broadcast run and (in season two) scenes that only appeared in overseas syndication. - John (the editor at the New York Globe) also disappears, being replaced by another editor named Ben, played by Mark Blum, for the duration of the season. No explanation is given for his disappearance, yet he seems to know everything his predecessor did about Alex's relationship with Peter.
- As the series was put on hiatus by CBS after this episode, Nikki's story ends with her randomly disappearing until midway through the second season. The rest of her storyline was addressed in
