All is Vanity

Summary
Invigorated by temperatures of "aught seven" degrees in Cicely, Alaska, Holling opts for circumcision to be "more in style" for his girlfriend, Shelly. Joel plays Maggie's in a "web of deceit" to fool her visiting father. Townsfolk watch over the body of an unknown man who is found dead in Joel's waiting room.

Plot
After Holling impresses Shelly by throwing a man out of the bar, the two of them go up to bed. Afterwards, Shelly makes an offhand comment about Holling's un, and Holling is a bit uncomfortable at the comment. He eventually goes in to see Joel, and wants to be circumcised. Joel advises against the surgery, and Holling changes his mind. Upon returning to his waiting room, Joel discovers that one of the patients is dead.

Maggie receives her mail at Ruth-Anne's store, and discovers that her father is coming by to visit that day. She hurriedly goes to pick him up, dressed in uncharacteristic pink hat and s. Her father arrives and it is quickly apparent that she is. Her entire demeanor changes from a self-sufficient, independent young woman, to a helpless, submissive, little girl. Her father is looking forward to meeting Joel, who Maggie has said is her boyfriend.

Maurice and Joel are putting the outside, where the sub-zero temperatures will preserve the body until they can decide what to do with it. Maggie and her father pass by, and Maggie quickly kisses Joel, who is thoroughly confused by her actions. He joins the two of them for lunch in The Brick, and Maggie convinces him, when her father isn't around, to play along with the for her father's sake. Joel agrees to play the part of the dutiful boyfriend, and decides to play it up. That night, over dinner, Joel not only discusses his hobby of and, but also tells Frank that he and Maggie have been discussing her conversion to. Frank accepts this with a nervous smile and downs his drink.

After Shelly convinces Holling to have the circumcision, he has a where the operation is, to say the least, a failure. He wakes up bathed in sweat and, with Joel's help, is able to convince Shelly that the operation is unnecessary.

Despite Joel's overzealous portrayal of Maggie's boyfriend, her father still likes him and thinks they make a great couple. Maggie finally comes clean and tells her father that her boyfriend is actually not Joel the doctor, but Rick the pilot. She tells him that she didn't want him to be disappointed in her and Frank understands and accepts her as she really is.

When no one arrives to claim the body of the unknown person, a service is held, where Chris discusses life and death and Maggie reads a an sonnet, to which Shelly responds, "Boy, she sure can write!" After a few final words, Chris ignites the body and it burns in a. Through the encounter with death the characters learn to embrace life and the show ends on a hopeful note.

Quotes
Maggie (quoting Shakespeare's ): "Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no, it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand'ring bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come. Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out ev'n to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved."

Chris (at unknown man's funeral): The fact that we don't know this man, isn't important really. Cause his experience is our experience, and his fate is our fate. 'Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas,' says the preacher. 'All is '. I think that's a pretty good for all of us. When we're stripped of all our worldly possessions and all our fame, family, friends, we all face death alone. But it's that solitude in death that's our common bond in life. I know it's ironic, but that's just the way things are. 'Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas.' Only when we understand all is vanity, only then, it isn't.

Music

 * "" by
 * "Bonsoir Dame (Goodnight my Lady Love)" by
 * "" by
 * "Angie" from film 
 * Allegretto [Chris calls it the "Adaggio"] from by Beethoven
 * "Tradition" (from film )
 * "If I Were a Rich Man" (from film Fiddler on the Roof)
 * by kd lang

Trivia

 * Frank O'Connell and drinks.
 * Frank saw Maurice in a in  in 1965.
 * Maggie's mother is a "".
 * At five, Maggie was runner-up in the where she sang "".
 * Wayne had a with an "S" (for "Shelly") ed on his arm. Bobbie Travis  Shelly at a  and Wayne ed him in the mouth.
 * When Holling was mauled by Jesse an Indian woman sewed him up and had him bite a table.
 * Malcolm Minnifield (Maurice's brother) owed Maurice $8,000 when he died.
 * All Maggie's dead boyfriends are named, save one: Bruce, Roy, Harry and ? (that makes Rick #5).
 * Bruce wrote the book Mountain of My Misgiving.
 * Holling is 63 years old.
 * Milt Wyman is the / of Cicely.
 * Dr. Kolatch, from, is a.
 * Joel says, "town of 850 people".
 * Shelly's earrings: s (Holling tells Shelly about his visit to Joel and the circumcision discussion), es (Shelly and Holling talk in the Brick), fish (s?) (Shelly and Holling go into to Joel's for the procedure), red ? (the funeral at the end)
 * Maggie reads at the funeral.
 * The Beethoven piece Chris refers to as "Adagio" is actually the second movement of the which is called "Allegretto".
 * The unruly bar patron ("Martin") in the Brick at the beginning argues that the is a better hunting dog than the.
 * was trucked in and otherwise faked (s and more). In some shots, there's no snow in the distance; only in the immediate shot.
 * The unknown dead man has a packet of gum (with three sticks), a, and a note to "Pick up shirt Monday" (presumably at a ). Joel prefers  or  while Marilyn likes.
 * Maggie's dad calls her "".
 * Joel tells Frank that he's into in the winter and bungee cord jumping in the summer (while pretending to be Maggie's boyfriend).
 * In Holling's, his interests are swimming, photography, and fresh seafood. There's a seafood theme here: Ed's eggs taste like shrimp at the beginning and Shelly wears lobster earrings.