We're so early in the run of Melrose Place that the Mancinis are having the kind of banal problems that any married couple might have: are they past the romance phase of their relationship? Can they survive the challenges of Michael's busy schedule as a doctor and an apartment building manager? Can he really have forgotten the moment he knew he was in love with Jane? As a counterpoint to how things are between partners who are settled, we have Billy, who takes a gig as a cab driver, where his very first fare is a woman named Marcy who has nothing better to do than hang out with Billy marveling at how much they have in common and imposing herself on his increasingly testy roommate. Billy very quickly moves from defending whatever he and Marcy have against Alison's judgmental glares to realizing that Marcy is way too into him way too fast. Jake is still unemployed, and taking his frustrations out on everyone within yelling distance, from Michael (who hasn't fixed Jake's hot water despite weeks' worth of complaints) to a bureaucrat at the unemployment office to Kelly, who has the gall to bail him out when causing a disturbance at a state agency gets him arrested. This once again forces the question of what, exactly, is going on between them, and while he has no problem telling Billy to be honest with the girl he doesn't actually want to be with, he still can't take his own advice when it comes to this one blonde teen. Join us as we dig in to "Friends & Lovers"!

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