Prematurely deceased people are given the opportunity to correct something that went wrong in their lives and thus change them for the better.
A woman falls asleep after drinking and dies from smoke inhalation. She gets a second chance to change her life of alcohol, help her marriage and become closer to her son.
Roger Stovall's son Steven disappears during a fishing trip and Roger lets everyone, from the sheriff down to his wife know what he thinks of their search. But after a hard day's work at the IRS, he sees his son, runs after him, and is killed by a car. Othniel tries to tell him about caring for other people, such as an IRS case where Roger cold-heartedly closed a man's dog shelter, but it's only when Roger is sent back and sees how he treats his family that he truly understands and gets his younger, rule-following self to change. But when Roger is returned to the present, he has to relive the disappearence of his son - his kindness didn't prevent it... and Roger blames Mr Jones...
Grace, an ambitious OB/GYN doctor who never stop doing what it takes for her to get ahead in life, dies when she fails to stop her car at a railway crossing. Othniel accuses her of being self-centered, to the point of competing with her loving husband, Sam, and ending his career at the hospital. Sent back as a nurse, Grace (now known as Daisy) immediately get on her younger self's nerves - and at the same time attract the attention of Sam. Sam's wandering eyes makes young Grace even more cold, and Jones has his problems trying to talk Grace/Daisy out of taking her last chance at a real date with her husband...
Mr Jones has trouble convincing a chain-smoking woman that she must somehow persuade her younger self to stop smoke. In the process, she finally comes closer to her own mother, whose absence in her teens now becomes painfully clear.
Young Julie listens too ardently when her single embittered mother says to forget her dreams of becoming a photographer. Until Jones gets her a second chance and she works hard as a waitress where her younger self comes in to eat regularly. She has her younger self take pictures at a birthday party in the park and entices her to stand up to her mother and go to art school after all.
Charlie, a Vietnam veteran, still blames his mother for not being able to go to college, 30 years ago. But when his mother slips into a coma, things take a turn for the worse.
Joe Penny as a young boy who cannot forgive himself for turning his brother in for a crime. His brother is vindictive and adds to his guilt by expressing his hatred of Joe Penny's character. Joe Penny becomes an alcoholic and can only get a job doing school yard work when he had a real chance of becoming an excellent coach prior to the crime events. He also ignores a young woman who would have been a great support system. As His 2nd chance, he is willing to take the blame for the crime his brother initiated, but instead of ending with any of the previous bitterness by the brother, it turns out, as all 2nd chances should. For the betterment of the Whole.
Teacher, hardened by a Life with out Male/Female companionship & Love, has no compassion or understanding for her students... Specifically a sincere young athlete, Eric, who would do any number of make-up assignments just to able to go to college. She refuses Eric a 2nd chance. She has no idea that the father she is a relative servant to has manipulated the man she loved out of her life. She is shot during a burglary of a grocery store where Eric is begging with a cup outside the store. After Jones sponsers her 2nd chance, things of course change for the Ultimate Better. And we, the audience, even find out the Father has a very human side and his manipulation came from his own lonliness.
A female lawyer is killed by a mugger on the way to a date with the man she has always loved. Jones argues that she has led an examplary life, and Othniel seems to go with his feeling, but she argues for going back, and Othniel agrees. Her job becomes to defend her younger self and the man she loves for a small crime, which they didn't do. But soon the younger self once again becomes stuck between the two men in her life - the conservative father and the radical boyfriend. And the repercussions of her actions are perhaps so severe that it is impossible for her older self to change her life.
At a fancy banquet, a successfull man, Pete, is verbally attacked by his drunk son. And it seems his entire family are having one complaint or another. Later, he dies during a jogging trip. When Pete's sent back by Othniel (as a priest), he soon has to come to terms with his younger self's problems - he loves one girl, but another claims that he's the father of her unborn child, and that's who he married in the future he knows. But can he convince his younger self to marry the other girl, a poor Latin girl, with other means than disclosing the terrible secret he has been hiding for himself all these years?
After a skillful and successful closing argument against a black convict, lawyer Meg McCleary denies her daughter Heather permission to date her boyfriend, because he's black. Heather leaves Meg in anger. Meg drives after her, but her car breaks down in a bad neighbourhood. She's hunted by some young men, which strains her already bad heart too much and she dies. Othniel charges Meg with being a racist. Meg denies this, but later claims that it depends on the murder of her old boyfriend by a hispanic man, when Meg was still a police officer. ""They fit the profile,"" she claims. Othniel answers that her job was too charge criminals on evidence, not profiles. He sentences her to life... ... as vice officer Esposito (from Puerto Rico), to try to stop her younger self to identify hispanic man Hector Soto who was innocent, but the previous was sentenced to death. Meg (as Esposito) tries to stop the undercover operation where her boyfriend was killed before, but she fails to save his life, an
After taking a job as a singing waitress, she accidently electrocutes herself and gets a second chance in life. She gave up everything for her career and was left with nothing, now she can find what she really wanted.
Tory, a former tennis player, is bitter since a car crashed ended her career, her relationship and - she thinks - her life. But just before the wedding of her niece, she dies for real. And Othniel doesn't buy her story about the accident ruining her life, so he sends her back to try to convince her younger self to accept the love from her boyfriend instead of sending him away.
A bride to be complains that her father is not present at her wedding, but as she speaks she falls down a flight of stairs and dies. When she meets Othniel he claims that she can still save her dead sister, if she can only put aside her hatred for her estranged father. She returns (as a doctor) to a time just before her sister's death, and is told that she must find their father to get a bone marrow sample, so that her sister can live on. But neither the sister nor she knows where her father is. It's only when she confronts her sick sister that she finds out that she has a photograph of him, and a phone bill that has his number. Reluctantly she tracks down the father, and develops some kind of understanding for him, but the father reveals a secret about her, that changes everything.
Barry, a teacher not really celebrating his 50th birthday, dies while hindering his pupils from playing a piece he wrote in his youth. In Othniel's court it turns out that Barry stopped write music when his girlfriend OD'd. But Othniel reveals that Barry really didn't care about her, he only cared about fame, and that he's been ridden with guilt ever since her death. Mr Jones accompanies Barry to three days prior to the band's big audition, to stop Charlotte from dying. But the band doesn't want to see Charlotte's addiction. And then Barry makes the mistake of telling the band that he's dead and used to be Barry... Now they think he's crazy and time's running out.
An old actress who never had her break and is on her way downward is electrocuted by a neon sign. Othniel charges her with having blamed everything on a rival at a casting session many years ago, who cheated her way in. When Mr Jones accompanies her back, she becomes a make-up artist to her younger self. Her first strategy is to hinder her competitor wrong, but somehow she finds out anyway. And her idol has some startling news for her...
Sophie Price, a rich woman with a nearly deaf mother and a son who rebels against her through stealing, dies in a sauna accident. Othniel charges her with ignoring her son, ever since the day when he found $200.000 from a drug bust and she decided that they should keep it. She gets a second chance to set it straight, but to her surprise she's not sent to the time where her son found the money, but two months afterwards. She's hired as the new nanny, and soon she discovers that Othniel was right - and that it was worse than she ever thought. Her six year old son has become bitter and wets his bed. But when she confronts herself, she's fired. And even her own mother doesn't want anything to do with her. So she kidnaps the boy and takes him fishing...
Mrs Edwina Lewis is filled with joy when Othniel sends her back, so that she can satisfy her curiosity about a man she once had the chance to have an affair with - and didn't. Jones isn't equally thrilled. But perhaps her marriage was better than she thought...
Ron, clerk at a publishing house, has a hard time at his job, and on top of this, his own daughter, Kaitlin, won't give up her unborn child so that she can continue study, but instead wants to live in her boyfriend's garage. Ron blames this on his wife, Tammy, who he thinks should have stayed at home with Kaitlin, while she was a baby. Soon however, Ron trips on a book and dies. Othniel sees that Ron is serious in his regrets and sends him back in time, as a handy-man, a joiner. It doesn't take long for Ron (now Randy) to try to get Tammy to be a stay-at-home mom, but before he has a chance he discovers the reason why Kaitlin is so shy - because nobody cares about her, not even her nanny. So Randy spends some time with her. When it's time to leave her with Tammy he discovers that she is very good at her job, and that she's up for a promotion. The only problem now is to convince himself that, in spite of what people might think, perhaps it better for him to stay home with Kaitlin...
After Blair Wilson, a young mother, once again loses her battle for custody of her daughter, Chloe, because she has been drinking, she goes to a bar to forget everything, but ends up dying from hitting her head on a railing. Othniel argues that Blair still lives in denial about her drinking problem, and that she still blames her mother for the death of her boyfriend, Kevin. But since Blair shows more care for her daughter than for herself, Othniel sends her back, as a social worker. Her first case is her own alcoholic mother, and Blair tries to get her stop drinking so that the car crash that killed Kevin would never happen. But she doesn't want to see that her younger self is also drinking, and that will have disasterous results...
Musical composer Tom Lasky is constantly bothered by his neighbour Harry, and doesn't notice that the gas oven doesn't work properly. After he is gassed to death, Tom finds himself at Othniel, who shows him that Harry dies without Tom's help. Tom is returned as a hobo, only one hour before he dies, but Harry disturbs the rescue attempt, and they are put in a mental institution together. Tom gets in two uncomfortable positions: advocating Harry in front of himself, and living beyond his first death. But can he persuade himself to turn into his ""brother's keeper""?
Sam, a 17 year old boy, finds out that his mother is looking for him and his sister. This makes him question his father's story of the mother as a dangerous drug addict. He however says nothing to his sister, but she's having visions of her mother. When Sam refuses to tell her what's up, she accidentally shoots him. Othniel sends Sam back in order to convince himself to tell his sister Angel about the mother. But his old self has trouble believing a green-haired punk-rocker he just met. Soon after, the new Sam meets a sick woman at the boarding house, where he lives, who turns out to be his mother. But can he control his anger and blame when he finds out why she's on drugs?
Al Waxman
Judge Othniel
Paul Popowich
Mr. Smith
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