Plot summary
Maggie has some surreal dreams that portend Joel's death should he fly to New York for his vacation, and is unsure about whether to tell him about them. The townsfolk fall in love with his substitute Dave, making Joel jealous. Eventually a town meeting is held in which Joel is given an impromptu funeral before he leaves so he can be there for it. Joel has his own surreal dream about the crash of his flight where Maggie appears. In the end, Joel changes his mind and does not fly. Meanwhile, Maurice is visited by a married "astronaut groupie" for a yearly fling that plays into his "privacy fetish". Chris reveals that the town was founded by a lesbian couple, Roslyn and Cicely, fleeing narrow-mindedness in Montana in the early 1900s.
Credits
Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, List of Northern Exposure episodes. HTML formatting and reference markers removed.