Plot summary
Maggie bribes Joel with courtside seats to an NBA game into accompanying her to her Grammy 's ( Barbara Townsend ) 80th birthday party in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and pretending to be her boyfriend. Her real boyfriend, Mike, would never survive the trip. Joel meets Maggie's mother Jane ( Bibi Besch ), brother Jeffy ( Dylan Baker ) and Jeffy's unhappy wife Stephie ( Lisa Waltz ), as well as the various party guests. Grammy has locked herself in an upstairs bathroom, much to Jane's annoyance. Jane gets Maggie to try to coax Grammy out, as they get along much better.
Joel plays a strenuous game of one-on-one basketball with Jed (D. David Morin), Maggie's ex-boyfriend, which results in Jed having to go to the hospital. Stephie confides to Joel (and others) that she is leaving Jeffy. Grammy finally comes out of the bathroom. As Maggie and Joel leave for the basketball game at Auburn Hills, he tells her that she must be one strong person, coming from a family like that.
Credits
Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, List of Northern Exposure episodes. HTML formatting and reference markers removed.