Following a remark by Adam (Adam Arkin) Joel (Rob Morrow) decides he needs to host a dinner party, but it’s more work than he’s used to.

Northern Hospitality was written by Barbara Hall and first debuted on 28 February, 1994.

While Joel tries to tackle all aspects of a dinner party, something that is truly beyond his abilities, even with Maggie’s (Janine Turner) help, Chris (John Corbett) has his own problems. It seems that one of his listeners has taken his own life, all because of a song that was played on air. Chris begins to reevaluate what he can and can’t play or say on air, and it’s almost crippling.

The town holds a meeting to talk about what is going on with him, and whether or not he can and should play or say what he wants on-air.

He’s roused back to his former self when he realizes the place of art.

Shelly (Cynthia Geary) wants to take baby Miranda across the border to Canada so she can see some friends, enjoy winterfest, and use some of the national healthcare. There’s a lot of debate about Canada/U.S. relations, you know, back when we had one.

Holling (John Cullum) sets off after her. He finds that Shelly isn’t as wowed as once she was, but he recalls his national pride and literally bursts into song.

Joel’s party goes horribly, and he’s bothered by the possibility he may have given some people food-poisoning. But he slowly learns it’s not really about the food, it’s about the effort, the friendship and the manners.

Una Volta in L’Inverno was written by Jeff Melvoin, and it debuted on 7 March, 1994.

It’s gray and snowy in Cicely, cabin fever is starting to settle in.

Joel is looking forward to a medical conference, and all the fun he plans to have, only to find he’s snowed in. Maggie can’t fly him out, and driving to the airport and it almost costs them the car, it won’t make the return trip.

Ruth-Anne (Peg Phillips) sets out to learn Italian, so she can read Dante in the original. Shelly picks it up incredibly easily, she learned a lot in high school, but didn’t realize it. And that begins to cause some grief between them.

Walt (Moultrie Patten) begins to abuse his prescription, he’s having a tough time with seasonal effect disorder. Most of the rest of the residents are using light source visors, but Joel prescribes it as a mood lifter, and now Walt is using it all the time.

And there are caribou blocking traffic.

There’s some nice moments between Maggie and Joel, and Ed (Darren E. Burrows) is still sick (the flu) from the previous episode. And when he crashes with Joel and Maggie at the tiny airport, Joel ends up hurting his feelings and they have to go out into the snow to find him.

Cicely will get through the seasonal darkness and be ready for whatever comes next, just like always. There’s a lot of little stories happening throughout the episode, and they all give us fun looks at the residents we’ve grown to know over the past few seasons.