Episode list

Single mom and nurse Janice Keneally and her pre-teen son Henry Armstrong move into Robson Arms. The fact that their new apartment, like all the units in the building, requires much maintenance - in Janice's words, it's a shit-hole - is the least of her worries as she needs to adjust to her new single mom status after the turbulent break-up with Henry's father Gord. Janice's stress is evident to all her new neighbours. Yuri Kukoc, the building super, tells Henry all she really needs to relieve her stress is sex. With new friend Ruby Tan in hand, Henry goes on a search in the building for a sex partner for his Mom. The most suitable candidate seems to be Tom Goldblum, a lawyer who lives directly above Janice and Henry. Henry and Ruby do some investigative work to discover more about Tom by breaking into his apartment, and promptly get caught by Tom. But they do find out what they need to know - he is single, recently widowed and the noises Henry and Janice continually hear from his apartment is not sex as they assumed but Tom exercising - and they in turn tell Tom the reason for the break-in. Although Tom has no interest in having sex with a woman he hasn't even met yet, Henry maneuvers a dinner invitation for Tom to their apartment that evening. At dinner, both Janice and Tom end up being embarrassed when Janice finds out about Henry's scheme and the fact that Tom knew about it. Later, Janice decides to apologize to Tom, who ends up helping her with her life situation in more ways than one.

Fourteen month newlyweds Bobbi and Bobby Briggs are celebrating being back together after Bobby was away on a business trip to Duluth with his company, Trinity - a Christian religion materials supplier - and Bobbi, an aspiring aerobi-dance instructor, was back visiting her family in Regina. After their passionate night together, Bobbi notices a condom wrapper stashed underneath her nightstand. Knowing that Bobby didn't use the condom with her, Bobbi automatically assumes he used it with another woman and looks for other signs of who that other woman might be. Bobbi thinks it's Bobby's co-worker Sasha, the one, as Bobbi calls her, with the overbite and the big mono-brow. Her suspicions are heightened when Bobby needs to go back to Duluth with Sasha among others. While Bobby's away, Bobbi decides to wreak revenge on her husband by seducing and sleeping with another man. After a failed attempt at a restaurant, Bobbi, drunk, throws herself at Yuri, who has always been attracted to her and as such, doesn't resist her advances. After their sex session, Bobbi feels guilty, more so after she learns from Ricky that Yuri is a Lothario who has been seen breaking into tenant's units probably to have sex. Bobbi confronts Yuri with her suspicions. Yuri confirms what he's been doing, implying that the condom wrapper was his. Bobbi and Yuri mutually agree to keep quiet about Yuri's break-ins and Bobbi and Yuri's indiscretion. Knowing that she was wrong about Bobby and Sasha, Bobbi wants to make it up to her husband upon his return. Just as he is about ready for bed, Bobby finds a condom wrapper, not his, stuck to the bed sheets. For the time being, Bobby and Bobbi's secrets and suspicions remain unspoken between the two.

Bao's mother, recently arrived from Hong Kong, moves in with the Tans. "Grandma" solely speaks Cantonese but is trying to learn English. Everyone in the household needs to make adjustments to get used to Grandma, but Ricky seems to have the hardest time. Grandma, despite her glaucoma, spends much of her time as the new pair of eyes at the store, and cannot help but comment directly, albeit in Cantonese, about all the store's customers, including Elaine Wainwright, who she accuses of being a shoplifter. There indeed has been a string of thefts at the store, so Yuri installs an antiquated and only half functioning security camera. Grandma ends up being more perceptive than anyone gives her credit and better eyes for the store than the camera. Meanwhile, Ricky, the aspiring karaoke star, is asked to sit with Grandma during a time he wants to sing in a karaoke competition. He decides to ditch Grandma for the competition - which he ends up winning - but Grandma, alone, gets into a near disaster. This incident not only places Ricky in hot water with his parents Bao and Toni, but on bad terms with Grandma. He makes things up with Grandma when he learns that marijuana aids in relieving symptoms of glaucoma, and hooks Grandma up with resident slackers and pot-growers, Nick Papathanasiou and Hal Garcia. Although initially suspicious of Nick and Hal, Grandma ends up getting along famously with the pair. Ricky gets a new appreciation for Grandma when he learns more of her past life as a nightclub singer cum burlesque star. Ricky and Grandma end up joining forces in creative ways to get Ricky a new karaoke machine, and to get Elaine Wainwright, who is indeed the store's shoplifter, to return all the stolen merchandise.

All around geek, Fred Fochs, has been cyber-corresponding for three months with a woman named Kelly, who lives in Newfoundland. For both, it is a long distance girlfriend/boyfriend relationship. Luckily for both, they still consider it so after their first encounter via webcam. Kelly has decided to come to Vancouver to go to school and wants to stay with Fred, at least initially until she can find her own place. Fred is initially excited about this, until he realizes that some of his quirks may be off-putting to her in person. Chief amongst these are his brain, which he keeps in a jar. It is not a real brain - it was a movie prop - but it is a brain nonetheless. After much consideration, Fred decides to let Kelly stay with him but hide the brain. Upon arrival, Kelly finds that she likes Fred even more than she thought, even after she does stumble upon the brain which she did indeed find slightly off-putting. On the flip side, Fred is attracted to Kelly physically and attracted to the fact that she is attracted to him, but there are certain little things which annoy him about her, including that she's clumsy, has a continually runny nose, and has a laugh like a mule. Although they're having a mostly good time together, Fred unleashes his true thoughts about her annoying habits during an unguarded moment. Hurt, Kelly decides to leave despite Fred's apologies.

Geoff McAlister and Stanley Wasserman are in a gay May-September relationship. They are both a reflection of their respective generation: Geoff is an active massage therapist who keeps care of himself physically, whereas Stanley enjoys relaxing at home indulging in the finer things in life, especially when it comes to food and drink. Despite the fact that Geoff defers more often than not to Stanley's wishes, Geoff loves Stanley and visa versa. They see themselves as a gay version of their neighbours, Elaine and Carlisle Wainwright, and hope to be as happy as the Wainwrights appear. A health fanatic, Geoff ignores a lump in his left testicle, which does end up being cancerous, the testicle which needs to be removed. Geoff refuses, wanting to deal with his problem in a more holistic manner. In reality, Geoff is angry and upset with his situation, and takes it out on Stanley, who has never taken care of his own body. After they find out the Wainwright's relationship is not all it appears to be on the surface, Geoff and Stanley examine their own relationship and find it's doing much better than the Wainwrights. Geoff's cancer ends up making their individual lives converge as they both see Geoff through this health scare.

Hal says to his roommate Nick, "Your whole life is constipated", which is true in both a literal and figurative sense, the latter especially in relation to his love life. Not quite what you would call a ladies' man, Nick and his life start to loosen up when he meets Elaine, a married older woman in the building. Although their connection happens on many levels, they have the love of classic Canadian rock as a strong meeting point, of course including the Stampeder's song "Sweet City Woman". This liaison with Nick makes Elaine reexamine her life with older and stuffier Carlisle. Everything comes to a head when Nick crashes Carlisle's book launch party, and puts "Sweet City Woman" on the record player. Mirroring his now loosened life, Nick's constipation finally subsides. The episode concludes with a scene straight out of "The Graduate".

Sault, a recent transplant to Vancouver from Toronto, is feeling a little alienated in her new surroundings, both within the city and within the building. Stanley, her next door neighbor, complained to the super that her cigarette smoke is traveling unwanted through the vents. Despite that, Stanley's partner, Geoff, invites Sault over for dinner as a gesture of kindness. Sault's abrasive personality grates on Stanley, but Geoff continues to maintain a friendship with her. This is strengthened when Geoff mistakenly assumes that Sault, like him, is a cancer victim, while in reality she suffers from alopecia. She doesn't correct him since she figures this misunderstanding will strengthen the bond with her one and only friend in Vancouver. He continues to support her in any way he can with her supposed cancer, which gets her deeper and deeper into the lie. But she also sees the mileage she can get out of being a cancer victim in other aspects of her life, that is until Geoff finds out the truth. Sault realizes that it may not be the surroundings that are the problem but rather her.

Tom becomes the support for two people. First, Carlisle finally admits that Elaine has left him. Carlisle uses Tom both as his divorce lawyer (despite the fact that Tom does not specialize in divorce nor does he really agree to act as Carlisle's lawyer) and surrogate "friend". Tom is further burdened when Carlisle is unexpectedly hospitalized and thus Tom is forced to look after Elaine's beloved but temperamental dog, Lulu, who Carlisle refuses to place in a kennel. And second, Janice and Tom have been casually dating, and outwardly everything seems to be going all right. However, Tom still thinks about his deceased wife, Colleen. Tom "speaks to Colleen" while he's sleeping, but there's something more to Tom's pain than the fact that he misses Colleen or that he thinks about the suffering she endured with her illness prior to her passing. Tom finally admits to himself that although he loved her, their marriage, especially at the end, was by no means perfect. With that admission, he can counsel Carlisle to move on with his life, something that Tom decides to do with Janice.

Bao and Toni are approaching their twentieth wedding anniversary. Although they do love each other, they are falling into a rut. Toni compares their love life not to an exciting Ferrari or even stable and reliable Volvo, but rather a Pacer, "fun in the past, but outdated". On the other side of the coin, Bao thinks his professional life will soon take an upward swing when he expects he will be offered the principal tuba seat with the symphony orchestra. But the symphony's job offer of development officer isn't quite what he expected or wanted. But he takes the job, without telling Toni, since he feels in holding out for his dream job of playing the tuba regularly and professionally, he has not given Toni the life she deserved. Thinking Bao having an affair due to his now daytime absence, Toni and Bao have a heart to heart, which includes Bao knowing about the Pacer comparison. This talk opens up an entire new chapter of understanding and love in their lives. But ultimately it is hearing his favorite tune "Clair de Lune" being played by a street musician that makes Bao realize that his happiness inspires happiness around him. It's going to be a good twentieth wedding anniversary.

Young and naive Alicia Plecas is behind in her rent. She is unemployed and unskilled. Although she is going to hairdressing school, hairdressing is a skill that she lacks. Yuri hopes to trade sexual favours for rent, but Alicia refuses. For protection, she finds Hal, who is also sexually interested in Alicia, and hopes to get her into bed eventually. Hal manages to get her a cleaning job for Carlisle, despite the fact that she doesn't have the necessary skills to do that either. She ends up being an awful, clumsy cleaner, but she and Carlisle end up bonding over similar personal issues, and admittedly a bit of lust on Carlisle's side. Sexually, she and Hal continually almost make Hal's wish come true, but Alicia's missing pet hamster, Bushy-Bush, always gets in the way. Ultimately, Hal can't control his urges any longer; his actions cause a permanent rift between himself and Alicia. Despite knowing that Carlisle has his own unspoken lusty thoughts toward her, Alicia at least gets the necessary confidence from him to stand on her own two feet for the first time in her life.

Hal and Nick are pining over their lost conquests, Hal with Alicia, and Nick with Elaine. Hal slowly comes to the realization that Alicia may have exposed his true shallowness with women. To test his theory, he decides to call up old girlfriends to see what they think of him. On the other side of the apartment, Sault enters Nick's life. Sault is trying to rekindle her friendship with Geoff, and by unfortunate association Stanley. She uses her new 'buddy' as a pawn in her plan. She decides to hold small dinner party with Geoff, Stanley and Nick, the latter with whom she promises a roll in the hay afterward if he attends and helps with the cooking. He agrees. At dinner, things are going awkwardly, but Sault and Stanley start to bond over Stanley's spinach dish, which Sault loves so much she wants to the recipe. The bond breaks down when Stanley refuses to share the recipe. Nick, who likes Sault in a bizarre way, does whatever he can to help her get the recipe. Just as Sault starts to feel a special bond with Nick, Nick reluctantly decides that Sault will probably never like him that way and leaves Sault in the lurch.

Pauline and Bea Dubois, the elderly sister owners of the building, are disagreeing on how the building should be run. Pauline prefers to make do with Yuri's talents to fix whatever problem, whereas Bea thinks that many things are falling apart and should just be replaced as goodwill toward the tenants. Because of their differences and long term competition with each other, they needle each other in small ways just to get under each other's skin. The elder Pauline is the more forceful one, whereas Bea will do things on the sly. One thing that Bea has been doing on the sly is getting her affairs in order: she's dying. When Pauline finds out, she's upset not because Bea didn't tell her or not because she's sad for her sister's condition but because Bea once again is doing something first in life. Pauline decides to manufacture mock ways of killing herself first. Bea doesn't appreciate this as Pauline has always tried to steal the limelight. When Bea confronts Pauline that her illness is indeed a fact, the Misses Dubois collectively decide to turn out the lights. Meanwhile, Yuri stumbles across Bushy-Bush. Not knowing he's Alicia's pet, Yuri decides to keep the hamster for himself.

Following the suicides of the Dubois sisters, the main question on everyone's mind is who will be the new owner and what will he/she do with the building? Yuri and the Tans are the most concerned as their livelihoods are attached to the building. The who ends up being Stu Dubois, Pauline and Bea's second cousin. The what?: he intends on fixing up and selling the building. He does retain Yuri's services but Yuri is still worried that the new owner will not, and as such decides to fix up all the tenant's problems to get good references from them. The only tenant who seems to feel sorry for Yuri is Bobby, since he figures Yuri, solely by association, was the closest to the Dubois sisters. Things change for Bobby when Bobbi tells him of her one time indiscretion with Yuri. When Bobby finally catches up with Yuri, they have a physical altercation. But a physical altercation happens around them at the same time: an earthquake. There is substantial damage to the building, some of which has landed on top of a now pinned-by-rubble Yuri. While the rest of the tenants have evacuated the building (which includes a distraught Bobbi), captives Bobby and Yuri have time to air their issues. It also gives Bobby time to figure out not only what he's going to do with Yuri, but what he's going to do about his marriage.