Continuing my re-watch of Northern Exposure, it only took three episodes to find a stinker.

Episode 3, titled "Soapy Sanderson," is pretty staightforward: Cicely's local hermit commits suicide rather than face the difficult prospect of aging in a remote Alaskan cabin. In doing so, he bequeaths his 100 acres of land to Maggie and Joel in what appears to be an attempt to get the two of them together romantically.

There is some good dialogue:

Joel: You don't have a problem with this?

Maggie: Look, Soapy lived the way he wanted to live and he died the way he wanted to die.

Joel: And you're not rattled?

Maggie: What's the matter Fleischman? You're a doctor. Haven't you seen dead bodies before?

Joel: Yeah, and I'm still rattled. I don't like people committing suicide. Ethical considerations aside, it's just bad for business.

Maggie: He was doing fine until you told him to think about his future.

Joel: I was talking about a walker.

But the episode pretty much goes downhill from there.

Maggie wants to turn the land into a nature preserve but the local Indian tribe offers to purchase the land from Joel for $50,000 as a tax shelter. Joel, without informing Maggie, accepts the offer. And the tension is born.

One of Northern Exposure's biggest challenges ultimately became a strength. Joel Fleischman is often written and acted as a deeply unlikeable person. As the show progressed, the writers dealt with this by approaching Northern Exposure as more of an ensemble effort. Each character was fully developed and could carry their own story arcs. Because really, it's tough to get a story out of someone just complaining all the time.