Top 250 Movies Like Once Again

A reluctant reunion of two estranged sisters. One is on the verge of marriage; the other is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Both struggle with truths they're hiding from each other - and from themselves. Jenny has rejected her tumultuous family and cut off communication, seeking a more ordered life far from her roots in the Bronx. And she's almost ready to commit to her longtime fiancé when her sister Lucy - the personification of all that Jenny has been trying to flee - surprises her at a critical time. Lucy and Jenny's combustible reunion brings both of them to unforeseen places, shattering and reconstructing the worlds they have both carefully constructed.

A man tries to warn his brother away from the new girlfriend he brings home during Thanksgiving, but ends up becoming infatuated with her in the process.

Dominic works round the clock: nights making biscotti for his family's bakery in a working-class Italian neighborhood in Pittsburgh, then days downtown where he's a specialist in firing people at a company that negotiates mergers. He's thrown for a loop with he learns that Bella, an elderly neighbor who's his family's closest friend, has but a few months to live. All her life, she's saved money in coffee cans for her daughter, Lucca's, wedding, but Lucca is off in foreign lands, initially as a Peace Corps volunteer, and doesn't need a man. Dominic vows to bring Lucca home and convince her to marry him to fulfill Bella's most fervent wish. What will Lucca say?

Gilbert Grape is a small-town young man with a lot of responsibility. Chief among his concerns are his mother, who is so overweight that she can't leave the house, and his mentally impaired younger brother, Arnie, who has a knack for finding trouble. Settled into a job at a grocery store and an ongoing affair with local woman Betty Carver, Gilbert finally has his life shaken up by the free-spirited Becky.

After discovering her father put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared, 17-year-old Ree Dolly must confront the local criminal underworld and the harsh Ozark wilderness in order to to track down her father and save her family.

When her parents and fiancé are lost in the Titanic disaster, young Edwina Winfield shoulders the responsibility of raising her three younger siblings and taking over the reins at her father's newspaper. Although she has no shortage of new would-be suitors, the memory of her lost love continues to haunt her, so she focuses instead on providing a stable home for the children, rather than marrying. But her forcefulness alienates some of the kids, who have plans of their own and rebel against her. Can she hold her fractured family together, and will she ever overcome her ghosts to shake herself out of martyrdom and have a real life of her own?

It’s Christmastime and the far-flung members of the Rodriguez family are converging at their parents’ home in Chicago to celebrate the season and rejoice in their youngest brother’s safe return from combat overseas.

After the divorce from Michael, Tessa raises her daughters Kate and Lara alone. None of them can stand Michael's new young wife Carolyn, a model. But when Tessa learns that she's suffering from cancer and soon will die, she tries to get her kids to accept Carolyn as new mother. She takes them on a trip across the country to her father Jacob's ranch in Wyoming. During this trip, Tessa tries to teach Carolyn about the responsibilities involved in raising kids.

Seven British children bury their mother and hide her death, until their long-lost father returns.

Michael Adler has run away from his suburban home with his little brother Dylan. Hiding out in a quiet, rural town, Michael's convinced he can make a better life for both of them. While Dylan stays holed up in a cheap motel all day, Michael works at a convenience store where everything starts to come together for him. But as Michael falls in love with his beautiful co-worker, Carly, his past begin

An older brother is a washed-up boxer. His younger brother is a genius pianist with physical disability. The brothers make up through their mother who is full of stories of her past.

Ralph and Annabell Willart are a feuding couple who are constantly bickering over their worthless, good-for-nothing son Berry-Berry. When Berry-Berry begins yet another meaningless love affair, this time with an older woman named Echo O’Brien, he really gets his parents at each others’ throats.

A father and his children are caught by a storm whilst sailing in Alaska. When they get shipwrecked, things go from bad to worse.

A married couple on the verge of separation are leveled by the news their 18-year-old son committed a mass-shooting at his college, then took his own life.

When two brothers organize the robbery of their parents' jewelry store, the job goes horribly wrong, triggering a series of events that send them and their family hurtling towards a shattering climax.

An aspiring dancer and her two wicked sisters resent their mother's love for a foster daughter.

When his helicopter goes down during his fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan, Marine Sam Cahill is presumed dead. Back home, brother Tommy steps in to look over Sam’s wife, Grace, and two children. Sam’s surprise homecoming triggers domestic mayhem.

With varying degrees of success, recently divorced friends Dave, Vic and Donny are trying to move on with their lives. Vic feels vilified by his ex-wife's parents, while Donny has a shaky bond with his teen daughter, Emma. Dave, meanwhile, has an enviable problem -- he has more dates than he can handle. As they confront their post-marital challenges, the men take solace in one another's plights.

A divorcee is surprised to learn her ex-husband has suddenly remarried a much younger woman; and even more surprised to discover her dark and treacherous past.

Jess Gradwell and her teenage daughter boast a superclose relationship. When it comes to sex, however, Mom won't stand for anything less than premarital celibacy. So she gets a pretty healthy dose of her own medicine when she winds up getting pregnant from a brief encounter with a newly single doctor! This new situation poses a major challenge to the mother-daughter dynamic. Tune in to see if Jess and her daughter can rise to the occasion.

An unhappily married housewife and mother of two children seperates from her husband and gets a new job where she developes a mutual attraction to her female boss.

Three sisters try to come to grips with the meaning of their mother's suicide.

Based upon Tyler Perry's acclaimed stage production, Madea's Family Reunion continues the adventures of Southern matriarch Madea. She has just been court ordered to be in charge of Nikki, a rebellious runaway, her nieces, Lisa and Vanessa, are suffering relationship trouble, and through it all, she has to organize her family reunion.

Two closely-bound, emotionally wounded siblings reunite after years apart.

Five unmarried sisters make the most of their simple existence in rural Ireland in the 1930s.

A son longs to escape from his stifling home, where his genteel mother worries about the future prospects of his lame, shy sister.

In their nice Connecticut home, Agnes and Tobias have grown used to the imperfection and fragility of their marriage. Quietly nursing their grief over the death of their son, they get by well enough together. Agnes' boozy sister wanders in and out, and they allow anxiety-stricken friends to move into an upstairs room. But, when their daughter, Julia, shows up announcing her fourth divorce, long-repressed emotions come to the surface.

Meg, Pippa, and Hillary are sisters who grew up in Sorrento, a small seaside town in Australia. Meg, who has lived in England for 10 years has just written a criticially acclaimed novel which she claims is entirely fictional. The book causes a stir in Sorrento and in her family when it is supected that the book is not as fictional as she claims.

A drama centered on a rebellious girl who is sent to a Southern beach town for the summer to stay with her father. Through their mutual love of music, the estranged duo learn to reconnect.

A comic drama set on a Mediterranean island, where a motley collection of characters is seeking musical redemption.

In London for his daughter's wedding, a struggling jingle-writer, Harvey Shine, misses his plane to New York, and thus loses his job. While drowning his sorrows in the airport pub, Harvey meets Kate, a British government worker stuck in an endless cycle of work, phone calls from her mother, and blind dates. A connection forms between the unhappy pair, who soon find themselves falling in love.

Sarah Nolan is a newly divorced woman cautiously rediscovering romance with the enthusiastic but often misguided help of her well-meaning family. As she braves a series of hilarious disastrous mismatches and first dates, Sarah begins to trust her own instincts again and learns that, no matter what, it's never a good idea to give up on love.

Forced to give up his dreams of art school, Zach works dead-end jobs to support his sister and her son. Questioning his life, he paints, surfs and hangs out with his best friend, Gabe. When Gabe's older brother returns home for the summer, Zach suddenly finds himself drawn into a relationship he didn't expect.

When Eve, an interior designer, is deserted by her husband of many years, Arthur, the emotionally glacial relationships of the three grown-up daughters are laid bare. Twisted by jealousy, insecurity and resentment, Renata, a successful writer; Joey, a woman crippled by indecision; and Flyn, a budding actress; struggle to communicate for the sake of their shattered mother. But when their father unexpectedly falls for another woman, his decision to remarry sets in motion a terrible twist of fate…

A coming of age dramedy where infidelity, real estate, and Lyme disease have two families falling apart on Long Island in the early eighties. Scott, 15, is at the point in his life when he finds out that the most important people around him, his father, his mother, and his brother, are not exactly who he thought they were. They are flawed and they are human.

The film follows Grace, a young woman whose irresponsible mother blows her college fund on her younger sister's beauty pageant campaign.

When his mother dies, a teenager takes a road-trip in a stolen car to find his long-lost brother. Along the way he discovers a profound connection with the car-owner and with himself as well.

Accomplished sailor Charlie St. Cloud has the adoration of his mother Claire and his little brother Sam, as well as a college scholarship that will lead him far from his sleepy Pacific Northwest hometown. But his bright future is cut short when a tragedy strikes and takes his dreams with it. After his high-school classmate Tess returns home unexpectedly, Charlie grows torn between honoring a promise he made four years earlier and moving forward with newfound love. And as he finds the courage to let go of the past for good, Charlie discovers the soul most worth saving is his own.

After losing her job, making out with her soon-to-be former boss, and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia Larson faces spending the holiday with her unhinged family.

Mary Ann Taylor loves the comforts of her hometown in Mercury, Texas. She has a steady job as a waitress in her father's diner, yet she can't help but feel unfulfilled by a life of pouring coffee and grilling hamburgers. Mary Ann's real passion is photography, but pursuing her dream of becoming a photographer means leaving Mercury behind.

After failing to find success as a writer in New York City, Jim slinks back to his family's home in the Midwest to lick his wounds. But his visit is quickly complicated when his angst spreads to his brother, Tim, who promptly decides to drive his car straight into a tree. Under the shadow of his sibling's injurious actions, Jim strikes up an unlikely friendship with Anika, whose centered small-town wisdom gradually rubs off on him.

Mollie and James are together and raising a family, which now consists of an older Mikey and his baby sister, Julie. Tension between the siblings arises, and as well with Mollie and James when Mollie's brother Stuart moves in. Mikey is also learning how to use the toilet for the first time.

Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.

A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.

This year Christmas with the Whitfields promises to be one they will never forget. All the siblings have come home for the first time in years and they've brought plenty of baggage with them. As the Christmas tree is trimmed and the lights are hung, secrets are revealed and family bonds are tested. As their lives converge, they join together and help each other discover the true meaning of family.

Robert Townsend stars as the patriarch of a family devastated when his wife is killed in a senseless auto accident. Reeling with grief, each family member must find courage and vision to carry on, ultimately eager to do the mother proud.

Earl Pilcher Jr., runs an equipment rental outfit in Arkansas, lives with his wife and kids and parents, and rarely takes off his gimme cap. His mother dies, leaving a letter explaining he's not her natural son, but the son of a Black woman who died in childbirth; plus, he has a half brother Ray, in Chicago, she wants him to visit. Earl makes the trip, initially receiving a cold welcome from Ray and Ray's son, Virgil. His birth mother's sister, Aunt T., an aged and blind matriarch, takes Earl in tow and insists that the family open up to him.

After a suicide attempt, Lane has moved into her country house to recuperate. Her best friend, Stephanie, has come to join her for the summer. Lane's mother, Diane, has recently arrived with her husband Lloyd, Lane's stepfather. Lane is close to two neighbors: Peter, and Howard. Howard is in love with Lane, Lane is in love with Peter, and Peter is in love with Stephanie.

Mickey, a free-spirited New York cabbie, and Francis, a materialistic Wall Street stockbroker, are extremely competitive and confused about women as a result of their father's influence. Though they disagree about everything, they have one thing in common: Mickey's ex-fiance Heather is Francis's secret love. Though both brothers have beautiful wives, Heather triggers their longtime sibling rivalry

A Mexican-American master chef and father to three daughters has lost his taste for food but not for life.

A pair of twin girls are separated when their parents divorce. They meet again by accident when they are both sent to the same Summer camp and they start to hatch a plot to get back together. - Steve Crook

In this bittersweet comedy, four adult siblings gather at their dying mother's house in North Carolina for what they expect to be a quick, last goodbye. Instead, they find themselves trapped — together — for two weeks.

A new woman comes between a widower and his adult son.

Jake's Closet takes you back through childhood in a suspenseful and deeply moving story that dives deep into the mind of a little boy under the stress of a fractured family.

Jacqueline is a young mother living in 1960s Paris with her disabled son Laurent. Abandoned by her husband, Jacqueline sacrifices everything to care for her son and vows to give Laurent a “normal” life full of happiness. Antoine, is a successful DJ in present day Montreal who seems to have it all: a thriving career, two beautiful daughters, partner Rose, with whom he is passionately in love. However, nothing is perfect and Antoine’s ex-wife Carole remains devastated by their recent separation.

J.P. Tannen (Jon Voight) wants a second chance to be a father to his children ... but someone else has taken his place. Determined not to just be a friendly 'uncle' in their lives, he gets permission from his ex-wife Kathleen (Millie Perkins) and her new husband (Richard Crenna) to take the kids on a Mediterranean cruise. On the journey he comes to realise it's not that easy and, feeling overwhelmed, begins to doubt his abilities until a tragedy back home forces him to become the father he always hoped to be.

Tracey Berkowitz, 15, a self-described normal girl, loses her 9-year old brother, Sonny. In flashbacks and fragments, we meet her overbearing parents and the sweet, clueless Sonny. We watch Tracey navigate high school, friendless, picked on and teased. She develops a thing for Billy Zero, a new student, imagining he's her boyfriend. We see the day she loses Sonny and we watch her try to find him.

An aspiring writer from New York visits his girlfriend's eccentric family in Georgia.

For the first time in 15 years, all four siblings in a family show up to care for their dying mother, who is only given a couple of weeks to live. One comes from America with her two children. A divorced sister also comes with her child and sneaks off regularly to meet a mystery man who may be her ex-husband. The third & youngest daughter is an unmarried nurse aware of her ticking biological clock. The only son chases after his grumpy father who seems to not care a whit about his wife's circumstances. The four are also faced my their mother's dreams to accomplish a few things before she dies - to visit a beach she had visited in the past, to see her youngest married, and to visit Paris. She also wants to be embalmed and be honored with a 21 gun salute. Thus the whole group has to set off in the quest to fulfill their mother's wishes.

When her parents announce their divorce, Beth begins to uncover the hidden truths behind all of the rest of her families lives. Seeing that so many people struggle with keeping things in order, she seeks to take a more active role in her own life, making important changes for a better future.

In a Yorkshire mining town, three educated brothers return to their blue-collar home to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of their parents, but dark secrets come to the fore.

When a school bus driving woman (Tyne Daly) has a heart attack, she makes one request of her three daughters (Ally Sheedy, Marla Sucharetza, Marceline Hugo) - she wants them to find their long lost brother, who was taken away by their father (Jack Davidson) 16 years ago. What they discover is that while they have struggled, their father has become a wealthy man and their brother is in school at Harvard.

In this Canadian comedy-drama, Shirley Cooperberg heads a Montreal Jewish family. During her husband's operation, her brood arrives at the hospital -- failed writer Eli, neurotic Susan, and successful theatrical producer Edward. An onslaught of one-liners find targets amid sibling rivalries and angst-ridden animosities.

A teenager overcomes odds to run a 4-minute mile race.

Rich Hawaiian pineapple grower and US Senatorial candidate Richard Howland tries to control everything and everyone around him, including his headstrong sister, Slone.

Susannah and Jesse Stanton divorced two years prior with three children. When Susannah starts dating a lawyer, the children decide to find someone for their father, sending a letter to a popular magazine called Alaskan Love. He receives a large number of responses, but the children later feel that his perfect match is Susannah, and they try to arrange a plan to bring them together.

A divorced farmer takes in his troubled teenage daughter for the summer, a summer which changes the lives of the two of them, and their friends and family.

Commitment-shy Haley is as anti-marriage as it gets, but when she tries on her grandma’s ‘magical’ wedding veil, she’s transported to her future, where she and long-term boyfriend Scott are happily married with two beautiful children. Shocked, Haley tracks down her family to make sense of her vision and her view on love is changed for good. Is Haley ready to take the veil off – and is she finally ready for what will come after?

Clark Davis struggles to maintain his land and support his family during a long drought. With a bank loan to repay, his wife, Ellen, takes a job in town as a seamstress, but soon becomes ill with scarlet fever. Devastated to lose his beloved wife, Clark and his young daughter Missie turn to his parents Irene and Lloyd for support. Clark must find a way to save his farm and survive Ellen's death without losing the person he loves most: his daughter.

Heated confrontations and revelations result when a divorcee returns with her young son to the home of her two sisters.

A broken family finds their relationships to one another changed by a new arrival in the household.

Iris is broke after her divorce and takes a job working as a housekeeper for a wealthy woman named Paula. When Paula and her husband separate, an unlikely friendship blossoms between the women.

With plans to leave their small town, teenage loves Annie and Ben elope. Their big city plans are halted, though, when Annie's parents have the marriage annulled. Ben moves to New York, while Annie stays in Iowa to help her family. Fifteen years later, both engaged to their respective fiancés, the two discover that their annulment was never finalized. They reunite to make their divorce legal, but begin to reminisce about what could have been. When romantic feelings resurface, Annie and Ben must decide if their past love could be the love of their future.

Two single parents come head to head when their kids want to adopt the same dog. Agreeing to co-foster, free-spirited Kate and type-A Eric must work together to find the dog's forever home.

Two middle-aged women with nothing in common meet by accident and develop a close friendship while continuing to deal with their own lives.

The mother of a young divorcee places an ad on her daughter's behalf on a lonely hearts internet website but the person who responds fits her own ideal of a suitable partner. The daughter is still hung up on her musician ex-husband.

Despite allegations of child sexual abuse against Jody's ex-husband Marcus, the court orders joint custody of their daughter Samantha. Jody faces a choice of turning Samantha over to Marcus, or taking her on the run and risk kidnapping charges. Pursued by both the FBI and a private detective, Jody and Samantha are hunted, fleeing from town to town with the help of an underground network set up to help women and children escape from abuse. Based on a true story. 

An adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play about a restless young warehouse worker and would-be poet, Tom Wingfield, his fragile, reclusive sister, Laura, and his colorful but overbearing mother, Amanda, all living together in a shabby apartment in St. Louis during the Depression and struggling to dilute the grim realities of daily living by way of memories, fantasies, and grandiose dreams about the future.

A divorced couple teams up and travels to Bali to stop their daughter from making the same mistake they think they made 25 years ago.

Abigail, a divorced mother of two, is struggling to balance the dynamics within her dysfunctional family as she attempts to cultivate new love.

A lonely teen troubled by a past family tragedy is suspicious of his sister-in-law, believing she is being unfaithful. His confrontation with his brother sets off a series of tragic events.

Oliver Watson has never been luckier: he is a successful advertising executive, shares a marriage of eighteen years with Sarah and has three loving kids: 17-year-old Ben, 15-year-old Melissa, and 9-year-old Sam. His perfect life suddenly falls apart when his wife Sarah announces that she wants to enter a graduate school 200 miles away from home, as she regrets that she gave up her bohemian protester's life and promising writing career to become the wife of a conservative traditionalist. Oliver unsuccessfully tries to save his marriage, until Sarah announces that she is seeing someone else. The children start acting out as a reaction and life is complicated by the death of Oliver’s mother and accepts a job in L.A. where he falls in love with Charlotte Sampson. Life again challenges Oliver when Charlotte is offered her dream job on Broadway.

Following both the death of her father-in-law and a divorce, Jesse, a New Yorker, returns to a small town to live with her now widowed mother-in-law. Jesse struggles to fit in with the local townsfolk who don’t welcome her with open arms to say the least. Jesse becomes acquainted with the local pastor, her widowed brother-in-law, falling in love with him, much to the dismay of the community. Things get even more complicated when her ex-husband comes calling, suspiciously trying to win her back. Between her love life and entangled in-laws, Jesse is tested as she seeks the answer to where she truly belongs.

When Ethan arrives at the airport just in time to declare his undying love for his girlfriend, love appears to have conquered all. The scene, however, is really the ending of Ethan's novel, which his agent calls "unrealistic." Ethan soon meets a waitress, Jesse, and falls in love with her despite her growing devotion to Troy, a charming businessman. But the line between reality and fiction becomes increasingly blurred.

Love for the same woman causes conflict between an over-achieving blind athlete and the brother who made him that way.

Joe and his siblings have a couple of problems. First off, their stepparents are despicably evil. Secondly, they seemed to have killed them. Now this mixed up mess of half-sisters and step-brothers have to figure out how to dispose of the bodies, cover up the murders, collect their grandfather's inheritance and somehow stick together as a family -- all without getting caught. Not to mention Joe's incessant need to keep tabs on his promiscuous sister, an eye on the precocious little ones and a lustful watch on the girl next-door. Growing up has its complications. Murder's just one of them.

Kim Tyler grew up loving her next-door neighbor, Evan Slauson. Now she's all set to have the wedding of her dreams to stable Jeffrey in her parents' backyard, but her ex-husband, and first love—whose parents still live next door—keeps popping up causing her to seriously question her big plans.

Divorced couple Charlie and Lisa Hunter once a song writing team decide to spend a weekend in the French countryside to inspire them to write one last song together. But there is one person who isn't too crazy about the idea... Charlie's fiance!

James is still in love with his ex-wife Barbara and has one last chance to win her back. While his friends and parents try to help, they're dealing with their own complicated love lives. But, in a crazy world, love is the only thing that makes sense.

Marine Life revolves around the choatic family life of June, a middle-aged lounge singer and mother. Aging and twice divorced, lounge singer June Nordstrom tries to cope with her fading beauty, her troubled offspring, her waning career and her young lover, who begins seeing a woman his age behind June's back.

After a very messy divorce, a man starts suspecting his ex-wife and her new boyfriend of various crimes.

After Lisa Temple is brutally attacked and suffers from amnesia, it seems her bitter character has changed for the better, which causes her estranged husband Paul to have second thoughts about leaving her. As she rebuilds her life, Lisa and Paul fall in love again. However; there is danger lurking and one last angry memory waiting to surface. Will their love survive?

Soon-young lives with her mentally handicapped father and younger sister Soon-ja. When an American man and his daughter Barbie arrive for an adoption, the family must decide who is to let go, Soon-young or Soon-ja.

Oliver Barrett IV is emotionally devastated by the death of his wife Jenny, and, while he tries to lose himself in his work as a lawyer, the long hours don't ease his pain, especially when he finds that his leftist views conflict with those of the senior partners at the firm. Eventually, Oliver's inconsolable grief begins to alienate those around him, until he finds new love with Marcie Bonwit, the wealthy and beautiful heiress to the Bonwit Teller fortune. Despite his affection for her, Oliver finds it difficult to leave the memory of Jenny behind, which causes major problems in their relationship.

Jenny McLean is a single mom working at a 911-call center struggling to make ends meet and raise her two kids, Elsie and Luke. Although still reeling from her divorce, Jenny can’t help but flirt when she gets emergency calls from Jeff, a local firefighter she nicknames “Cowboy” for his handsome voice. When Jeff is hurt in the line of duty, he finds himself unable to climb stairs and needing to rent a first floor room from Jenny. It isn't long before the sparks are flying but can Jenny allow herself to take the risk?

For Billie and Nico, life with their father is a roller-coaster ride of playfulness and unease. When he is in the grip of alcohol, tears flow and their apparently idyllic family life collapses. Their mostly absent and irresponsible mother is not much help either. But their friendship with Malik, a boy of Billie’s age, frees them from their shackles. Together they embark on a journey full of intense moments of freedom. The colourful, emotional world of the three young people is depicted in kaleidoscopic black and white imagery, which opens space for their own notions of childhood. Alexandre Rockwell's tale portrays a profound sense of solidarity and deep love: for cinema and Billie Holiday, and also for risk and adventure.

The siblings of the Fitzgerald family must decide if the dad who abandoned them 20 years ago can come home for Christmas. Can the big Irish clan get past their grievances to be a family again?

Two young siblings ended up living on the streets, having nothing left but their love. It's a story about survival, second chances and second falls, with an unexpected turn at the end.

Ash is a man torn between two worlds, that of his family and friends and the other, of his dreams. This is his story set across London with it's fast paced nightlife and run ins with the law all caught on camera from the Director of Kidulthood.

Jess, a newly separated mother and nurse, moves into her old family farmhouse with Tyler, her teenage daughter, and Owen, her eight-year-old son. One night, the family dog senses something in the woods and runs off to find it. He returns a couple of days later and attacks Owen, savagely biting him before Jess is able to intervene. Owen is rushed to the hospital. His condition worsens, and no one can figure out why... until Jess discovers a disturbing cure...