Twenty-seven year old who loves television a little too much and works harder than Maia Rindell. Often writes excessively about her favorite shows and laughs hysterically at Post-It notes. Always brings her own grocery bags (flawless). Shows: The Good Wife (and The Good Fight!). Enlightened. Jane the Virgin. Rectify. The Americans. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. You're the Worst. Sports Night. Parks and Recreation. Master of None. The Wire. Fringe. Desperate Housewives. The West Wing. Friday Night Lights. Mad Men. Breaking Bad. The Mindy Project. Orange is the New Black. Veep. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Broad City. Parenthood. Catastrophe. Queen Sugar. The Good Place. Superstore. Insecure.
Hey was hoping I could get your two cents on something relating to TGW.
When Matthew Ashbaugh threatened Alicia by asking her whether she was married, do you think he knew about her love affair with Will?
Also, do you think Will ever felt a bit jealous of Ashbaugh’s fascination to Alicia (like when he caught Ashbaugh staring at Alicia through the glass)?
Just to add, your analyses absolutely make my day especially as someone who loves analysing, they’re quite stimulating.
Thank you in advance.
Hi! Sorry it's taken me so long to respond to this -- and thank you for your question and your sweet message!
Yes - I think Ashbaugh knew or suspected there was something going on between Alicia and Will. That line feels pretty pointed, and it seems like both Alicia and Will remember being quite flirty on that trip. I imagine Ashbaugh picked up on the vibes.
As for Will feeling jealous... I'm not sure if jealous is the word I'd use, but I think there was some emotion there. The Decision Tree shows Will worrying that Alicia manipulated him the same way she manipulated* Ashbaugh. Maybe that episode is the first time Will consciously draws that connection, but I suspect that it was in the back of his mind, even during the good moments with Alicia. Alicia never really let Will in, emotionally (and physically - we never see them together in her apartment, aside from maybe the end of 3x01). Even if Will didn't fully realize it at the time, he probably felt that distance on some level. And watching someone else gaze longingly, hopelessly, at Alicia was probably pretty unsettling! I'd imagine Will -- especially looking back -- felt more of a kinship with Ashbaugh in that moment than he'd like. Given that that moment stuck in his mind, I'd venture to say he felt that kinship at the time, too (again, even if he wouldn't have recognized it as such then).
*I don't actually think Alicia manipulated Ashbaugh. She's good at handholding clients by sensing what they'll react to and this feels no different. On rewatch, I was a little surprised Alicia admitted to any sort of manipulation under oath, even to discredit the LG will. Isn't that the sort of thing you don't want to say to protect your reputation?
Finally making a dent in the backlog of recaps. Let’s go!
LOL at this episode title
Liz is on a morning show, talking about Ketanji Brown Jackson and the Supreme Court. She’s positive at first, but ends up expressing her concerns about Ginni Thomas.
After the interview, a white cameraman makes a finger gun pointed directly at Liz. Unsettling. She immediately calls Jay and tells him to prioritize keeping the firm secure. I still don’t understand why Jay, the investigator, seems to double as head of security.
She phones Diane (who’s getting high) next and reiterates her concerns about security. She tells neither Diane nor Jay about the finger-gun incident. I love that Liz still thinks of Diane as the one to call here, even though Diane pretty much has no power.
Diane hallucinates a lot of plants and calls in the doctor. It’s the woman again, who I think (and this is based on having seen the rest of the season but I don’t think constitutes much of a spoiler) is just Bettencourt’s business partner and not any sort of romantic mate. This woman seems to have a very bad bedside manner, though we might just be seeing her through Diane’s eyes. And Diane does not like her AT ALL. They have a very weird staring contest, which I assume is not actually happening.
The FBI shows up at the firm to talk to Marissa about what happened “last week.” Marissa insists that Jay be present for the convo. The gunman is still on the loose and seems to be affiliated with a white supremacist group, so the FBI suggests that Marissa “take precautions.” Marissa’s takeaway from the convo? She needs a gun.
Ri’Chard is talking to a producer guy about creating more content like the podcast from last episode. He also brings up a legal issue – a “pushnup,” which is like a prenup but it happens when a couple’s about to have a baby. I don’t remember much about what happens in this episode, but I’m expecting that I’m about to write “case stuff happens” quite a bit.
ELSBETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love watching Elsbeth interact with new people. Here, she meets Carmen. Elsbeth is in the elevator, staring at a sticker on the ceiling that says “BUB.”
“Are you going up or down?” Carmen asks, just trying to get on the elevator. “That depends on the day,” Elsbeth replies. Carmen leaves the interaction confused.
At reception, Elsbeth learns that Ri’Chard is not “Richard,” commits that to memory, and offers the receptionist a paperweight because she started blowing glass during the pandemic.
Julius is the first to recognize Elsbeth. Trying to recall if we’ve seen them interact before. Probably?? She gives Julius a paperweight too.
Elsbeth is surprised that the conference room is Ri’Chard’s office. Ri’Chard doesn’t understand that’s why she’s surprised (he just thinks it’s a weird thing to say) but I’m pretty sure the line is meant to highlight that Ri’Chard doesn’t know who Elsbeth is or how many times she’s been to the office.
Elsbeth is there because she’s on the opposite side of the pushnup case.
Ri’Chard and Julius look at each other in confusion, but Julius doesn’t tell Ri’Chard much about Elsbeth (though I’m not sure there’s much more he could’ve done with Elsbeth in the room).
Elsbeth is at her most quirky in this scene, so of course Ri’Chard underestimates her and thinks she’s “easily confused.”
Liz is heating up dinner for Malcolm at home. Her kitchen is so pretty.
Liz gets a call from a woman claiming to be Ginni, asking her to apologize for her remarks on the morning show. Ah, it’s this season’s pee tape/Melania divorce episode. COTW heavy + familiar concept = hopefully a short recap.
The next day at work, Liz does not react to explosions happening outside. She calls Ginni back and gets her voicemail. She thinks about leaving a message, then stops herself and hangs up.
I have mentioned this before but I do really love the little detail that Liz always wears an Apple Watch.
In their next meeting, Ri’Chard comes to understand that Elsbeth is brilliant. Turns out he’s done exactly what she wanted and something something crypto is the real issue.
Diane watches flowers grow (or imagines she’s watching flowers grow). She’s interrupted by Ri’Chard, who wants her help. He mentions Elsbeth’s name, and Diane’s like, “is she here?!” Then she yells excitedly, laughs, and jumps up from her desk and heads to Ri’Chard’s office. Elsbeth greets her with a similar reaction. I love that these characters are genuinely friends now. I didn’t know I needed Super Happy High Diane interacting with Elsbeth, but I think I did.
Jay and Marissa go to a gun range. Before I could even fully form the thought, “But wasn’t Marissa in the army; why would Jay need to teach her how to shoot?” Marissa hits the target perfectly, repeatedly, and reminds (tells?) Jay about her time in the IDF.
Marissa and Jay silently mock some dick-measuring contest going on in the next aisle, but the conversation seems less funny when it shifts to being about political violence. As they shoot, they scream, “BUB!”
Marissa researches the group that’s supposedly targeting her, using actual Google (sorry Neil Gross) to do so. She ends up watching a video about the signposts of an upcoming civil war, realizing with horror that she recognizes most of them. I have so many thoughts about this wrt how this all turns out after the finale, but I want to keep these as spoiler-free and accurate to my initial thoughts while watching as I can.
Marissa making giant checkmarks on a sheet of notebook paper is absolutely a touch done for dramatic purposes because there is a zero percent chance that this is how Marissa Gold would count to ten lol
God I love these credits.
At home, Malcolm asks Liz if she’s worried about him because she’s been home for dinner every night lately. Awww, but also that implies she wasn’t before! He seems like a good kid.
Ginni calls again, just as Liz and Malcolm are sitting down to watch Below Deck. I am very shocked they’re watching a real show that, as far as I can tell, is not on Paramount+. Liz is too curious to not pick up.
Blah blah blah, they end up talking about Below Deck and bonding.
Marissa’s (correctly) worried she’s being followed.
Liz gives Jay yet another task (how does Jay have the time for all of this?) -- figure out if Ginni is really calling her.
“Alright. I sound a little crazy. Okay,” Liz says to herself. I am always a fan of lines like this. Alicia used to get them too.
Jay continues to do anything but his job (a criticism of the writers, not of Jay – and, honestly, maybe some unintentionally (?) good writing to show that Jay’s interests are shifting) as Marissa calls him and says she thinks she’s being followed. I will not nitpick the location of this scene. I will not nitpick the location of this scene.
Carmen does not like the “bub” sticker one bit and is attempting to remove it from the elevator ceiling herself. It’s interesting to see that this is so unnerving to Carmen, someone who is comfortable around some of the worst criminals out there.
The tulips outside of the building really make it look like October/November, A+ touch for realism.
Marissa heads back to the office; Jay follows the men who’ve been trailing her. He snaps a picture of the plates of the totally not suspicious at all black van they hop into and heads upstairs to share his findings with Marissa.
Jay tells Marissa to stop reading scary things online and that he’ll follow her that night to make sure nothing bad happens.
Carmen’s figured out what BUB means and it’s a white supremacist slogan, one Marissa’s already familiar with.
Meanwhile, Elsbeth and Diane are loudly laughing and drinking and having a generally good time in Diane’s office. Diane even calls Elsbeth “Beth” which feels so familiar and also so out of sync with how I think about Elsbeth that I’m a little shaken by it!
Diane and Elsbeth get to work; make a deal. Then Diane gives Elsbeth a flower (she’s still doing this, I guess) and Elsbeth puts it in her hair. I will miss Elsbeth. I will miss this show.
Jay calls Liz with some info that makes it seem plausible, though not probable, that the real Ginni is the one calling Liz.
The case has been resolved! Except that it hasn’t been! There’s a new lawyer in the mix! Elsbeth and the R&R team have to work together! Cool. I don’t care. But I’ll take more Elsbeth scenes.
Case stuff happens.
Liz watches Below Deck in her bedroom, chatting with Ginni the whole time. Seems like Liz needs more friends.
Ginni mentions trying to get Clarence to retire. This is an appealing tidbit to Liz, who now has to decide if she wants to try to persuade her new friend who may or may not be a prankster. Ready to be done with this plot, please and thank you.
Liz flat out asks if it’s a prank. She does not get a clear answer.
CASE STUFF HAPPENS! Sorry lol I’m so behind on these I’m excited when I have nothing to say.
Walking later that night, Jay asks Marissa why she’s obsessed with the idea of civil war when everything’s fine. Uh, idk, maybe it’s because her firm’s being targeted, she had to hide in a closet with Wackner after a populist uprising last year, her dad was just the target of an assassination attempt, and she’s being followed? (I wish the show would let these things be text instead of subtext.)
Marissa keeps her reply broad, reciting the talking points from the earlier video.
Marissa’s shadows come back. Jay instructs her to go ahead and then confronts them; they threaten him with the guns they imply they’re carrying. Marissa, instead of going ahead, circles back. Jay gets her to walk away; the shadows walk away too. So Jay takes out his gun and commands them to get down. They pull out their guns in response. Guess Jay thought they were bluffing a minute ago.
The men claim to be FBI. And then a lot of black people walk onto the scene with phone cameras recording. A man claiming to be a lawyer appears and tells the FBI agents why they’re in the wrong. It’s extremely effective to the point of being unrealistic. Which is, the Kings have said, the point of this plot – what if there actually was a group that was organized and effective and cohesive in a way that very few actual groups are?
The FBI agents say they were there to protect Marissa. I don’t buy it. Shouldn’t Marissa know she has protection?
Jay asks the mysterious man who he is, where he’s going. Good questions. I’d also like to know why they were there at this moment. Was it to scout Jay? Are Marissa’s shadows not actual FBI agents?
He gives Jay a number (it’s not clear what for) then disappears into a sleek black van. Intriguing...
Diane is looking through one of Elsbeth’s paperweights in the office the next day. Liz catches her and looks amused. I think Diane needs some hobbies. Or some actual work.
“What does the future hold?” Liz jokes, since it looks like Diane’s holding a crystal ball. Diane doesn’t seem upset or embarrassed at all, which I’ll take as a comment on how friendly she and Liz are... and not a comment on how high she is.
Liz tells Diane about her Ginni predicament. Diane is just like, if there’s any chance at all it’s real, go for it. Liz reasons that the worst that can happen is that she’s embarrassed. (And, honestly, among her friends, I don’t think the embarrassment would even be that bad if she says “I never believed it but... no harm in playing along, right?”)
Liz catches herself thinking that we’d all get along if we just talked about reality shows instead of politics. Diane gives her a look. I love watching these two.
Diane’s case involves “legally attacking a fetus.” (There’s some stuff here about complicating Diane’s Pro-Choice stance in order to win a case; I have nothing else to add about it.) Liz asks if Diane wants her advice and Diane does. Liz’s advice? “Don’t.” Solid advice.
This case should probably hit harder than it does. The problem for me, with nearly all TGW/TGF cases, is that there’s an interesting idea that can be summarized in one sentence (Diane arguing that fetuses should have rights even though that aligns her with Pro-Lifers)… and then there’s at least 15 minutes of developing that idea through twists and turns, and by the end of it I have nothing to say other than, “yeah, what a thought experiment!”
Liz is discussing her divorce (“we didn’t spend enough time together”) with Malcolm sitting next to her. She’s trying to signal to him that she’s just saying stuff. This seems weird! But at least Malcolm is in the show!
This is SUCH a weird conversation to have around a child?!
Ginni starts asking Liz if she’s dated recently. I repeat, interesting convo to have around your kid. Maybe Liz is always this open with Malcolm? I’d be kind of cool with that; he seems old enough to hear this. I just need to know he’s hearing and understanding the context, too.
Turns out it’s Del from last year pranking Liz. Why? Not sure. Will we see Del again? Nope! Is this closure? Also nope! Seems like Liz and Del are no longer dating but are friendly (and even flirty).
Liz asks Jay to prank Del in return. Jay can add “prankster” to his ever-growing list of responsibilities!
Carmen asks Jay if he wants to get a drink. He’s meeting someone – the mystery man!
Also the entire ceiling of the elevator is now plastered with “BUB” stickers. This show and its elevators.
Jay gets in the van. That’s when he meets the resistance leader, played by Phylicia Rashad. She’s great in this role, but I am... a little perplexed by *this* show casting her given her support of Cosby.
Jay says he wants to get involved in their organization because he’s looking for “competence.” Hell yeah. Good pitch.
Hypercompetent group is called “The Collective.” They want to know what Jay can do to help them. He says he can train people to use firearms. End of episode!
The Collective is so much more interesting to me than the COVID hallucinations of last year. I’ll have more on it to say in future episodes, but high-level? It just always comes back to one of TGF’s most familiar problems: how much is reality, how much is thought experiment, and how do you reconcile the two? The show doesn’t really have an answer, but I do think this is one of their more successful attempts.
FINALLY I HAVE FINISHED WRITING THIS. I'm hoping the other episodes don't take me nearly as long to write about.
What an episode name. What an episode. This is probably one of my favorite episodes TGF has done! It’s amazing what actually focusing on the long histories between characters and using them to elevate the themes of the show can do!
OK TUMBLR IS BEING SO FUCKING ANNOYING RIGHT NOW AND NOT LETTING ME MAKE A BULLETED LIST. Apologies for formatting.
We start off with a warning that the episode includes content that “may be sensitive to some viewers... especially viewers who are disturbed by exploding brain matter.” I have so many questions about how this came to be. It’s cheeky and gives off strong BrainDead vibes, but it’s also a serious content warning. So was it required but the Kings got to be silly about it? I never see content warnings other than, like, TV-MA SLV on streaming shows, there was no warning when Will died, and there were no warnings for the (frequent) head explosions in BrainDead, so why now? The tone of this warning feels very “we were forced to have this here but we compromised with the network and we at least get to be silly about it” (like the playful “Skip Intro” button on Evil). But part of me wonders if it was a creative choice to raise the stakes? I can’t imagine why you’d want to? But it obviously tells us that someone’s brain is getting blown out (or that we’re getting a BrainDead crossover), so the writers had to know that this warning would also be a spoiler... I just have a lot of questions okay!
I don’t love credits at the beginning because they deny me the feeling of, “wait, how are we getting to the credits NOW?” that I somehow get every episode even though I know the credits are always going to come after the 15 minute mark. I’ll forgive this episode.
We pick up where we left off—in the aftermath of the explosion in Dr. Bettencourt’s office. I know they’re mostly headed there eventually, but I am so glad this scene didn’t end with a kiss.
I did not pick up on it myself, but whoever noted that the explosion of the credits spills over into the scene (and that’s why the credits roll over the footage) is very right.
James Whitmore Jr. directed this one. His name isn’t a guarantee an episode is going to be eventful, but he IS one of the ones the writers trust with their eventful episodes. He directed Hitting the Fan.
The people in the elevator bickering about Fox News has me thinking of BrainDead, specifically the subplot with the actress who is now best known for playing Kendall’s ex-wife on Succession. (She’ll always be Stern’s daughter to me though.)
There’s more bickering about whether the protests are far left or far right, which is a premise I do not think the writers can sustain for very long. I get it, it’s thematic, but groups of people don’t just stay angry without (1) expressing why they are angry or (2) losing steam. We’ve gotta get somewhere with this. (I’d say the end of this episode gives a pretty definitive answer about who’s doing the protesting, unless it’s an endless cycle of protests and counterprotests.)
I think Eli’s presence makes the stakes feel a little higher in this episode. The evolution of The Good Wife into The Good Fight happened so gradually that I can accept that this bizarre surreal universe is Diane’s and Elsbeth’s... but there’s something truly eerie about seeing Eli, who had previously been untouched by all of this surreal stuff and in my mind still lives in the pre-Trump world, in the middle of it all, too.
I can believe the firm being close to the courthouse – that's just smart – but I don’t understand why Bettencourt’s office and the courthouse are so close together the car bomb would be felt in both places. Whatever. Connective tissue holding the episode together.
This episode jumps right in to Eli being on the stand, which is our first sign that this isn’t going to be yet another “let’s watch our faves be clever and maneuver their way out of bogus charges” episode.
Eli’s being accused of being the mastermind behind the “Democratic Watergate,” a fake thing that we’d never heard of before this moment. Based on everything that happens in this episode, seems like he’s guilty. Maybe not legally, since he’s too smart and shady for that, but he totally did it.
I love Eli lol
I also love Marissa’s “my dad is a lot and I love him so much” look when Eli makes a melodramatic scene on the stand
Opposing counsel does not take Marissa seriously and knows she’s only there so she can’t testify.
Hi Frank Landau.
Marissa instantly knows that Landau walking in is NOT good for Eli. I was going to give the lead lawyer the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe he didn’t see Landau, but, no, he seems to just have bad instincts.
I love Eli and Marissa saying “fuck” in unison.
I’ll say this again (and again, and again) in this recap, but something this episode did that TGF has been missing is ACTUALLY LEAN INTO THE CHARACTERS. I’m already getting so much about Eli and Marissa’s dynamic (how they’re similar, different, where there are points of tension, how much they care about each other) and that’s making all of this land much better. I’ve seen the secret surprise witness plot a million times, but this episode makes it feel like I’m always watching Eli and Marissa first and the trial second.
Marissa corners her dad in the elevator because Marissa knows that Eli did it... and that she inadvertently helped. Marissa’s mostly mad because this was stupid and sloppy.
“I didn’t do this! Because there’s no proof I did this! So this argument is a massive waste of time.” So what I’m hearing is he totally did it.
Diane gets in the elevator with flowers and gives one to Eli and one to Marissa. Marissa notices a piece of glass in Diane’s hair; Diane calmly explains that a window exploded on her. She says she’s surprisingly well... I think she’s just drugged up and in shock. Eli and Marissa do too.
There’s a democratic fundraiser the following night and Ri’Chard wants to invite the associates. VIP Treatment vibes.
Diane, who is totally okay and not acting at all weird, is sitting in a partners’ meeting cradling a bouquet of flowers. Liz notices.
Ri’Chard can’t help himself: Liz tries to move on to the next agenda item, and this man hops out of his chair to ask why they’re attending a DEMOCRATIC fundraiser. Liz notes the DNC is a big client. Ri’Chard counters by suggesting they should support local black churches instead. One, religion at work is never going to go over easy. Two, why not both?
Ri’Chard is also moving across the whole room, forcing everyone to swivel their chairs (since he’s taken away the conference table) so they can’t focus on him and Liz at the same time.
Ri’Chard also then promises to do something that will mean more money for the equity partners (so, obviously, this goes over well with the audience of... equity partners). Liz wants this too, but doesn’t think it’s practical. Diane spins around on her chair and gives Liz a conspiratorial look.
All the partners start applauding Ri’Chard, except Diane, who continues silently communicating with her friend Liz. (See! Another little character moment in the middle of a larger plot!)
After the meeting, Ri’Chard accuses Liz of not liking his ideas and Liz is like, I actually just don’t like you making promises you can’t keep. Apparently the money’s not all there, even now that they’re doing super amazingly well. Ri’Chard thinks it is.
(Apparently people are quitting left and right. I’d note this for context on the firm’s status but we all know this won’t be mentioned again.)
Liz asks Ri’Chard to show her his plan before he announces it. He looks at her like he’s never considered that before. Wild. He blames this on his extroversion and says he can get a little carried away in front of people. Yes. That is what happened. That is why he announced his researched and highly appealing plan while commandeering the room: he just got carried away but didn’t intend to do any of that.
Ri’Chard ends this conversation with “Jesus is Lord,” to which Liz just says, “Oh, yes he is.” I love Liz.
“But you are not,” Liz whispers after Ri’Chard leaves. I love Liz even more.
Liz finally – FINALLY – asks Jay to look into Ri’Chard. You would think that (1) Liz would’ve asked Jay to do this on day one and (2) Jay would’ve been curious enough on his own to look into it. I mean, Jay is trying to figure out what happened with the car bomb, which doesn’t seem to have anything at all to do with him or his job. He’s just naturally curious... so wouldn’t he be curious about this random new name partner who just showed up one day?
Jay also suggests more security. I suggest, once again, that the firm allow people to work remotely.
Marissa is in maximum snark mode during the next legal strategy session.
Eli continues to say things that make it obvious he’s guilty, like that you talk about a lot of hypotheticals (“standard rat-fucking") and never do them... or you do, but through intermediaries.
Between being dragged into an actual crime and being mocked in court, Marissa is fed up. She storms out to go do her actual job (hey, remember when my recaps used to be like 75% complaining about how Maia didn’t ever do work?)
Eli goes after Marissa and asks what she wants. “You want me to take you on a father/daughter picnic, is that it? You want to go to Disneyland and get photos taken with mouse ears? This is who we are. If you’re in trouble, I help you. If I’m in trouble, you help me.” Harsh.
“We’re transactional,” Marissa rephrases his words. “Exactly. Always have been, always will,” Eli agrees. I think they both think they mean it right now. There’s obviously a component of this in their relationship, but it’s clear that they actually do care about each other and get along... but they’re so similar that they clash like this often.
Anyway, Marissa asks to be the one to cross-examine Landau in exchange for her not quitting the legal team/testifying against Eli.
Diane watches Dr. Bettencourt’s videos while drinking a glass of wine in bed. Seems like she really feels just fine after the explosion.
This quickly turns into Diane fantasizing about Dr. Bettencourt being in her bed. We all knew it was headed here.
Absolutely unfair that we are getting a Diane scene about masturbation and anxiety when my Alicia OTPs were Alicia + therapy and Alicia + vibrator.
The Diane/Kurt banter in this scene kind of makes me cringe but that also makes it feel a lot more real; I do not think most people are very profound when they’re horny
I have not recapped what is actually going on in this scene because it’s... bizarre!
Kurt gets a call from work. We know this because his phone says that “Work” is calling.
“We had nothing to do with that car bomb,” Kurt says, to Diane’s alarm. What’s he involved with that he even has to say that sentence!? (Answer: the NRA.)
Diane wakes Kurt up to tell him about her latest drug adventure. She says it’s for anxiety and he’s like, what anxiety? Diane references the world around her. What does he mean, what anxiety?! Though in his defense, I’m not sure “Diane struggles with anxiety” is the conclusion I would’ve come to from her actions, either – but it makes sense when I hear it. Also is he aware Diane had to dodge shattered glass when the car bomb went off? I truly can’t tell what the day to day of Diane and Kurt’s relationship is like, which makes it quite hard to have an opinion on if I think it’s a good thing (companionship when they need it, but otherwise they can be very independent) or a bad thing (what kind of relationship is this??)
Kurt is like, uh, have you considered finding a real doctor? Diane wonders why they’re even having this conversation. Kurt points out that she brought it up. This almost feels like Diane has already moved on without realizing it.
I think I’ve said this before, maybe even in the part of this recap I wrote a week ago, but my investment in Diane and Kurt plummeted after the whole Holly thing at the end of TGW. Not only does it ask me to believe that Kurt cheated (????), but the entire thing makes no sense and the resolution/reconciliation was hard to follow. At worst, Diane/Kurt’s relationship is confusing, and at best it’s sweet and lets me forget about all the weirdness. That’s still pretty shaky ground, even for someone who generally likes them together.
Liz at the gym! Liz is at the gym! She’s listening to a law podcast when she hears that Ri’Chard is doing some self-promotion. She inelegantly slips off the treadmill and heads up to work (this seems to be an office gym?). Two cops with riot gear and assault rifles join her in the elevator and their presence does not put her at ease. Their silence doesn’t, either.
Still in her workout clothes, she barges in on Ri’Chard’s prayer circle and glares at him. He introduces her as “Liz Reddick, daughter of Carl” and I would just love to know... is Carl Reddick’s name ruined or not? This remains unclear to me.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Liz confronts Ri’Chard once they’re alone.
Ri’Chard apparently accidentally ended up on NPR. Doubtful.
Worse – he’s not talking about his own clients on this podcast. He's talking about the firm’s clients. He’s secured permission from everyone involved... except Liz. He’s also using his name instead of crediting the team, which he calls “good branding.” They are both right. And he’d have a lot more ground to stand on if he had, like, actually touched any of these cases. (I don’t understand why he is using the firm’s cases; surely he has his own?)
Ri’Chard starts telling Liz about how the firm has to update itself and Liz is just not impressed. And why would she be? Ri’Chard might be right about branding and needing an identity and a refresh – this is certainly not the first time it’s come up – but Ri’Chard doesn’t need to lecture Liz on this point like she’s too dumb to get it. Liz gets his point... he simply doesn’t want to understand hers. She’s asking for him to treat her like a partner and he’s responding with garbage about brands.
Liz raises her voice (though just a little bit, she’s letting her anger show but she’s very far from losing control here, which is a nice touch from Audra) and reminds Ri’Chard that the law firm is a “we” and not an “I” (there ain’t no I in team but you know there is a me!) (Sorry, I’m on a liiiiiittle bit of a TSwift kick right now...)
THE STARE LIZ GIVES RI’CHARD WHEN HE STARTS MAKING REFERENCES TO SHOW HE GETS IT.
“You have an idea, any idea. You want to scratch your ass? We talk, we discuss, we agree. And then you can move forward. Not before. You need to stop with this “better to ask forgiveness than permission” bullshit. Do you understand?” Ri’Chard nods. He might understand, but I’m not so sure he cares.
How much does this man spend on glasses? Somewhat relatedly, Ri’Chard’s extensive eyewear collection is really making me want to have more than one pair of glasses.
Ri’Chard invites Liz over for dinner so they can get to know each other. It’s not a bad idea.
To have dinner, they’re going to skip the DNC fundraiser.
Landau takes the stand.
“How the fuck would you know that?” Marissa snaps in court when her legal skills are called into question. Great line reading from Sarah here.
When Liz arrives at dinner, she ends up holding the gate open for a woman carrying a tray of pastries.
Ri’Chard’s house is chaotic and full of children. Also women. It is a little weird. Sorry, did I say a little? I meant extremely.
Liz ends up holding the tray of pastries, and a bunch of kids take sweets. All the adults tell Liz she shouldn’t be giving the kids so much sugar. She tries to stop the kids from taking more pastries, then gives up and is like, “you’re not my kids.” Hah.
One of the women refers to Liz as Ri’Chard’s “work wife” which is a phrase I fucking loathe. Liz seems to hate it – or at least this application of it – as much as I do.
“Is your house always this confusing?” Liz asks. Ri’Chard calls that phrasing diplomatic, and it really is.
Ri’Chard saying he has trouble ending things and would never divorce in a house full of children and at least three non-Liz adult women is EXTREMELY weird and it is not made any less weird by them greeting each other with “Jesus is Lord.”
I know it’s, like, obvious to say that Audra McDonald is really good at acting but I do need to stress that Audra McDonald is really good at acting. She’s playing the discomfort, shock, awkwardness, and growing comfort of being in someone else’s home really well.
Those Moral Matters posters at this DNC event might be the most GOP looking stock art I have ever seen??? Also this is the same ballroom where the fundraiser in VIP Treatment was.
Carmen gets to go to the DNC event because Carmen needs something to do so she can appear in the episode. Also, she seems to make the firm a fuckload of money so it makes sense she’d get an invite.
Julius (why is he even at a DNC event?) tries to snark to Carmen about how silly Dems are and Carmen just looks at him like she’s considering what he’s said but also surprised by it... and like she has no intention of responding. This immediately makes him feel awkward and he turns away from her.
Marissa’s there too, which doesn’t make sense in terms of her level at the firm but absolutely makes sense in terms of (1) all the partners love her and (2) her dad is Eli.
Carmen and Marissa exchange a glance that shows there’s still tension there. This is the exact kind of moment this show too often forgets to include between episodes with major plot development. This episode nails the little character moments. This episode feels lived-in and complete.
This “Hamilton Swings” act is an updated version of the stuff they parodied in 2x05 (of Wife!) and I fucking love it. Not so much the parody. I love the callback. I love that the writers almost certainly were like, that was so fun when we did it in 2010. Let’s do it again.
Bettencourt is also at the DNC fundraiser. Small world. Diane spills her drink when she sees him.
Diane’s dress in this episode looks a bit like her 2x05 dress, which I am sure was an intentional choice.
At the bar, where Diane is cleaning off her dress, Bettencourt appears. He’s spotted Diane, too. She’s worried he’ll judge her for drinking. He doesn’t.
She seems surprised when he remarks that he should’ve expected to run into her. Hmmm, now what about Diane Lockhart gives off rich liberal vibes? I wonder.
Marissa appears at the bar next to Diane. “God, is this boring!” she exclaims, not at all concerned that Diane, who is her boss, is in the middle of a conversation.
Marissa might be a little drunk. She greets Bettencourt, “Hello! Except I don’t know you, do I?”
“Diane and I bumped into each other on a trip,” Bettencourt says to explain how they met. I bet he’s used this line before, given his line of work. Diane spits out her drink at that.
Marissa leaves the bar to “stop my dad from killing someone,” a choice of words I’m sure she won’t regret.
Diane asks Bettencourt if he takes his own treatment since he’s always so calm. Then his wife – I assume, he puts his hand on her back – arrives and ruins the moment for Diane.
Eli and Landau argue at a DNC fundraiser, which is definitely a great look. But it won’t matter soon. Marissa tries to get Eli to stop, but Eli instead moves the conversation to the men’s room so Marissa won’t follow. Tbh I’m a little surprised she’d listen; Marissa does not seem like she’d give a shit about walking into the men’s room.
On my first watch, I thought this scene felt like 4x18, where Peter punches Kresteva in the bathroom. What happens here is much less fun.
And then someone enters the room and SHOOTS LANDAU IN THE HEAD THINKING HE IS ELI. He also says something anti-Semitic while he’s at it. I don’t remember what because I muted the scene looked away on rewatch because I found it quite upsetting.
Three things here. First, I’ve seen a few theories that Eli ordered the hit on Landau and it was staged to look like Eli was the target. To that, I say... y’all are watching a different show. The assassin says Eli’s name and something anti-Semitic to let the rest of the episode unfold as it does. It's not necessarily illogical like some are saying -- this guy very easily could have an accomplice who said “Eli just went into the bathroom” and pointed and the guy with the gun didn’t recognize Eli, and they both could’ve been too stupid to have him study photos beforehand. Also, very hard to watch the emotional fallout and consequences this has for Eli through the rest of the episode and then go back to this hunting for the biggest twist.
Second thing. It has taken me a while to get back to writing about this episode. Initially it was because I was busy, but now I’m avoiding it because it’s just TOUGH. When this aired, it felt a little too unsettling but like it belonged to a universe that was like ours but heightened... and now, with anti-Semitism in the news thanks to a certain rapper and the anniversary of the Tree of Life shooting tomorrow (I write this on 10/26), it’s just far too much for me to grapple with.
Final thing. I am so glad the writers chose to kill Landau instead of Eli. Killing Eli would’ve been upsetting, but honestly not that much more upsetting than the introduction of violence into a universe where violence doesn’t tend to hit close to home (even considering the protest stuff this season, the number of horrifyingly traumatic moments over the course of both serieses is, like, three? Will, Adrian in season 2, this?). Plus, seeing Eli covered in blood and brains is horribly upsetting. Not only that, but killing Eli would’ve made the point and then... what? Made the rest of the show about Marissa’s grief? Felt like a decision made for shock value? I don’t see what the writers would’ve gained after the initial shock. This way, Landau is familiar enough it feels unsettling – the man’s been a frequent presence in this universe for over a decade – but not so beloved (not at all beloved tbh) that it’s impossible to do other things with the plot from here. The Eli and Marissa scenes that follow after this point are some of the best material I’ve seen from this show in ages – maybe some of the best material this show’s ever done.
Liz and Ri’Chard are wrapping up their dinner when they get an active shooter alert. A very specific active shooter alert that says who the victim is? Weird. There’s a lockdown now, so Liz gets trapped at Ri’Chard’s. Shouldn’t they be calling all their employees and partners who are at the fundraiser!?
Ok made about 4 mins of progress on this then saw Eli covered in blood and now I have to stop again. I’m not generally squeamish about TV violence (I simply look away if I don’t want to see it) but I can’t handle this. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d been writing these during season five of TGW.
Now I’m thinking about Will.
Fuck, I’m not sure I'm ever going to find another show I care this much about. I don’t know that I want to. But let me tell you: nothing has even come close.
AND NOW I’M HAVING FEELINGS ABOUT THE SHOW ENDING.
Ok lol now it’s 10/30 and I’m trying to power through.
Marissa finds Eli sitting alone, in shock, covered in blood and brains. “Oh, it was so weird. I was right beside him. And this guy just came up behind us and said, ‘Die, you filthy Jew, Eli Gold.’ Eli Gold. He thought he was killing me.” “The world has gone crazy, Dad,” Marissa replies. “But Frank’s dead because of me. He’s not even Jewish. He's got three kids. And he’s, like, Presbyterian, something or other.” “I’m glad you’re alive, Dad,” is all Marissa can say to that.
“What am I doing with my life?” Eli starts to wonder. He’s on this train of thought because he’s realized people hate him to the point where they want to kill him. This may be true but that man doesn’t want to kill Eli for anything Eli’s done. Which is what Marissa tells him.
Eli doesn’t believe that, not fully. He’s thinking about all the bad things he’s done. I’ll come back to this when he talks to Diane, no use in saying the same thing twice.
“I’ve got to change my life. I’ve got to stop,” Eli frets. “I’ve got to... confess.” Marissa does not like that. And then the cops interrupt to get Eli’s statement. I’m a little surprised Eli was able to get away. Isn’t every attendee being forced to stay where they are?
Liz and Ri’Chard are now sitting on the floor drinking. I get that this conveys that the vibe is now relaxed and casual, but also, floors are not comfortable to sit on and sofas are. Liz finally works up the confidence to ask Ri’Chard which of the women floating around the house is his wife. Turns out he’s not married to any of them; his wife is dead. The women are her sister, her friend, his friend, and a college dropout.
He says he “collects female energy” which is maybe the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard. But for those of us who lived through the days of “male energy” and how we had to have Finn Polmar on the show to fill the void of “male energy” left by Will... it’s pretty nice to hear that “female energy” also exists.
“Watch out. Women have dinner here and never leave,” he jokes to Liz. Uh.
Liz turns the conversation to work; asks why Ri’Chard is in this. He wants “power, respect, and independence.” This is where my being several episodes ahead changes my take, because you KNOW the first time through this episode, I was like, “how can you be independent when STR Laurie owns you?!”
He flips the question around to Liz, but doesn’t let her answer, instead guessing that she’s in it for her father’s legacy. Liz says no; she always wanted to be the opposite of her father (and it was here I started to realize there’s a father-daughter throughline in this episode; again, this episode is very well done). This does not explain how Liz came to be running her father’s firm, but of course we know how that happened – she was pushed out at the DOJ and needed a place to land, and then inertia took over.
“That’s what makes you hot!” Ri’Chard says, and Liz just laughs and points to this as an example of Ri’Chard having no idea when to stop. It is a very good example of Ri’Chard not knowing when to stop; that’s not the vibe here and so it feels weird when he makes it the vibe.
Ri’Chard then segues into a story about when he was just starting out and a firm made a laughing stock out of him for being dressed the wrong way. And then Ri’Chard remade his image and got stronger.
$900 on wine. Still amazes me that people actually drink $900 wine. I had a bottle of $25 wine last night and felt fancy.
The all-clear goes out and Liz heads home. I hope she’s not driving...? They’ve been drinking a lot.
Diane’s home, still in her party clothes. Kurt’s comforting her. “Nothing seems real right now,” she remarks as she watches the news. Diane starts talking about the “connection between love and death” inspired by a conversation with Bettencourt (which we annoyingly have to get silent flashbacks of). This leads to Diane making a reference to a piece of art and Kurt not getting it, and then Diane realizing he doesn’t get her references. Kurt handles this well: “Diane, I think you’re asking me questions that you know I don’t know the answer to. And I’m not sure why. I’m not here for a literature test. I’m here because I love you. You know who I am. You know what I’m good at. What I care about.” Very fair. If Diane wants someone who understands all her references, Kurt will never be that person, and it’s not fair to Kurt for Diane to hold that against him. She can say his political beliefs are too much or that she’s realized she wants something different, but she can’t just wish Kurt was a different person and expect him to change.
She then asks Kurt if he loves her, which is so weird??? He says yes, she smiles, they kiss.
“Have I passed the test?” he asks. Diane says yes, but it seems like this is going to keep coming back.
In court the next day, opposing counsel is quick to suggest Eli had Landau killed to get himself off the hook. Yeah, no. “Excuse me, what the fuck?!” is Marissa’s response. Despite her passions, the judge rules that she has to testify.
Ri’Chard and Liz solve the problem of the equity partners not getting the money they’re entitled to by giving up some of their bonuses. HANG ON. THIS IS THE MOST OBVIOUS SOLUTION. WHY WAS LIZ COLLECTING A BONUS WHEN HER PARTNERS WEREN’T GETTING THEIR MONEY? And why is Ri’Chard getting a bonus he’s been there like 2 seconds where did the money for that come from?
Also, am I meant to believe Liz had any hand in this idea or not? If I am supposed to believe Liz as a manager I do need to see that she’s making progress on this front, because it feels to me like Ri’Chard came in, was correct, won Liz over, and won the battle but gave her credit. I’m missing the “teamwork” scene from this narrative.
If there are burning cars and massive protests in the street, and the lobby is blocked off, WHY HAS THIS OFFICE NOT YET SENT EVERYONE HOME?
Turns out that the lawyer who humiliated Ri’Chard is Liz’s dad. Obviously. So are we in Do Revenge now?
Liz is looking at a picture of her dad when Marissa knocks on her door and asks if she has a minute. You know it’s serious because this is the first time Marissa’s ever asked for permission for anything. Liz tries to push it off til tomorrow; Marissa explains the urgency.
What Marissa wants from Liz isn’t really advice – it's to know about her relationship with her dad. I fucking love that they’re drawing this parallel and exploring this topic. Even though what Liz’s dad did and what Eli did are very different types of crimes, the situations Liz and Marissa are in because of their fathers’ actions are similar, and I love that the show acknowledges this and gives it a moment. They very easily could’ve had Marissa’s plot exist in a vacuum; instead, they tie it to a loose end from season 3. Really smart, character-focused writing.
Marissa specifically wants to know if Liz ever opened the folder of evidence against her father that Marissa compiled back in s3. Liz is hesitant to answer at first, wondering how this will help Marissa. Marissa isn’t sure, and that’s enough for Liz to decide to open up: she did not ever look at the file. Marissa takes that in.
At the office, Eli stares out the window watching the protests. “You look lost,” Diane comments when she sees him.
Diane asks if Eli has any protection. He does, for a few days. “It feels weird. I’m a mechanic. I’m not a public figure,” Eli notes. “We’re all public figures now,” Diane says. I’m not sure what’s making her say this oh wait actually yes she has plenty of evidence to say this now I’m remembering Mr. Elk and the Diane/Liz love affair rumors from last season.
Diane pours Eli a drink. “Was there a better time, or has it always been like this?” Eli asks. “I don’t know. Whenever I’m smack-dab in the middle of the time, I always think it’s the worst time, and then five years later, I think, ‘huh, that was a pretty good time.’” Eek.
“I fell apart today,” Eli confesses. “Well, that makes sense. A person was murdered right beside you,” Diane responds. “And they thought they were murdering me,” Eli continues. “Yeah, so how could you not fall apart?”
“I’ve been wondering how much I’ve been contributing to all this. Turning the opposition into the enemy, turning the enemy into psychopaths...” Eli wonders. I would say maybe he’s played some role, but I don’t think he’s the problem here. Neither does Diane.
“How do we get out of this? They’re shouting, so do we just shout louder?” Eli wonders. “I don’t know, but if we don’t shout back, they’ll win,” says Diane, who’s been blissfully walking through protests carrying flowers all season.
Diane suggests that Eli finish his drink, pull himself together, and “go out there and kick some ass.” She does not seem at all concerned by the fact he’s done something illegal, which to me is the most interesting part about this scene. But before I get there...
“This country is worth fighting for; it always was. And our enemies want to stop voting from happening. That’s not just galling, that’s the end of America. And we can’t let that happen.” okay that’s all well and good Diane but do you not remember when you yourself tried to rig an election, or the time when you yourself defended Eli for rigging an election?
“Where do you find your optimism?” Eli wonders. “In a hallucinogenic drug called PT-108,” Diane responds. I love it. Eli thinks she’s joking.
“Eli, I need you to fight the good fight,” Diane says, SAYING THE SHOW TITLE ON THE SHOW!!!!!
“I need to know that there is someone out there who can quarterback the game. Because I know our politicians aren’t up to it. It has to be you. The person behind the scene. I’m sorry, if you want me to contribute to your bodyguards, I will, but you have to get back in the fight.” This is a very good pep talk for someone like Eli. It’s also fascinating to me. No one is talking about the illegal thing Eli did. No one seems to care. It was in the pursuit of a goal they all shared and so it’s understandable; everyone’s only furious that it got discovered or that it implicated them personally. No one is really mad about what happened. Eli almost certainly arranged the hacking of a major media outlet, and everyone’s just cool with it. What does that say about our times, about good, about morality, and about how deep this conflict runs?
Marissa listens in on this conversation and decides that Diane’s right.
Dr. Bettencourt isn’t at his office the next day; the woman he was with is Diane’s doctor for the day instead. She is not happy about it. The way she says “no” when she’s offered cucumber water has so much sadness and pettiness in it.
Marissa dances around the truth on the stand. She makes Eli out to be a bumbling old man, unable to figure out the internet. Eli, who knew how to find Becca-the-Twitter-Troll in early 2010. Sure. I feel like you could very easily poke a hole in Marissa’s testimony. (She says she hasn’t helped Eli “use” the software in question, which is true. She just got him a copy.)
Marissa takes a little bit of a victory lap on the stand, drawing a parallel between Landau jumping to conclusions about Marissa colluding with Eli for the hack and opposing counsel jumping to conclusions about Marissa’s spot on the legal team. Marissa is only on the legal team because of a failed attempt to keep her from testifying, but that doesn’t really matter.
So if these protesters are just chanting anti-Semitic shit... can we stop pretending that there are protesters on both sides? Like, I suppose they could still want me to believe this is like a war of protesters, but this is preeeeeeetty clearly coming from one side.
Eli decides to head to DC right away and jump back into work. Marissa asks him to stay another night and have dinner; he says no and jokes they might shoot her, thinking she’s Eli. LOL, dark.
Gotta say, watching this scene slowly play out the first time with the chanting in the background sent my stress levels through the roof. I was like, THERE’S STILL TIME TO KILL OFF ELI YET.
Eli says that Marissa’s mom had to talk him into having a kid. Marissa already knew that. “I’m glad she did,” Eli says. “You’re my greatest achievement,” he adds.
Eli never really got an ending on TGW, so to see him getting one that feels so final – all this talk about goodbye, the car driving away – makes me really emotional.
Speaking of emotional, watching Marissa recite a prayer as Eli drives away REALLY got to me. After so many years, I feel so connected to these characters. Even in this heightened, surreal universe, this moment felt real. It made me feel how far we’ve come from the biggest problem in Marissa’s life being that her dad wants to date a grad student to here. It made the stakes feel higher for the whole rest of the season while also giving some finality (for the viewers, hopefully not for Marissa!) to the Eli/Marissa relationship. There weren’t many TGW cameos I needed on TGW (depending on how it goes, I might be actively mad if the last two episodes have Alicia – my friends who have had the misfortune of reminding me about Ghost Will on TGW know that I’m still mad enough about that I will send them a 30-message long rant about that choice) but Eli was one of the few that I hoped to see eventually because of his ties to Marissa. Having Eli back for 2 episodes – 1 for fun and 1 for something serious – really, really worked for the show.
having a problem where i very much want to write about tgf 604, which was my favorite episode of the show in a LONG time, but also i very much do not want to rewatch it
This will probably be a short one. This isn’t a bad episode, but it’s a case heavy one, and, y’all, I have so much to say about episode four (which I’ve already seen*) that I just want to get through this one.
*I have also now seen episode 5 oops
This episode’s title makes me happy. The Kings used to say that there was exactly one big thing CBS wouldn’t let them do on network*, and that was go after the NFL. This seems to no longer be an issue on Paramount+.
* That they actually attempted to do; obvs they couldn’t have the characters swear, because hearing the word “fuck” is much more detrimental to society than gritty violence!
I am not a big sports fan. Tbh, I held a grudge against football for a little while there because it was “that thing that meant TGW would start at 9:17 some weeks and 9:53 other weeks” when games ran over. That was so infuriating. While I’m walking down memory lane, here are the two worst things football ever did to me: (1) A game went into overtime the night that they killed off Will, meaning that the episode aired in Canada in its entirety before it started in the US. This meant that spoilers found their way to me, like, fifteen minutes before the episode aired. My fault for being on twitter, but I did not like that experience and I blame football. (2) There was one episode, I think it was the season six premiere, that was delayed nearly a full hour because a game went into DOUBLE OVERTIME over a touchdown that happened with literally one second left on the clock. That’s just cruel.
So yeah football is bad and we should ban it because it used to get in the way of me personally enjoying my show when I wanted to. There are no other reasons it is bad. Just those. (I kid. I will likely “case stuff happens” nearly all of the football-related scene of this episode, but the traumatic brain injury stuff really is a big deal.)
Carmen has moved into, but not furnished, her big new apartment. She’s watching a reality TV show that seems horribly delicious and working out when – you guessed it – Charles Lester knocks on her door. This time, she’s got a gun. She puts it away when she recognizes Lester’s voice. She also notes that she didn’t buzz him in and he says the doorman let him up. It only took thirteen seasons, but I’m glad the writers have finally realized that doormen are a thing in fancy apartment buildings in big cities. It used to drive me crazy that people would just show up at Alicia’s door.
I want to understand how Carmen’s compensation works. I assume that as a lawyer at what I believe is a prestigious firm, she’d be making enough to afford that apartment, but did she get a raise? Is her salary tied to the work she brings in, and if so, does that kick in immediately? Why is this a thing that I care about? I think it’s part of a broader question I have about Carmen’s status at the firm. To echo something @antiphon said about episode 2, does the rest of the firm know or care that Carmen’s bringing in these unsavory elements? Ri’Chard clearly does, but how does STRL feel? Liz? Diane? Why does everyone accept it like it’s a given that this firm would take on these clients? And how is Carmen allowed to operate so autonomously? Also, what is she getting out of being part of a firm if she’s a team of one and not using the firm’s resources (other than Jay, I guess)? I think this episode answers some of these questions, and Carmen was flat out asked why she stays at the firm last year, but I think the writers could’ve done a better job here. It feels like Carmen’s off on her own island and it doesn’t really make sense that this could, like, happen in the first place.
Carmen is being summoned to something called a “Crypto-Prom” which sounds either like hell or the most amusing thing in the world.
It’s a weird move to just bring someone a dress to wear, but I guess Charles Lester is a weird person.
I would watch Carmen observe things for hours tbh.
Carmen and Lester talk about Lester’s backstory; it’s mildly interesting. He flips the question around on Carmen and asks her why she’s doing this, because, quote (this is so ridiculous I need more than quotation marks to indicate these are his words), “Liz and Diane are lawyers. You’re the law.” WHAT? I mean, I get what he’s saying, but what a way of saying it.
This scene is a little heavy-handed in its attempt to get us to understand that Lester is the future version of Carmen (in terms of career, at least).
Ben-Baruch determined Carmen’s dress size, because he is “good at sizing up women.” BARF.
The crypto prom is cut short by an undercover cop and Lester’s subsequent arrest for the murder of the CI embedded with Ben-Baruch last episode.
Diane wakes up from her latest trip to a hallucination of a sexy shirtless man painting. Did you get that the drug makes her really horny? I think the writers are really being too subtle here. We need more elves with erections to make the point.
Diane’s developing, or should I say DEEPENING, her obsession with flowers. The colors, apparently, “tickle her brain.”
“I worry that I don’t see enough of the beauty of the world,” Diane says. Bettencourt asks why. Diane says it’s the “curse of the progressive” and I find this hilarious. I don’t doubt that she feels this way, but wow, is it a privileged thing to say. She’s cursed with not seeing the beauty of the world because sometimes in her cushy life filled with arts and luxury... she has to think about the suffering of others? I PITY HER.
I get where she’s coming from, of course, it just sounds so PRIVILEGED. If she’d just said she doesn’t see enough of the beauty of the world, fine, but to call herself cursed? Okay, sure.
“If one person is suffering, you can’t enjoy your life,” Diane says. Come on. I’m sure she loves to think of it that way, but, come on. If she really felt that, there are things she could be doing to help... like working on pro-bono cases...
To continue making the point that Diane doesn’t see enough beauty, she begins to reference art. Compelling case, Diane, 10/10.
Bettencourt, of course, knows the painting Diane’s referencing before she says its title. I appreciate (but maybe don’t need?) the visual of the painting. I appreciate it because I was going to look it up.
Bettencourt tells Diane she is a “lifeguard” based on her analysis of the painting (she sees the suffering magnified while the painting shows it off in the corner with everyone ignoring it). Huh, that sounds familiar...
Diane has her shoes off lollol
I think the reason I like this high!Diane is that I feel like these scenes are actually just showing me who Diane is when she isn’t working. Like, sure, she’s high, but also this kiiiiiinda just feels like a less inhibited version of who I imagine Diane is in her free time.
Diane worries she won’t be able to go to court after her treatment because she isn’t angry enough. “Maybe you’ll be better at your job if you’re not angry,” Bettencourt says, and that shakes Diane to the core.
Bettencourt gives Diane homework, and she’s like OMG YAY HOMEWORK I LOVE HOMEWORK in a tone that sounds somewhat sarcastic but mostly serious.
Diane saying, “I do. Guilty.” and raising her hand sheepishly when Bettencourt asks her if she knows what doomscrolling is is (1) adorable and (2) extremely cringe. I’m so here for it.
Bettencourt tells her to stop doomscrolling for 72 hours, which is advice I could use, too. He says that it’s not just the treatment that can change her mood – it's also her behaviors.
CASE STUFF HAPPENS!!! (sorry I'm very excited to get through this recap)
Ok something I care about is happening now; this case is interesting in that Ri’Chard and Liz are working together. Liz acknowledges that Ri’Chard is good. He says arguing in court is his fourth favorite thing, after sex, food, and music. Literally why are you mentioning sex, dude?
In her extremely gray and bleak office, Diane watches protests out the window. She gets a news alert about how the protests keep going on, then scrolls through a bunch of horrible news articles about guns, climate change, killer gators, skin cancer... there’s one that says “Texas politician sues own daughter over abortion” which is either a real thing or something that will be a real thing in the next year, and mandated school prayer. Then her phone chimes with a news alert about gun violence, a literal plague, “body odor definitive sign of rare genetic disease,” warehouse employees being overworked to death... she decides to unplug. So, on the one hand I really think there’s some truth to all of the “stop doomscrolling” stuff – I haven’t really checked Twitter today and I do feel better for it* -- but I also am not sure it works so well when there are actual protests outside of Diane’s (verrrrrry fake) window. So, Diane is just supposed to tune out the literal protests outside her office because it makes her feel the same way that... clickbaity headlines designed to encourage more engagement do? That’s a stretch. The problem with doomscrolling is that there is no point to it. Getting more enraged in an echo chamber and then spending more time on websites (and thus getting said websites more ad money) is a thing you can easily cut from your life. Paying attention to your surroundings is... not the same. I’m not sure what the point here is – that you can make yourself feel better personally but the world literally outside your window is going to be shit?
*this is also, in large part, because when I use Twitter specifically, I feel like I have to see how every conversation or topic goes, even if I’d be perfectly fine never knowing about it. I get very obsessive about it and it turns into a huge time suck.
Marissa, the newest member of her dad’s legal team, is looking obviously bored during a meeting. Diane grabs her and tells her to shut off access to the news, Twitter, and Facebook. Chumhum is ok though! Marissa wonders how Diane will keep track of the protests without any of this, to which I have two responses. (1) Diane could simply LOOK OUT THE WINDOW WHY IS NO ONE ACKNOWLEDGING HOW WEIRD IT IS THEY ARE ALL STILL IN THE OFFICE and (2) What’s there to keep track of with the protests, anyway? No one seems to know what they are about, so what information is there, other than their physical location? And if it’s just their physical location, please refer to (1).
Also... preventing yourself from doomscrolling and cutting yourself off from the news are different things. There is a medium between obsessively refreshing Twitter and living under a rock.
Wait guys I have to tell you this story about my mom because Diane just said something that sounds like the serenity prayer. So my mom and I were going through an old box of stuff and we found a necklace with the serenity prayer on it, and I was like, “uhhh why do we have this?” (you all don’t know my mom but believe me, this is not something it would be like her to own). I’m fully expecting her to say a friend gave it to her or it was sent in the mail by some charity, but NO. NO. She tells me, “Oh, I think I got it for you at Goodwill or something when you were really into Desperate Housewives and Bree was going to AA meetings.”
I was twelve when that plot aired. So my mom bought me a serenity prayer necklace as a reference to a TV show plot about alcoholism... when I was TWELVE. This story says so much about my relationship to television.
Carmen tries to convince Lester to find new representation. She’s Baruch’s lawyer, so she can’t be Lester’s. I know how this plot ends, and it surprises me that Lester can’t see it five miles away.
I feel like we have seen a lot of these cases where the financier of the case has interests that are at odds with the person who’s actually in court.
Case stuff happens.
Carmen wakes up on the floor (??) to find her gun box empty. Ben-Baruch has broken in to threaten her! A lot of drama happens but basically he is scary and requires her to make Lester the fall guy by giving him shitty representation.
Credits at the 17:20 mark! I’m sad there isn’t any sort of cute warning message over the skip button like there is for Evil.
Thanks to Diane Lockhart’s patronage, flower stands are THRIVING despite the protests.
After buying as many flowers as she can possibly carry, Diane boards the work elevator with Carmen (have these two interacted before? I genuinely don’t remember.). She offers Carmen flowers, and Carmen declines but asks if she came from a funeral.
Diane says she didn’t, but she wants to make the downstairs cheerier. Remember in TGW when the floral budget was one of the first things to go? In a plot about the 2008 recession? Man this show has history.
Okay, Diane, stop showing off how much more knowledgeable you are than everyone! You’re making me feel inferior! (I have seen, and very much liked (though I remember some parts being hella weird and the central theme being very heavy-handed), Metropolis. And it is not that deep of a cut. But it’s not enough for Diane to have art and literature?! She knows her film too?!)
Carmen’s opposition in court is her former teacher. He seems like an asshole. He tries to throw her off by acting like she wasn’t memorable in class and it’s surprising she’d do well.
Carmen returns some flowers to Diane and says her meeting is too serious for flowers; Diane offers to help. Carmen declines.
Carmen must have a great memory because she’s able to quote this guy’s lectures. She could also be bullshitting (at least in terms of her certainty about when he said things).
Diane’s office is still gray but now it also has flowers. I love having the flowers in every shot.
Without doomscrolling to keep her busy, Diane realizes that she is... not doing work.
She goes out into the open seating area and comes across a pack of associates discussing the news – women are being outlawed in Texas (one of those absurd headlines that you’re meant to, I think, take as a dark joke? Because even in this day and age that would be quite alarming?). Diane wants to know what’s happening!
The associates all play along with Marissa and refuse to tell Diane, a partner, the news. I did not realize they all had that kind of relationship with her! Marissa, watching this, smiles to herself and tries to leave the room.
Doesn’t Diane need to know SOME news to do her job?
Marissa refuses to turn social media and news back on.
There’s footage of Lester leaving the crime scene; he insists it’s a fake.
Oooh a little moment continuing the tension between Carmen and Marissa when Marissa drops a vase of flowers off on Jay’s desk and Carmen tenses up.
Carmen wants to know if the video is fake but doesn’t know if she’ll do anything with it... since she suspects Ben-Baruch faked it. Jay seems worried for Carmen.
I guess people can get used to anything but it’s very alarming how little anyone seems to care about these protests.
CASE! STUFF! HAPPENS!
I don’t know why I love the detail of Liz having an Apple Watch, but I do.
Marissa dumps a bag of toys on Diane’s desk to distract her. It’s pretty funny (though not as funny as when Kalinda read Diane Vampire Diaries fanfiction). Wild to do to a partner, but we all know Marissa has no boundaries.
Diane decides to pour drinks for herself and Carmen since she’s picked up on Carmen’s stress. Look at Diane actually being a mentor!
Carmen says she’s waiting for Liz; Diane notes that Liz probably isn’t coming back to the office this late and asks what she needs. Carmen gives Diane a thinly veiled summary of her predicament. Diane asks for more information, listening attentively, then says “With more drinking comes more clarity.”
Carmen’s equally stressed the next day in court. Diane surprises her by showing up as co-counsel, which... like, actually, this is new ground for Diane? And probably an appropriate, good use of her time, given the profile of the clients and her status? (This is, of course, setting aside that I don’t think anyone at Reddick & Associates actually would want Ben-Baruch as a client in the first place.)
Diane says she’ll do her best and Carmen can do her worst. Feels like a doomed plan, but, okay!
Case stuff happens.
Case stuff happens for the other case.
Case stuff happens for Diane and Carmen’s case again. It’s done pretty well but I don’t have much to say about it.
Ben-Baruch is pretty scary.
I love that Lester says that Bishop “accepted Jesus after he left prison” and that’s why he’s not active anymore. Nice little wink at Evil, where Mike Colter plays a priest, right there.
Football case stuff happens.
Turns out the guy financing Liz and Ri’Chard’s case doesn’t want the same thing as the actual client. (This feels familiar.)
Rivi shows up to get Carmen out of this mess. Ben-Baruch wants Carmen killed (or at least roughed up tbh I am not really paying attention to this right now and don’t want to rewind 10 seconds) and Rivi is like, I am more important than you and I want Carmen to be okay! Clever—also, scary. Rivi might be slower to turn on someone but Rivi absolutely WOULD turn on Carmen if needed. So this is... just getting Carmen in deeper.
Diane is at Bettencourt’s office when a window explodes and the episode ends. Sorry, this is way less dramatic when you know how it ends. (I will say I was mildly worried they’d wind up kissing.)
ELI MOTHERFUCKING GOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is truly no better way this episode could’ve started than Eli Gold in an elevator, swearing gleefully. Alan Cumming looks so excited to swear while in his Eli costume.
There’s a whole exchange in Eli’s first scene about how he loves salty language but can’t use it around the Florrick kids, so it feels right to hear him finally swear.
“You’ve never heard me swear before? Well, aren’t you in for a treat,” Eli says. I know this is cheesy fan service and you know what? I am a fan and I am serviced, thank you.
Someone tosses a grenade into Eli’s elevator... he doesn’t care. He’s used to it by now and just screams, “yeah, that’ll really get people agreeing with your politics, asshole!” at whoever threw it. This grenade also says that “11/10 is coming.”
The receptionist asks Eli his name, and he says “Rahm Emanuel” who was, of course, the inspiration for Eli. It must have been so satisfying for the writers to get to reintroduce Eli.
Also... some of y’all have probably never gotten to see Eli before! For anyone who’s seen Fight and not Wife, this is his introduction! I think it’s a good one.
Eli does not wait in reception as requested. Instead, he walks through the halls of the firm, where he can see (through the glass walls that continue to make no sense), Ri’Chard playing piano. Julius tries to send Eli back to reception; he fails.
Eli notices a camera crew in Liz’s office. It’s apparently for a documentary about the top 5 black prosecutors. Feels like a trap. Anything about prosecutors being good, in this day and age, is probably something Liz wants to investigate before agreeing to, no?
Eli asks Julius to put Marissa back on the case she fucked up last episode. Julius refuses, so Eli offers to second chair. I’ve always been under the impression that Eli is NOT a lawyer, but I guess it makes sense he’d have a law degree... and I guess if he’s a lawyer, it makes more sense that he was a partner at LG back in the day? This still feels like new information to me, though.
Now we find out what the “Lila case” is about – a pop star being sued for not honoring her contract because she refused to play in Israel. Julius says it’s in the client’s hands if Eli can join the team and heads out.
Julius stops him and notes that Marissa was there for him, so he wants to give Eli a little advice: Make sure Marissa wins.
Then there’s a loud explosion and the scene ends.
Diane, looking stunning in red, is just about to start her first Mind Trip session.
This Liz-prosecutor documentary feels like a trap. Have you ever heard anyone use “Kamala” and “prosecutor” in the same sentence when the sentiment was POSITIVE? Sentences in Kamala’s autobiography do not count. Also, Liz should be able to get information about who’s financing this project and how likely it is to actually get picked up to a major streamer. Liz should be able to get that information from Del pretty easily, if Del still exists?
Liz instantly likes the filmmaker, though, because the filmmaker is playing up being a member of Liz’s sorority (SGRho)
“Well, my father’s reputation did open some doors,” Liz admits when the filmmaker asks her how her dad affected her career. No easy questions in this interview!
“Was it difficult working as a prosecutor?” “Tell me what you mean?” “Convicting people your dad would’ve defended.” Liz should have shut this entire interview down then and there. That is not a good faith question.
Liz does have a pretty good, bland answer to this question – but even if the interview has to continue, alarm bells should be going off already.
Liz definitely picks up on the weirdness by question 3. And then she’s asked about one very specific case she doesn’t remember off the top of her head... weird.
But we cut away to a Carmen and Ri’Chard scene. Ri’Chard offers Carmen a pie crust cookie. I have never heard of pie crust cookies, but I would now like to eat several of them.
Ri’Chard says his mom made the cookies, for a folksy touch. I LOVE his style. It’s kinda garish, but it’s also so interesting... and I love that he changes up his glasses depending on what else he’s wearing.
Ri’Chard starts with the Jesus stuff again, which either makes Carmen uncomfortable or makes Carmen think hard about how she wants to approach her interactions with Ri’Chard; probably a little bit of both. He’s gotta stop this stuff in the workplace!
Ri’Chard tells his rags-to-riches origin story. A man saw him studying at the library one day and offered him a paralegal job because he could tell Ri’Chard would make him a million dollars. The moral of the story is that Carmen is also a promising young person, and now Carmen will make Ri’Chard a lot of money.
Carmen is, in fact, already making Ri’Chard a lot of money – more than any other associate and more than 90% of the partners. Ri’Chard notices Carmen’s not being treated like she makes that much money, though, and he wants to change that. He wants to give her her own office on the partner floor and a team of third-year associates.
(One thing that’s weird about having only a few named characters in a large workplace – does Carmen KNOW these nameless third-years? Or are they new?)
The third year associates will grab Carmen’s laundry if she so desires. And Marissa’s complaining about having to do paperwork as a first-year?!
Ri’Chard expects Carmen to make $20 million in year one. That’s... that’s a lot. Isn't that like, close to ChumHum money?
Carmen won’t accept the associates. She says she doesn’t like having people work for her and she doesn’t like having to explain herself – but she’ll keep the office. She just doesn’t want the attention.
“Carmen, no one wants the attention, but Jesus marks some of us for greater things,” Ri’Chard says. Jesus marked Carmen to defend drug dealers so a bunch of rich people could get richer? Sure.
“Oh, by the way, do you and Liz not get along?” Ri’Chard asks casually as he’s wrapping up his meeting with Carmen. If the writers are trying to show me that Ri’Chard is exceptionally talented at sizing up a new environment and figuring out how to manage it... they are succeeding. I don’t know what his angle is, but I already respect his strategic mind.
Ri’Chard awkwardly takes over as Carmen’s mentor, which neither Carmen nor Liz want.
Grenade update: All the buildings on the street are getting them and they’re counting down to some “last protest” on 11/10.
Liz says they should up security. I repeat that they need to consider letting people WFH.
Liz asks Jay to look into the filmmaker. You’d think she’d have done this before sitting down in front of a camera, but better late than never. We wouldn’t have this plot if Liz had done her research first. (This is honestly, probably the reason behind 99% of the little things I complain about, and I know that. I don’t love it, but I can acknowledge it.)
Jay, in turn, asks Liz why Eli Gold is in the office. That’s news to Liz, who is not thrilled to deal with yet another chaotic thing in her life.
Eli and Marissa reunite (though I’m sure for them it’s just another day). I swear, I can see the actors looking excited to see each other. I absolutely love that Marissa started off on TGW as Eli’s Sassy Teen Daughter and now she’s a series regular on a different show? Like??? That’s just the most Kings move ever. Always recognizing greatness and building on what works.
Eli says that Julius made it a condition that Eli second chair. Sure. Marissa doesn’t buy it.
Alan’s delivery on “It’s what a father does. Or so I’ve read.” is perfect – the only issue is that he looks too happy to be saying it, but please see my earlier point about effective fan service.
Diane wakes up from her first PT-108 treatment and she’s very blissed out. She takes John Slattery (I have not yet remembered the character’s name and have not yet come up with a pet name for him... any ideas? Dr. 108? Should I go full on Grey’s Anatomy and refer to him as McDreamy since he’s obviously a love interest? (Please note I have seen exactly one episode of Grey’s Anatomy and it was the ghost sex episode. I’ve also seen the scene set to Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol, for some reason.)…
Anyway, she takes John Slattery’s hand and, yeah, there is a 0% chance this isn’t meant to have a sexual undertone.
I could’ve waited to make that point until the plastic elf on the Ficus with an erection. Damn, missed my moment.
Can I call him Lyle because Diane does and it’s shorter than Bettencourt and I know how to spell it without googling?
Diane describing her trip is about a thousand times more interesting than watching a trip, but I am not the type to care about most dream sequences and I am ESPECIALLY not the type to care about drug trip sequences.
Diane takes a sunflower out of a vase on Lyle’s desk and starts stroking it as she describes her trip. This show is so weird. I don’t have many thoughts on the specifics of the drug trip, but I’m mesmerized by the acting.
The word “erotic” has entered the conversation, in case it wasn’t obvious enough (see: elves).
Oh my god it’s too funny that Diane mentions "Something's Coming” to Lyle. This might only amuse me, but “Something’s Coming” is the name of the Desperate Housewives where John Slattery’s character is killed when a tornado hits and a very bad CGI fence post impales him.
In the elevator on the way out of Lyle’s office, Diane sings Something’s Coming quietly to herself. I suppose it makes sense that Diane knows her Sondheim. I kind of just assume every person of her generation and social class has an extensive knowledge of literature and theater. I know that can’t be true, and I know that perception is likely shaped in large part by how much TGW influenced my worldview, but I believe it anyway.
Diane is so high she isn’t fazed by a literal explosion. Speaking of literal explosions, credits!
While I’m thinking about Desperate Housewives and its disaster episodes, here’s a “fun” story. When I was coming back from vacation, the plane had TVs and I decided I’d watch Into the Woods because I’m hoping to see the revival while it’s still on Broadway but I’d never seen the musical. I thought Into the Woods would be the perfect plane movie because I didn’t really care if I had shit audio quality to hear, like, James Corden singing (why is he in so many movie musicals, pls tell me) and it probably wouldn’t include anything about planes or plane crashes and terrify me while I was flying. I WAS WRONG. To be fair, there are zero planes in the movie. The problem is that the title of the season 6 disaster episode of Desperate Housewives is “Boom Crunch.” That episode features a plane crash. “Boom Crunch,” as I learned while ON A PLANE, is a lyric from Into the Woods. Fun times.
Lila is a pop star who seems sweet but not particularly bright. Or particularly knowledgeable about Israel. (Eli’s face when she says “conditions in the Gaza” lol)
Neither Eli nor Marissa can help but be unprofessional here.
Gonna just... not talk about the case. I don’t have any hot takes here. My main thought on the case is that it seems like an excuse for the Kings to say something about Israel and there is a lot of strategy switching/court stuff that doesn’t really make sense coming up.
Today in pop culture references the writers probably did not think someone my age would pick up on (but I did!): the use of a cover of The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song played over protests for a healthy dose of irony.
Diane, all in red, walking with a sunflower and sunglasses, through a line of policemen, makes absolutely no sense but it looks pretty cool.
The address of the firm is 840 N Dearborn. Alicia also supposedly lived on Dearborn. Are the writers aware of other streets? Or that this address is a residential street?
There’s supposed to be something here about the convo Eli and the client just had about having to show ID and Diane showing her ID to bypass the protests, isn’t there? I don’t really care to know.
Diane greets Ri’Chard, who is also hanging by the protests for reasons we’re just not gonna think about too hard, with a big hug. She then gives him her sunflower in exchange for a smoothie.
Ri’Chard was expecting Diane to be more formal. She usually is! It’s very fun to see this side of Diane.
Ri’Chard asks if Liz is trying to team up with Diane against him. OBVIOUSLY yes, why would Liz want to go from having 100% of the decision-making power to 0%? (I suppose you could argue – and would probably be right to argue – that Ri’Chard’s presence proves Liz never actually had any power at all!)
Ri’Chard says he’s there to rebuild Carl Reddick’s legacy. I can’t remember if it got publicly destroyed or not – I think yes? They act like it’s whichever is convenient for the plot. This gets Diane to start laughing, because, as she says, “I just realized that I just may have the most power because I don’t have any power.” I don’t think she’s wrong. If all power gets you is the illusion of control and a lot of expectations... Diane’s in a pretty good spot, no?
Like, if Liz never even had power over her firm, what’s the point of being a name partner at a firm within STR Laurie? Is everything meaningless?
Diane says she was never good at math. Sure. I bet she’s better than she thinks.
Eli and Marissa are rehearsing in court and Eli is blowing spitballs at Marissa? This is fun!
Eli is harsh but not wrong. “Oh my God, is this what my childhood was like?” Marissa quips. “No. Because I was never home,” Eli replies. I have missed him.
Jay discovers that the obvious setup documentary is an obvious setup. Basically, Liz was involved in a case, and the case is important not because of anything that happened, but because 1) the trial was recording (good for documentaries!) and 2) a cop who was later convicted of other, unrelated corruption charges was involved. Sneaky.
Old footage of pregnant Liz! Love it!
“I was tougher then. I sounded tougher,” Liz observes. Oooooh, can I think of this plot as Liz not being in her element? Liz is good at the lawyering part of her job, but maybe management’s made her too eager to please? (She blames her pregnancy, though.)
Jay warns Liz that if she continues with the documentary, the filmmaker can edit her however she wants. Good point. Which is why you do this research before you sit down for an interview.
Case stuff happens. Here is where I have to nitpick. Eli thinks he’s being so brilliant for not bringing politics into it, yet he’s undercut by some... tweets his own client wrote that are directly relevant? This from the man who solved the mystery of @Upriser7 OVER A FUCKING DECADE ago? Okay sure.
Diane got home and exchanged her red dress for a red silky nightgown. Respect.
Diane video calls Kurt and puts on her sultry voice. She seems to think a cartoon lip filter is sexy, and let me tell you, it is not.
Diane is the host of the meeting, so she can put dumb filters on Kurt, too. Do you ever think about how it’s someone’s job to develop the silliest filters they can think of just to amuse people for a few seconds?
Diane transforms Kurt into a cowboy and herself into a sheep. Okay! She demands that Kurt come home right now, but he has to hop onto another call.
Diane, in response, stares at and then sniffs Dr. Bettencourt’s business card (it’s scented; she notes this in an earlier scene). And then there’s a... I don’t have a description for it other than “stock footage orgasm montage”?
Then Diane looks up at the ceiling and says “There you are.” Later scenes, I think, imply that she’s talking to her mom here (thank GOD she’s not talking to Ruth Bader Ginsburg again because I would’ve lost it). Weird thing to think about after the aforementioned stock footage orgasm montage. Something something Freud?
Case stuff happens.
Liz brings Julius into the documentary shenanigans, saying it’s firm policy to have a lawyer present. Julius is pretty aggressive with his questions. The filmmaker says some bullshit about how she intended for it to be an uplifting documentary and instead now it’s about prosecutorial misconduct. She’s realized she’s lost, so she’s changing her strategy by pitching this as Liz’s one chance to defend herself.
Liz responds by giving the filmmaker a death glare.
Diane is sad because her sunflower is dead. She remembers for a second that she’s at work, but picks up Bettencourt’s business card instead, then some birds crash into her window, then suddenly Eli is there just to say hi!
I love how pleased Diane looks to see Eli!
Eli immediately wants to know why Diane is downstairs lol he can’t turn it off for a minute.
“And I hear Peter Florrick’s back in jail?” Diane says. LOL I DID NOT NEED THIS BUT OKAY. On the one hand, I don’t think Peter’s a bad guy and I’m not sure that I believe he was corrupt enough to commit an actual crime. I don’t like it when the show tries to suggest that Peter is some sort of evil villain – and yes, I know there are enough pieces of evidence to make a case for Peter being an evil villain; I have hated every single one of them and never felt that any of them were in keeping with literally anything else the show was doing. On the other hand, I don’t think it’s that serious. First and most importantly, the Kings have made it very clear over time that guilt in court is not the same as actual guilt, so this doesn’t necessarily have to be a comment on Peter’s guilt or innocence. (Relatedly, they’ve also made it clear that once you’re on a downward trend, you’re an easy mark.) Second, the Kings explained this choice by basically saying that it’s funny because a lot of former Illinois governors have gone to prison, which sounds completely abstracted from anything having to do with Peter Florrick the character. Third, I do quite like the theory (though I don’t believe it) that this is their way of addressing Chris Noth’s shitty behavior.
“And Alicia?” Diane asks, even though there is a 0% chance she was unaware of what Alicia’s up to prior to this moment. “Oh, she’s still in the law. She started her own firm in New York. It’s doing well,” Eli responds. I don’t really care one way or another about this update. It’s the most basic, least interesting update they could’ve given -- “started her own firm in New York” is just a version of the “New York office” line TGW always used to use to explain character absences. The only reason Alicia moved to New York in this update is that... she can’t be in Chicago or she’d be on the show. Alicia starting her own firm and remaining in the law is the simplest path forward after the finale, and while I believe she’d move and rebuild... I don’t have much to say about this. I could analyze this and talk about how it’s interesting that after two years of searching for a new path, Alicia just ended up taking the path of least resistance, but that is entirely too much to read into this line.
I miss Alicia.
Diane and Alicia are no longer in touch. That’s obvious. I’m a little surprised Eli doesn’t know this part of the story since, like, he was at Peter’s trial.
And now here’s the part of this scene that’s actually interesting – Diane realizes that it’s the anniversary of her mother’s death.
She also looks up at the ceiling in the middle of talking about her mom, which is why I said earlier that the “there you are” line might’ve been about her mom.
Diane says she’s trying to see her life from another perspective and she thinks she’s seeing it. How long does this drug trip last!?
Diane says her life looks small and Eli nopes out of the conversation immediately. Diane thinking her life looks small just tells me that everyone occasionally thinks their life is too small.
Case stuff happens.
Oooh it’s a workplace bickering scene!
I don’t know why this associate thinks it’s appropriate (or helpful, or strategic, or meaningful) to ask Marissa if she can take over the case once Marissa is off of it. Like Marissa would have a say in that decision?
It’s very funny to me that in this episode about fathers and daughters, they chose to give this bit to Michael Boatman’s daughter.
“Julius said that your Judge Wackner stuff put you in a bad position with the firm,” Eli says. Did it now? I like the continuity but they could have simply not hired her as a first-year associate if that was the case! They’re apparently looking for an excuse to dump her. Was the Wackner stuff NOT an excuse? This makes very little sense to me.
And who is “the firm” here? Is it Marissa’s colleagues? It’s definitely not Diane. Is it Liz, who dated the guy who gave Wackner a TV show? Is it STR Laurie, who could absolutely come up with some reason to fire Marissa? I don’t understand.
Especially if this is Marissa’s first week? And STR Laurie, if they really wanted her out, would have just fired her for the first fuck-up before Marissa could even call her dad?
I completely understand saying things are really hard at the end of week one when under this much stress, but this scene with Marissa crying because things went wrong just reminds me how entitled Marissa can be. Did she think this would just be easy?
Eli gives Marissa the advice that “life is hard because people are assholes,” which he says he also told her in third grade. In a weird way, that explains the entitlement. If you grow up being told the problem is always other people, of course you’ll think you’re always right.
Julius demands to know what evidence the filmmaker has. She says she has “the friendship bracelet” as though it was the key to the case and not a trivial detail.
One of Liz’s former colleagues said something to the filmmaker that looked bad for Liz. He’s apologetic about it, seems like it was a bad edit. Liz asks him for the case file.
Case stuff happens.
Hey, a mention of Liz’s ex-husband! Liz starts worrying that maybe she did a bad job and ignored a corrupt cop because it would’ve interfered with her case.
Lila only has 3.2 million followers. That’s 1 million fewer followers than Charli XCX, if that helps with a sense of scale.
Liz continues with the interview. “Deandra, what are you doing?” Liz asks mid-interview. “I’m trying to find the truth,” the filmmaker responds. “No you’re not. You’re not. Because if the truth really mattered to you, you wouldn’t have lied to me when you first got here, calling me a role model and using our sorority sisterhood bonds so that you could get me to lower my guard so that you could do to me what they’ve been doing to Kamala.”
The filmmaker continues to act innocent; Liz interrupts her. “You are not here for justice. You’re here about entertainment, and you know how I know? Because we’re not even talking about Officer Tenny and whether he lied, because you’re so fixated on a fucking friendship bracelet that was found 50 feet from the crime scene, even though there was a mountain of evidence right at the suspect’s feet. Why? Because it’s visual. Because you want the audience to think that you found something that everybody else overlooked. So congratulations. You found QAnon.” Liz is the best. Amazing takedown of True Crime TikTok here. It truly is just a giant conspiracy theory.
I could rant about this for days. Misinformation on TikTok is so rampant. I know this documentary isn’t for TikTok, but it might as well be.
There is more to this takedown; it’s delicious but not worth transcribing.
Liz gives the filmmaker the case file so she can see for herself that there was no wrongful conviction. A risky strategy.
Liz channels her anger and storms into Ri’Chard’s office. “Don’t steal from me,” she demands. He pretends not to know what she’s talking about. She’s talking about mentoring Carmen. Ri’Chard says he was just trying to be helpful, since Liz and Carmen don’t seem to like each other much.
“I work with a lot of people that I don’t necessarily care for. Back off,” Liz says, not even denying his claim. Ri’Chard says he’ll back off.
“You know, we need to figure out how we’re gonna work together,” Liz says. Ri’Chard seems open to this, but is he?
Liz then notices the pie crust cookies on Ri’Chard’s desk and notes that her mom used to make them, too. She takes one, stares at Ri’Chard, bites into the cookie, and then starts shaking her head. She accuses him of trying to pass off store-bought cookies as homemade.
Ri’Chard then asks his posse of associates (or whoever these people are) to leave the room. He asks Liz how they can work together; she says they need to be truthful, meaning that he shouldn’t treat her like an idiot. Fair point.
Ri’Chard agrees, but Liz isn’t done yet. She knows she hasn’t fully won yet. Ri’Chard then initiates a prayer, which Liz eagerly leads. She includes a prayer for Ri’Chard to know his place and see that she’s not the enemy.
Post-prayer, she throws away the rest of the cookie and says, “Now don’t fuck with me” before leaving. Ri’Chard puts the whole tin of cookies in the trash, which I assume is an acknowledgement that Liz was correct in calling them store-bought.
Love this scene, don’t get this dynamic yet. Liz gains nothing from being polite, so she may as well show Ri’Chard she can play his silly game.
Case stuff happens. Eli and Marissa lose, but the client ends up happy.
And then we get the real reason Eli is back: he’s in legal trouble and wants Marissa to join his legal team so that she can’t be subpoenaed. Sounds about right!
Marissa, understandably, gets upset, because it seems like the only reason her dad even bothered to show up was because he needed a favor.
Liz recounts her interactions with the filmmaker to Diane, which is a touch I love – they're just talking about their days! Diane even has her shoes off! They are actually friends!
Then Diane starts acting a little weird and Liz asks if she’s alright. “My mother died at my age,” she responds. “Well, then, she died young,” Liz says. “I’d forgotten she was my age until this morning, and now I can’t get the thought out of my head. No one said she died young,” Diane remarks.
Liz keeps trying to comfort her. It doesn’t totally work.
I feel like this is the most the show’s talked about death outside of, like, those certain season 5 TGW episodes. Combined with the violence in the air, this is creating a very eerie, unsettling vibe for season 6.
Then Diane starts levitating. Why not!? (She has her shoes on now—when did she put them back on?)
I’ve now seen episodes 3 and 4 (I was almost done writing this when 4 aired). I cannot wait to write about episode 4.
Wow. It’s weird writing this knowing that once I finish, I’ll only ever have nine more of these to write. Before the final season announcement, I assumed TGF would run... forever, I suppose. Since it isn’t really a character-driven show, it’s easy to imagine that as long as there’s stuff happening in the world, there’s interesting ground for TGF to cover. Still, six seasons is a good run, and I understand the decision to end things now. I’m hoping this final season will give me some of the closure that TGW’s lazy final season did not. So here we go.
I read an advance review of this season (first 5 episodes) that noted these episodes felt less ambitious than the prior seasons. I wish I hadn’t read that review and had come to the conclusion myself... but I am confident I would’ve had the same opinion even without the review. To start off with, I don’t like this naming convention for the season (tbh this episode title feels like it should be an episode of Bones) and I don’t like that this episode starts with the credits.
What I REALLY wish I’d had no exposure to before watching this episode was the undercurrent of violence/protest running through the season. Instead of being surprised by it and piecing together what it might mean and how it’s thematically connected to how all the Wackner stuff ended last year, I already know what to expect. (That said – it's kind of a knock against the episode, isn’t it, that reading a press release summary about the violence had more or less the same impact as actually seeing it?)
While I’m still being negative... Nelson McCormick has never been my favorite director on this show (in fact, he’s been one of the directors I’ve liked the least) and now he seems to be the Kings’ go-to for Evil (where I like his work more) and TGF, especially now that Brooke Kennedy is no longer with the show. (On that last note, I want the tea.)
I am happy the season starts with Liz, who, in the last few years, has FINALLY started getting the type of attention and material she deserves!
Liz walks down some empty streets, looking disoriented. She runs into Diane, who’s just returned from vacation. Apparently the streets are empty because of a police exercise.
Oh good, ChumHum is back as a client. At least this time around, déjà vu is a theme of the season, so there’s no need for me to note how little sense this makes and how many times they’ve done it before.
Oooh, I’m feeling negative this morning! I don’t actually dislike this opener.
The building behind Liz and Diane says “THE TRUMP BUILDING” on it. It’s silly to complain in what’s basically season thirteen that the writers have never done their research on Chicago, but this feels like a total missed opportunity to, like, work some VFX magic and put the ACTUAL building in Chicago that ACTUALLY says Trump’s name in big, stupid letters in the show.
Diane’s office has been moved downstairs, but it’s been “expanded” for her and Liz offers to let her move back upstairs. So they’re on good terms. I would love to understand the firm’s construction budget.
Here’s my problem with TGF: In a scene like this, I should have more to say about Diane and Liz’s relationship. But I don’t, because there’s not much beyond the descriptive (Diane and Liz are on good terms) to say. There’s nothing for me to dig my teeth into. Anything else I could say here would be commentary on how the writers are structuring the season, not the characters.
Eh, I guess there is one thing I can say—Diane insisting on staying on 22 and not really caring about having a bigger office feels kind of like she’s self-inflicting punishment for fun/to feel good about herself. That’s making her out to be much more cynical and masochistic than I believe she is, but a lot of this does feel like everyone involved is playacting. Diane still has power; Liz still treats her like an equal and is making it quite clear (to Diane, at the very least) that Diane’s demotion is, in large part, about optics.
Madeline pops up to disparage Diane to Liz. She is convinced that Diane is out to sabotage Liz, going so far as to note that “Liz, you’re a sweet leader and I love you, but Diane will not be happy downstairs.” Oof. There’s so much happening in that sentence. First -- “a sweet leader” makes it sound like Liz is leading a group project at school and isn’t very good at it, but at least she’s nice to everyone. The issues with Liz not being the most natural leader from last season have not faded. Second, “and I love you” feels a little incongruous with the Liz/Madeline relationship and makes me want to see more of Madeline as a character (right now she largely feels like a device). Third, “Diane will not be happy downstairs” is simultaneously true and false. Diane will be happy downstairs as long as she doesn’t feel stuck. I think Diane can coast a lot on knowing she chose to be there and patting herself on the back for doing the right thing.
I love that the show will mention Barbara now and acknowledge that she was basically pushed out of her own firm. Diane didn’t quite take her spot, but Diane changed the firm enough for Barbara to immediately search for the exit...
“It is always so great to start my day with you, Madeline,” Liz responds. Have I heard this line somewhere else?
“Watch her. She’s coming after you,” Madeline warns again. Yeah... I don’t think Diane is, though.
An associate at the firm mistakes Diane for someone involved in a class action. Really? How big is this firm that being away for a month or two would make a former name partner unrecognizable oh god I’m nitpicking again
Diane enjoys her anonymity, at least momentarily. She’s less excited about her office (still a corner!). Everything on 22 looks dull and gray.
In an echo of TGF episode 2, Marissa is under Diane’s desk, plugging in her computer. She’s an attorney now, because... time is weird don’t think about it too hard. (The timing might kind of add up if Marissa found a program that takes less than 3 years and started in mid-2020? Is that even possible?)
Diane congratulates Marissa; Marissa asks about her vacation, which Diane says was “wonderful, and much too short”
Marissa notes she’s helping Diane unpack to “get on her good side” -- she wants a favor. Again, Marissa asks Diane if she wants the framed photo with Hillary Clinton (she does).
Marissa mentions the protests briefly, then pulls out African masks (just like in episode 2). Apparently, they were never unpacked.
Diane notices that this moment feels like it’s already happened; Marissa responds by repeatedly saying, “What do you mean, unpacking your stuff?” and it’s very funny, love Sarah Steele’s delivery. I also do love the self-aware deja-vu theme. Honestly, how can I sit here and complain about recycled plot points and tiny details when this show is clearly trying to be surreal (aimless protests as tone setting!) and it’s flat-out telling me it knows it’s being repetitive? I’m going to try to chill out and just enjoy what the writers are putting in front of me instead of nitpicking.
Plus, déjà vu is a really great theme for this season, given, you know, the whole world right now. I’m on board with this theme. Now let’s see if I really can refrain from nitpicking.
Marissa asks Diane if she can argue a motion and then some birds fly into Diane’s office window, prompting Diane to say Madeline Starkey’s name. Spooked by the birds, Diane gets a concerned look on her face and gives Marissa what she wants.
“I don’t need to see this,” Liz says to another lawyer who’s showing her a clip of something happening in the metaverse. She’s also speaking for me in this moment. I don’t find the metaverse (at least not the one that feels like Second Life 2022) interesting at all.
This case – sexual assault in the metaverse – is intriguing, and, unfortunately, based on reality. As with most cases, I do not have much to say about it. Diane and Liz seem to be on the wrong side of this one: they are representing Chumhum and arguing that assault isn’t real if it happens in the metaverse.
A loud bang at one of the protests temporarily disrupts the meeting. No one knows what the protesters want. This feels unrealistic, but it’s also pretty obviously tone-setting (and maybe a little bit of commentary about the amount of anger in the world right now + how easy it is to get into a nonsensical mob mentality) so I’m okay with it.
Neither Liz nor Diane have ever been tear gassed, but Liz’s dad was once and said it was “murder.” Yay for mentions of Liz’s dad! More than anything, these mentions show that the writers haven’t forgotten that Liz got to where she is in large part because of her name.
Diane suggests that security be hired to escort employees to their cars, and I have many thoughts. First, can’t y’all work remotely?! Second, I don’t think angry crowds like people who think they’re important enough to have security details.
Chumhum has given EVERYONE IN THE FIRM their own VR headset. Sounds like big tech!
Liz heads up to a meeting with STR Laurie. I’m shocked STR Laurie has stuck around for this long, tbh.
Liz asks Diane if she’s going to fuck her over. “No, never. I have no idea why I would do that. I’m glad you’re in charge,” Diane responds. I think she means it.
“And Liz,” she follows up. “Can I tell you one thing I’ve learned here? Women don’t like to take credit. Men do. That’s why they get promoted.” I would bet you anything that Diane did not learn that lesson at the job she took basically post-retirement. I would imagine Diane learned that in, like, elementary school.
I’m on the fence about hesitant-manager-Liz. On the one hand, I absolutely love seeing smart, passionate characters struggle and grow, especially with skills that might not come naturally to them. Liz never needed to manage or take credit in quite this way in her days as a prosecutor. On the other hand, I think this sequence might be making Liz out to be less assertive than she is. Wasn’t one of Liz’s early defining moments when she pursued a completely different strategy from everyone else in the room and impressed the DNC? I know management is a different beast, but I’d prefer to see Liz struggle with finding the right things to say or knowing how to keep things under control. Liz struggling with confidence feels... inappropriate.
STR Laurie leadership wants to congratulate Liz on a job well done! Liz starts to say it was a team effort, but decides to accept the compliment and take credit. I might have been too harsh above. Taking credit and being confident are different things. I’m going to leave my above paragraph, though, because I still have a nagging feeling about this plot and am curious to know what others thought.
Yet again it’s the best quarter the firm’s ever had lol
STR Laurie’s reaction to the best quarter ever with Liz’s solo leadership is to bring in a second name partner (Allegra didn’t work out; the writers could’ve bought so much good will by mentioning Allegra HERE and not in passing 20 mins later!). Because STR Laurie leadership are buddy-buddy with Kurt enough to have a photo of all of them in hunting gear in their office (um, okay), Liz assumes this new name partner must be Diane.
Speaking of not saying the right thing, Liz immediately starts TALKING about Kurt before she knows any details about who the new name partner will be! Shut up, Liz! Don’t show them your weakness and doubt!
The most ridiculous part of that meeting is that STR Laurie DOES NOT TELL LIZ ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THE NEW NAME PARTNER. They do not say if it is or isn’t Diane, they do not tell Liz if it is someone they’ve already hired or if she’ll be involved in the selection... nothing. What? Why? (I know why; it’s so Liz can storm off and then be very terse with Diane.)
Diane clearly has thoughts on Liz’s attitude but doesn't immediately say anything. She asks Liz if she’s alright; Liz says she is but doesn’t say anything else. Oof.
As Liz and Diane leave the office, the new name partner arrives! No one seems to know he’s going to be coming in! Except STR Laurie, I guess, who for some reason determined that the appropriate way to introduce Liz to Ri’chard was by... ambush? Is their goal to create drama or to run a law firm!?
Carmen is doing well for herself; she’s touring an apartment in the Gold Coast (which is not where Carmen would want to live, but, whatever). Then she’s interrupted by two men in suits.
Ri’chard deems all of the art at Reddick & Associates (the name only made it one episode and they STILL got new signage!) awful and starts measuring to see which office is the biggest. He wants to know how many floors the firm has. I want to know where this dude came from (big enough to matter, not big enough for anyone to know him?) and why he’s content with working at a firm as small and lacking in independence as this one. I know, I know, I need to sit back and enjoy the show and just appreciate this marvelous performance from Andre Braugher.
“Does Liz know you’re doing this?” Julius asks Ri’chard. “Who’s Liz?” he responds. “The other name partner,” Julius explains. “Yeah, she knows,” Ri’chard says, obviously not giving a shit about Liz’s existence. Who hired this man and why? What is this hiring process? Why can’t I stop nitpicking?
Ri’chard has a posse of associates (?) who follow him around and is religious.
Liz is being too aggressive in court and Diane tells her so. I think that’s what I dislike about this iteration of the Liz plot – it makes it seem like Liz doesn’t know how to behave like a professional and like Diane knows everything. And while it makes sense that Diane would have better leadership abilities than Liz (we’ve seen Diane be a leader for thirteen actual years), I don’t think we need Liz to be taking her anger out on an assault victim to make that point.
Diane starts predicting what’s going to happen in the trial before it happens. I think this is supposed to contribute to the déjà vu plot, but it has the (possibly unintended?) effect of making it seem like Diane is several steps ahead of Liz, which I do not love.
Apparently, the victim was wearing a haptic suit at the time of the attack – you would think this would’ve come up earlier – and Jay doesn’t know what setting it was on. Another thing you’d think they’d know before GOING TO COURT.
Have we actually seen the court dialogue from this scene before? I know we saw an argument where Diane wanted Liz to be less aggressive in S5. Is that why this is happening? I think I was on Liz’s side for that argument; this feels like Liz is pissed at Diane and taking it out on an assault victim.
I do not like it when characters act in certain ways for the sake of plot. I do not like it one bit.
Diane confides in Jay about her déjà vu (deja vecu, actually – when it happens for a longer period of time) and Jay calls it her “superpower.” Diane is not pleased with that answer and looks alarmed.
Carmen has a bag over her head and is being escorted to a super top secret location, but she’s still allowed to use her phone (?????). Marissa calls her and begins pestering her, just like she did with Lucca in 5x01. Marissa does not pick up on the distress in Carmen’s voice; she’s too happy about being able to argue a motion in court.
Another creep repped by Charles Lester wants Carmen’s services. I have very few thoughts on these plots. Carmen’s interesting, but this case adds little to the overall show. I mean, it’s not just Diane feeling déjà vu. This plot feels like every Bishop plot in a blender.
Marissa and Carmen resume their call. Protesters are at the courthouse now. Marissa’s nervous about her court appearance and wants advice; Carmen tells her she’ll be fine because of her experience in Wackner’s court (oh, wow, I thought we were just going to act like that was a fever dream and never talk about it again!). Carmen says she has to go and Marissa does not listen or wonder why Carmen sounds so harried.
Marissa then freezes in court. She can’t get a word out. She loses. And I love it. I love watching these characters fail.
Her opposition tells her she must have the “yips.”
Case stuff happens. Liz and opposing council fight over the controller. I don’t understand.
Yeah this scene, where the judge gets assaulted in the metaverse and the assault victim has to watch (why would her lawyers do this to her? She should at least have the option of leaving the room!) is NOT an easy watch. Hard to watch this and think Liz and Diane are in the right, at least morally (I have no idea about legality as I am not a lawyer).
I’ve had multiple people tell me they assume I’m a lawyer and... can you IMAGINE how nitpicky these recaps would be if I knew the first thing about the actual law? I’m a little scared of what that alternate version of myself would have to say.
Ri’chard gets rid of Diane’s flower-head painting!!! HOW DARE HE!!!
Ri’chard does a listening exercise where associates have to tell him what they hate about the firm. Say what you will about his harshness in this scene: at least he is listening to the associates and giving their opinions more weight than Julius’s too-little-too-late promise to hire two associates.
That said, most problems with staffing are easy to solve if you have infinite money to throw at them. I have seen no indication that Reddick and Associates has infinite money to throw at problems.
Marissa is NOT happy with her court performance and almost forgets to get off the elevator on her floor. She immediately finds Carmen, expresses the slightest concern for her, and starts talking about the yips. Carmen, who was just trying to WALK THROUGH THE HALLWAYS, looks at her phone and tells Marissa she’s busy. Marissa does not listen and keep going, because the point of a friendship is to have someone to talk at. Marissa finally notices something’s off when Carmen rushes away to an office filled with cops.
Oop I’m back to not caring about the case! So many cases to not care about!
Carmen is smart; it is always fun to watch smart people work.
Carmen’s new client is arrested despite having a “secret” location. There’s a CI in his crew! Drama!
Liz and Diane arrive back at the firm to complete chaos. Ri’chard has hired a lot of new people and has begun redecorating. This is simply to absurd to take issue with; we are not in reality.
Ri’Chard hypes Liz up so much it feels insincere. He even kisses her hand. Uh, no?
Ri’Chard says he feels like an insider already, and... he kind of does. He’s perfectly cast—so natural among the other names in this show that I do feel like he’s already been around more than 2 episodes. It still weirds me out when he smiles, though, but that is 100% because I’ve only ever seen him on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Captain Holt NEVER smiled.
Why did I just get hit with a ton of feelings listening to Diane introduce herself? Why did THAT line make it hit me that this show is ending and Diane’s been a part of my life for a decade?
How did I neglect to mention that Ri’Chard has made the conference room his office?! The confidence! He says it’s going to do “double-duty” but that obviously won’t work.
Also, just gonna note that today (the day after I wrote a lot of what’s above) someone tried to give me credit for something and I immediately noted that others helped too... I think I need to take Diane’s advice to Liz myself.
Liz and Ri’Chard go to talk to STR Laurie. Liz paces around the room while Ri’Chard lounges on the couch, and I can’t help but to think about how gendered this feels. Liz is objectively in the right – she's just had someone added to her firm for no reason, with no warning and no say in the hiring. All her grievances and her anger are justified. But because she’s pacing around and being serious rather than playful and chummy, she doesn’t stand a chance right now. But if she were to sit down nonchalantly like Ri’Chard and voice her complaints, I don’t think STR Laurie would take her seriously, either. This feels like sexism.
STR Laurie spends its time fielding calls about fickle, unhappy Reddick & Associates clients. Despite having given Liz praise that very morning, over the course of the DAY, things at R&A have turned so dire between the “loss” on the Chumhum case and Marissa’s fuckup that Liz can no longer be trusted to manage things on her own. This scene makes me so angry. I know Liz could do a better job of controlling the room, but the point I’m trying to make is that her being in the right counts for much less than it should – and the stuff that “shouldn’t” count at all seems to be all that matters. Hypercompetence is no match for charisma.
The STR Laurie folks call Liz “Diane” in case you weren’t convinced they’re sexist assholes. Oh, Liz looks so pissed – and rightfully so – at the mixup.
After the meeting, Ri’Chard tells Liz he’s not the enemy and that they can “kick ass together.” I mean, sure, STR Laurie is the enemy here, but Ri’Chard taking over and making leadership decisions before learning who Liz is makes him ALSO the enemy. Is that really how you start off a partnership that you intend to be equal and fruitful?
I am not sure what Ri’Chard’s endgame is, actually, but until I’m given more information I will assume that it’s to be the sole name partner and/or advance to a more prestigious role in STR Laurie.
Question: What’s more prestigious, being a name partner at R&A or being one of the STR Laurie guys who is not any of S,T,R, or Laurie? I think it has to be senior leadership at STR Laurie, right?
Ri’Chard tells an exasperated Liz they can “change the world” together. Is this supposed to give me déjà vu and remind me of Alicia and Cary in Red Team, Blue Team?
Liz tells Ri’Chard basically what I said—that if he really wants to help, he should respect what’s already been built. Ri’Chard says he understands and tells Liz she’s wise before extending his hand for a shake. Liz shakes his hand, reluctantly, but it’s clear she’s not buying what he’s selling. And neither am I. Actions speak louder than words.
“We have different styles, but not different goals,” he tells her. I actually won’t be shocked if Ri’Chard turns out to be a good guy, but the writers have done a good job here of putting me in Liz’s shoes and making me mistrustful of the new guy. (Yes, I am singing the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend song in my head.)
Carmen case stuff happens. Time for a phone break! To me, the only purpose these scenes serve is heightening just how much more intense the shit Carmen’s dealing with is than Marissa’s self-imposed mistake.
Carmen arrives back at the office and notices a cracked window. Marissa, who’s also still working, tells her it cracked from the flash bombs from the protest. The power is also intermittent. Just go and work from home!
Marissa is reading about the yips. Carmen’s there, which must mean Carmen wants to talk, so Marissa gets up and starts blabbing about how Liz and Diane are talking to her the next day, probably about the continuance she messed up (utterly stunned this mistake has gone unmentioned for as long as it has; someone should’ve been on that IMMEDIATELY).
Carmen actively ignores Marissa and continues doing work. Marissa does not take the hint. Carmen interrupts her to remind her that, “I’m not your security blanket.” Marissa doesn’t understand. Carmen tells her she has to handle her issues by herself because “I can’t be there for you. I’m not good at it. And, frankly, I don’t have the time for it.”
I loooooooooove this. I love Carmen getting overwhelmed and in over her head and I love Marissa getting told, for once in her life, to shut up in a way that will actually make her stop and listen. Marissa’s been able to get pretty far in her career through persistence, but she absolutely needs to learn to cooperate with others and think beyond herself.
“I’m not asking for your time. I’m asking for your advice,” Marissa says, as though Carmen can dispense advice without spending any time listening.
“And I can’t give it to you. I’m not built to be your sounding board. I have my own problems. That’s where my focus needs to be. Not on you,” Carmen responds. Harsh! Not undeserved, but harsh! I think Carmen’s not giving herself enough credit – I think she’s capable of, like, having friends.
Now episode 3 has aired. Guys, I do not recommend taking a 2-week vacation at the same time as the premiere of your favorite show – you will get behind on writing extremely long recaps no one reads! (Jk I absolutely recommend taking a 2-week long vacation if you’re able!)
“Okay. Makes sense. Have a good night, and fuck you,” Marissa responds, unable to comprehend that the world doesn’t revolve around her. As I said above, I really like seeing someone who’s able to resist (or maybe not resist fully, but push back on) Marissa’s charms. Marissa is not used to not getting her way. Carmen’s being pretty firm and harsh here, but in a way I think is deserved (and certainly understandable given the amount of pressure she’s under). Marissa doesn’t need to say “fuck you” -- she needs to say something more like, “Wow, Carmen, that’s harsh – seems like you’re under a lot of stress right now. Is there anything you want to talk about?” (I understand where Marissa’s coming from, too, and I don’t know that most people would have the maturity to actually respond like that. But if Marissa and Carmen are actually friends, I’d want Marissa to be able to recognize when Carmen’s taking her stress out on her...)
Love Carmen’s reaction to Marissa’s “fuck you” -- she looks simultaneously startled, amused, and confused.
Diane watches the news; it’s all protests, all the time. So she takes out the VR headset and tries to escape from the world. Several of her colleagues have had the same idea, and we’re treated to a montage of Diane, Jay, and Julius exploring the metaverse.
Diane immediately goes back to vacation mode, calling up virtual Europe (Italy?) and then listing her interests as RUTH BADER GINSBURG before deciding that Season 5 is in the past and DEJA VU is the theme of THIS season! (No but this is very heavy-handed lol)
Julius’s avatar is a hero in a fantasy (and romance?) game, how basic lol
Jay is in the metaverse for work. His avatar is a giant, and kinda pervy looking tbh, bear. Not sure why, but it’s funny!
Diane receives a virtual business card for something called Mind Trip that will allegedly help with her déjà vu. Sure. Seems legit. Diane doing drugs *again* to cure her déjà vu – that's a little ironic.
(Intrigued that the Kings decided to return to what was probably one of the most polarizing plots on TGF – but I’m not surprised.)
The montage ends with everyone’s internet failing? Maybe because of the protests?
“My world feels a little bit out of control,” Diane says at the fancy drug office thing. We’ve heard this from her before, very season two.
John Slattery is part of the cast now, and while I’m not sure I love this plot or this character, I can’t believe he is JUST NOW joining the cast?! Both he and Andre Braugher feel like they’ve been part of the TGW/F family forever already, probably because they’re actors on the same level as the rest of the cast.
(Side note on John Slattery, like everyone else, I also mostly think of him as Roger Sterling... but I first saw him as Gaby’s politician husband in Desperate Housewives! Man, I miss that show sometimes.)
“I feel like we’re on this hamster wheel, and no matter what we do, we end up back at the start. You know? I used to believe in progress. That people learned from their mistakes. That things got better. And... and here we are,” she says. The news certainly does feel like this these days. This is a really smart theme for season six, and I do love that (and I say this mostly based on episode 2 and 3, sorry!) this plot feels familiar but is also actually generating material I don’t feel like this show (or TGW) has ever covered?! Like, I’m seeing new sides to Diane and this is SEASON THIRTEEN for her.
I do really like this scene, but I don’t have a lot to say about it.
I also like that Diane mentions she used to microdose; I’m a sucker for continuity.
I would never in a million years trust this practice to give me drugs
John Slattery’s character mentions Dante and Diane falls in love with him instantly. I don’t know that I’m exaggerating there.
(I like Diane and Kurt together a lot, but the way they’re still having the same arguments over and over about politics makes me wonder how long they can last. And this dude? He is CLEARLY a love interest.)
The graphic design on the logo for ‘ChumHum metaverse’ looks like someone with no experience in graphic design spent about 30 seconds on it. Oof.
Case stuff happens. Jay-the-pervy-bear recorded something that looked bad for the victim and (once again) the entire case hinges on late-breaking information.
The victim gets to give a speech, though, which is... fine, I guess? Like, it’s a good speech and all, but it’s preachier than the show usually gets...
Diane and Liz lose and have to let ChumHum know. Meanwhile, Ri’Chard is praying and Marissa’s being asked to do paperwork. Marissa does not want to do paperwork or wait her turn. This seems entirely fair to me.
Notable names in Marissa’s favorites: David Cord, her dad, Lucca, Wackner. She calls Eli and says she needs help.
If the point of this plot was to show that Marissa’s as entitled and privileged as she is witty and smart, it succeeded!
Oh I did NOT like the way the camera zoomed in as Carmen pushed back on the police officer
Carmen’s plot is not very interesting to me but for the sake of recapping, Carmen’s realization that there was a CI in her client’s crew led to that CI’s horrific death.
This prosecutor or detective guy, I'm not sure which and I don’t really care, accuses Carmen of being responsible for the CI’s death. Carmen is like, if I’m such a coldblooded killer, why are you even trying to appeal to my sense of ethics? Good point.
And then the detective is all, oooh you’ll wind up dead too if you continue down this path. Carmen does not care. She asks him to leave and then accepts congratulations (and a lot of new work) from her latest scary crime boss client. She doesn’t seem entirely happy to be in this position – likely since she knows the prosecutor’s warning isn’t wrong.
Diane and Liz drink together as helicopters fly over the office. “Do you ever worry that we’re gonna lose everything?” Diane asks. Liz thinks she means the firm – but Diane means the whole country. Liz says she needs more drinks for that one – ha!
Diane and Liz friendship scenes took us a little too long to get to, but I’m so glad we have them now. It’s nice seeing Diane *actually* have a female friend she can chat with. She’s wanted this for so long and now she finally has it!
Diane then starts talking about how she REALLY didn’t want to come back home from vacation. She says that’s new for her. Liz is just like, “well then you haven’t lived” which is a good point. Also, Diane could retire and buy her home in France now, could she not? If she doesn’t want to work, couldn’t she just not work?
Liz confesses she was pissed off earlier in the day because she thought Diane was about to be named the second name partner. Diane is not surprised – she'd already guessed as much. (I love that even in these casual chats with Liz where Diane’s not really trying to make waves, it’s always clear that Diane has a very good sense of what’s happening and knows how and when to push. There were a few scenes like that last season and there are several in this episode, and it’s a great way of showing-not-telling that Diane has great leadership instincts.)
Oh, NOW we’re going to mention getting rid of Allegra? I think I said this above, but would’ve been nice to drop that little line upfront before I could get angry at the episode for lack of continuity!
Liz asks for Diane’s help with Ri’Chard, knowing she might be “fighting for her life here.” Diane laughs, because it’s yet another moment of déjà vu. They’re fighting a man – again. “Always,” Liz responds. “It will be ever thus. So here’s to us,” Diane says. Nice.
All of the series regulars are in the elevator together for no discernable reason other than that this shot/scene works better if it concerns all the people we care about and no one else.
Not even Marissa knows if the protests are from the left or the right.
The elevator doors open and someone throws in a grenade! Shit, that’s scary. And really unexpected, even with the violence in the air.
The zoom-in on Diane’s face as she whimpers “Kurt” thinking she’s about to die REALLY undercuts the tension of this scene. It feels soooooooo tacky.
(Interesting that they chose to have DIANE and not anyone else audibly think about their loved ones here. I think there’s more hope for Diane/Kurt than all of the Dr. Bettencourt (is that his name?) stuff suggests.)
Thankfully, the grenade is a fake. On it, it says, “The next one is real 11/10”.
11/10 is, as far as I can tell, the date of the series finale.
Diane’s near-death experience sends her right to the Mind Trip offices.
Do you know a fic author called "raileht" or "thegoodmarble"? i so wanted to tell her, i found her stories in an old @livejournal and that I wish her to come back to writing about mchart, so deeply.
hello -- I wanted to thank you for your brilliant metas, I wanted to read something of sonia saraiya's red team/blue team episode analysis calibre and it's so wonderful to have found this tumblr archive. Love it when someone loves a show for the same reasons I do (the pleasure in TGW for me has always foremost been seeing well-drawn characters interact with each other in ways that are pleasurably predictable/unpredictable). I'm rewatching s4 for the 4th time now and I was wondering about (1/2)
your take on the kiss. Josh Charles' acting choices in that moment suggest (apart from lust/heat) someone who has understood, oh shit, Alicia is *hurt*. Maybe she *is* the injured party here. It feels like the kiss is part comfort, or the only comfort Will knows how to offer Alicia. Alicia is blazingly wronged here and so magnified, which makes me think of Will in the 5x10 fantasy sequence saying "I don't like it when you're weak" (is he saying the truth? or does he have a soft spot for her weakness? I also imagine Peter, per your excellent observation of his feudal psyche, would love to help Alicia in a truly weak moment; I don't know if he'd be so all right with this blazing spitting martyr version). Anyway, do you have any thoughts on Will's motivations for kissing Alicia in that moment?
Hi hi hi and thank you for the excuse to put back on my TGW-meta-writing-hat – it's been a while and writing about TGF just isn’t the same. It’s been a while since I’ve rewatched season four, but I’ve seen RTBT a ton of times and just watched the key scenes again, so I’m ready to go!
So, the first thing I need to say about the RTBT kiss scene is that... I don’t exactly think it’s the best example of character-driven writing on TGW. It feels very TV to me, and also like it has to happen when it happens to motivate the return of the love triangle and drive the central conflict of the rest of season four. I’ll try to set that aside, because as annoyingly cliché as I find the scene... it’s also a good scene.
Second, I have a vague and possibly incorrect recollection of the writers saying that Will and Alicia had a ~passion~ that never faded and the line between a passionate emotion like anger and a passionate emotion like wanting to kiss someone is a thin one. So there’s passion in the moment and it suddenly transforms into a different type of passion. Meh. I’m not satisfied with that; it’s not specific enough for me. Also, it feels a liiiiittle questionable and Kalinda/Nick-esque (oh wow I had not thought about that in a while), but since I might be misremembering it, I’m just gonna let it slide instead of arguing against something it’s very possible no one actually said!
Here's an idea I'm toying with: Will is furious because he knows Alicia’s right and he’s wrong – and he’s pissed that she thinks he’s the enemy when he’s not the one who decided to take away her partnership. He likes to think of himself as Alicia’s protector, the one who hired her when she was poison (I know that line’s from later on, but I think it’s safe to assume it was on his mind long before Hitting the Fan!). It upsets him to see that she’s angry and raw; it gets under his skin that she thinks HE – the one that fought for her! -- is the appropriate target for her frustration.
But he knows that he and his partners did something that would piss off anyone – he says this himself in an earlier scene. He loses sight of that when Alicia acts out in mock court. She makes a snappy comment about not getting partnership, and his first thought is to clarify that he, personally, didn’t have anything to do with it? Who cares! Alicia doesn’t know the specifics, but she knows (actually said out loud, like, two scenes prior!) that Will and Diane aren’t totally free, either. That’s objectively the wrong thing, as a managing partner at a company that just fucked over an employee, to say.
He continues to see the tension as an interpersonal conflict between himself and Alicia up until the moment just before the kiss. He seems to think that Alicia should’ve brought her concerns to him and trusted that he’d help her out. She didn't – and he feels a little betrayed. So he goes to confront her, feeling confident and justified in his anger, and then she calls him out. She looks passionate and she’s making no attempts to conceal her emotions. It startles him. He sees her weakness, he sees her pain, and he recognizes the truth of what she’s saying. She IS the injured party. She is obviously the injured party. Maybe she’s acting out in borderline (?) unprofessional ways, but she’s ABSOLUTELY the injured party. He looks at her for a few seconds, and then can’t resist reaching out to comfort her with a kiss. After all, he cares about her, he needs her to know that he's not the bad guy, and he hates seeing her this way.
That brings me to the whole “I don’t like it when you’re weak” thing, a line I have always struggled with. I’ve probably interpreted it, like, fifty different ways over the years, and I’ve read countless great takes on the line before. I think it’s a fantastic line... but I also don’t really know what it means. Where my head’s at now: Will doesn’t like it when Alicia’s weak because of what it brings out in himself. On the most basic level, he hates seeing her be weak because he doesn’t like watching someone he loves suffer. He can’t stand to see her diminished and arguing against herself (like the job interview in 5x14) and he can’t stand to see her victimized by a company that bears his name (in the RTBT scene). He doesn’t like it when she’s weak, so he does whatever he can to give her comfort and strength. But that doesn’t really explain the tone he uses when he says the line in The Decision Tree. He's not saying that he can’t stand to see her suffer; he’s admonishing her for showing weakness!
But what if, taking into account the context of The Decision Tree and Will’s feelings of betrayal, that line is Will re-contextualizing all of his earlier interactions with Alicia and realizing that there’s a pattern? Alicia shows weakness, he swoops in to save the day, he suffers for it. In this new view, Alicia uses her weakness to her advantage; she acts weak to manipulate men (yeah, this would be a super misogynistic view for Will to have, but a looooot of his thinking in The Decision Tree is misogynistic, too). Will, instead of blaming himself for being unable to keep himself from comforting Alicia in her moments of weakness, blames Alicia for showing weakness.
To bring this ramble all back to RTBT, I think he wants to comfort her and acknowledge her pain. At this point in the story, I don’t think Will is thinking about his own behavior or patterns: he seems Alicia’s pain, he hates it, he reacts. He doesn’t want her to feel pained and he certainly doesn’t want her to see him as the one inflicting it, so he tries to offer her comfort in the form of a kiss. And in doing so, he makes things worse for everyone.
“Why does psychology always sound like a con to me? It does. It’s like religion for grad students.”
Evil (2019-)
Created by Robert King & Michelle King
This is a quick poll to see which seasons are most and least liked now that season five is complete. Only the first question requires an answer; the rest are optional.
hi i made a poll about tgf seasons (and a few other things), please take it and share!
@nikkaphon i keep thinking about this and realized that i think some of my problem with the episode is that you have to spend so much energy trying to follow what’s happening that it... doesn’t really encourage you to connect the dots. like, you could just get to the coda and be like, ‘welp, community courts are bad, end of plot.’
so between the assumptions the viewer brings into the episode about what the key questions about wackner are and the sheer amount of stuff happening, things get really muddled.
So, that’s it for season five. I’m still trying to sort out how I feel about the season as a whole and Wackner’s arc. I’m hopeful that writing this will help me decide.
This episode has a Previously, and it’s rather conventional. I’m guessing it’s here to bookend the season, with conveying information being only a secondary objective.
Did we see Rivi scream, “You’re done, Wacko, you’re done! Canceled! Canceled!” in the last episode or is that new to this previously? I feel like I absolutely would’ve had things to say about a) Wackner being called “Wacko,” which has been RIGHT THERE this whole time, and b) the use of “Canceled,” which is a thing Rivi would never say but is VERY thematic (you know, cancel culture and also Wackner having a TV show and also this being a TV show that’s wrapping up* Wackner’s arc).
* The way things end this episode, I’d say we’re done with Wackner. The Kings have said they aren’t sure about the plan for season six, so never say never, but I think that if we see Wackner again, it will be as part of a different arc.
I went back to 5x09 and while we do see the same shots of Rivi screaming, whatever he’s saying in 5x09 is in Spanish. So either he was saying this in Spanish or the dialogue here is totally new.
I’m a little sad that I knew in advance Robert King had directed this episode, because I want to know how long it would’ve taken me to guess. I’d like to think this first shot, of Diane flopping down on her bed in a very pretty floral print dress, then Kurt flopping down in the opposite direction, would’ve given it away. We usually don’t get shots that are both striking and kinda balanced unless RK’s directing.
This also has some big season three opener vibes—the scene where Diane turns to Kurt and says, “I’m happy,” thus jinxing the entire season.
Diane and Kurt are about to go on vacation, which means, of course, that Diane and Kurt are definitely not about to go on vacation. I’ve watched 12 seasons of this show; I know all the tricks!
If I didn’t get it from the initial staging of the opening shot, the camera panning to Diane and Kurt’s suitcases and then back would’ve been another clue that RK directed. He ALWAYS has the camera in motion.
I love that Diane’s travel outfit is a dress you could wear to a fancy party and a statement necklace. Of course it is.
And if I needed evidence that RK and MK wrote this episode (which I didn’t; it is a finale so I knew they wrote it), Diane quoting Waiting for Godot is a clue there.
I really should read Waiting for Godot, shouldn’t I?
“Wow. Educated and a good lay,” Kurt responds. I know that the political stuff between Diane and Kurt can get more than a little murky, but banter like this reminds me why they stay together and why politics never drive them apart. Also, it’s really nice to see Diane and Kurt have some fun banter that isn’t about politics.
And Diane making kissing noises and asking Kurt to meet her halfway! This just feels like I’m spying on someone’s private life and I love it. Not in a voyeuristic way, since this is actually a little uncomfortably private, but in a, “ah, yes, these do feel like real people” way. This is the kind of “a little goes a long way” character moment I always want more of, and Kings episodes ALWAYS include stuff like this.
And there it is. The phone rings as Diane and Kurt are about to start out for the airport. Diane thinks the call must be for Kurt, but it’s for her. It’s a very flustered Liz, informing her that STR Laurie’s execs are on their way to the office for a surprise visit.
If the Diane/Kurt scene didn’t tell me that Robert King directed, I almost certainly would’ve gotten it from the sudden cut to Liz, walking through the hallways and doing a million things at once with a ton of background noise. No one loves chaos the way Robert King loves chaos.
This episode STRONGLY reminds me of the Wife season five finale. It is equally chaotic and also spins a ton of plates. But, mostly, the similarity I see between the two episodes is that they are both extremely fun and captivating to watch because of how much momentum they have, but everything just feels slightly hollow and not exactly focused on the thing you want to see.
(Shout out to my friend Ryan, who messaged me the 5x22 comparison before I could message it to him!)
I decided I should rewatch the first few minutes of 5x22. I am now 15 minutes into 5x22 of Wife and 2 minutes into 5x10 of Fight. Oops.
Apparently, STR Laurie planned a surprise visit because they heard RL was dysfunctional. You don’t say!
I felt like 5x09 concluded with STR Laurie being won over by Allegra and the RL team, so this is a bit of a surprising place to start the episode. But, since Diane seems surprised too, I’ll allow it.
Now Liz and Diane have 90 minutes to agree on a financial plan! Kurt’s on the phone with the airline before Diane even hangs up with Liz.
Diane is determined not to lose out on her vacation and asks Kurt to change the flight to 8:00. “Kurt, we are going on this vacation if it kills me!” is a line I would worry was foreshadowing on basically any other show.
The RL/STRL PowerPoint template is pretty ugly. They want to call 2021 their best year yet, thanks to the deal between Rivi and Plum Meadow Farms we saw last week. Even though we saw champagne and signatures, the deal isn’t done yet because Plum Meadow can back out if Rivi goes to jail.
RK also loves close-ups more than any other director on the show; I do not love close-ups.
The Plum Meadow deal is such a big deal that for the quarter, they go from $45 million to $5 million without it. They should just not say numbers. I can believe it’s big enough to take them from a modest profit to being behind projections or whatever, but I can’t believe that they have $5 million in other business and $40 million on this one deal.
It seems that Rivi was arrested. I don’t think it is ever said in this episode why. I assume the arrest relates to his behavior in Wackner’s court, since there were police officers there, and I suppose that Rivi is a big enough deal the police would actually take him to real court, but are we not going to address the weirdness of Rivi being arrested in a fake court where his employees are being tried, then taken to a real court by the same people who just an episode ago were disillusioned with real court? This seems like a plot point.
Carmen on a frantic phone call in the backseat of a car feels very 7x22.
Who is James that Carmen has in her contacts!? And why does everyone always put Liz in their contacts as “Elizabeth Reddick” when everyone calls her Liz?
Carmen calls Marissa to go argue in Vinetta’s court since she’s on Rivi duty. Carmen doesn’t take Marissa’s job in Wackner’s court seriously and then notes that this instruction is coming straight from Liz, so Marissa falls in line.
Wackner’s case of the week is about rural Illinois wanting to form its own state separate from Chicago. There’s a farmer who feels like his tax money is only going to the big city and he wants it to stay in his community.
They’ve just now added stage lighting to the set of Wackner Rules, dunno why they wouldn’t have done that earlier!
I don’t know what standing you’d have to have to bring a case about wanting to divide the state in two to court, or if this is even something a court would or should decide, but, sure, Wackner and Cord, go for it. There are no rules!
This map splitting Illinois into two new states that Cord is holding is a dumb prop because Galena, where this farmer is from, is in the same section as Chicago. Do I pause every reference to Chicago on this show and then google information to see if the writers bothered to look it up or pretend they’ve ever set foot in Chicago? You know I do.
“Secession!” the audience screams. Does the audience of Wackner Rules really want to see this?
A Good Fight Short! And it really is short: “Stop this obsession with secession and breaking up the Union. It’s boring and it’s dumb, end of song.” I feel like that’s the thesis statement for this episode, or one of them (that this episode seems to have about ten thesis statements is kind of my problem with this episode, tbh). This episode is very much about danger of things becoming too fractured—the COTW, the copycat courts, the firm drama—and I feel like the writers come around to just saying no, this is enough, we need structure and consistency.
But more on that later. MUCH more on that later.
Marissa is swearing more because “the world has required it.” She notes this to Wackner as she calls him out on the secession case. Cord barges in.
Take a look at the employee of the month poster on the back of the door at 5:39. Then at 5:40, look at what’s in the box just to the right of the center of the screen: it’s an employee of the month poster with Wackner on it! Cute easter egg. (Would Marissa definitely notice this and have questions? Yes. Is this here as a cute easter egg for eagle-eyed fans? Almost certainly.)
“Insane is just one step away from reality if you get people to believe, and you know what makes people believe? TV.” Cord explains when Marissa asks how they can possibly be litigating this case. That’s thesis statements two and three, folks. The first is that if you get people to believe, then anything is possible, which sounds like a tagline for a Disney movie but is actually super dangerous; the second is that reality TV is a way to persuade people and change opinions.
So we’ve got: (1) Factions are bad. (2) People are persuadable and the rules don’t actually matter. (3) Reality TV changes minds. Let’s see if there are more.
(Yes, these theses do kind of add up to a whole—The rules don’t matter, so if you persuade people, through reality tv, you get factions of people believing their own sets of rules and facts—but what I'm interested in tracking throughout this episode is how well the writers actually bring these theses together.)
(And this is setting aside that key themes in previous episodes, that I think many of us were looking for resolution on, included outlining the flaws with the extant “real” justice system and exploring the role of prison in the justice system. From this episode, I don’t think the writers ever intended to really tackle either of those issues. That’s fine—I'm not sure that TGF has something to say about prison abolition and I don’t want a thought experiment where the writers actually try to fix the legal system—but feels a bit disjointed. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but 5x08 and 5x09 needed to do a better, clearer job of setting up this finale. The key themes of Wackner’s arc were always present, but they needed to slowly narrow the scope so the resolution felt inevitable and clear. Instead, we spent time on things like parking spaces (when we could’ve had a real plot about how Wackner’s court gains legitimacy through violence, incarceration, and playing on people’s frustration with the real systems) and Del’s focus groups (when we could’ve instead done a plot about Wackner gaining fans who wanted to use his methods to do ill). Everything I just mentioned in the parentheticals is in the show! It’s not subtext! We see it all! We see Cord use violence and prisons to enforce Wackner’s rulings; we see the cops turn to Wackner out of frustration; we see that the people drawn to Wackner Rules and to Wackner’s court are increasingly sounding more and more like right-wing populists! I can’t be too hard on this arc because, again, all these ideas are there. I’m not coming up with them on my own!)
I’m just saying: this ending would’ve been a lot clearer and a lot more interesting had the writers focused on what I mentioned above instead of the distractions of the last two episodes.
Whew, that was a ramble. Hope you’re ready for more rambles.
On a similar note, I’d like to reiterate my problems with how the writers used Marissa after the private prison reveal. I don’t have much more to say than what I wrote last week, but it’s another example of the same problem. Marissa objecting to Wackner’s court because she notices what it’s becoming and how Cord plans to use it for political gain (two Illinoises (??) changes the Senate and the Electoral College...) always was going to be part of the endgame. Marissa only seriously objecting after the fourth or fifth line Wackner crosses feels bizarre.
Cord does NOT like that there is another court, and wants to protect Wackner’s IP. Wackner, as we saw last episode, does not feel threatened by the other court. In fact, he seems to be excited by it.
I love Liz questioning Diane’s outfit like it’s unprofessional. It’s a little low-cut and showy, but I don’t think unprofessional is the word I’d use for it.
Now they have 45 minutes to decide The Future Of The Firm and Diane wants to be considered a name partner. Oh, that debate is still raging?! Every time I think it’s done it comes back, which should probably be a sign to Diane that her options are to leave and start something new, jettison Madeline and the others, or step down. Staying on as name partner and calling it a black firm is just not an option.
“Diane, there is a split in the firm that...” Liz starts, before asking some associates to leave the room. Ha! The reveal Liz and Diane aren’t alone is a pretty fun touch.
“The Black equity partners don’t want to be in your work group,” Liz informs Diane. “Because they think they’ll be punished by this firm?” Diane asks. “No, that’s paranoia. We don’t punish here,” Liz responds. “Of course you do. My fracking client. My union client. The Black lawyers who work on those cases—they're considered traitors” Diane says. “Because those CEOs are racists,” Liz counters.
Lots going on here, and I’m not sure I understand it all. Why would the equity partners—who are partners—feel like they’re being punished by being in Diane’s work group? (And also what does a “work group” mean and why haven’t they talked about it in the past?) When Diane starts talking about the lawyers who staff her clients, she’s not talking about equity partners; she is talking about associates.
And people are giving associates shit for working on Diane’s clients whom they happen to be staffed on!? That’s sad, though believable.
“So what do we do? Only bring in clients who can pass the racial smell test?” Diane asks. I mean, actually, yes. IF the goal is to be a black firm and to have that designation mean something in moral terms rather than marketing terms, then yes.
“It’s okay if you’re a drug kingpin like Rivi, but it’s not okay if you want me as lead attorney?” Diane says. Also, yes. Diane makes good points here.
“Diane, this is not about you,” Liz counters. Um, sure, but it has to be about something, Liz. Unless you’re trying to build a firm you don’t control that makes 88% of its revenue from a drug dealer (40 million out of 45 million this quarter = 88%; I told you they shouldn’t give me numbers) but happens to have black people in charge, you have to grapple with this question. I don’t think anyone who’s fighting for the firm to be a black-led (not owned, bc STRL) business is the type of person who thinks that having a black-led firm that does all the same shit as any other firm is in itself a good thing, so you NEED to address your client list. Madeline is anti-Rivi, anti-Cord, anti-Wolfe-Coleman (the rapist guy), pro-social justice, and pro having a black led firm.
“I mean, why... why do white people personalize this?” Liz asks. “Oh, now I’m just a white person?” Diane responds. I... don’t know what to do with this! Liz is right that Diane is taking this personally; Diane is right that Liz needs to deal with the rest of the client list. But no one is saying the things that REALLY need to be said: That all their decisions are meaningless in the shadow of STRL, and that deciding to be a black led firm isn’t the end of the discussion if they haven’t decided what types of clients they want to have.
“What happened, Liz? Last year we were intent on an all-female-run law firm,” Diane starts. Oh, THIS AGAIN! Diane never learns, does she? She never seems to realize that no one she’s approached with this idea is NEARLY as in love with it as she is. She probably still wonders to herself why Alicia—who partnered with her at the end of season seven basically just because it was the easiest, most frictionless thing to do—didn't seem more committed to their firm.
“Diane, there is history here that we are trying to...” Liz says, but Diane cuts in to note that women (women like Diane Lockhart!) have history too! In fact, she’s spent “35 years fighting gender discrimination to get to this position.” “And we have spent 400 years fighting racial discrimination to try and, you know...” Liz starts, before cutting herself off to get back to the ticking clock.
Sigh. Just talk about the actual thing instead of talking around the thing, guys. Diane is obviously deserving of A name partnership, in the abstract. This is an undeniable fact. And while Diane is definitely making this about herself rather than the big picture, I don’t think Liz trying to trump Diane’s 35 year career with the history of black people is going to win her any arguments? Like, just say what you mean and say it clearly. What Liz, I think, wants to express is that Diane’s individual accomplishments aren’t the issue here and everyone thinks she’s deserving (though Liz suggested Diane was not deserving a few episodes ago, which I didn’t understand then and don’t understand now). The problem is that Diane is trying to fight a battle that’s about something much larger than herself with, “but I'm a good lawyer!”
And that’s KIND OF what Liz is saying here, if I add all her sentences up and read between the lines, but, again, why not just say it?
“Alright, now we have 43 minutes to fix race relations, gender relations. STR Laurie’s gonna fire our asses, and you know it,” Liz says. I am curious what that would look like. Wouldn’t that just mean that STRL wouldn’t control them anymore? I’m sure being fired would be bad and all, but wouldn’t it free them from the contract they wanted out of last year?
“Let’s split the firm down the middle. I hire half the lawyers, you hire the other half,” Diane suggests. What does this mean? Why are you hiring your employees? Huh?
“You hire the white associates, and I hire the black associates?” Liz confirms. This seems like a very bad idea that would make things a lot worse and open them up to lawsuits! I also still do not know what they’re even talking about. And I don’t know why Allegra isn’t a part of this conversation.
“I’m not saying it’s good. I’m just saying it’s what we’re left with. It's what we can agree on,” Diane says. I really wish I understood what “hire” meant in this context because I don’t understand why they have to split anything or why this has to be done now and I don’t understand why this would possibly be a good solution. Can you imagine the backlash when people realize all the white people report to Diane and all the black people to Liz and that people were taken off of the accounts they’ve worked on for years to accomplish this? And this must be something that the employees would know about eventually; otherwise they could just randomly assign half to Liz and half to Diane.
I’m sad Madeline isn’t in this episode because I feel like we needed to see more of her POV as well as the associate POV. I don’t really understand the divides at play within the firm or what the staff and other partners are asking for, but I suspect it isn’t this.
Hallucination Jesus is back, and at least there’s actually a point to him this time (he shows up when Jay is in Vinetta’s court and reminds Jay that Vinetta will rule based on her religious beliefs). I still dislike the hallucinations.
Jay advises Marissa, who is Jewish, to talk a lot about Jesus in her defense.
Charmaine Bingwa is really great as Carmen, and obviously she is not fluent in Spanish, but it’s so funny to me that the only time you can hear that she’s Australian is when she’s trying to say Oscar like she’s speaking Spanish.
"I know you’re hiding something when you speak English,” Rivi says to Carmen. Heh.
“Community court” is such a nice, unthreatening term for referring to Wackner and his copy cats. Thanks for that, Carmen!
It’s a smart plan to mention Jesus a lot, I guess, but Jay and Marissa both should’ve realized that Vinetta is too smart to tolerate obvious pandering. I’m a little surprised Jay doesn’t get up and argue since Marissa is, obviously, not familiar with the New Testament.
Marissa wins this round with facts and logic.
Why is the judge who was handling Rivi’s previous charge now in bond court? Make it make sense.
I like that Carmen calls out the ASA for swearing hahaha
Why... would this Matteo kid just casually mention he was holding a gun, omg.
In Vinetta’s court, you can be charged with murder and tried because... you had a gun and also there were murders at other times. Coolcoolcool no problems here.
Community courts for civil cases? Sure. That’s basically arbitration. Community courts for criminal cases? Bad, bad, bad idea.
Vinetta’s reasoning: “Those murders happened on our street, and the police haven’t convicted anyone because they don’t care. We care. This is self-defense. And how is it different from your court?” Aside from the whole imprisoning people in her basement thing, Vinetta’s not wrong. I almost brought this up last week but hesitated because I couldn’t remember the details enough to decide if I wanted to recommend it, but there’s a book I read a few years ago that seems relevant here: Ghettoside by Jill Leovy. Again, been a while so don’t take this as a wholehearted endorsement or anything, but from what I remember, the central issue at the heart of the book (it’s non-fiction) is that a poor black community (I think in LA?) doesn’t trust the police (in part) because the police don’t solve murders, and then with no way of getting justice through the court system, there’s more violence as a stand-in for justice. https://www.vox.com/2016/8/26/12631962/ghettoside-jill-leovy-black-crime
I’m not sure if that’s QUITE what Vinetta is saying but it seems similar, and it’s a decent point (though not a justification for her court). Why should she trust the system to improve her community when it’s ignored her community for years?
I like that the writers chose two very different, very understandable characters for their community courts. It’s easy to see why Wackner and Vinetta feel the need for alternative courts; it’s easy to see why others would trust them. This arc doesn’t really work unless there’s a legitimate frustration with existing systems...
Marissa calls Wackner’s court a “joke,” which she should understand by now isn’t the case. (Marissa’s smart; she knew it wasn’t a joke the second she saw David Cord get involved.)
Vinetta accuses Wackner of copying her court, which alarms Marissa. This isn’t addressed again, and I don’t know if it’s true! I could really go either way on this. On the one hand, I absolutely believe that Wackner saw/heard about it, liked it, and did it himself without thinking much of it—and if this is the case, then the ending where Vinetta gets in trouble for violating Wackner’s IP is a lot more of a gut punch. On the other hand, I don’t really feel like the seeds for this were planted. We see Wackner innovate a lot and try new things and he has an explanation for why he does everything—how much of that is Vinetta? And Vinetta clearly watches the show and likes it or she wouldn’t have recognized Marissa, so it’s a little hard for me to just believe her claim when literally all I know about her is she has a court that looks like Wackner’s and she is aware of and feels positively towards Wackner rules. Also, Wackner knows about Vinetta’s court (from Marissa) and sounded excited about it last episode. Sure, he didn’t necessarily know which one it was, exactly, but I assume if he’d copied the idea and then heard about a case involving people from the exact same community where he found the idea... his reaction would be different. So IDK. My reasons for doubting Vinetta’s claim are probably based a little too much in things I’m not meant to spend that much time paying attention to.
“I fucked up. It’s in the same court, but now it’s a murder case,” Marissa tells Diane. I do like hearing characters admit when they fucked up!
Diane hears that STRL is delayed, so she heads out to help Matteo. When she goes to change into her pantsuit, she finds that she’s grabbed Kurt’s bag by mistake. “Of course. That makes sense,” she reacts.
Diane pushes her flight to the next day, also telling Kurt, “And yes, for some reason, I took your suit instead of mine, so fuck it.” I love it when the characters feel like real people.
I am not sure why Kurt is getting to the office when Diane is leaving or why Kurt is there—to pick Diane up on the way to the airport, maybe?
Carter Schmidt walks into RL at the worst possible time, threating to blow up the Plum Meadow deal. Another 5x10 to Wife 5x22 similarity: he’s in both episodes.
Liz heads out to help Carmen with Rivi, and then STRL arrives. Oops.
Credits!
One thing about Wackner’s court that should definitely be a warning sign even though it seems noble: he ignores just about every warning sign, like this rowdy crowd screaming WE LOVE YOU WACKNER or the potential interests at play in a case about secession, because he thinks his fair judgement can overcome these obstacles. If the world worked that way, there’d be no need for his court in the first place.
Is anyone representing the State of Illinois in this trial? If not, then... how is it happening?
Dr. Goat, some dude who claims to have some hidden historical document about how Illinois is actually two states, is clearly making stuff up and yet Wackner indulges him and Cord. I feel about this the same way as I feel about the Devil’s Advocate: That Wackner would not allow this to go on for more than five seconds before calling bullshit and therefore there is no reason I should have to sit through it.
Why is some guy screaming, “No taxation without representation” like dude you absolutely have representation. But of course, I’m expecting him to be logical, and the point is that he is not.
Dr. Goat’s Latin phrases—shock!-- don’t actually translate into anything like what he said. Even though this information is verifiable by a quick google search, the crowd starts screaming “Liar!!!!” at Marissa. If only I could say this felt unrealistic.
Wackner asks Dr. Goat to bring in the document.
“You look like you’re heading to the beach,” Vinetta says to Diane, who looks like she’s heading somewhere but definitely not to the beach. Vinetta asks where Diane was headed on vacation. Diane says she’s headed to Lake Como, and unnecessarily clarifies that “It’s in Italy.” She assumes Vinetta doesn’t know that... but Vinetta does.
“So you’ve been there before?” Vinetta probes when Diane says it’s beautiful there. “Just once. We don’t get away often. We thought we’d splurge,” Diane says. Vinetta stares at her and smiles, and Diane hits her head on a basket that’s hanging in Vinetta’s kitchen. If I just write out the dialogue here, it sounds like a perfectly average conversation, but everything about this conversation is so charged: Diane is afraid to look like a wealthy white woman; Vinetta’s pleasantness is pretty clearly also a way of sizing up Diane.
Vinetta shows Diane pictures of neighborhood children and young adults killed as a consequence of gang violence. You can see she’s not trying to do anything other than help her community, even if her methods are highly questionable.
Diane argues that Matteo should be given over to the police; Vinetta disagrees: “The police haven’t arrested anyone for those murders, any of these. Since the BLM movement, they’ve pulled back from our streets. No one’s coming to help. That’s why I started this court. It’s not a joke to us.” Wait I’m sorry did Vinetta just blame lack of good detective work in black communities on... the BLM movement?!?!?! Is there any foundation to this!? Why can’t it just be that the police weren’t actually doing a good job of policing/finding justice and were being antagonistic towards the community instead of being helpful and no one trusted them?? That explanation is literally right there.
Jay suggests the Jesus strategy, again.
“It’s women! We could just move on, install men,” STRL guy says. I don’t know if he’s joking, but ugh. Also, what is RL if it has neither Diane nor Liz? A bunch of lawyers who will all promptly quit when they see their bosses get fired and a few opportunists?
Kurt is watching golf in Diane’s office, and the STRL people love it. Of course Kurt accidentally makes friends with them.
Court stuff happens. It’s not good for Rivi, and then Liz and Carmen come up with a theory: Plum Meadow is stalling the deal so they can find Rivi’s more stable second and make a deal with them instead.
Wackner giving Dr. Goat a single point on his stupid little board, for any reason related to his obviously fake totally unverified document, is dangerous. Why would you signal to a crowd that’s clearly not interested in fact that they have a point? That’s basically egging them on.
I know Wackner’s judgment is obviously not 100% sound—need I remind you of the PRIVATE PRISONS?-- but I thought it was more sound than this.
Wackner shows off his knowledge of paper and proves that Dr. Goat’s document is a fake. Why... did he just give Dr. Goat a point???
Or is he moving the point from Dr. Goat to Marissa?
Dr. Goat sounds like a fake name I would call a character in my recaps long past the point of anyone other than myself remembering the joke. (See: Mr. Elk)
“The truth is ugly. The only thing uglier is not pursuing it,” Wackner tells Marissa. How is taking on a case about very obvious falsehoods, funded by someone with a vested interest in the case, that gets people riled up, some noble pursuit of truth?
STRL and Kurt are now drinking and discussing hunting, while Diane’s arguing for Matteo in Vinetta’s living room. Vinetta is—as was always obvious, sorry Jay—far too smart to fall for this patronizing bullshit. She screams at Diane and plays back a recording (on a baby monitor) of Diane coaching Matteo to lie about his faith.
Soooooo yeah no you can’t do that, that is bad, recording conversations between lawyers and their clients is not good even if it leads to you exposing their schemes...
Then Vinetta places Diane under arrest, which obviously isn’t going to end well for Vinetta.
Liz and Carmen suggest a post-nup to Rivi to see if Isabel is planning on turning on him.
“I’m going to have to kill her,” Rivi says sadly. I don’t think Rivi will ever kill Isabel because we already did that with Bishop.
I’m going to assume that Diane chooses to stay in basement prison instead of calling one of the many, MANY, MANY people she could call to get her out/take down Vinetta because she doesn’t want the situation to be publicized or further deteriorate. That said, it’s really not clear why Diane just accepts being sentenced to basement prison with a cell phone.
Love the STRL man looking at that picture of Diane and HRC. They’ve gotten so much mileage out of that photo.
Wackner’s court has no rules, but at least since it has no rules, I can’t complain about how its rules make no sense!
What is this, debate practice?! Ugggghhhhh I can’t deal with this case for much longer.
Marissa takes a breath, then decides to pursue a strategy she knows could blow everything up.
“Then why care what Judge Wackner decides? Why should you defer to him? Why defer to anyone?” Cord says that’s the point—the people have decided to trust Wackner. “So if you don’t like this court’s decision, you’ll just start a new one?” Marissa asks. “I guess,” Cord concedes.
“So then why does this matter? This court?” “It matters only insofar as we continue to agree that it matters,” Cord says. “So if you don’t like Judge Wackner’s rulings, you can just ignore them and create a new court?”
Good point, Marissa. Good point. (Does this count as a thesis?)
“I’m guessing that I will like the way the judge decides,” Cord says. Well, that’s basically a threat.
Wackner takes a break and heads to chambers—without Marissa.
Kurt goes to visit Diane in basement jail. He’s granted a conjugal visit, which means Matteo gets moved up to the bedroom so Diane and Kurt can have some alone time.
Diane is staring at an image of Lake Como in her cell. I thought it was odd she brought a printout of her vacation destination with her, so I LOVED the line where she explains that Vinetta printed it out for her. COLD. (You know who also would’ve done this if they’d for some reason had a basement prison? Bree Van de Kamp. You know what show DID do a basement prison arc I’d rather forget? Desperate Housewives!)
I love how Diane responds to basement prison by making jokes non-stop.
“I thought the craziness would end with 2020,” Diane says. Nope.
Kurt brought alcohol; Diane brought pot gummies.
I love that Kurt has never had pot before. I was going to say that I bet Diane’s had a few experiences with recreational drugs when I remembered we had a whole damn season of Diane microdosing.
Christine and Gary’s acting and their chemistry really bring these basement prison scenes to life. The writing and directing are really sharp, but it’s the actors who make these scenes something special. You can tell Diane and Kurt love each other a lot. You can tell they’re disappointed about their vacation and exhausted by the chaos of the day. You can tell they’re in disbelief over this situation but also find it funny.
Didn’t Rivi and Isabel have an adult daughter who died of COVID a few episodes ago? Weird she isn’t mentioned in this scene. Maybe from a different marriage/relationship?
Isabel called the SA’s office because she thinks Rivi’s a threat? I think this is a power play.
Heh, Carmen saying, “Shut a black woman up!?” in disbelief in court. Love it.
Isabel instead flips her story and supports her husband and fights for his release. With no intervention from Plum Meadow, this gets the judge to free Rivi. I don’t really understand what’s happened here or why. I get the resolution, but I don’t get why Isabel called the SA or why this went away so quickly. I still don’t even get why Rivi’s been arrested.
Diane and Kurt put up Christmas lights for ambiance and talk about how they never go on vacation.
“I wanna see the pyramids on this coast!” drunk & high Kurt insists, hilariously. “I mean hemisphere. I like the Aztecs. They, they care about people.” I’m not going to transcribe the rest of the dialogue because it loses its magic when you’re not watching the scene.
After some fun banter about travel and movies, Diane changes the topic. “I should quit, shouldn’t I? That judge upstairs? She looked at me like I was the most entitled white bitch on the planet. And that’s the way they look at me at work.”
Kurt tries to say that’s not true, but Diane knows it is: “Yes they do. I’m the top Karen. And why do I care? I mean, I... I could find another firm. I could quit. I can’t impose my will on people who don’t want me.”
YES. I see a lot of debate over what the “right” thing to do is here. But I think we are long past “right” and “wrong.” At a certain point, this stops being about absolute moral truths. If Diane doesn’t have the respect of her partners and employees, that is a very real problem for the firm and for Diane. How can she continue to impose her will on a firm that doesn’t want her, all the while claiming to be an ally? (The back half of that sentence is the most important part.) Forget whether or not Diane “should” have to step down. Forget what’s “fair.” If the non-Diane leadership of RL thinks the firm should be a black firm, and the employees of RL think so too, and Diane just doubles down on her white feminism, she’s creating an even bigger problem for herself and ruining her reputation in the process.
Kurt stands up on the prison cot and warns Diane she might make a decision she’ll regret. This scene is so cute. Why can’t other shows do drug trips where the characters just act silly and have great chemistry? Why does it always have to be some profound meditation on death whenever characters get high?
“I think I like starting over. I like the chutes and ladders of life. I mean, I want the corner office, but then I wanna slip back to the beginning and fight for the corner office. I mean, I think maybe it’s better that I don’t get the top spot,” Diane says. LOVE to hear her admit this. I’m not sure I would’ve come to this conclusion on my own, and it sounds like it’s a bit more about how the writers like to write (you know, the “we love our characters to always be underdogs”) than Diane, but... you know what? I believe it. I fully believe it. Diane LOVES to fight, LOVES to feel like she’s in the right, LOVES power plays and to be making progress. She LOVES winning. The fact that she isn’t just choosing to retire right now, even though she’s past retirement age and has a great reputation, is in itself enough for me to believe that she would find it fun to repeatedly start over.
Plus, it’s a fun new direction for the show to take in season six, because they’ll get the same sense of conflict without the actual conflict. This season’s arc was firm drama and resulted in a firm name change... but it didn’t feel like a knock-off of Hitting the Fan. Diane trying to work her way back into power (I assume by becoming a better actual ally, otherwise doesn’t she just end up in the same exact situation?) should also provide conflict without being repetitive.
Hahahahahaha Kurt immediately reacting to this serious statement by being incredibly silly and horny and then Diane singing “I Touch Myself” to him, man, I love these two. I want to know the story behind this song choice.
Wackner emerges from his chambers. The score is tied. Wackner calls Cord corrupt and notes that they can’t just decide to call Downstate Illinois a new state based on his ruling. Now it’s thesis time!
“I was taken by Mr. Cord’s arguments of individualism. So much of our country has been built on people finding their own way, not being held back by bureaucracy. Yet, if we only follow individualism, that way lies chaos. And that was not the point of this court. Or at least not my point. Judgment for the defense. There will be no Downstate Illinois.”
“If we only follow individualism, that way lies chaos.” is probably the clearest of the many theses of this episode. To recap, we have:
(1) Factions are bad. (2) People are persuadable and the rules don’t actually matter. (3) Reality TV changes minds. (4) Institutions only exist when we collectively agree they exist (5) Individualism = chaos.
But let’s put a pin in this for now and let the chaos of individualism play out.
The crowd does not like Wackner’s decision, and decides that an appropriate way to express their displeasure is to make anti-Semitic remarks towards Marissa and then start throwing chairs. What nice people.
As the crowd goes totally 1/6 on Wackner’s court (thanks for pointing this out to me, Ryan—I cannot believe I didn’t make the connection myself!), the door slamming into the desk finally pays off since Marissa and Wackner are able to use it to keep the crowd from reaching them.
They immediately turn to the police, or they would, if they could get service. I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that as soon as things get bad, they want to involve the existing system.
Wackner Rules is, somehow, still taping in the midst of all the chaos. I don’t know if I think they’d air this, but someone certainly would. (I wonder if any of the cameras we see in these scenes are actually the cameras filming the other angles of the riot.)
Cord shakes his head and walks out, unharmed.
“You think they’ll kill us?” “I think they might,” Marissa and Wackner fret.
“My dad said the whole world would be a better place if everybody realized they were in the minority. ‘No matter where you are,’ he said, ‘Make sure you keep an eye on the exits, and make sure you’re closer to the exit than the Cossacks are to the entrance.’” Marissa says. Love Eli Gold coming through with thesis number 6 (and maybe thesis number 7).
“Your dad sounds a little paranoid,” Wackner says, correctly. Remember how I mentioned I accidentally wound up watching 5x22? Eli calls Alicia and responds to her hello with, “DISASTER!!!!” I miss him.
“He was, but he wasn’t wrong. He said, ‘Stay away from parades. They’re cute until they’re not. And don’t trust any pope who was Hitler Youth.” “What’s that law called?” “Godwin’s Law. My dad said anybody who argued for Godwin’s Law has never been near an actual crowd. Crowds love you, they hug you. Then they grab a gun and try to kill you.”
“Why? Why do they do that?” “I don’t know. Hate is fun. It’s clear-cut.”
I really like all of this. It is a little preachy, but it isn’t wrong and it’s self-aware. And, more importantly, it’s in character. I absolutely believe that Marissa would tell lots of stories about Eli in a moment of extreme stress. It’s nostalgic, probably comforting, and it also helps her feel like she’s on the right side with the right arguments. So, even backed into a corner, she’s still a winner: she has theory on her side.
Wackner speaks a foreign language (I do not know what language but I wish I did) and says, “A guy could get killed doing this,” which makes him and Marissa laugh as things crash around them.
Idk about you all, but I couldn’t really get myself to actually worry about their safety during this scene. Maybe Wackner’s, just a little, but I got the sense we were supposed to focus more on the chaos and destruction and monologuing than on the actual danger. That’s not to say the stakes didn’t feel high, but rather to say that this didn’t feel like an action sequence where you don’t know what’s going to happen next. The point was to watch the court fall and think about why it fell, not to worry about if Marissa would live.
Diane and Kurt are woken up by sirens and loud noises. The cops arrive and are shocked to find professionally dressed white people in a basement cell. They let Diane and Kurt out with compassion, but scream, “don’t you fucking move” to the people on the floor.
“It’s okay, they didn’t do anything,” Diane says. This is, as I theorized earlier, probably why Diane just sits there until her punishment blows over instead of escalating things.
If the cops weren’t there to free Diane, why were they there? Why, because they like David Cord and David Cord has gotten Chicago PD officers to protect Wackner’s IP.
If I had to say one thing in favor of Vinetta being the originator of the community court idea, it would be that it’s SUCH a gut punch to watch Diane and Kurt walk away from their bizarre little adventure as Vinetta gets arrested in the background, and it hits ten times as hard if Vinetta’s only being charged because some white guy is claiming IP that’s actually hers.
(I think Vinetta is probably, at this point, actually being arrested for imprisoning people illegally, but, still.)
“Pfft. Some judge,” one of the cops who adores Wackner says of Vinetta. Racist much?
Marissa and Wackner emerge from the backroom. “I think I better get back to work,” she says, meaning her RL job. "Me too,” Wackner says, grabbing a Copy Coop apron. He’s an employee of ten years.
I don’t think this lands as well as it’s meant to. I think the point is supposed to be that Wackner’s just some guy—not a billionaire, not an academic, not a judge, not a lawyer—with an idea. But it’s a little too neat. And it doesn’t explain how Wackner financed his court initially, nor does it explain why he has basically unlimited access to Copy Coop space and resources. I’d buy it if he were the OWNER of Copy Coop, but I have so many questions about him being an employee.
Diane tells Liz she’s actually going on vacation this time, and they laugh about how Kurt bonded with STRL.
“I want you and Allegra to be name partners. I’ll be an equity partner,” Diane says. “Why?” Liz asks. “Five years ago, when I hit rock bottom, this firm took me in. So I don’t like the idea of splitting this firm in two. And I can’t lead if no one will follow.” “And your clients?” “We’ll manage them together.” YES! I love this. I don’t love it because I necessarily think it had to go this way, but because it’s so refreshing to see Diane say that she actually is willing to take a step back because she cares about the firm and the people there more than she cares about being a name partner. This isn’t something we usually see. When we hear “this firm took x in” it’s usually being said incredulously against someone who’s decided to leave and steal clients (cough, Hitting the Fan, cough).
It’s been pretty clear for most of this arc that Diane and Liz like working together and they like their firm, but that no one (other than Diane, I guess) is willing to let RL lose its status as a black firm, and that the employees and equity partners weren’t going to be satisfied until Diane stepped down. Diane really had three options: Stay and piss everyone off and claim the whole firm for herself, quit and go somewhere else and totally abandon the good working dynamic she had, or step down and put her money where her mouth is.
Also yeah the clients were never actually going to be an issue! They were only an issue because Diane intentionally went about informing them she was stepping down in a way she knew would make them worry!
“I think I need to prove myself,” Diane says. I’m not sure that’s the key issue or that she can ever prove herself fully, but we’ll worry about that next year.
Diane decides she’s going to move downstairs so Allegra can have her office. I think there’s another office on this floor, since she, Adrian and Liz all had offices. This feels a little bit like Diane’s in love with the idea of making things difficult for herself and maybe hasn’t fully grasped the point, but, you know, I’ll take it.
Diane tells Kurt her decision and he asks if it was the right thing to do. She says she doesn’t know—but she says it with a smile. Kurt notes he’s going hunting next month with the STRL folks and will put in a good word for her. Ah, yes, because STRL still controls all of this and all of this is moot! Thanks for the reminder Kurt! Diane says she wants in on the hunting trip. Of course.
And the elevator doors close. Remember how closing elevator doors was a motif earlier this season??? It’s back!
Then we get a little coda with Wackner Rules airing a new episode that’s just violence and destruction. This sequence seems to straddle the line between being there for thematic reasons for the viewers and there to show what happened in the show’s universe, but I think it’s main purpose is theme, so I will not go on a full rant questioning why Del would want to air this.
A white blonde lady in an apron watches the destruction of Wackner Rules. She looks concerned. “That was violet,” she says with dismay. And then we see she’s holding a guy in a jail cell in her kitchen.
And then we see other courts, as America the Beautiful plays. One’s in a garage debating kicking someone out of the neighborhood; another is across the street about the same case. There’s one in Oregon about secession. There’s one among Tiki Torch Nazis deciding only white people can own property. There’s (inexplicably) one about pronouns. There’s one with arm wrestling, one that happens while sky diving, and a bunch of others. It’s pretty ridiculous, and not necessarily in a good way. It feels at once like the natural extension of the Wackner Rules show and like an over the top parody you’d see on another show. Tiki Torch Nazis screaming “only white people can own property!” is the opposite of subtle writing. Tonally, this sequence feels more like the zany humor of Desperate Housewives or the insanity of BrainDead than anything TGF has done before (and TGF’s been plenty surreal), and it doesn’t quite work for me. It feels like it is trying to prove a point in the corniest, most on the nose way possible. It almost feels like it’s parodying its own plotlines.
On my first watch, this ending for Wackner left me stumped. I knew the writers were making an argument against individualism (Wackner’s speech + the repeated references to The Apprentice) and cults of personality. But I couldn’t figure out a real life analogue to Wackner’s court, and since this ending was so obviously trying to be About Something, that bugged me. Sure, that last sequence could be an argument against people making community courts, but WERE people making community courts? I didn’t see the urgency.
And then I talked to @mimeparadox. And as soon as he said that it was about factions and people playing by their own sets of rules beyond the justice system, it clicked. I’d been looking for Wackner’s plot to be a commentary on the legal system. It is much broader than that. It’s a commentary on the weakening of democratic systems (the Big Lie, etc.), more broadly, and Wackner and his common-sense approach are just a way to get liberal viewers to go along for the ride.
Now that I understand the point, or what I think is the point, I like this conclusion. Circumventing the system leads to chaos; that’s why we have institutions and bureaucracy, and I think the show is arguing that these institutions should still be respected despite their flaws. The many theses of this episode all come together to make this point (though the reality TV stuff is a little more tenuous and I'm a little shocked we got through all of this without any commentary on social media?): If we stop having a shared belief in institutions and instead follow individual leaders (whom we may learn about through reality TV), the rules will stop mattering and we’ll end up with a fractured country and widespread violence.
But, and maybe this is just about me being upset I missed both the obvious 1/6 parallels AND the point of the arc the first time through this episode (my defensive side feels the need to also note I first watched this episode at like 5 am when I was barely awake), I don’t know that I actually think this episode does a great job of driving its point home. There are SO many moving pieces to the Wackner plot and SO many references. There are so many threads we never return to from earlier in the season, and there’s so much that strains credulity (like Wackner taking Dr. Goat seriously for more than a split second). It’s pretty clear what the themes are—even though I’m saying I missed the point my first time through, I've hit on all these themes separately in past recaps and posts—but, I dunno, something about this episode just feels scattered. Maybe it’s all the moving pieces, maybe it’s all the moments where it sounds like the characters are voicing related ideas that don’t quite snap together to form one coherent picture, or maybe it’s that Wackner’s plot gets two endings (the actual ending + the coda) and it’s up to the viewer to put together how they relate.
I really don’t know. At the end of the day, I think there was a little too much going on with Wackner and that the writers needed to use the episodes between the private prison reveal and the finale to narrow—not broaden—the scope of what they were trying to do with Wackner. But I also think that what they were doing with Wackner was really, really smart and original. I don’t think I can overstate how impressed I am that the writers took an idea that sounded, frankly, awful when I first heard about it and turned it into something captivating and insightful that I was happy to spend nine weeks watching.
Overall, a few bad episodes aside, I thought season five was the strongest season of TGF yet. I haven’t seen this show be so focused in... well, maybe ever. Having two overarching plots that received consistent development and felt like they were happening in the same universe at the same time REALLY helps make season five feel like a coherent whole, and I can’t wait to rewatch it.
This is a quick poll to see which seasons are most and least liked now that season five is complete. Only the first question requires an answer; the rest are optional.
hi i made a poll about tgf seasons (and a few other things), please take it and share!
