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The latest episode of The Good Fight could have almost been a throwaway episode. Though still very well-written, we didn’t get a whole lot of forward movement with the Rindell scandal, a case involving ownership of an embryo seemed to run its course much too easily, but the return of Matthew Perry in the role of Mike Kresteva (which he played in five guest appearances on The Good Wife) certainly seemed to be setting up some conflict at Reddick, Boseman & Kolstad.
Diane and Lucca were teamed up once again to take on the case of some missing eggs. A RB&K client sold twelve of her eggs eight years ago, and contractually if the eggs were never used she retained ownership of them. But the clinic to which she sold them closed, or rather changed names but had the same director who told the lawyers that the eggs had been destroyed. Of course, his shady operation could bring him some unwanted legal attention and he suddenly found where the eggs had been sent: a medical school for experiments.
But one egg was unaccounted for, marked classified in the records. Turns out the one remaining egg was purchased and used for fertilization. Of course the whole matter of ownership comes into play — legally the client has the right to her egg, but the other couple purchased the egg without knowing it belonged to anyone so they could not be held responsible and basically the embryo was theirs. But there’s always a twist, and the facts of the case were that DNA from the egg was used because the other woman has some disease so the good DNA would override the bad DNA, and the only place the implantation procedure could be done was in England because it wasn’t approved in the US. Which made the whole case fall apart for the defense and the judge (returning The Good Wife judge Timothy Stanek, played by Peter Gerety) awarded ownership of the embryo to Diane’s client … who then offered to allow the couple to be involved in the baby’s life. Which resulted in what the whole case was set up for, a big “FUCK YOU” from the father. Yes, we know, you can curse because this is a streaming show, but when you have to drop the F-bomb as a punchline to a segment, that’s just a bit sloppy.
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There wasn’t much about the Rindell scandal this week except for Maia coming under attack courtesy of a fake Twitter account that posts horrific things about her sexuality and what she does with her girlfriend (#Wetlands) and her love for canning peaches. Which then escalated into fake news websites creating wild stories about her spending $350,000 on jewelry — where could that money have come from not that she might have been involved in her father’s financial scheme to bilk his clients — and it turns out it’s not even one of the victims who has posted these things, it’s … a jealous ex-boyfriend, a photographer who has also posted nude photos of Maia online (and since he was the only one with the pics, his guilt was no surprise).
Attempting to sue him went nowhere because none of the server bots creating the fake tweets and news stories are in Chicago, so the only way to fight the guy was with his own ammunition. With tech savvy Marissa, Maia was also able to create fake news stories about her ex including one about child pornography that got him into hot water with him employer. Bested at his own game, he agreed to take down all of the fake items if Maia did. End of story, but will there be any repercussions moving forward, or is this just another one-off moment for the series?
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The real set-up, possibly for the rest of the season, came when Mike Kresteva visits RB&K setting off Diane’s internal alarms. Kresteva had a history of screwing over people, namely Alicia Florrick (one of the two mentions made of her thus far), and Diane warns Boseman not to trust the man. Kresteva then pays a visit to Diane’s office, telling her of his new position working for the state. Diane engages in some small talk about Mike’s son, not knowing he passed away a year earlier from leukemia. End of conversation.
But, suddenly the attorneys are getting subpoenas to appear before a grand jury, and Diane finds herself being grilled by Mike. His line of questioning was shocking, to say the least, as he asked Diane about her firm’s attitude on police brutality and wanting her to answer if she told him that the problem with the people of Cook County is that they hate African Americans. Stunned speechless, Mike asked if she wanted him to repeat the question to which she answered no but then reversed herself and said yes. Denying that she said such a thing, Mike asked if she was implying his notes from their meeting were incorrect to which she replied they were “bizarrely incorrect.” She also mentioned that she kept their conversation in her office to a minimum because he is known to lie. But in the eyes of the grand jury, will they believe the man asking the questions or the person he’s putting on the spot?
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Diane reports back to the partners that Kresteva is coming after them because the bulk of their cases are police brutality cases, and the state obviously wants those to be reduced dramatically. Luckily Lucca has a little ace up her sleeve in the form of Colin Morello, who also works for the state. He puts a little pressure on Kresteva’s boss who suggests Mike needs to focus on bigger fish. But don’t think this is over. Perry is scheduled to appear in at least two more episodes.
Storywise, “Henceforth Known as Property” spent a lot of time allowing the writers and actors to do their thing, but as far as the story goes not much happened and the whole thing with Maia’s ex could have been better spent on the actual scandal with her family. All we have of real interest from this is where the Kresteva story is going to go.
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