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Some familiar faces returned to The Good Fight this week. Kurt Fuller, who played Judge Peter Dunaway on seven episodes of The Good Wife was back on the bench this week (his second appearance on this series), and John Glover made an appearance as attorney Jared Andrews, a character he played four times on The Good Wife. I love how they bring back actors from the original series so we know this is still firmly rooted in that same universe. Michael Sheen also returned this week as Roland Blum, and 30 Rock‘s Scott Adsit guested as a judge at a polling location during a local election. And that section played a major role in this week’s episode.
But first, Blum is causing more shenanigans at Reddick, Boseman and Lockhart by inserting himself into a case the firm has been working on for more than two years, finagling signatures out of 21 clients giving him co-counsel power in the case against a company that sells DNA analysis kits. Blum asserts that the firm’s clients have waited long enough, and he’s certain he can win a judgment in a couple of days rather than a could more years. The partners are apoplectic about Blum’s brashness, especially Diane who realizes that he stole the client list when she found him rooting around in her office a couple of episodes back, but Adrian actually believes that Blum is right. It is time to wind down this case, ready or not, and he’s confident that Blum can do it.
With the threat of Blum heading the case, the attorney for the defendant, Andrews, shows up at the firm with a check, just as Blum had predicted. But a $3 million settlement, Andrews’ insisting that is the best offer they’ll get, is laughed at by Blum who asserts Andrews will be crawling back to them with a check for ten times that amount. In court, Blum manages to play on emotions by bringing in a witness whose husband was turned down for life insurance after the DNA test proved he had a pre-existing medical condition. The company states in its Terms of Service that any information collected may be sold to pharmaceutical and insurance companies, with the result being development of new drugs. But another effect was that people were being turned down for insurance. The woman’s husband died, leaving them with nothing. Blum also trotted out his dietitian who was acting the role of a former employee of the company, a whistleblower, but when Marissa alerted Adrian to this ruse, he had to insist that Blum not call the man to the stand a second time. It all came down to the difference between a paper contract read by the CEO of the company in court, and the contract customers saw online. The ‘I agree’ box on the website was pre-checked, forcing customers to ‘agree’ to the TOS just to sign up. That was enough for Andrews to come crawling back to the firm with a much more sizeable — and final — offer to settle. As Blum had predicted (we don’t know what it was but the looks on everyone’s faces said it was huge). But the settlement came with one caveat — Reddick, Boseman and Lockhart would now represent the DNA company with their other similar lawsuits, helping them come to settlements to avoid court. Diane insisted it would just be the four partners but Andrews said Blum would also be a part of it or no deal. Adrian took the deal, and Blum was giddy at his accomplishment.
But poor Maia is still feeling the effects of her encounter with Blum. When the partners were first notified that they were supposed to be in court for the DNA case, Adrian assumed Maia, who was working on the case with Blum, had done something to screw them over. No, she was stuck at her new job manning a phone for an internet law firm. Marissa gave her some leads for jobs at three other firms courtesy of Diane, but when Maia went for interviews, the jobs were either short term or not available for another six months, making Maia wonder if Diane is somehow playing her since she seemed to know about the conditions of these jobs. Feeling awful about everything that happened, Lucca dropped by Maia’s apartment and offered to take her to dinner to catch up. Maia, feeling betrayed by Diane and everyone at the firm, told Lucca they were just work friends and shut the door in her face.
And that was just the bad end to a bad day for Lucca (and Jay). Feeling that there is animosity against them after the whole payroll debacle, Lucca questions why it’s them who are sent to be observers at a polling place hours away from the city. Jay tells her not to read much into it, but she wonders if it’s because they’re Black. It seems that is exactly why the two Black Democrats are sent to this polling place which has a high African-American voter registration. The last election was won by seven votes at this location, so it’s imperative that there’s no funny business during the special election. The Republicans also have two observers on site, both are White. And they’re all given instructions to bring any concerns to the judge, not to make any decisions on their own.
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Now, with an episode title like ‘The One Where a Nazi Gets Punched’ you know there is going to be some controversy. The first person the Republicans object to is a voter wearing a T-shirt that says ‘When they go low, we get high’ with a pot leaf in the center. The Repubs says that’s electioneering as it plays on a Dem slogan. Lucca and Jay think that’s a ridiculous argument, but the judge agrees that the man can’t wear the shirt to vote. Instead of sending him away, Lucca suggests he take the shirt off. The judge is fine with that and gives the man the option – no shirt or come back later with a new shirt. The takes his shirt off and everyone is happy … until they see the big swastika tattoo on his back. Lucca mutters to her Republican opposition, ‘Congratulations.’
Ah, but that is not the Nazi who gets punched. Fooled ya! As the observers are gathered outside past the 100 foot mark where they can talk politics, a group of ‘Red Jackets’ arrives led by a Richard Spencer type, claiming to be there to make sure the voting is fair. What they’re really doing just by their presence is intimidating the Black voters who won’t even get out of their cars now. Jay calls his reporter friend Naomi (who he is now dating) to come and to a report on the activities. She interviews the leader of the group and Jay overhears his comments, wondering how Naomi can stand there and listen to him. Lucca says that’s what a reporter does, remains objective. Naomi, however, refuses to shake the man’s hand when the interview is done.
Concerned about the growing number of Red Jackets at the scene, Lucca calls Diane to give her an update. Diane calls one of the ladies from her resistance group who asks for photos of everyone there so she can dox them. Lucca sends the photos and a story is posted online with the names and employers of all the men there, with the added bonus of calls being made to the employers alerting them to their employees activities and threats to boycott the businesses. Once the Red Jackets begin to discover they’re losing their jobs because of the website, they blame Naomi. But Lucca tells the morons it was her, and seeing how the anger was about to be directed at her, the female Republican judge said it was her. Then Jay, who had just punched the leader of the Red Jackets in the face while in the men’s room, said it was him, and the male Republican judge said it was him. And a riot broke out because no one knew who actually doxed them.
This led to an amazing moment of mayhem that literally seemed like it was inspired by those Allstate commercials about Mayhem as Jay became a narrator of sorts expounding on what inspired him to punch the guy in the rest room — the video of Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer being interviewed, talking about his beliefs as if they are just another normal part of society, getting punched in the face by a passer-by — and how perhaps now is the time for all of us to start punching Nazis in the face. It was a powerful statement as this riot waged around him, and a moment that is sure to be held up by the right as just more radical liberalism so the Nazis can play the victim. Kudos to CBS All Access for having the guts to allow Michelle & Robert King and writer Tegan Shohet to include this moment. Some may say it was heavy-handed, but maybe it’s time we did get a gut-punch like this, a wake-up call to what’s happening in this country. Many of us have family members or friends, real American patriots, who served in World War II, a war that was literally about stopping Nazis from taking over the world. Now we live in a day and age when people who call themselves ‘patriots’ are embracing the message of Nazism, going against everything our ancestors fought for. It was a bold, much needed statement. Perhaps we don’t want to literally go around punching people in the face, but there are ways to do it figuratively, like voting.
This was a very entertaining and eye-opening episode of The Good Fight, again proving it’s one of the best shows on television.
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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