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The wrapping up of the Mike Kresteva storyline in the previous episode (at least for this season) left The Good Fight with one loose end to tie up (for now) and piled on several other plotlines that really don’t seem to be going anywhere past this episode.
First we’re introduced to Carl Reddick (Louis Gossett Jr.), founding partner of Reddick, Boseman and Kolstad, making a surprise visit to the firm, giving what appears to be a pep talk to his employees, telling them that if there is anything worth fighting for, injustices or an out-of-control president (cut to Julius), then take a stand because that’s what the firm represents.
What Carl is really in town for is to take Adrian Bosemen to task for what Reddick sees as his steering the firm away from its mission, to tackle racial injustice, and put the quest for big money clients first. Case in point, the ChumHum account, one of “the whitest Silicon Valley companies,” according to Reddick. Remember when Neil Gross’ blatant racism was on display as he addressed only Diane, the only white person in the room besides himself, and then Adrian told Barbara to “let it slide” because it was a huge account? Reddick would not have let that slide one bit. And to right what Reddick feels is Adrian’s wrong, he’s prepared to have the firm’s members vote on replacing Adrian as the firm’s managing partner.
But Carl also has a case he wants the firm to handle involving a long-time client, a pastor who runs a halfway house for recovering drug users who is being sued by a resident over an eviction. Pastor Jeremiah claims the man started using again and that violated the terms of his residence, but the man has a counter-claim — the pastor is kicking him out because he refuses to engage in sexual activity with him. And he’s got Sleazy (yes, with a capital S) lawyer Gabriel Kovac (Fisher Stevens) to back up his dubious claims. Adrian assigns Diane to handle the eviction — not something the firm normally does but this is a favor for Reddick and Pastor Jeremiah — and deal with Kovac, handing him enough evidence to support the pastor’s claims. But Kovac always has something new to present to her, one thing more tawdry than the next, but Marissa discovers Pastor Jeremiah is wearing a Fitbit in some security footage (as do all the residents of the house), logs in to the activity account and can prove by comparing heart rates that there was no sexual contact taking place at the time alleged. The upside — investigator Jay offered to sponsor Marissa investigator’s license because she’s that good.
Nothing Kovac comes up with sticks and then it turns out he’s being paid by some alt-right organization out to discredit Pastor Jeremiah, and he takes off with his tail between his legs before RB&K sue and have him disbarred. A lot of this storyline seemed a little far-fetched, especially when Marissa started going deep into the whole Fitbit activity logs and security footage, but the most troubling aspect of this story is how it handled the allegations of sexual abuse. The accuser was lying to cover up his own misdeeds, and that puts a bad light on real people who have real accusations of real abuse, leading many people who see something like this on TV to perhaps judge these real people as those making false claims to cover something up. For a show that is pretty intelligent, this is a bad misstep in storytelling.
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But what else happened in this episode? After Henry Rindell’s devastating testimony last week that sealed Kresteva’s fate, we assume he felt that with his plea deal off the table it was better to die than spend his life in jail, especially after his daughter told him she’d never let him see her children should she have any. So Henry planned to hang himself in the barn, but left a troublesome message with Maia’s partner, and after failing to reach him, they rushed to the Rindell home. But Henry misjudged his placement of the noose and ended up falling over the railing in the barn, seriously injuring himself but nothing fatal. An ambulance was called and Maia had to scramble to get rid of any evidence that showed Henry tried to commit suicide so that his bail wouldn’t be revoked.
At the hospital, Maia’s mother Lenore shows up, thinking that it would be a great idea to have Uncle Jax give her a ride. Not the best decision as Maia pulls Lenore aside and tells her to break it off with Jax. Lenore still thinks everyone is blind to what she’s doing, but Maia shows her the suicide note that implies knowledge of the affair as one of his reasons for ending it all. Lenore tells Jax to leave and the family is united in Henry’s room … but is there more to Lenore and Jax than meets the eye?
With everything else going on, we also get another subplot with Lucca and Colin. Lucca meets Colin’s mother (Andrea Martin) who invites Lucca to Colin’s birthday party. He tries to dissuade Lucca but she insists on coming, and it turns out to be the worst decision she’s ever made in her life. Finding out she’s the token black at the party (full of folks who drove over right from the bingo scene in Get Out), she also gets more shocking news: Colin may be dating her only because it would look good for him when he runs for political office. She excuses herself from the party, and refuses to believe Colin when he says the story is not true, ultimately breaking things off with him. Wait, Lucca is a lawyer, but she goes on rumor and suggestion rather than any real evidence? I don’t know. This seems like some shoddy storytelling just to introduce drama into their relationship.
By the end of the episode, it was time to vote and despite some heavy campaigning, Adrian lost the vote 11-12. But, surprise, Barbara Kolstad revealed she hadn’t voted yet and now she is siding with Adrian, causing a tie vote, telling Carl that Adrian is better suited to today’s legal battles and that Carl is basically a dinosaur (not quite in those words but that was the implication). The move helps Adrian and Barbara bond a bit more, but with Julius on his way out the door, how secure will things be at RB&K?
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