Screengrab
The Good Fight, the first original series from the CBS All Access streaming service, returns for its second season with a gripping and entertaining episode steeped in death. There are several deaths that shake things up in the series’ return even though none of the major characters shuffle off this mortal coil. But the episode’s central death will have serious ramifications for the law firm of Reddick, Boseman, and Kolstad as it’s the firm’s founding partner Carl Reddick (played last season by guest star Louis Gossett Jr.) who has died. His passing also allows the show to introduce his daughter Liz (new cast member Audra McDonald) into the mix, an AUSA (Assistant United States Attorney) who is under fire for a tweet in which she called Donald Trump a white supremacist (Trump’s presence still hangs over the series, the episode title referring to how many days he’s been in office as of the episode premiere). Her boss wants her to lay low for a while until the tweet storm blows over, but events at the funeral lead her to tender her resignation instead.
The fuse is lit during a eulogy given by Barbara Kolstad speaking of her admiration for Carl but lamenting how she’s failed him and his legacy as the firm has turned more towards money. She doesn’t think her comments were that bad but what she said seriously impacted the firm’s major client who is handling the terms for the Obama Presidential Library. Barbara’s also not too happy that Diane has missed the funeral, unaware that an inept judge has kept her in court, but more than happy to keep reminding Adrian Boseman that the troubled client is Diane’s, let her deal with it. Diane does finally make it to the funeral courtesy of a bailiff suffering a heart attack during the interminable jury selection process, and she tries to smooth things over with the client. But he’s not leaving because of what Barbara said, he’s leaving because Liz Reddick is starting her own firm. He’s following the name, but how can they convince him that taking a huge project like the presidential library to a start-up firm is a disaster in the making?
Diane comes up with a brilliant idea which she floats to Julius (who has apparently returned to the firm after briefly quitting last season) — bring Liz in as a named partner. They won’t have to change the letterhead. Julius doesn’t know how this will sit with Adrian because, well, he was married to Liz at one time and their relationship is more frosty than cordial. At the reception following the funeral, Adrian flatly states that no way will he allow Liz to join the firm, but Julius says there are fifteen other board members who will vote against him. Adrian dares him to try it. Meanwhile, Diane is being wooed by the firm that initially rejected her when she lost her partnership at the previous firm (in the first season premiere), alerting her that Barbara is trying to force her out of Reddick, Boseman, and Kolstad. Taking a while to consider the possibility, Diane attempts to be cordial in turning down the offer but the woman tells her not to worry, she went with her second choice — Barbara Kolstad. (Who, by the way, is replacing another partner who also just died.)
There are a lot of wheels in motion in setting up this new storyline, but it’s all handled so well that it never feels forced. There is another death here that is also setting up a subplot for the season. A divorce lawyer was run down by a client for being over-billed and as he was being arrested the disgruntled client screamed to the news camera ‘Kill all the lawyers!’ There were so many dead lawyers already that it became darkly humorous when no one knew which funeral they were talking about. Turns out a litigator from Diane’s former firm also died. But there was still more plot to be woven in.
Screengrab
We can’t forget about Maia Rindell, under arrest for possible collusion with her father on his Ponzi scheme, and six days away from trial. But Madeline Starkey (Jane Lynch) pops up at Reddick’s funeral hoping to give Maia an offer she can’t refuse: all charges dropped if she tells her where her father is. And Starkey claims she even has some evidence that may make Maia change her mind. Madeline didn’t know Maia recorded their conversation, but when she played it for Lucca, she went to Madeline to find out what evidence she had because she should have turned over all the evidence by this time.
What Madeline had was a grainy photograph of a woman allegedly withdrawing more than a million dollars from a bank in Dubai. She thinks Maia knows who the woman is, and the shocked look on Maia’s face could mean she does even when she tells Lucca she doesn’t. But Lucca presses and Maia seems to remember the woman was her tennis coach, someone that her parents eventually dismissed because they felt the women were getting too close. But the more Maia remembered, the more it became clear that the woman was actually having an affair with her father. But that was years ago, so why would she be withdrawing his money now?
To help get the wheels further lubricated, Madeline produces something else for Maia — a recorded phone conversation between her father and the mystery woman. On it, it sounds like the two had been having an affair and … there is a seven-year-old boy in the picture. Lucca tries to assure Maia that this conversation was given to her to inflame her into helping the prosecution but Maia assures her she will not be inflamed. Lucca isn’t so sure the call is authentic, enlisting the aid of the firm’s investigator Jay to decode the call. Apparently there is software that can listen to a person’s voice and then be used to create any conversation the user desires. When Maia re-listens to the call, she knows the voice of the woman is not authentic. Lucca alerts Madeline that Maia is ready to make a deal, and they play a recorded phone call between her and her father which seems to indicate that Maia knows exactly where her father is. And then Madeline is brought into the call which blows up the whole charade of the original doctored phone call, something Lucca plans to use against Madeline in court. But the question remains: is Maia remembering things correctly? At one point during a flashback, she even sees herself watching herself watching the woman and her father. How reliable are Maia’s memories? Only time will tell.
The Good Fight‘s second season premiere was a lot of fun, bring back inept lawyer Howard Lyman from The Good Wife as the inept judge (who’s also racist and sexist), and giving shout outs to Alicia Florrick and Will Gardner. By the way, Audra McDonald did appear in one episode of The Good Wife as ‘Liz Lawrence’ so the character has been sort of retrofitted to be brought into the mix. Also, Diane’s assistant Marissa has completed her PI training and wants Adrian to give her a shot as a co-investigator with the firm alongside Jay. Boseman spends most of his time ignoring Marissa but she finally grows a pair and confronts him. That impressed him enough to bring her on as a part-time investigator on a trial basis and maybe a few months down the road they can talk about a raise. There was one plot thread started this week with Diane deciding to take up a bartender on his offer for some ground up magic mushrooms, and when we last see her this week she’s casually micro-dosing in the back of her limo. Diane, what are you thinking?
Share this post
