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This week’s episode of The Good Fight was an emotional rollercoaster that began a bit frantically, took a steep dive to despair but ended on a note of triumph. And it was a great ride from beginning to end.
The episode opened with many balls being juggled, from Adrian attempting to handle a prenup with accused wife killer (he was found not guilty) Colin Sweeney (returnee Dtlan Baker) to an endless delivery of congratulatory balloons on Lucca’s non-baby shower. Another client was also in the building for a meeting with Adrian, former drug kingpin Lemond Bishop (a The Good Wife carry over), as was Solomon Walzer (Alan Alda), who was there to discuss a merger of his law firm with Riddick, Boseman and Lockhart. Being the whitest of white law firms in Chicago, it seemed odd for him to come to them, but he claimed it was simply because they beat him in court a couple of episodes ago. And that all smelled a bit fishy to Diane. In the midst of all these goings on, Liz is concerned about what’s happening to the firm — drug dealer clients, wife killer clients … where does it all end? The thing is, these clients are also kind of off the books so no one knows they are being represented by RB&L.
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Until a shocking event changes everything. While waiting for the elevator, Adrian is shot point blank by an unknown assailant when the doors open, and while on the phone with Sweeney, whose fiancée thinks the ‘call 9-1-1’ plea is just a trick to put off the prenup signing. Luckily Adrian gets the attention of the receptionist and while waiting for help, Marissa begins to ask why she isn’t being considered to fill Jay’s recently vacated position. And then she sees what’s happening and all hell breaks loose as paramedics arrive and everyone in the office wonders who’s next. All except Lucca, who is inundated with balloons and just needs to take a nap, unaware of what just happened.
Meanwhile, Maia is with Sweeney with no idea what’s happening and Colin is being anointed the district’s choice for the Democratic congressional candidate. But he hears about the shooting and doesn’t have time to celebrate, in a panic trying to reach Lucca with no luck, nearly killing himself to get to the office to see if she’s okay. Before he can tell her the news, Liz calls and needs a favor.
She’s at the hospital with Diane and her husband, the chief of police, and he wants the client list to see if they can find a suspect in Adrian’s shooting. Diane refuses due to the legalities of attorney-client privilege, but Liz goes behind her back and asks Lucca to email her the list … without cluing her in as to why she wants it. Lucca obliges, but really should have asked, and Liz gives the police the list, under husband-wife confidentiality rules. And the first thing the police do is head to Bishop’s home for questioning. Diane is alerted by his other attorney, Charles Lester (Wallace Shawn), as to the intrusion and she calls Lucca to meet her to prevent the police from asking any questions that don’t pertain to the shooting. It’s a very short session but it puts the firm on shaky footing with Bishop and Lester.
And then the police want to question Sweeney, and Diane tells Maia that they will do it at the office. But again, it puts the firm in a bad light that the police are suddenly questioning clients who are not supposed to be known as clients of RB&L. Diane is pretty sure she knows how the police got the list and instead of looking for the suspect, they are going after clients who dodged the law thanks to RB&L. It’s a real witch hunt rather than a procedural investigation. But Diane needs to get to the hospital after Adrian’s surgery, so she has to marshall the troops and put everything on hold until Friday.
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While waiting for news, Walzer drops by and tries to console Diane who says she can’t remember a time when things were normal anymore. Walzer tells her his daughter, a reporter, says the same thing and it’s only been two years (and we all know what they’re referring to). Diane thinks he wants to chat about the merger but he says that can wait. And then she gets a call — Bishop wants his files so he can take them to a new firm. Then Sweeney, and some others but no one will say where they are taking their business. Diane has a pretty good idea that Walzer is poaching their clients now that their confidence has been breached.
But the question still lingers — who shot Adrian? Marissa suggests reaching out to Jay, because even though he quit after a argument with Adrian, he’d come back once he knew what happened. And in the middle of an interview for a new job, he did just that. Nice to see that father-son bond the two had is still strong despite their differences. Jay meets Marissa at the hospital and, although he can’t really speak, Adrian is able to convey to Jay that he saw the assailant but he did not recognize him because of a red scarf covering his face, but he knew it was a Caucasian man (the police don’t accept that as proof claiming Adrian was traumatized). If true, that let’s Bishop off the hook, and half of the firm’s clients. The police aren’t about to let up, and Liz realizes she’s made a really bad judgment call, one that could come back on her marriage (and the way she lovingly looked at Adrian’s belongings was not unnoticed by her husband).
But out of all the turmoil, a Phoenix rises from the ashes as Diane has a moment of real clarity for the first time in months. Dumping her microdosing liquid, the old Diane is back in full force, taking complete charge of the situation, making calls, getting their clients back in line, and even apologizing to Liz for her recent behavior. Liz also apologized for her actions and the two agreed to start over. Good, because these two will be a formidable team. But there was one last thing Diane needed to do — talk to Solomon about the merger.
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Happy to meet with her, but surprised she didn’t want to wait until Adrian was out of the woods, Diane told him she had come to a decision about the merger, one that was better delivered to him visually. A middle finger. Walzer said he didn’t know her well enough to know if that was a joke, but she let him know that she knew he was going after their clients, looking to pick out the big ticket ones and tossing away the rest. Walzer feigned ignorance but Diane had one more ace up her sleeve.
Thanks to Lucca’s relationship with Colin and his new status with the city’s Democratic party, Diane gave them some information that she felt would affect the party’s professional relationship with Walzer’s firm. With the head of the party, Frank Landau, paying Walzer a visit to question him about signing people like Bishop and Sweeney, he informed Walzer that he didn’t think that would reflect well on the party and that Diane Lockhart had made overtures to bring their business to her firm which Landau was going to do. Walzer thought he was going to leave RB&L nothing but a carcass, but he didn’t count on Diane becoming the vulture to pick over his bones. And, in the end, they got all of their clients back as well making one wonder how much damage she inflicted on Walzer’s firm and what kind of retaliation she can expect.
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And Jay seems to have already narrowed down the suspects to five clients that may have a grudge against the firm, not necessarily Adrian who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. At the top of the list is Felix Staples, who lost a book deal due the firm, has been tweeting about more dead lawyers, and happens to be in Chicago. But is he the murdering type?
Overall, ‘Day 471’ was a great episode, and I’m so glad that the confident, fiery Diane Lockhart is back!
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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