The Good Fight puts Jay on ICE

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In the penultimate episode of the second season of The Good Fight, we got another episode that functions more as a stand-alone than anything tied to what’s been happening all season but it really does appear to set up the coming season finale with the introduction of ICE attorney Patrick Basehart (Enrico Colantoni). And why is there an ICE agent (actually a whole herd of them) on this episode? Because one of our regulars is in danger of being deported. But there seems to be more to the story than this episode reveals.

The episode starts with Jay and Maia transporting a witness from Israel to testify on behalf of Naftali Amato, the fiancée of Colin Sweeney, in her corrupt foreign practices case. But the car is stopped by the police and before you know it, they have found drugs (which legitimately belong to the passenger), and Jay and the passenger are arrested. Curiously, Maia is not and it’s never made clear why she was allowed to go free. But the arrest puts a major delay on the case and worse, Jay seems to be a target of ICE and when Liz realizes what’s going on, she puts every trick in the book at her disposal to keep Jay in police custody. Even when the prosecution, which has dropped the case because the drugs were legally prescribed, and asks for a ridiculously low bail ($10) for Jay’s release.

Liz and Diane claim any amount is a hardship and when Judge Morris (the great Jane Alexander) realizes what they’re doing, she even plays along, advising Jay to behave in her court even though he’s not really doing anything. It takes Jay a minute to realize what everyone is doing and Liz tells him to get loud, and the judge keeps on him to show some respect until he finally yells ‘Fuck this court’ and she holds him in contempt. Basehart knew what they were doing and assured them he would eventually find the pea in this shell game they’re playing, but for the moment Jay cannot be taken while he’s in custody.

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While Maia attempts to locate Jay’s birth certificate — because the one the court has is wrong — Diane and Liz are basically tag teaming the case in both federal and state court, hoping to score a win in either one of them. The episode really rushed through the whole issue of states’ rights versus the power of the federal government, and got a little more complicated with the whole Sanctuary City issue, of which Chicago is one. Liz actually wins her case in the state court, but Diane loses in federal court thanks to the buffoonish Judge Trig Mullaney, whom Diane wasn’t able to bamboozle with a lot of legal jargon that she knows he can’t possibly be up on considering his tenure in court has been so short (and the prosecution is gobsmacked by the things she’s saying as they don’t even relate to the case), and he ordered Jay be turned over to ICE.

But then there was the whole issue of federal law trumping states’ rights and Basehart insisted that the sheriff had to turn Jay over to him. But with two contradicting orders from the courts, the sheriff said they cancelled each other out and Jay was to remain in his jail. Which was a surprising turn of events since the sheriff was clearly working in collusion with Basehart when Jay was arrested but when he told Diane and Liz that his job was to follow the law, it looks like he meant it because I doubt he kept Jay in custody out of the goodness of his heart.

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And then once they had Jay’s birth certificate, Marissa discovered something very concerning — it was a fake, a copy of his sister’s certificate that had been altered. The other certificate was real, Jay’s real name is Jamil, he was born in Nigeria, and he’s not his sister’s twin, he’s a year older. No one but their parents knew the truth … and they’re dead. It’s not even clear at what age they brought Jay to the US. Unfortunately, Basehart was able to pull some strings and get Jay transferred from jail to the court where Naftali’s case was underway, despite Judge Morris’ best efforts to keep him in police custody.

In court, Julius and Adrian were doing their best to keep Jay on the stand for as long as possible, and Julius was directed by someone at the back of the room to excuse himself. Talking to this guy, a Republican ‘fixer,’ Julius was told this whole issue could go away if Riddick, Boseman and Lockhart gave their client ChumHum to the Republicans because there is some assumption that the site is conducting data mining for the Democrats in the same way Cambridge Analytica did for the Republicans. Julius balks at first but agrees to see what he can do. Of course no one is giving up ChumHum, so Julius has to bluff, but by this time the judge has had enough and dismisses Jay from the witness stand and right into ICE custody.

Marissa, however, suggests a way to save Jay — get him an Einstein Visa, a special visa granted to immigrants with special talents or abilities. A private investigator isn’t a qualifier but Jay’s artwork just might be, if they can find some. Going to his apartment with Jay’s sisters, they find his work room full of art, but has he ever been paid for it? Turns out a local comic’s deal has bought some of his work and Marissa needs him to speak on Jay’s behalf … but there is more trickery involved.

At the immigration hearing, Diane, Liz and Basehart argue their points to the judge who is phoning his work in via the internet but no one seems to realize they are talking to a buffering image until an actual flesh and blood judge enters the room to take over because … the other guy went fishing. (Cue the video finally going live to show an empty chair.) Displaying several of Jay’s pieces as well as building a fake news story about a gallery exhibit (tying back to a previous episode where the same trick was used against RB&L), the new judge is impressed by a lion drawing. But Basehart is adamant that a cartoonist does not merit an Einstein Visa. Knowing Basehart would object, Diane and Liz had one more ace up their sleeves — a nude modeling photo of Melania Trump, who was granted an Einstein Visa for modeling (and which Basehart played a part in granting).

The final shot showed the outside of the jail, an empty street and a single door from which Jay exited. Breathing in his freedom, Jay confidently walked up the street whistling the show’s theme song. But, Julius’ fixer friend is not happy, warning him that the firm just made a new enemy … and they were coming for them all. And that’s quite clear from the preview for the season finale. Where will it all end? We’ll find out next week!

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