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In the history of abrupt introductions to new characters, this week’s edition of The Good Fight takes the cake with the introduction of lawyer Roland Blum, whom we first meet as he’s trying a case with Maia (who is attempting to thwart any more negative publicity by using her mother’s maiden name instead of Rindell). But even with Maia discovering a new attitude courtesy of the new sunglasses Marissa gave her last week, without that confidence booster in court she’s still the meek creature she’s always been, attempting to argue her case in the most mundane, by-the-book way possible. And Roland is not down for any of that.
Michael Sheen makes his first appearance as Roland, and this character is pretty far removed from anything I’ve typically seen the British actor do. He’s loud, brash, arrogant and unfiltered, usually hopped up on drugs (he sucks on fentanyl lollipops before heading into court, and suggests Maia do the same) and definitely way out of Maia’s comfort zone. And the kicker is that his mentor was the notorious Roy Cohn (and the episode features another humorous animated segment which tells Cohn’s story in song). But where did he come from and how is he part of Boseman, Reddick and Lockhart?
And now Roland has positioned himself as Maia’s mentor, trying to instill in her the same methods of trying a case that Cohn instilled in him — and it certainly echoes something we’ve heard in the recent past from a certain lawyer for a certain president: facts aren’t facts. Roland’s methods involve spinning a story, being theatrical, twisting the facts upon themselves to twist a jury’s perception of the case. It’s a method of doing anything and everything to convince the jury that their client is innocent. Aside from the suggestion of giving herself a little boost before court (not to mention tossing all of her notes out the window), Roland takes Maia to a strip club to give her more lessons in his gray morality — there’s nothing black and white about him.
Maia seems to be catching on a little and is almost on board with Roland until he calls a surprise witness for their case (and it this point, the actual case matters very little, some kind of murder for hire scheme) who turns out to be the stripper from the club, perfectly rehearsed by Roland. Maia is not happy with this turn of events and her reaction to this new witness made her visibly upset. Roland, probably anticipating the reaction, had already told Maia to act outraged when he gave her the signal. As the harried judge (Richard Kind) called everyone to the bench for a sidebar to see a stack of new evidence — which was just photocopies of take-out menus — he’d had enough and called a mistrial. Not a win or a loss for them, but it certainly gives them more time to prepare for the new trial, which the judge assured them that they would all be present for in his court. The question is will any of this rub off on Maia? We may have gotten a clue as she exited the courtroom. Earlier she’d been accosted by a man who lost everything because of her father and she just tried to impress upon him that it was her father’s doing, not hers. This time, the same man approached and tried to show her what he’d lost and she pretty much told him to fuck off. And she wasn’t even wearing her sunglasses.
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Back at Boseman, Reddick and Lockhart, the search is still on for someone to head up the new Marriage Litigation Division. Julius brings in a conservative voice with a wealthy list of clients, but Liz seems rather insistent that Lucca make her case to run the division. But with no clients under her belt and a new baby to care for, can she make a case for herself? Good thing she’s got grandma Francesca on her side. She seems rather scatterbrained but she’s savvy, inviting all of her lady friends to have a few drinks and coo over the baby, knowing that a lot of them are seeking divorces. And who should they hire? Why Lucca of course. Lucca knows heading up this new division will keep her away from the baby so she asks him to give her a sign if she should fight for the position. He farts, and from the look on her face it was not roses, so she took that as her sign to go for it.
Lucca had also asked Marissa to dig up some dirt on the new guy Julius had brought in, so armed with three new clients, all women, with more than $20 million — and the other guy had six clients, all male, but the money would be tied to his former firm — Lucca made her case. Oh, and she also had the dirt that would sway the Board’s vote her way: the guy was on the legal team that coached Brett Kavanaugh. Lucca for the win. Adrian was not happy that Liz seemed to manipulate things to get her way, but why is he so opposed to Lucca heading the division? If the firm as struggled a question of identity, wouldn’t it be better to have a woman head up a division rather than another man, even if Adrian wanted him to tilt the firm’s decidedly liberal voice a bit more towards the conservative?
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Finally, Diane is still dealing with the fallout from Kurt’s association with Eric and Don Jr., learning that they waited 48 hours before taking him to the hospital after the accidental shooting so they could continue on their safari and kill a giraffe (monsters!). Coming home, Diane finds Kurt dressed in a tux for a fundraising event that he didn’t tell her about because the boys would be there. She said she wouldn’t miss it for the world, and found herself listening to a decidedly improper conversation that she promptly recorded on her phone. Kurt saw what she did and later insisted that she delete the recording, and while insisting that she wasn’t going to do anything with it she still acquiesced and hit the delete button. But did she actually delete the recording in question?
The whole situation has really gotten to her so much that she’s hitting way too hard in her martial arts class (and is surprised when her sensei performs an ‘adjustment’ telling her to focus on her core and release things like the Jewish takeover of the media), so she decides to work out her aggressions by throwing axes. She’s surprised at the office when Tara, the prostitute who was paid off to abort her baby fathered by the president, tells her that someone leaked her story to the press. She assumes it was Diane as a way to break the NDA but Diane, rather unconvincingly, assures her that she did not do it. Tara leaves and Diane goes online to see the reports of the story and quietly says to herself, ‘I’m sorry.’ Will all this eventually blow up in her face? And how will Roland play into this considering he’s definitely on the president’s side? It may get real messy before the season ends.
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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