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Wow, this was a pretty intense and timely episode of The Good Fight where the actions carried out by some of the main characters — or carried out on their behalf — may lead to some serious consequences. In one case, those actions have already caused a major problem for one of our leads. Last week all of the women on the show had a chance to shine, and that continues this week.
First, Marissa learned that helping a Republican, no matter if she works with him or not, interview for a prestigious judgeship comes with its own set of hardships. Unbeknownst to her, the committee interviewing Julius insisted that he’d never get ahead with the daughter of Eli Gold as his consultant, especially after they already gave him a list of approved candidates. But Julius was actually considerate enough to not let Marissa know what was said. However, when an associate of her father’s showed up at the firm to scream at her (with the assumption that the office windows were soundproof … and I’m thinking Marissa knew full well they weren’t when she said they were) about consulting with a conservative, she told the guy to tell her father that he could yell at her himself the next time he wanted to deliver a message. But Julius, who witnessed the moment, was even more steadfast in keeping Marissa on … which lost him the opportunity for the judgeship and made him question his loyalty to her.
Especially when the ugly issue of salaries came up. Lucca being trotted out to give a pep talk to the new associates coming in to the firm made her realize that pretty much all of the new people are white. When Lucca found out Marissa was recently given a raise to bring her up to parity with Jay, who has been the firm’s lead investigator for four years while Marissa has been licensed for a year, that little inkling of information became a rock rolling downhill on a snow-covered mounting, turning into a giant snowball that crashed into the firm. Because not only did Marissa get a raise, it’s become evident that all of the white associates are going to her instead of Jay for investigations. So if Marissa is now making as much as Jay and getting more attention, what else is going on?
That is a question best not asked, but Lucca asks Jay to dig up the records of the firm’s payroll and it only gets worse from there. Jay is pissed about Marissa, and Lucca discovers that the incoming white associates are being paid more than some of the established black associates. She tries to bring this matter to the attention of the partners but they fall over themselves to convince her it’s not a real issue. Unfortunately, Jay does not see it that way and forwards the records via email to everyone at the firm setting off chaos and a potential crisis that could have a huge impact on Reddick, Boseman and Lockhart.
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Meanwhile, Lucca is dealing with her own issues in a current hot topic that we’ve seen all too much recently in real life — accused of being ‘black while mothering’. Taking her son out to the park, a nosy white woman overhears Lucca’s phone conversation and is upset by her apparent lack of attention to the baby. After a few snide remarks from the woman (who thinks Lucca is the white child’s nanny), Lucca jokes that she kidnapped the child and even when she tries to shut the woman down, the police are called. The woman even tries to grab the baby carrier so Lucca can’t put him in her car. Naturally the entire thing is captured on cell phone videos and uploaded to the internet where everyone sees what happened. But even though Lucca insists there’s nothing beyond what happened that day, she begins getting horrific, hateful, racist emails that leads Adrian to insist Jay escort her not only to her car, but to get her home safely. Even Jay is insistent that this is not a matter to be brushed off, and it seems that the matter will carry over for a few more episodes.
Diane and Liz are finding out that their involvement with the resistance group may also have consequences. They want to ‘Swift boat’ the president, as in having someone like Taylor Swift — whose comments on voting led to more than half a million new voter registrations in her home state — to come out against the president’s policies. And it just so happens that Adrian has such a client, a popular country music star who definitely does not want to take a political stance, preferring to use her music to spread love. But then P-Anon outs the singer’s sister as transgender, and with that comes all of the hate you’d expect, forcing the singer to take a stand to protect her family. Diane and Liz know that their group planted the story to force a statement and they weren’t happy about being used … but the effort got results so they’re not quite ready to walk away yet.
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And Maia, now facing the consequences of her shouting match with Roland (and the hurling of laptops through windows) and the drug arrest that he set up with the box of stolen narcotic in her car, must face the partners. Even though she’s not been arrested or charged for the drugs, a urine test came back inconclusive (and she used Marissa’s urine because she was worried the phentanyl lollipop Roland gave her may still be in her system), which concerns many of the partners. Naturally Diane is fighting for her goddaughter, but the partners — notably the black partners — think Maia deserves to be fires just like another associate with a drug charge (although his was proven) or they’d be accused of showing favoritism, especially in light of the salary issues now brought to the fore. While they make an effort to investigate the claims against Maia, the partners vote 5-4 with Adrian abstaining, to fire Maia. Diane is forced to deliver the stunning news to her.
This was a powerful episode, especially with the issue of race (the black partners all knew the names of black men shot by police officers while the white partners did not, prompting Diane to go on a crash course of memorizing their names), that should have some major ramifications moving forward this season, proving yet again what a great, timely television show this is.
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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