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After last week’s star-packed episode, things got scaled back a bit with Andrea Anders returning briefly and Cheryl Hines being the biggest named guest star (well, Michael Sheen is but he’s more a recurring cast member at this point) … and her appearance has seemed to set in motion a series of events that may bring down Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart in next week’s season finale.
With the news about to be made public regarding Carl Reddick’s behavior and how ChumHum has a zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment, the firm’s largest client insists on conducting an internal review to make sure there aren’t any other troubling issues going on that would force them to drop RB&L as their legal representatives. Right from the start this sounds fishy because Carl’s been dead for three years and the partners only recently learned of his behavior. Perhaps they handled it badly by paying off some of the women to keep quiet, and Liz certainly had some poor judgment by not revealing there were other women outside of the firm he’d assaulted, but going public with the information — and that’s only happening because of Roland Blum — and stating that there has been an internal investigation showing this was an issue isolated only to Reddick should have been enough for ChumHum to say they were unaware of the situation and are confident that RB&L has ensured them that the situation is not an ongoing issue within the firm. It was that simple.
But no. ChumHum insisted on bringing in Brenda Decarlo (Hines) to conduct an investigation and question all of the employees to see if there are underlying issues. And right off the bat, it goes badly as Brenda inadvertently pours more fuel on the already tense racial issues smoldering, going back to the issue of pay disparity and how Marissa is favored by the white partners, accusing her of stealing work from Jay. They even attack Lucca basically for being a woman taking a job heading up the marital litigation department away from a man. Brenda also noticed that in the pool, or the ‘hot desks’ where anyone could sit where they wanted, the white employees had their side of the room and the black employees had theirs, basically segregating themselves. It was nothing the firm did, it just seemed to be a natural occurrence but Brenda insisted on implementing assigned seats, integrating the employees … which only led to more heated arguments between them from pay to sexual and racial bias within the firm. None of which, by the way, feel under Brenda’s original mission to suss out any sexual harassment. What she found was a powder keg ready to explode.
Brenda also discovered some emails between two senior partners that seemed to indicate a one-time sexual encounter which she brought to the attention of Adrian and Liz, basically forcing them to admit that the encounter was consensual and was them. Which, she pointed out, meant they committed perjury on the stand during Liz’s divorce hearing. Not that it has anything to do with her investigation and therefore should not be included in her report. But now she knows. And who knows if she’s going to reveal the info to Sheryl Lamore (Anders) when she turns in her final report.
Brenda also questions Julius about his relationship with Marissa, whom the associates believe are conducting a sexual affair as the two have been seen leaving the office together on several occasions. That forces Julius to confide in Brenda about his potential federal judgeship which he still hasn’t revealed to the partners and he hopes to keep on the down low. And poor Marissa is being forced to keep quiet about the information she dug up on Carl’s other accusers (and Liz goes so far as to shred the file so Brenda can’t find it).
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While RB&L is in complete turmoil, Liz, Julius and Diane are at a hearing to determine the fate of Roland on the accusation of his suborning perjury by putting his dietitian on the stand to pose as a witness. Facing possible disbarment, Roland seeks out an unlikely ally — especially since it was his fault she got fired — Maia Rindell. Playing the White Knight and rescuing her from the drudgery of her current job, he enlists her to give him some credibility and hopefully provide him with information he can use against the firm, specifically what she may know about Carl Reddick. Maia agrees to work for him on the condition that he sets up a real office in The Loop and makes her a named partner because she’s bleeding millions of dollars by not handling his clients properly. And she wants her co-worker to join them. The deal is made and then he drops the news on her about Reddick, which she doesn’t believe.
So Maia reaches out to Marissa, her old friend (and it seems Maia may also have a crush on her), gets her a little liquored up and starts to pry the information about Reddick out of her. When she realizes what Blum has told her is true, she ends the ‘date’ quickly and tells Marissa that whatever happens next is not about them and that she hopes Marissa will forgive her. Marissa is completely baffled by Maia’s sudden behavior but when Roland rolls out the damaging information at the hearing, which then makes its way back to the firm, Marissa is devastated by Maia’s betrayal. It was almost a full circle moment for Maia picking up from when she firmly shut the friendship door in Lucca’s face, now with Marissa slamming that door in Maia’s face. It’s not looking good for Maia’s longevity on the show (something Rose Leslie hinted at in her little joke with husband Kit Harington when he hosted SNL).
But the information didn’t really help Blum. The committee decided to censure RB&L for their behvaior in handling the Carl Reddick situation, but that still didn’t excuse the fact that Blum asked someone to commit perjury on the stand, the result being his disbarment. And if RB&L wasn’t in enough trouble already, this result just lit another fuse under Blum (and Maia by association) that could have a damaging effect on RB&L.
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And even with all this going on, Diane is still having to deal with Book Club even though she basically walked away from them … and they interpret Liz’s disappearance as meaning she is the mole, forcing Diane to reveal to them that the group’s founder, Valerie, is a con artist currently in prison so the texts one of them has been receiving are being manufactured by that woman (and she has the proof that she is indeed sending the texts to herself). But they still don’t believe what she’s saying about Valerie, forcing Diane to give them the proof she is incarcerated. Luckily Diane has a mug shot but none of that may mean anything as the group has decided on their next move to stop the president from being re-elected.
Failing to hack the voting machines, they are now going after the members of the president’s administration, targeting a Steven Miller-like man who is responsible for the policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the border. The group has decided to ‘SWAT’ the guy, a method that involves anonymously calling the police to report a hostage situation at a targets residence. Diane is aghast by this, forcefully telling them that their target could be killed. They don’t think that could happen, but Diane wants no part of it. Later the news comes in that the man was killed because he was armed when the SWAT team burst into his home. Diane is shattered by this news, but she does give the group the proof about Valerie. But with their ‘success’ they don’t care anymore. They will continue SWAT-ing more targets, and Rachelle reminds Diane that she is still going to be tied to the group so if anything happens to them, she will be implicated as well … and they will be watching her.
And in the end, ChumHum’s investigation found that while Reddick, Bosemand & Lockhart was dysfunctional, there was no evidence of any further sexual harassment … which meant nothing to the client. It seems ChumHum’s CEO had already made up his mind to pull their business from RB&L. So what was the point of conducting the investigation? Was there something deeper going on here?
Everything that happened this week made the episode’s title, ‘The One Where the Sun Comes Out’, very ironic because even though the episode started with a major weather event (downpours, hail) and ended with the sun breaking through the clouds, it still ended up being one of the darkest days for everyone at Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart. And it really seems to be the calm before the real storm hits in next week’s season finale.
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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