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Oh, The Good Fight, how we’ve missed you. You left us hanging at the end of Season 3 wondering if that SWAT team bursting into Diane and Kurt’s apartment was going to end with Kurt’s death. I certainly would have bet good money that that was going to be the case with the fourth season premiere which would have given Diane a whole new purpose in life moving forward … but the premiere threw us a real curve ball taking us back to the opening scene from Season 1 where Diane was confronted with the fact that Donald Trump had been elected president. But now, things have changed and Hillary Clinton is president. But as Diane pops her champagne, the TV suddenly goes to snow and the show’s opening credits featuring objects being blown to smithereens are running backwards. What’s going on?
For Diane, that question weighed heavily on her mind as she came to work to find she had a meeting with President Clinton’s press secretary. She also saw on the news that cancer had been cured, the polar bear population was booming and the rain forests had been saved. All under three years of a Hillary Clinton presidency. But that does not come without scandals such as a $500 haircut, a corporate tax that is pushing the firm into bankruptcy, and the too convenient cancer cure that is introduced just in time for an impending election. But Diane isn’t going to let any of that bother her because … Hillary is president! She’s convinced herself that the last three years were just a bad dream, especially when no one around her has any clue what she’s talking about.
Things to take a turn when she finds out she has a new client — Harvey Weinstein. But in this new reality, Weinstein is still a bigwig producer whose biggest scandal is the allegations that he’s been reediting movies without directors’ input, earning him the nickname ‘Harvey Scissorhands’ (that, by the way, was a real allegation and nickname). Diane tries to explain to Marissa what she knows about Weinstein, but Marissa’s reality does not include information about rape allegations and masturbation into plants. (Nor does she know about Charlie Rose or Matt Lauer, and Ronan Farrow’s Weinstein exposé has been determined to have no merit … which Diane disputes as NBC covering up for Lauer.)
Things take a turn when Weinstein’s legal team admit that there are several women, actresses, who have made claims about sexual misconduct, and they want a woman and a black man to handle the case. Diane tries to refuse but Adrian says they will take the case and then tells Diane that the firm is teetering on bankruptcy and that they need Weinstein more than he needs them. At court when it’s time for the defense to speak, Diane freezes so Lucca takes the lead and gets the claims against Weinstein dismissed. But, it seems the judge has a daughter who wants to work in production and asks Lucca if they can put in a good word for an internship because the judge’s daughter would be thrilled to ‘work under Harvey’ this summer. You could practically hear Diane’s eyes roll.
Weinstein’s representative asks Lucca to deliver some papers to his penthouse suite at the hotel that need to be signed. Diane calls her Weinstein’s pimp and pulls Lucca aside to explain to her exactly what will happen, in detail, if she goes to that hotel — she’ll ask the concierge to deliver the papers while she waits, Harvey will insist that she come up to answer a few questions, he will answer the door in a bathrobe and things will escalate from there. Lucca insists she can handle herself and that she needs face time with their biggest client. But Diane sends Marissa to keep an eye on her, and Marissa seems to make no bones about letting Lucca know she’s there. They both think Diane has lost her mind but when the concierge tells Lucca that Weinstein needs to ask her a couple of questions in person, Marissa says, ‘Do you think Diane is a witch?’ They both go to the penthouse and when Weinstein opens the door he’s wearing … a bathrobe, as witnessed by Lucca and Marissa. It’s safe to assume nothing happened.
But Diane is fueled by the Weinstein case and tries to drum up interest in a little-known cause called Me Too in which women share their stories of sexual abuse. She tries to get the word out at a Women United for Change function which invokes the ire of President Clinton’s press secretary — and one would assume the president herself — while at the same time Weinstein’s representative insists that Diane step back not just from their client, but the firm as well. It also doesn’t help her cause that when trying to explain things to Adrian about Weinstein that she let’s slip that the firm’s founder and Liz Reddick’s father also has some accusations against him … but not in this reality.
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And as it all begins to crash down on her, Diane suddenly realizes days have passed and she hasn’t spoken to Kurt. For that matter, she’s changed clothes several times and has no idea how or when she did that, and she desperately needs to get home to Kurt regardless of the fact that she’s about to lose her partnership in the firm. At the apartment, the bedroom door is busted and being attended to by Chris Lima who has turned her television on to Trump TV where Felix Staples is performing the song ‘This Wall Is Your Wall’. Diane has no idea what’s going on or who Chris Lima is but when he says he misses Trump as president she’s struck by that. Why are she and he the only people who seem to know Trump was president?
Neither of them understand but they continue to watch Staples perform as they drink some beers together. But Diane still wants to know what happened to her door and Lima asks her what is the last thing she remembers. Diane notices all of Kurt’s guns are gone from the wall, saying he moved them to a cabin in the woods. She remembers being in bed with Kurt and something happening. A woman on Trump TV seems to be talking directly to her, urging her to go to the cabin. Next thing she knows, Diane is in her car, driving to the cabin. She stops and gets out, finding Kurt sitting at a table, shrouded in darkness. She asks him to take her hand but he says he can’t because they’re separated. She thinks he means from their marriage and as they talk she realizes, as she beings to remember more and more details, that Kurt is dead.
But … she hears a voice. It’s Kurt’s, and she opens her eyes to find her husband and a SWAT officer leaning over her. She was unconscious and the officer asks her how many fingers he’s holding up. Three. Can she read the name on his uniform? Lima. And the final question: Who’s president? She pauses for a moment then bursts into gales of laughter. Diane is back and all is well with the world. This was a terrific start to the season that allowed the writers to deliver a lot of laugh-out-loud moments as they twisted reality, and it was also fun watching the actors, particularly Sarah Steele (the moment when she giggled loudly as they all learned Weinstein was booked for interviews with Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer was hilarious), react to Diane’s wild claims. I really did believe Kurt was going to be dead and this fantasy of Diane’s was a momentary break from reality as she dealt with his death, but I’m also happy that they did not kill him off.
The rest of the season — or as much as was completed before the coronavirus shut production down — will delve deep into more political intrigue with the question ‘What is Memo 618?’ I don’t know, but I am eager to find out.
What did you think of the season premiere? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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