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Well, it only took five episodes but someone finally realized John Larroquette’s name was not in the credits. Or perhaps there were some negotiation issues with how he would be credited — as a regular or among the special guests (turns out he’s a regular). And with that out of the way … what was up with this week’s credits and the missing pieces of furniture blowing up? That was odd having on screen text to tell us what was supposed to be there. Did they somehow lose the footage? I mean, those things are there every week, so what’s the story? Anyone?
Okay, on to the episode which this week had Adrian out of town, and Diane seriously curtailed since she’s given up her quest to find out what Memo 618 is after she and Kurt received death threats. Now she’s just having a staring contest with a pigeon outside her window. But a familiar looking lawyer catches her eye with her unusual method of note-taking — she takes no notes. Instead she draws dots in notebook after notebook because after years of taking meticulous notes and then losing them in a cab, she realized they never really mattered. So she draws dots now as a form of self therapy. And Diane is intrigued. Also of note, the lawyer (Annaleigh Ashford) is familiar to Diane. She was Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer in Diane’s dream from the season premiere. Curious.
But the lawyer, Roisin Orbinson, finds Diane intriguing as well because she’s arguing a case before Judge Julius. The defense has been asking for continuance after continuance and she feels just having Diane sitting at the table will have some influence on Julius. Of course Diane knows his behavior is due to Memo 618 but she agrees to accompany her just to give herself something to do. Unbeknownst to Diane, Julius has had a real attack of conscience, especially after a visit from the same mysterious stranger who paid a visit to Kurt. Dropping some not so subtle hints to keep up what he’s doing to help him move up the ladder, Julius finally finds his spine and refuses another continuance, and since the client did not appear, he decided the case for the prosecution. Roisin thought Diane perhaps was her good luck charm, but Diane knew better and went to Julius’ chambers to ask him to lunch … and to exchange information about Memo 618. Looks like Diane’s got her mojo back.
Things at the office are still awkward between Liz and Caleb after their little ‘experimentation’ and Liz is thrown for a loop when Firth insists that she assist Caleb with a case he’s requested time off for (even though Firth reminded Caleb that he’s Firth’s eyes and ears downstairs … so he is still spying?). But trying not to make it more awkward, Liz gets down to the business of the case which is a ripped from the headlines storyline, a take on the case against Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was brought up on charges of war crimes but ended up being found guilty only of posing in a photograph with one of his victims (outrage ensued when the president got involved and pardoned Gallagher). In the episode, Sgt. Meyers is the Gallagher stand-in, also accused of several war crimes but the twist in the case is that Liz and Caleb are not prosecuting him, they are defending his subordinate DeMarcus Laney, who is accused of tampering with Meyers’ rifle that led to the accidental killing of an Afghan translator.
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Caleb tries to tell Liz that he should be the one addressing the panel (aka the jury) since he’s a military veteran and knows the ropes, but she insists and makes several errors right off the bat which tests the patience of Judge Leora Kuhn (Linda Emond, reprising her role from The Good Wife). Before getting herself too deep in the weeds, Liz finally defers to Caleb. And things seem to be going well enough until Meyers is called to testify. Liz wants to bring up his own pending war crimes case to present his character to the panel, but he invokes the Fifth Amendment which then prevents him from answering any questions. Liz thinks this is a slam dunk because she can lay out a list of the crimes he’s accused of and he can’t defend himself. But his lawyer also takes the opportunity to ask a series of absurd questions that Meyers also cannot answer in the hopes of discrediting everything Liz presented.
It looks like Liz and Caleb are on a losing path for their client especially after the president pardons Meyers. That scares off the three witnesses they had who are also Meyers’ subordinates but Caleb says they still have one more witness. And that turns out to be Meyers, because by accepting the president’s pardon that nullifies his Fifth Amendment rights so he now has to answer Liz’s questions. And she makes toast of him but the defense still manages to paint Meyers as a true patriot just doing his duty. But Liz was able to turn the defense’s opening statement around on him, and then provided records showing Meyers had fired his rifle earlier the same day as the killing, proving he knew there was nothing wrong with the supposedly tampered-with rifle. In the end, Laney was found not guilty on two serious counts and guilty on the tampering with government property for which he got time served. And Liz and Judge Kuhn had a tiny moment of admiration for each other. Caleb, however, talked Liz into doing a little more experimenting … which can only get more awkward moving forward considering how HR got involved when Adrian used the N-word. But this also begs the question — how serious is Memo 618? Two cases this week and two wins (although Liz’s case would almost certainly not have had the Memo come into play in a military court, but still it’s a win). Has Memo 618 been a red herring? We may not find out for some time since the season has been cut short by three episodes due to the pandemic shutdown of production following Episode 7.
Probably the biggest question this week is what is going on with Lucca? She obeyed Firth’s directive to travel to St. Lucia with Bianca even though she knew she was only going to be a friend. But it turned out Bianca was planning to buy the resort so there was some business involved. But Bianca really did want Lucca’s friendship because she feels that people are only interested in her for her money. But is forcing Lucca to be her friend by paying for her time really any better? But at least Lucca got to meet some of Bianca’s wealthy and famous friends, [BLEEP], [BLEEP] and [BLEEP]. Yes, the names were all bleeped out. Bianca cajoled Lucca into playing poker with them, with 20% of the pot going to charity. But Lucca didn’t have the money to gamble with so Bianca spotted her several thousand dollars and … Lucca could not lose if she tried, ultimately walking away with $1.5 million.
Finally back home, Lucca asked Marissa what she should do with the money. Since Bianca gave her the money to start with, should she give Bianca the winnings? Of course not! Bianca is rich, she doesn’t need the money. Then what does she need? According to the ever-wise Marissa: Love. And that reminds Lucca of the conversation she had with Bianca about the money. Bianca told her that if someone gave her money at a carnival and she won a stuffed toy and a goldfish, she wouldn’t give those to the person who gave her the money. So when Bianca went to her jet for another trip, she was greeted by some gifts: a giant teddy bear and a goldfish. And she looked happier than she’d ever been hugging that teddy bear. Finally, someone gets her. But will this friendship last?
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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