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If there’s one character I miss on The Good Fight it’s Elsbeth Tascioni, the somewhat addled and always smarter than she seems lawyer. But it seems the show has found a way to bring that type of character back, in spirit, with Wanda Sykes’ Allegra Durado. She’s definitely a little bit off in space (and quite literally as she’s also studying the legality of mining the moon and Mars), but when she needs to focus she knows how to put people in their places. Even someone like David Lee.
Lee thinks Diane and Liz are out of their minds for wanting to hire Allegra, but the one thing he learns during their interview is that she’s nothing if not honest. And he puts the pieces together as to why they want to hire her, and Allegra confirms his suspicions that they both think they can use her to forward their own agendas. That’s not flying with Lee, but the women aren’t budging so he tells them they have to trim another 10% from the payroll if they want to bring her on.
Meanwhile, Allegra is already acting like she works there, in fact tells Carmen she was just hired, and inserts herself into a deal that Carmen is trying to broker between Oscar Rivi and a dairy farm that he wants to use as a distributor for his new cannabis treats. Rivi feels he’s not getting a good deal because the lawyer for the dairy farm keeps bringing up Rivi’s past and the baggage that may bring, affecting their business. Then Allegra comes up with a way for Rivi to really rake in some money that won’t be part of the distribution deal: merchandise. Rivi thinks its a stupid idea so she says maybe he should talk to George Lucas about that (referencing how Lucas retained the merchandising rights for Star Wars outside of the distribution deal with 20th Century Fox … which made him far more richer than the film’s grosses would have).
It seems to be a decent idea but it all goes to hell when some of Rivi’s boys on the street are collared for dealing drugs. After finding the courts backed up when the cops tried to bring in a man for committing a hate crime against an Asian woman (blaming her for COVID), they take the guy to Wackner’s court. Marissa isn’t down with Wackner trying this kind of case, but before she can really make a case against this, Wackner sentences the man to a year in David Cord’s prison, with a review in a month to see if the man has learned anything. Knowing they got a menace off the street, they bring the two Rivi boys to Wackner and they are also held.
Rivi is of the mind that someone from the dairy farm team had his three boys taken so he decides to take something from them, sending a hit man to the farm to kill three cows. Marissa makes her way back to the office to let Carmen know that Wackner is holding the two boys, but Carmer says there are three missing. Marissa is adamant that there are only two boys and Carmen is terrified to bring this news to Rivi, so she, Marissa, Liz and Diane make their way to Wackner to get the boys released. This is all becoming very complicated for them as they represent both Wackner and Rivi. The boys are finally released but the question remains as to the third boy’s whereabouts.
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Marissa gets Jay to help her with an investigation and he takes her to the street where the boy was last scene. Asking a man if he’s seen the person on his phone, the man points to a sign taped to a pole that mentions something about drug dealers subject to arrest and gives an address. The go to the address which is just a house in a neighborhood, and are surprised to find inside another ‘court’ being run by the homeowner, Vinetta Clark. ‘Judge’ Clark is thrilled to have a celebrity like Marissa Gold in her home, and when asked about the other boy Vinetta tells them he’s in a ‘time out’ in the basement. A bit panicked, Marissa and Jay ask if they can see him, and they do. He’s in a makeshift cage made of chain-link fence, but he seems fine, enjoying Miss Vinetta’s cooking (asking for more of that brisket she had the day before). But Vinetta isn’t willing to let Matteo out of his ‘time out’ unless the great Marissa Gold tries a case in her court the next day. Marissa tells Wackner about this new court, but instead of being concerned about Matteo, Wackner just wants to see what he hath wrought because, to him, it’s finally happening — justice.
As for Allegra, when told about having to cut 10% she snaps into action and tells them that’s not how they’re going to keep their business running. They need to rehire everyone and ask for more money. STR Laurie is backed mainly by what appear to be Saudis and Allegra tells them the story of how when Emirates Air was facing financial difficulties, they didn’t let people go, they installed marble showers on their planes and became the talk of the industry. Allegra relates how when she had to fly to Saudi Arabia everyone told her to fly Emirates because of the marble showers. Diane and Liz try to pitch this to David Lee and during their video conference call Allegra somehow manages to dial in … but doesn’t know how to remove the cat filter from her video. Thinking this is a disaster in the making, Diane runs downstairs and throws her shoes at Allegrea to get her to log off. Later Allegra relates the marble showers story to David, and remind him that STR Laurie is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. That 10% they’re asking from Reddick & Lockhart is a drop in the bucket to them, and he should ask for more. On the next video call, Lee actually takes a stand and tells them they are not cutting anything and demands more money because … marble showers. Will the gambit work? Did Allegra finally show Lee that she can be a valuable asset to the company? Or does he still think she’s a nut case, albeit with a few good ideas?
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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