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Let’s Talk About ‘The End of the Yips’:
- Eli Gold is back, and as gleefully profane as we always knew he would be without the restrictions of network television.
- Diane has decided to give Mind Trip a try, but has she gotten in over her head?
- Liz agrees to be interviewed for a documentary about the top five Black prosecutors, but is she being played?
- Ri’Chard oversteps his bounds by taking an interest in Carmen, offering her a promotion from associate, and proclaiming himself her mentor.
- Marissa needs her father’s help getting back on the case she was taken off of, and his expertise at handling the case in court.
- A man named Ri’Chard enters the office with his entourage and announces he is the new named partner.
- Eli catches Diane up on their old friends Peter and Alicia Florrick.
Old friends, and talk of old friends, highlight this week’s episode of The Good Fight, but while Diane floats around town, the office and her apartment in a drugged out high thanks to her first session at Mind Trip — are the effects of the ‘trip’ supposed to last as long as they have, leaving Diane on a literal high as she floats out of the frame at the end of the episode — this episode really belongs to Audra McDonald and Alan Cumming, returning in his The Good Wife role of Eli Gold, Marissa’s father and ruthless attorney.
Without the restrictions of a commercial broadcast network, we get to see a completely unfettered Eli riding the elevator up to the Reddick law office, gleefully spewing the profanities he never could on CBS, so over-the-top he scares an old lady off onto a floor she didn’t intend to exit on. Eli Gold’s entrance is pure gold. While in the elevator he was also the recipient of one of the fake grenades, this one bearing the inscription ’11/10 is coming’. This may seem cryptic but it actually is a very important message. What it means yet we don’t know but pay attention. This episode is set on September 15, the same day it debuted on Paramount Plus. Knowing there are ten episodes this season, and that it’s the final season, a quick look at the calendar tells us that the series finale will premiere on … November 10. While we don’t know what will happen on 11/10, we do know that the creatives behind the show have it all mapped out.
But back to Eli, who identified himself as Rahm Emanuel to the receptionist while suggesting the grenade was either from Antifa or the Proud Boys. Out of character for him, he is there to ask Julius for a ‘small favor’, to which Julius replies Eli Gold does not ask for small favors. Okay, a medium favor — he wants Julius to put Marissa back on the case defending the pop star, which she screwed up last week by being unable to ask for a continuance. Julius reluctantly gives the okay, and Eli insists that he will act as Second Chair to help her. When Eli tells his daughter she’s back on the case, he also tells her that he will be Second Chair, a condition set by Julius for her to get the case back. While Julius and Liz find it odd that Eli is in the office and helping Marissa, she just sees her father coming to the rescue, giving them a little time to bond since he was never home when she was a child. His methods are unusual, including shotting spitballs at her when she stumbles during a practice run of her argument, and when in court there is a struggle as to which one of them is actually lawyering this case.
It is a case with twists and turns involving a pop star who has broken her contract to perform in Israel because of apartheid. Or is it because of security issues related to the thousands of bombs dropping from the sky? That explanation actually works with the judge who had no idea how dangerous it was, but the case is nearly undone by a series of tweets the singer responded to that directly connected her withdrawal from the concert to humanitarian concerns. Her fans brought this to her attention, and when she had to read the tweets Marissa’s case was sunk. But she and Eli tried to pull a ‘Hail Mary’ when the singer’s tour schedule was revealed and that included some dates in China. The Golds asked for a recess to look over the dates, and convinced the singer that the humanitarian crisis in China was worse than it was in Israel so she either had to play the Israel date or cancel the China date. Her manager told them that would not happen because she’d lose her largest fan base if she snubbed China, and that would cause them to lose billions of dollars. But the singer went rogue and posted a video stating she could not in good faith come to China. That got the attention of her record label who insisted that she would make a new video apologizing for her statement and confirming she would be coming to China … because you don’t fuck with China. And if she didn’t, she would be able to record all the music she wanted but it would never be released, and she could not sign with a new record label for eleven years. The Golds barely had time to object to these terms before the singer posted a new video saying all was well, she was mistaken and she was not going to disappoint her Chinese fans.
Marissa was unhappy that she’d lost the case and assumed she’d be fired after being a lawyer for a week, but Eli actually consoled her … which was odd. And Marissa finally asked the question — why are you helping me? Oh, because Eli is about to be indicted for fraud and he wants to hire her as his lawyer … so she can’t be subpoenaed to testify against him. Julius was right, there are no small favors when it comes to Eli Gold.
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Ri’Chard is still feeling his way around the firm, now with a Baby Grand in his ‘office’, and noticing that some of the associates may not be getting along with Liz. In particular Carmen, whom he takes a meeting with to praise her accomplishments with the firm thus far, raking in more money than any of the other associates. He tells of how he got his start, hired as a paralegal for another firm and earning them a million dollars in his first year. He thinks Carmen has the potential to bring in $20 million in a year and he wants her to move upstairs. And as he can see she’s not on the best terms with Liz, he wants to take over as her mentor. Carmen is no dummy. She’s a new lawyer, eight months out of law school. She hasn’t earned this promotion, and she doesn’t want the pressure that will come with it. She likes where she is, she likes what she’s doing, and Liz is her mentor. Thanks but no thanks. Ri’Chard actually takes the rejection well, but what repercussions will this have down the line. And what exactly is the point of Ri’Chard in the story? Just to stir up trouble with Liz so that she and Diane don’t have to be butting heads? Two episodes in and Ri’Chard is really not adding anything to the storyline yet.
Diane has had her Mind Trip session and the effects of the drug seem to be lasting longer than they should … or perhaps now this season is all a long dream? Diane catches up with Ri’Chard on the street, casually walking among the police and protesters, and she and Ri’Chard seem to know each other. At home she has a Zoom call with her husband, but he’s got a work call coming in so there goes her plans for some virtual sexy time. Back at the office — and the boundaries of the timeline are very blurred — she has a chat with Eli who catches her up on Alicia and Peter Florrick. The couple have divorced and Alicia moved to New York to start her own law firm. Peter, however, is in more legal trouble, back in prison and, according to Eli, probably won’t come back from this one. Oooooooooooh! That was some shade thrown at Chris Noth. Zing! But during their talk, Diane is very spaced out, at one point just staring at the ceiling. Eli excuses himself as she continues to gaze upward.
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Liz gets the meatiest storyline this week as she has agreed to an interview for a documentary about the Top Five Black Prosecutors. With a device called an Interrotron set up so that Liz can look directly at the woman asking her questions, making it seem that she’s looking directly at the viewers, Liz is a bit put off by some of the questioning about a particular case that she barely remembers. Not sure where this interview is going, or even if it’s legit, Liz asks Jay to dig into her interviewer’s background. What Jay finds is concerning, believing that Liz is being set up. Liz doesn’t know if she should continue with the interview or not, and Jay tells her what she says could be edited in any way to paint a different portrait than the one she is presenting. But Liz forges on … with Julius by her side, claiming it’s the firm’s policy to have someone from the legal team vet the interview to confirm the intention of the project. Deandra, the director, claims it’s all on the up and up, and Liz sits down for more questions. She knows that Deandra has been fixated on a friendship bracelet that was found at the scene of the crime she is defending, and she also wants to know why Liz put a known corrupt cop on the stand for the defense. Liz digs out video of the trial (she was pregnant at the time) and begins to question herself. She didn’t know at that time that the cop was corrupt … or did she and she just ignored it? There had been whispers about him but it didn’t seem important at the time. So did someone get away with murder because she ignored those signs? And what about that bracelet? Compounding the issue is the fact that an old colleague of hers also talked to Deandra and, by the way she described his comments, threw Liz under the bus. Paying him a visit he denied saying exactly what she was told, but he did confirm that they all pretty much knew at the time that the cop was rotten.
Be that as it may, there was still the issue of the bracelet and Liz took issue with Deandra’s fixation on the item that was found fifty feet away from the scene of the crime and had never been evidence in the case. Liz went off on Deandra and told her that she was fixated on this object, thinking she had discovered some new evidence that not a single professional at the time had ever considered related to the case. She was focused on this physical object and not the words, and with that Liz handed her the entire case file and told her to read it. Liz got great pleasure out of taking this young woman who thought she knew it all down a peg or two. And speaking of pegs, Liz, now on a roll, paid a visit to Ri’Chard. Welcoming her and beginning their meeting with his traditional prayer, Liz quickly took over, making a point to ask God to show Ri’Chard exactly what his place was in her firm, asking God — and warning Ri’Chard — to make sure he works with her, not against her, and finishing with an amen and two more warnings: ‘I am Carmen’s mentor’ and ‘Don’t fuck with me.’ Word to the wise.
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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