The Good Fight - The Schtup List - Review: "I created that firm!"

1.03 - "The Schtup List"

Having picked up immediately from the final scene of "First Week," in episode 3, Maia confronts her uncle, Diane strains to work with Lucca on their first case together, while Adrian and Barbara track down an unpaid retainer worth 12 million dollars for their firm.

"It will kill him!"

Having just found her mother apparently shacking up with her uncle Jax, Maia turns from bewildered to enraged on a dime. Lenore begs her daughter not to tell Henry, and that she was just trying to goad Uncle Jax into not betraying the family. Maia, by this point rendered speechless, contemplates what it all means for the ponzi scheme, and decides to consult with her lawyer, Yesha Mancini (Chalia La Tour). She tells Yesha that due to this discovery, she's sure that her mother and her uncle are in on it together to frame her father for the scheme. 

Throughout the episode, Maia is acting on imperfect information, while emotionally reacting to finding out about her mother and Uncle Jax. I'm expecting that these impulsive decisions will backfire on her somehow. Her lawyer, Yesha does a commendable job in trying to keep Maia in check, as she makes sure to accompany Maia on a visit to her father, where, of course, Rupert is also in attendance.

They tip-toe around what they'd like to discuss, primarily Maia's need to ask if he trusts Lenore to be loyal to him... This scene is full of awkward tension that runs the line between humorous (Rupert's surprise appearance through camera panning over) to the deathly serious (Maia's attempt to bring up her mother's infidelity). However, she and her father pull a quick stunt to transfer some information, and he sends her on a 'mission' of sorts to get a schtup list off of her uncle's computer.

Maia shows up at Jax's house full of fire, apparently ready to confront him. However, Marissa calls (and, of course steals the scene) telling Jax in a time-consuming way that Diane Lockhart has information for him that he should hear immediately. Maia has enough time to access Jax's computer and extract the information. What'll it yield, we have yet to see.

"Thank you, Sun Tzu..."

During a quarterly partners meeting, Barbara coolly mentions that a client has yet to pay their retainer for 12 million dollars, and if they fail to do so, each partner will have to fork in 300,000 dollars for the quarter. As Diane still is unable to get her original capital contribution from Deckler, Lee, and Lyman, this would hit Diane pretty hard. Adrian dismisses it as an oversight, and works to set up a breakfast meeting with the client in order to address the issue.

In an alarming turn of events, Reddick, Boseman client Venture Bridge -- a cell phone tower company which receives a lot of its capital from the federal government -- is worried about looking bad to the new administration on Capitol hill, and therefore has decided to possibly cut ties with their representing firm. How so? Reddick, Boseman, & Kolstad have racked up a huge sum from police brutality cases, which might look bad to the Trump Administration. So, the firm stands to lose a multi-million dollar client unless they can find a way to pitch to the board of directors that they are not a perceived offender to the President or his administration. (Oy vey). So, they search their predominantly black firm for anyone that might be a Trump supporter. In the end, Julius Cain is the only employee that comes forward. He gets the pitch, and he wins back the client, but at what cost?

Andrew Hart, Esq., the other lawyer vying for Venture Bridge's business pays Julius a visit, leaving him his card and a lecture on how he'll likely be a lonely outcast in the firm from then on.

Julius has always been a bit thin as a character, and there's potential to grow him out as a counter to the majority of characters that are unapologetically "liberal" -- possibly a the devil's advocate. We'll see. He typically in the original series only shows up to be contrary to the item at hand, and is then missing for the rest of the plot, so like I said -- We'll see.

"A little cordiality, here?"

The Case of the week brought together Diane and Lucca for their first case on the same side since the final episode of The Good Wife. It also served as the introduction for Justin Bartha's Colin Morello, an A.U.S.A., representing the government in its reasoning to arrest a doctor who was assisting a life-saving operation in Syria via Skype. The case itself was decent and twisty, and challenged a few ideas around terrorism, and a doctor's responsibility to a patient in strange circumstances.

Over the course of the case, Diane's initial hostility towards Lucca wanes, as they fight hard for their client over many obstacles placed by the opposition -- as Colin uses confidentiality and a ticking clock on their client's ability to save his patient to delay them at every turn. Lucca plays Colin, tapping into his perceived attraction to her,  and by the end of it, Diane and Lucca finish the case with a win, and shake hands over saving the chance for the doctor to get back to his surgery. Colin was both defeated but enamored with Lucca. However, after the case, as Lucca and Colin are getting a drink at the bar, it becomes apparent that the arrest, and the delaying that Lucca and Diane had dealt with on the case was just an attempt by the United States government to lure a target out into the open to kill him along with everyone else in the building. Colin seemed even more upset about it than Lucca.

Notes:

- "Diane, are you hearing this?" and "It will kill him" have been repeated by the same respective characters (Diane's accountant, and Lenore Rindell) once again since the pilot. I wonder if this is intentional, or just reused dialogue?

- Barbara I think might be subconsciously messing with Diane, but Diane did similar things in her position all the time. Diane being paired with Lucca on her first case was seen as insulting, but possibly only because she perceived it as something she would have done? It was very reminiscent to me of Diane throwing Cary on cases with Alicia in their earlier seasons on TGW.

- Marissa Gold meeting up with the proper investigator Jay Dispersia (Nyambi Nyambi) was really fun to me. She pokes right at his mysterious demeanor, and he corrects her grammar. Speaking of which, Nyambi shows real promise as Jay, and I'm more intrigued by him than probably any other investigator since Kalinda and Robyn. Hope he and Marissa really get to shine this season.

- "Do you two know each other?" Jane Alexander's judge lashes at Colin and Lucca -- Diane's facial reaction to the Judge made me legitimately laugh out loud.

- Lukewarm on Colin so far. Let's see where he goes, hopefully not terribly boring, because Lucca doesn't do well with boring.

- ***Sorry, this was posted pretty late (and no pictures!?). It was my birthday this week, and I ended up writing this up in increments over the course of the week. I'll be more prompt with these reviews going forward. Also, not much editing this time around. Had to get it out. Hope it makes sense to read!


Screenshots: The Good Fight

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