Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 63 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT What Was in the Box
By Jacob Clifton | Season 5 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.12.2014
Matan: "And he got into a fight with another guy, is that right?"Christine: "He shouted that..."
Alicia: "Hearsay!"
LG: "Actually, our jury -- the lady one -- should hear this."
Alicia: "Hearsay though!"
LG: "Not when used defensively..."
Judge: "Man jury, please leave."
Matan: "Okay, what did he yell?"
Christine: "Let go of my bag!"
Matan: "And what did the lady one say about that?"
Cary: "Our jury -- the man one -- should definitely hear this part."
Will: "I thought it was hearsay?"
Alicia: "Why do you care? This isn't a zero-sum game!"
What she means is, You need to get over it. Mr. Lampe will bring this up later, but I started thinking about it now: Pascal's Wager, the Room 101 thing about how maybe God exists and maybe doesn't, but either way you have a choice; that either you are being sold out by your lover or you aren't, but either way you have a choice. Logic and philosophers tell us that the best practice when you're in a double-blind double-bind like this is, you go with the highest good and assume everybody else is also going to the highest good.
It is very characteristic of Will, and somewhat less so for Cary, to base their defense on the other person's guilt. It is very characteristic of Alicia, and somewhat less so for Diane, that they can see to a situation where everybody wins. A zero-sum game is one in which I get all the X, and you get no X: In which the idea that this couple truly loves each other and will never sell the other one out is naïve at best, but reality dictates that one of them is going down (unless they both are). Viewed through the lens of their relationship, Will and Alicia have to disagree on this point, because he is out of his mind with grief and thinks the world is a dark place where you have to vote for yourself and not the highest good.
But it's not a compliment to Alicia that she walks the line of "highest good," through this lens: It's her privilege to pretend they're on an even playing field and that he's being a big baby, because none of his turmoil or the brutal unfairness of the situation comes back on her. Her saying "We can both win together on this" is just nonsense gibberish to him right now, with the added benefit of making her look like a Good Girl and him look like a Bad Boy -- which in turn suits them both, right now.