Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 4 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Here I Go Again
By Jacob Clifton | Season 3 | Episode 15 | Aired on 02.19.2012
CONFERENCE RM
Viola makes the rounds of the room, being vulpine and starchy with everybody -- including Caitlin -- one by one, and after some half-hearted bitchiness is shared equally among the participants, Will gets down to it.
The Gist: One of the things Gross's company makes is a decryption software called CoursePoint -- he quibbles that it's for data mining, which is hardly a better thing to call it -- which they sold to Syria, and the Syrian "electronic army" then used to track down protesters for detainment and torture and murder.
The Ask: For a class action on behalf of three American protesters' families, an award of $1M damages and $16M pain and suffering.
The Response: This is just another Gross v. Edelstein case where L/G is helping Sleuth take down its competitors using humanitarianism as a smokescreen.
Gross: "This is just one more attempt to embarrass me in order to make way for him. It's death by a thousand paper cuts!"
L/G: "Yes, we represent your chief competitor, but in this case we're representing the families of Mohammed Hazouri, Amy Newton, and Sara Fellner. No paper cuts here."
The Offer: $100 grand and a scholarship endowment for the causes the dead kids were championing, as well as a joint statement that ChumHum will be more careful about who they sell to.
Caitlin, going rogue: "THAT'S WHY YOU BROUGHT US IN HERE?!"
Alicia hustles her -- still shrugging her shoulders at Viola like she's suddenly started chewing on her own clothing -- the hell out of there and gives her a (tinily obnoxious) talking to.
Alicia: "I know you think you're being helpful, but please do not speak."
Caitlin: "Uh, Will told me to. He said do that no matter what their counter was."
Will, inside: Eloquent WTF shrug, like way did she ruin his play.
MEANWHILE
Kalinda, across the hall from the conference room, waves at Alicia -- I think -- because she's got something going on with Skype that bears on the case. Really, it's just a segue to her scene, which involves a very -- for Kalinda, an absurdly -- friendly conversation with a sympathetic Syrian, Samir. They joke around and she tries to signal to him that she is fully aware of the stresses of Samir, and worries about his safety, but she's also willing to laugh at his whistling-in-the-dark jokes about, for e.g., Barbara Walters' hair.