Episode Report Card LuluBates: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Flippin’ Right
By LuluBates | Season 2 | Episode 2 | Aired on 01.14.2009
Wes is at home neatly clipping the Frobisher article out of the paper. He walks to an armoire, unlocks it and opens it to reveal a doorway to Narnia! If by Narnia you mean a whole bunch of clippings about Frobisher and an arsenal of guns large and small. Look out Mr. Tumnus there's a new psycho in town. So my boyfriend's a proud supporter of his Second Amendment rights. What's so wrong with that? Oh shut up.
At some point in the space time continuum, Tom makes his way down to some poorly lit basement, knocks on a door, heads into an office, pulls a gun out from under a desk, wraps it in a towel and hands it to Ellen, who meets him in his car. She thanks him for the illegal weaponry and swears she knows what she is doing. Flash forward to her shooting the gun. Flash back six months to Ellen entering Tom's office. She wants to talk about what is going on with the Purcell case. She doesn't understand Patty's interest in it. And she totally didn't sign up for criminal defense work. Um, oh forget it. Tom tells her to stick with him on the infant mortality case then and Ellen giggles that is what she was hoping he would say. Ellen suddenly gets very serious and asks after Tom's daughter and whether he would let her be a lawyer. Tom says she already wants to be the first female Supreme Court Justice, not realizing that Daddy already clerked for one. That line right there could be the most realistic thing about this entire show. If you ever meet someone who clerked for a Supreme Court Justice they make sure you know it frequently and often. Ellen posits that kids have an innate sense of right and wrong that gets screwed up as they get older, but Tom has nothing to say about that. He sighs, looks at the photo of his daughter and doesn't say anything until Ellen is almost out of the room. He then answers that as you get older you realize the world is unfair and if you want justice you have to fight and claw and do anything to get it. Ellen laughs that he's been working for Patty too long. I wonder if Ellen was trying to subtly talk him out of paying off the client? I hope it works. I like Tom. Well, I like him well enough to hope he goes down with something more complex than a first-year law student professional responsibility problem.
Some bald guy is congratulating Patty on her decision to bug her own office. Wow. That is sort of awesome. The guy has a tape for her to hear. It's Tom agreeing to pay the FBI's fake plaintiff. Patty sits quietly listening. At the end of the tape she closes her eyes, sighs, and takes off her glasses saying that she didn't expect that. The guy asks if she is going to let him go through with it and Patty answers that it would be a big case for the firm. Cut to Tom loading one of those silver metallic briefcases with stacks of crisp twenties. And, really, if you're going to deliver $60,000 in twenties, wouldn't you want to carry it in something that just screams, "I am loaded with dirty money"? Nothing says impending crime like a silver briefcase. Cut over to the FBI who has staked out the meeting location and wired the fake plaintiff. As Mario Van Peebles yells at his partner for fiddling with the wedding ring he is wearing around his neck, Tom comes into the park. The fake plaintiff thanks him for agreeing to meet her and give her the money. Tom pops open his briefcase. Cut to Ellen sitting anxiously in her office. She is wearing a different shirt and has a different hair style so it must be a different day. Cut back to Tom who is having doubts. He holds the envelope of cash in his hands, but doesn't give it over. He looks doubtful, but tells the plaintiff that he's going to give it to her, but she has to swear never to tell anyone. She promises. Tom's phone rings and the FBI agents watching the transaction curse to themselves about who could be calling a busy lawyer in the middle of the work day? Tom answers with a curt, "It's not a good time." Et tu, Tom? Even you don't know how to ignore a call? Ugh. He shuts the case, tells the plaintiff that he has to take the call, and will be in touch. He walks off, leaving the FBI in a tizzy. The phone call was from Patty. She wants him to turn down the infant mortality case and help her on the Daniel Purcell murder. She assures him it is much bigger than merely murder. I hope the fact that Tom walked away from the FBI's bait case means that storyline will disappear. You are never going to get Patty Hewes with something so small and asinine. The woman bugs her own office for crying out loud, don't you think she is too smart to fall into that trap? Good grief.