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By Couch Baron

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Eli gets thrown into a continuation of last week's war vision, and when said vision causes him to take cover under the conference table in a staff meeting, Tom Amandes hatches a plan to get around the no-fire-Eli agreement by setting him up, and he's forced to take a physical and a drug test. Nathan thinks maybe letting the aneurysm come to light, which would lose Eli his job, is for the best, and at first refuses to risk his medical license by lying about Eli's condition. The vision also forces Eli to take Taylor on in a custody hearing, as he represents a mother who's on an Iraqi tour for the National Guard. This stresses Taylor out, because the case was supposed to be so open-and-shut as to obviate a trial, and she was going to spend the week on the engagement party, but she's a good enough sport about it at first. The case, however, is involved and ugly, and seems to involve child abuse on the father's part. The visions continue after Eli takes the case, so Chin gives him acupuncture, letting us see that Eli's dad had a vision almost identical to Eli's, only it caused his dad to fire a gun in his delusional state. Beth shows up at the engagement party, thanks to Sassy Patti, but the real problem happens when Eli gets thrown back into the vision right as Jordan is giving a big speech to all the guests. When he comes out of it in the middle of a pile of pastries, it seems pretty clear that something's got to give. Nate changes his mind and signs off on Eli's physical (although I don't know who would possibly accept an assessment from the man's brother), which is a nice parallel, given that we learn that Eli took responsibility for this dad's firing of the gun. These visions cause Eli to realize that the father and son in the case are duping the court in order to get the mother awarded sole custody, which would get her discharged from the military, and the mother was in on the plan. This puts Eli in the position of having to tread very lightly in his closing arguments, which is a refreshing change from him giving a treacly feelgood speech at Minute 50. Eli wins and clearly doesn't feel good about it, and then Jordan calls him in and asks him point blank if anything's wrong with him. Eli lies, in keeping with the events of the episode, but he's totally honest with Taylor, to the point where he says he doesn't want to inflict himself on Taylor the way his dad did on his mother and family, and breaks up with her despite her emotional protests. There was no music and no George Michael in this episode, and I'm not saying that's a good thing, but...I think this was probably the best episode so far. Want more? The full recap starts right below!

here and doesn't afford Maggie the opportunity to be even the slightest bit involved in any other subplot, I think we could have done without her this week. After Eli calls her on an egregious mixed metaphor, she abjectly begs for help, and Eli sighs in defeat. They head into the meeting...

...wherein Tom Amandes is telling everyone that associate billables are down lately, and the partners are concerned. A broken-looking dude pipes up that "many of us" are staying there overnight and sleeping on cots. Tom Amandes deliciously suggests that the firm remove the cots, and then adds, "Kidding. Or not! You decide." How I love that man. Jordan mentions the very case Maggie was just on about, saying they need someone to assist with it, so Maggie pipes up and volunteers. Jordan: "Who are you, and why are you at my table?" Not that I couldn't listen to Victor Garber talk all day, but...if literally no partner even knows who Maggie is, who the hell hired her? If the joke makes no sense, it's distracting, and for Jordan not to be familiar with all the associates doesn't make him look like much of a businessman, to be perfectly honest. It's not like he's got a hundred lawyers working for him. When Maggie mentions that she's enlisted Eli to back her up, though, Jordan is pleased. Eli tells Maggie he hates her, which: fine, and then he hears battlefield sounds. He looks up...

...and we pan up to see a military plane fly overhead. When we come back down, Eli's on a battlefield, and he rolls into a trench, whereupon the soldier therein berates Eli for taking so long to get there. Eli's confused: "People in my visions don't talk to me!" For someone who hasn't really fully accepted his prophet status, he sure has some firm ideas about how these things are supposed to go. The soldier ignores Eli's comment and says that "Private Swain" is pinned down somewhere and taking heavy fire, so they have to advance on a nearby ridge. He grabs Eli by the lapels...

...and then Eli snaps out of it, as he's bumping his head on the underside of the conference table. I know I complained last week that Eli didn't just ignore the biplane the second time it came at him, but I'm not sure he can do that when he's thrown full-on into a vision. I mean, he could just stand around within the vision, but I'm not sure that would translate into acting normally in the real world. Anyway, all eyes are on him as he tries to tell everyone that he dropped his pen. He'd be more convincing if his bug-eyed expression didn't make it look like he just got the world's fastest case of post-traumatic stress disorder.