Episode Report Card Keckler: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Eli: Dragonlawyer of the Firm
By Keckler | Season 1 | Episode 7 | Aired on 03.12.2008
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Okay, it was sort of hard for me not to get choked up over the final scene in this episode, but I'm a booklover, so it goes with the territory. That said, every scene with Maggie still had me screaming blue murder at the set. And then she goes and kisses him?! The hell? Peeps, we haven't been convinced that Maggie's existence on this show is even justified, much less that she has any chemistry with Eli! Ugh.
Anyway, the bones of the episode has Eli representing a teen who wants to sue a hospital for his mother's death. However, since he's been demoted, Jordan assigns Maggie to Eli's case as senior counsel. (And yes, it's as annoying as it sounds, especially when Maggie takes her Cute Overload and amps it to Cute Overdose, killing everyone within a thirty-mile radius.) A twist comes when the hospital, who employed the deficient anesthesiologist -- now since fired -- also wants their pound of flesh from other hospital who covered up the anesthesiologist's record when they foisted him on them. Eli decides that they will represent both the kid and the hospital (the second one, not the first) and sue the other hospital (the first, lying one). Another twist! The first hospital is Nathan's hospital! Things get more and more complex until Eli sees his brother as a St. George-type knight, fighting the dragon of his vision. Eli gets the necessary info from his brother, which Maggie uses to bluff in court, trapping Nathan's hospital into admitting that Dr. Agon (the negligent anesthesiologist, see: dragon) was a complete mess.
Oh, and the news on the Jayson Turk case is that there's really no way to save the ballplayer's punctured ass, so Dowd and Bennett break the news that their client has to plead temporary insanity. Since that plea will also include Turk admitting to steroid use, he's still denying, Turk is not thrilled but he'll think about it.
In water-cooler gossip, Taylor finally stands up to Patti and threatens her job, but it's all for naught. That's right, Patti's back being Eli's assistant by the end of the episode due to the fact that some bigwig client specifically wants Eli to represent him. This also joins Taylor and Eli on the same case, which is a bit awkward since Taylor took Eli to a George Michael concert (for real! No visions!) and then told him that she thinks they need to keep their distance at the office. All signs pointed to Eli is thinking he probably sort of maybe wants to get back together with Taylor, so there's the awkward. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Eli drags his irritated super all over his apartment, insisting that he smells a "gaseous-like substance." The super gripes that he's been standing there for the last forty-five minutes, listening to Eli sniff. Eli ignores this and goes all oenophile as he describes the smell as "like smoke but there's, like, a fishy quality to it." (What the hell us up with Word's spellcheck not thinking "oenophile" is a word?) The super smells nothing. Eli leads the way to his bedroom, opens his closet door and hears growling. The super does not hear the growling. While the super exclaims over Eli's linen blazer, Eli parts his clothes and sees a dragon. The super does not see a dragon. The dragon spews fire, Eli screams, and runs out, tackling his super to safety. OK, Eli? There are ways to tell when you're having a vision. Your boss singing and dancing? Vision. A dragon in your closet? Vision. Now, when you get these subtle little tips of unreality, it might be a good idea to stop and say to yourself, "OK, there's a dragon in my closet. I think it's a vision, so I'm going to just act normal in front of other people and deal with it later." The super is even more irritated than before the body slam and stomps out, swearing never to unclog Eli's toilet again.When Patti brings Eli coffee and messages the next morning, Eli comments that Taylor might get a bit annoyed by her attentions. "I'd like to see her try and say something to me!" Patti carps. OK, but why, Patti? Really, why? All of Eli's messages are from the same guy, Peter Johnson, who is going a bit overboard with reconfirming their lunch meeting that day. Eli is in the midst of complaining about the scut work everyone's making him do when Dowd comes over. He tells Eli he's sorry about "the whole aneurysm thing" and then hands Eli more scut work to do, winking condescendingly, "Thanks buddy."
Back at Patti's desk, Taylor's still trying the nice route when dealing with Patti. However, she had yet another call go straight to voicemail and she also needs to know when her meetings are. "You mean like the Wednesday morning meeting that's going on right now? So, hurry on -- don't be late," Patti sneers. Taylor squares her shoulders and tries not to explode.
In the meeting, Jordan drops the name "Arvin Salinkski" and suddenly everyone gets all E.F. Hutton attentive. (Love the Alias shout out, by the way.) Jordan eyes Eli and says that due to extenuating circumstances, they need a new senior lawyer on the case. Maggie makes a big show of moving away from Eli and putting some rando lawyer between them. Whatever, Mags, no one cares where you stand. Off-camera would be ideal. Jordan tells the lawyers to all become experts on the case and one of them will get to senior it though. Jordan asks for an update on the Turk case and instead of new info, we just get reminded about what the case is all about. Meanwhile, Eli is distracted by dragon shadows flying around the room. (Vision, Eli, VISION!) Jordan's instructions to Dowd and Bennett are drowned out by the vibrations the flying dragon is causing. (Eli, no one else is reacting to this, you shouldn't either!) Too late, Eli screams "Holy mother of GOD!" and does a full-body flying leap across the room, flopping on the floor. Everyone stares. Eli jumps up and makes a time-out sign with his hands, "I'm sorry, aneurysm time-out." I wonder how many times he can get away with that. If he ever cheats on Taylor, can he claim, "Aneurysm moment!"?