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This episode is what I've been waiting for. Some judge has leukemia, and he's suing another guy who was supposed to donate bone marrow to him and backed out of the deal at the last minute. Matt and Taylor represent him, despite the fact that he's got a scary reputation among lawyers and also hates Matt. Turns out that the donor is the judge's long-lost son, who's bitter at him for never having been a father to him. The judge rules against the judge, but Taylor convinces their client to reconnect with his son for unselfish purposes. As he promised last week, Eli checks into surgical options for his aneurysm, but only one doctor seems to him like any kind of candidate. Meanwhile, the real George Michael shows up and hires him to represent a girl who got expelled for playing "I Want Your Sex" at a school abstinence assembly -- and he came to Eli because a dream directed him to do so. Jordan invokes a firm rule that high-profile clients have to have a partner on the team and inserts himself into the case, and you wonder why he's so anxious to work with Eli -- but it's only because he's a drop-dead, fan-club-joining, throwing-underwear-at-the-stage George Michael fan, which HA HA HA! If Victor Garber doesn't get an Emmy nomination for this one, I just don't even know what. Eli and Nate meet with the doctor, who's optimistic about the surgical possibilities, but with the George Michael thing, Eli's now uncertain. Eli actually calls Jordan a "fanboy," which: awesome (and clearly true, given that he knows George's real name by heart), and also awesome, Matt and Taylor pull a vision-sequence Sonny and Cher, right down to the outfits, with "I Got You Babe." Beth resurfaces, as she and Eli run into each other at the hospital. He tells her a lot of stuff that's been going on with him, and she's sympathetic and offers herself as a confidante, should he need one. She comes to the office and has an awkward meeting with Taylor, sending her off for drinks with Matt. But the twist is that Beth is going out with Nate! Eli chews Nate out, not for the Beth thing but for pulling away from him when he needs him the most. Taylor and Matt get drunk and sleep together, and I'm sorry if this is wrong, but I like them together, although Taylor ends up telling Matt to go to hell. George takes the stand in defense of the girl and manages to skewer this country's sexual hypocrisy in under two minutes. Is there anything he can't do? Apparently not, as he ends up playing a school benefit to raise money for a real sex-ed program at Molly's school. Jordan practically glows when he tells Eli that he sees why he's been taking the kind of cases he has, and I think détente has been achieved, not just with Jordan but with Nate, who shows up for a nice scene wherein he and Eli sort of decide to go ahead with the surgery. Or maybe not, as George tells Eli to keep going, no matter what, before getting up and playing "Fastlove." Did I mention how awesome this episode was? Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Eli's in an examining room griping to his brother about the gown he's wearing, as it apparently doesn't close in the back. Nate: "I overheard one of the nurses saying she thought your butt was cute." It must be tough to run this outfit with only one sighted nurse. Nate drops the humor and tells Eli not to be nervous, and Eli jokes, "What's there to be nervous about?" We then get a quick hit parade of doctors answering that question with "blindness," "coma," and "long-term memory loss." Eli's apparently scouting doctors at Well, You Did Ask Memorial. Another doctor says he can remove the aneurysm, no problem. "Just out of curiosity, how attached are you to your ability to speak?" Considering that Eli gapes wordlessly in response, it seems the doc's clever question kind of backfired.
Later, a re-dressed Eli walks out of the neurology ward with Nate, saying that apparently, everyone thinks the surgery would render Eli a vegetable. However, he badgers Nate into admitting that there might be one more possibility, but the man normally only takes cases originating at his own hospital. Eli charges Nate with convincing this doctor, and Nate agrees to make the call.
One his way out, Eli does a double-take when he realizes that Beth has just walked by. He calls to her, and she greets him warmly, although when he asks her what she's doing there, she stalls for a moment and says she didn't expect to see him before coming up with a story about Ben. To be fair, though, I didn't get that she was covering here, well-enough did she come up with something believable on the fly, so points for that. Beth then asks how Eli is, saying she saw him on the news, and she was going to call him but then figured he had enough on his plate. Eli tells her he's been better, and ticks off all the things that have gone wrong in his life lately. Beth, needless to say, is sympathetic to the point of being overwhelmed, and tells him that if he ever needs to talk, he's still got her number. He looks pleased at that prospect, and says he might just call her. Just a tip, Beth -- don't let your boyfriend answer your phone for you. Eli's already got the brain problem -- no need to give him a coronary.
Eli rushes up to "Patti," who's looking for something under "her" desk, and starts babbling something, but it's a bald, thirtysomething, bespectacled guy in her chair. He's also rather gay, so at least in the world of television stereotypes, he's got a chance to match her sassiness. ["Dude. 'Fierceness.' Did you not get the newsletter?" -- Joe R] Anyway, he's a temp named Bradley, who reads Eli a note Patti left for him, saying she's spending the week looking out for her friends and relatives in Silver Terrace, who thanks to him have no homes. It'd be pretty funny if that earthquake hit right about now.
In the staff meeting, Jordan is telling the attendees that billables are up ten percent this quarter. And by "this quarter," you probably don't mean "the quarter in which we dropped a multimillion dollar client because he made Matt cry," right? Jordan says this was due to their success in the Salinsky case, and gives Taylor props, but Taylor, with the way Salinsky was resolved presumably on her mind, pointedly looks at Eli and unsmilingly says she had a lot of help. Jordan ignores that and asks if she'd be able to "apply [her] deft touch to Judge Doyle." Matt refers to him as "Doyle The Boil" and wishes her luck as insincerely as he delivers the accompanying thumbs-up. Jordan, unamused, says that Judge Doyle has retained the firm in the matter of a personal medical crisis -- he's got leukemia, and needs a bone-marrow transplant, but his only donor match backed out of the agreement. Because Matt opened his mouth, Jordan assigns him to assist Taylor, and Matt, swagger gone, protests that the judge hates him. Jordan: "I'm sure you're familiar with my 'I could care less' face." Does it look anything like your "I couldn't care less" face? Because I would find that confusing. Eli's watching this all with something of a depressed air, but suddenly, the room goes dark except for some cabaret lighting, and he looks out into the hall to see people circulating. There's some singing as well, and when he looks back and sees that the conference room is now empty, he exits to see Jordan playing the piano and emotionally (and beautifully) singing "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" as the rest of the office holds up lighters and sways and backs him up. Jordan then introduces George Michael, and Eli turns...
...and faces the real George Michael, in the real world. I'll hold off my excitement for a moment: How the hell did Eli get out here while the vision was going on without people noticing? Give us some consistency here, show! So, where was I? Oh, yeah: GEORGE MICHAEL EEEEE! Eli and George sort of smile uncertainly at each other...
...and then in his office, Eli is poking George to see if he's real. Heh. George politely asks him to stop, and Eli apologizes. "You're very solid for a vision!" George does not say, "You're not so bad yourself," which is how you know this is fiction. Well, that, and the disclaimers they're airing at the end of each episode STOP EMBARRASSING THE REST OF US YOU STUPID PEOPLE WHO CAN'T SEPARATE TRUTH AND FICTION. Seeing Bradley in the doorway, George suggests that Eli ask him if he can see anyone with him, and Eli complies. Bradley: "Of course, sir! That's Bono!" All right, I was wrong -- Bradley's an effeminate straight man. George removes his Bono-esque shades and says that happens all the time. "I had the glasses first, by the way." Heh. Put off by Eli's weirdness, George starts to leave, but Eli calls him back, apologizes, and asks what he can do for him. George tells him that he'd like Eli to take a case for him -- apparently a high-school girl got expelled for playing one of his songs at a school abstinence rally. After recalling that the expulsion was all over the news, Eli faux-casually asks what the song was again, and George responds, "I Want Your Sex." Eli: "Sorry, you're not my type." George just raises his eyebrows, like "We'll see what you say when we get to Golden Gate Park." George says he wants to sue to have her reinstated, and he'll pay all the legal fees. Eli tells George he couldn't say no to him (bamp chicka wow wow!) but asks why George picked him. George somewhat sheepishly tells him that a few nights before, he had a dream in which he was completely lost, until someone told him that he needed to find a lawyer...named Eli Stone. Eli looks happy, but if he ever again tries to claim that there's no method to his visions, I'm going to slap the smile right off his pretty, pretty face. Title card.
Eli tentatively knocks on Jordan's door, addressing him as "Mr. Weathersby" and asking if he was looking for him. Jordan bites out something about the termination of their relationship and the non-craving of the conversation on his part, but he understands that Eli's been retained by..."Who was it again? George Michael, the pop superstar?" Heh. Work that blasé attitude while you can, FanboyNumberOne. Side note, before we get to the good stuff: As much as I enjoyed the episode, would it not have been interesting to see Taylor's reaction to the news that the real George Michael showed up in Eli's life? (And not have had Nate completely ignore the same revelation?) They'd have to rethink things then, no? Anyway, Jordan cites some bylaw of the firm that says a partner has to oversee any case where the client has a high public profile. Surprisingly, Eli doesn't point out that the firm didn't follow that rule in Turk's case, as Jordan only came into the fray very late in that game, opting instead to note that George isn't actually the client in this case -- the girl is. Jordan, however, isn't interested in such technicalities, so Eli welcomes him to the case, using his, as Keckler so artfully pointed out, "Ferris Bueller meets Vince Vaughn" accent to inform Jordan that their client's name is "Molly Rogers." (Seriously, listen to Matthew Broderick say "Are you suggesting that I'm not who I say I am?" to the snooty maitre d' in that movie and tell me it doesn't sound awfully familiar.)
Crusty Cancer Judge leads Matt and Taylor into his office, complaining that he asked Jordan for his best lawyers and he sent him a girl. Matt tries to score a point by introducing CCJ to "Mr. Weathersby's daughter," but CCJ snits, "I wasn't talking about her, Dowd." Don't be too hard on him -- maybe his sense of humor is located in his bone marrow. CCJ admits that there's no precedent in their favor and the case is a real long shot, but given that he's dying, he doesn't really see much in the way of alternative options. Taylor says that usually only family members are an exact match for bone-marrow transplants (I feel obligated to note that according to an expert in the forums, this is misleading -- siblings are often a good match, but children aren't, because half their DNA comes from the other parent) and CCJ confirms that the marrow welsher is his son, who was two when his mother and CCJ divorced. "I haven't seen Scott since then." Matt incredulously confirms that the settlement conference they have in an hour is going the be the first time CCJ has seen his son in nineteen years, while Taylor tries to figure out how they're going to make small talk for sixty minutes. At least they're billable.
In the lobby, Jordan is uncharacteristically babbling, and the reason becomes clear when George appears from the elevator. You see, Jordan's chin almost literally hits the floor when he meets George in person. I said this in the recaplet, but HA! He barely manages to croak the words "Mr. Michael," and when George easily tells him to call him by his first name, Jordan's face breaks into this tentative smile that makes it look like he's just seen the face of God. Hee hee. Victor Garber is just sublime in so many ways, I can't even tell you. Not that I'm guessing acting like a George Michael fanboy is seriously taxing his acting skills.
Scott enters a meeting room, and CCJ tells him it's good to see him again as Matt and Taylor watch nervously. Their apprehension turns out to be well-founded, as Scott tells them he doesn't care about the money they're offering, and explains that when the doctor told him about the specifics of the procedure, he had second thoughts, and besides, it's not like he even knows his father. He recalls that at one point in his life, he sent his dad stuff like letters and report cards, and asks what he did with them. CCJ answers by non-answering that he didn't think he should make a promise regarding a relationship on which he couldn't deliver. Scott: "Well, I guess I can't deliver now." He leaves, and his lawyer unnecessarily notes that he doesn't think they'll be settling. I'd tell him to shut up, but since he's totally Jack from Brothers And Sisters, I can't. I love a good drunk!
Cut to Molly telling George that he's a dead ringer for George Michael. Hee. When George smoothly explains what he's doing there, though, she calls her mom, who's almost as drooly to see him as Jordan was. She takes him aside (offering him "a pint of bitters," heh) as Eli takes Jordan's arm and notes that he's really quiet and asks if he's okay. Jordan: "I feel fine. Don't ever touch me again." Yup, sounds like he's back to normal. Everyone sits down inside, and Molly's thrilled to hear that George read about her. Eli asks for her account of what happened at school, and Molly tells everyone that there was an "Abstinence Only" assembly. "Twice a semester, some expert in never ever having sex tells us all about it." There's a Dorothy Zbornak joke in there, I just know it. Molly goes on that after two years of this crap, she decided to take a stand by sneaking into the principal's office and playing "I Want Your Sex" over the P.A. How very Kids In America of her. (I suppose that's not surprising, since Gregory Smith was the star there.) Jordan turns to George and explains that the challenge will be circumventing a Supreme Court decision that limits the right to free speech on school grounds. He punctuates this with the most amazing ingratiating smile, I just cannot even tell you. Martin Posner would be watching this scene not knowing whether to laugh or cringe. Molly asks if she could lose, and Jordan tells her it's a possibility, but -- wait for it -- "you gotta have faith." He looks adoringly at George again, who receives Jordan's sloppy admiration with aplomb. Which is more than I can say for myself -- I'm giggling so much I think I might be scaring my neighbors. Eli's phone rings, and he scoots outside to take it.
It's Nate, who tells him that his efforts to get Eli an appointment with that one great neurosurgeon were successful, causing Eli to look confused. Don't worry, Eli, George Michael has that effect on a lot of people. Just look at Mr. Jordan Michael over there.
In Nate's office, the doctor is telling him and Eli that it's a risk, but he can burn the aneurysm out. And hey, given that Berlanti is so prone to reusing actors on different shows, am I the only one who's a little bummed that Andy Brown isn't Eli's prospective neurosurgeon? Nate thanks the doc, who takes off, and then Nate enthuses that Eli could be having the surgery in a couple of weeks. Eli uncertainly wonders if this is the guy, but Nate tells him that he can't make that choice for him. Eli tells him about George Michael showing up for real, and you'd think Nate the skeptic would at least raise an eyebrow at that, but he doesn't, leaving Eli free to go on about running into Beth. Nate's all, "Beth...Keller?" which is about as convincing as Jordan's "George...Michael?" Eli says he might call Beth for a date, and Nate stutters a bit but simply tells Eli to be careful. Dude, I know this is awkward, but come on.
Scott is on the stand talking about how when he was a kid, he figured it was his fault that his dad didn't want to know him, and now he only has the chance for a relationship with him if he gives up his bone marrow. "What kind of relationship could we stand to have with those strings attached?" Presumably better than the one you'll have with him if he dies, although people do tend to give touching graveside speeches to their dead parents on television. Taylor then asks Scott why he even bothered getting tested if he never intended to go through with the procedure -- is it because maybe he has an obligation to his father? Scott considers and says he wanted to see if he could save CCJ's life, "so I could tell you to go choke on it." So, "no," then.
Molly is saying that she knew she'd get in trouble for her stunt, but she didn't think she'd be expelled. Eli reads from a booklet saying that the principal has the right to expel anyone who materially disrupts the learning of other students or the education process, but Molly counters that at Abstinence Only, what they were hearing -- that condoms don't work and that girls who have abortions are more prone to suicide -- didn't qualify as learning. She adds that because of the misconceptions taught, girls in Abstinence Only programs are less likely to use contraception, earning an objection from the opposing counsel. "Are we to accept Miss Foster as an expert witness?" Wait, a what, now? I've been watching this show from the beginning, and I'm pretty sure "expert witness" is a made-up term. Jordan, however, stands and says that Molly's knowledge speaks to the merit "of the very pedagogy Miss Foster's protest was taking issue with!" Well, if someone as smart as Jordan can end sentences with prepositions, I could care less if anyone else does it. The judge cautions Molly to discuss only her direct experiences, so Eli asks her how the school's policy has affected her. Molly says her lab partner got pregnant, and then a friend of hers got throat gonorrhea, so she decided she had to do something. Eli: "Thank you, Molly. Very descriptive." Hee. The opposing counsel gets up, and after some back-and-forth in which Jordan is as deliciously high-handed as ever, the attorney asks if Molly couldn't have picked a less disruptive way of making her point. Molly admits that she wanted to expose the hypocrisy by shaking things up, and the attorney is satisfied...
...but not as much as Jordan is, who's temporarily abandoned his Eli-is-dead-to-me policy so as to tell him how invigorating he found the courtroom experience in this case, and how it reminded him of his salad days, "standing up, making a compelling objection." Eli mutters, "Right in the middle of my direct examination." Heh. Jordan babbles on about representing the disenfranchised, and as much as I love him, I'm not sure this case quite merits a rallying cry of "No justice, no peace!" Jordan stops when he sees the makings of a shit-eating grin on Eli's face, and Eli asks, "I was just wondering if it was possible that you were...a fanboy of a certain celebrity client." HEE. Jordan rasps that he most certainly is not, and for the record, his musical tastes are none of Eli's concern. If you ever wondered what plausible deniability looks like...this isn't it. Eli smirks when Jordan is gone, but doesn't dwell on it, as before he gets into his office, he sees lights from a disco ball reflected in the glass. He turns to see Taylor up on the balcony, dressed like Cher in the sixties, which is appropriate, since she starts singing the opening to "I Got You Babe." Eli's wondering if this is for him, but then Matt appears, dressed like Sonny Bono down to the bad perm, and they sing an abbreviated version of the song (sounding good together, by the way)...
...and then Eli's telling Taylor about it. She claims to hate the song, and says she wouldn't sing it under any circumstances, "even hallucinatory ones." Heh. Eli asks if she also wouldn't go out with any of their co-workers, but backs off, hopefully realizing how little right he has even to ask that. Taylor mentions his bribing of the judge again, giving Eli the window to tell her that he's having the aneurysm removed. He then asks her again if there's something going on with her and Matt, which she denies, and then adds that if he hadn't dumped her, "repeatedly, I might add," she'd think he was jealous. He says he's not, but it's been a rough week, and might she possibly have any time later? Taylor considers that, and says she feels like he's alone right now, as she is, but she's trying to move on, and being a shoulder for him won't work in that regard. Eli accepts this graciously enough, although he's clearly bummed, and leaves.
Later, Eli gives Beth a call and says he'd like to take her up on her offer to talk. Presumably he's not going to want to discuss what a fox his brother is, but I'd be happy to step in for that part of the conversation.
"Principal Ackerman" is now under cross-examination, although since he's being played by Ethan Phillips, despite the presence of any multicolored makeup or a mohawk, he will heretofore be known as Principal Neelix. He says that the school has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to pranks that are disruptive to the other students' education. Eli gives examples of time when students pulled pranks that only got them suspended or even less, and then says his zero-tolerance policy "is more like a six-tolerance policy." Eli passes the witness, and we stay across the room so as not to overhear Jordan seething "Six-tolerance policy? What the hell does that even mean?" The opposing counsel asks Principal Neelix why his school has an Abstinence Only program, and Neelix tells her that it's the only program the Federal government will give them money for. He goes on that if it got out that a student played a song like "I Want Your Sex" at an assembly, they'd lose their funding, which seems a little off given that WORD ALREADY GOT OUT. The opposing counsel turns and gives a little triumphant grin to the judge, like, do lawyers actually do that in real life? Like, "I hope you marked that on your scorecard, Your Honor!" The steno got your big victory down, honey -- no need to oversell it. Jordan stands and requests a rebuttal witness -- "Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou," or, to the layman, George Michael. Need I tell you how much Jordan relishes pronouncing every syllable in his idol's real name? I didn't think so. The judge agrees, but calls a recess until the day. Principal Neelix looks upset, probably because chances just got a lot better that W. is going to take a pair of scissors to his budget.
CCJ is on the stand saying that if he were a jurist on his case, he could find precedent for ordering his son to save his life. Then...why don't you? I think your attorneys could use the help here. Matt gets up and spins a yarn about how his dad left him and his mom when he was six, and he died three years ago. He gets a little emotional as he says that if he'd had a chance to save his dad's life, the first thing he would have wanted to know is why he should. CCJ doesn't bite at first, but Matt is relentless in asking why Scott should give a shit about him. Finally, CCJ cries, "Because I want to live!" Well, he's no Susan Hayward, but I'll still allow the answer. Not sure things are going to work out, though, because Scott looks like he's sucking an actual lemon at the moment. Seriously, look at his lips! It's either that or he's trying to get the cocaine off his teeth.
Taylor finds Beth in Eli's office (...kind of contrived, no? She wouldn't meet him at the restaurant?) and they recognize each other from the engagement party, although I don't recall them actually meeting. After some small talk, Beth admits that she's having dinner with Eli, and Taylor goes fake 'n frosty before hightailing it out of there...
...right into Matt's office. Can't say as I blame her -- that's the first place I'd go to find a drinking buddy around here. She says she desperately needs a margarita, and Matt seriously replies, "And you want me to come with you?" Hee. Once the sincerity of the invitation is established, they head out.
At dinner, Beth is telling Eli how, back in college, she originally started talking to him to soften him up for a friend of hers who liked him, and when the friend found out that Eli and Beth slept together, she never talked to Beth again. They talk about the bad patch Eli's going through, and Beth tells him how much he's helping people. However, Eli mentions the word "date," and Beth goes hyper-awkward, saying that Nate told her he was going to talk to Eli. Ooh, he may be cute, but I've got to deduct points from Doctor Wuss for that move. Anyway, Eli figures out that Nate and Beth are an item in quick enough time for Beth to believe that he knew about them, and you can't blame him for taking an extra-big swig of wine to "celebrate."
Taylor and Matt are half in the bag already, and Taylor's complaining about how she's a total loser. Matt tells her she's great -- smart, hot, funny, hot (his repetition, of course) -- "and an excellent drinker." That may be, but you have drinks for dinner, you have regret for breakfast. (I wrote that myself!) Taylor blurts the news about Eli getting the aneurysm removed, and while she originally thought that Eli broke up with her to protect her, now she sees that the aneurysm was just an excuse. "He just didn't love me enough." It's certainly easy enough to see how she could think this. Matt says that there's got to be something wrong with Eli if he dumped Taylor, and Taylor turns the subject to the revelation about Matt's dad, saying it explains his cockiness and his propensity to date bimbos -- he's scared to be abandoned by someone he actually cares about. Matt hits every note just right -- the dramatic pause, the downcast eyes -- as he says, "Sometimes it's just so hard to be the real man." Taylor leans in and kisses him, and I'm sorry -- you all know that I like Taylor, but this would be an entire log of cheese were it sincere, so knowing that he's faking is making me like him a hundred times more. I love Matt Dowd and I loathe Maggie. Chew on that, show.
Post-date, Nate lets Eli in, who shakes his head at him in disgust before launching into a well-enough-deserved tirade. Nate protests that he was going to tell Eli, but they had just come from the doctor and Eli had so much to think about, so he didn't want to add to that. This, however, isn't the real issue for Eli -- he feels bad about how he's pushed so many people away lately, but he never thought that he'd push his own brother away as well. Nate denies that that's true, but Eli points out that Nate's been dating Beth for two whole months and hasn't even mentioned it. "You call all the doctors, you make all the appointments, but you don't want to go anywhere near this decision, because you're afraid of how you're gonna feel if it doesn't work!" He adds that he needs his big brother now more than ever, but if this is Nate's idea of helping him, he can just shove it. He leaves, despite Nate's entreaties that he wait. Not that Eli doesn't have a point, but surely the statute of limitations on the goodwill from Nate risking his medical license hasn't run out quite yet, right?
In the morning, Matt's lying shirtless and asleep as Taylor tries to retrieve her jacket from under Matt's cat. Honey, leave it behind. At least it's not your arm. Also, Matt has a cat? That seems so uncharacteristic. Not so much the cat itself -- I just figured Matt as the type that would use walking his dog to meet women. (Maybe in San Francisco, that backfired on him one too many times.) Anyway, Matt sits up and tells her to pet the cat -- "Sonny Bono loves to be touched." I'm assuming we're still talking about the cat. Taylor does register the oddity, but she's too busy getting dressed to dwell on it, and Matt comments on her extreme haste, which she denies, saying she's just got court. Matt: "I know. With me." He punctuates that with a little smile, which HEE, and Taylor can only insincerely return the favor. If Matt weren't completely heterosexual and also didn't have a cat named Sonny Bono, we could have a real future together.
Taylor and Matt have cleaned themselves up from their carnal evening, and the judge gives her verdict -- while she's disturbed by Scott's intransigence in this matter, there's no legal precedent to force him to give up his marrow, so she's denying CCJ's petition. Scott leaves despite CCJ's attempt to talk to him.
Jordan asks George what inspired "I Want Your Sex" -- "a song, by the way, which rose to Number One on the world charts, a song that helped you win a Grammy for Best Album Of The Year." Hee. The defense attorney and Principal Neelix look at each other like, "Is this guy actually for real?" Yes, and we wouldn't have him any other way. George says that he was in a relationship that inspired the song, and like most of his work, it was autobiographical. He goes on that the song isn't meant to encourage promiscuity, which I'll note that he's been saying for twenty years, so it's not like the show is taking license here. He says that he applauds the song being used to protest an abstinence-only Sex Ed program, since when he wrote it, the world was in Year Six of the AIDS crisis, which Ronald Reagan didn't even publicly address until there were over 21,000 people dead. "And what the government is doing right now -- funding Federal programs that tell children that condoms don't work -- is killing people all over again."
The opposing counsel then hands George the lyrics to "I Want Your Sex," and asks him to read a highlighted portion -- "Sex is natural, sex is good, not everybody does it, but everybody should." He adds, "Do you not think?" Heh. She asks him if he denies that the lyrics could be understood to be promoting sexual activity, and he doesn't, of course. Jordan then stands and asks something else, and George responds that an abstinence-only Sex Ed program is an oxymoron. He says that he loves a lot of things about the U.S., especially the Constitution and the separation of church and state, "but I don't think I'm alone in wondering what's going on with all that right now." What's going on with it is GET ME TO JANUARY. George says that right now, America could use more people like Molly. "The whole world could." Refreshingly, Molly doesn't smile beatifically, but looks mildly embarrassed, like an actual teenager would. Eli grins at her as we head into the last break.
In a conference room at the firm's offices, Jordan suggests to the opposing side that they settle, and Principal Neelix expresses his willingness to reinstate Molly, but Molly says no -- she wants the school to have a real Sex Ed program. Principal Neelix says that's impossible without Federal funding, but George pipes up that he thinks they could raise the money in one night. Jordan: "A hero arises." Hee. He asks Molly how quickly she can get a message out, and Molly opens up her Blackberry and is like, "Six seconds." That sounds more like zero seconds! Sorry, did I do that wrong? George smiles at his revolutionary adopted daughter.
Matt and Taylor are trying to put a brave face on their options, but CCJ ruefully says he's getting what he deserves, so Taylor stands and counsels him to use the time he has left to reach out and make contact with his son, to help him let go of some of that anger before it's too late. CCJ doesn't leave, though, before picking up a picture of a grown Matt and a suspiciously fatherlike figure with his arm around him on a fishing trip. CCJ snarks, "Nice picture, Mr. Dowd." Heh. He leaves, and Taylor lights into Matt for lying in court and playing on her sympathies. It's all Matt can do not to giggle, although if I were Matt's dad I'd be a little worried about jinxes, and even when Taylor snits that the night before was a "drunken, stupid mistake," Matt asks if they can make the same mistake again that night. The answer is no, and Taylor stomps off.
Jordan comes in to see Eli and asks if everything's ready for that night -- "insurance, security, lighting rentals?" Eli says yes, thanks to their insanely large client roster. Jordan lingers, so Eli asks if there's something he can help him with, and Jordan eventually gets to the point -- working on the case made him feel something, and he now sees why Eli has been taking the kind of cases he has. Eli points out that Jordan also got to meet George. Jordan: "You don't think he noticed, do you?" Eli diplomatically offers that it was "barely obvious," so I guess they've all decided not to discuss that one time where George slipped on Jordan's drool. Jordan reminisces warmly that he discovered George's music back in the early years of the firm -- he was stuck on "this hellacious document production" for three weeks, and he would stay so late that it was just him and the cleaning crew, one of whom had a boom box on which he would play only George Michael songs. "Most nights that music was the only thing that kept me going." Aw. He goes on that he still associates it with his better days, "and now, as I enter the waning side of my life, losing everything..." "...is like the sun going down on me," Eli supplies. Insulin! Jordan sincerely thanks Eli and shakes his hand, saying it's the best week he's had in a long time. The sadness and regret with which Garber tinges those words doubles the resonance of the scene. The man is good. He leaves, and is quickly replaced by Nate, who starts to apologize until Eli cuts him off, saying he didn't do anything wrong. Nate asks if things are going to be weird between them, but Eli says no -- Nate's his brother, and he loves him no matter what. Nate offers his opinion that the doctor they saw is the guy -- "and I'm stickin' around to make sure he's the right choice." I hope that means you'll be around for more episodes, then. I know how Eli feels with the abandonment!
So George is playing an outdoor benefit concert at the high school, and before he goes on, he and Eli chat a bit about doing what you can to make a difference. George offers Eli some advice -- he's had some tough times in his life, and if there's anything he's learned, it's that no matter what, "you just have to keep going." He asks if Eli knows what he means, and Eli says he thinks he does. This seems like a moment where George is sort of acknowledging the guiding role he's playing in Eli's life, which is interesting. Anyway, Jordan (hee hee hee) totally introduces George, and then claps along so adorably I can't even stand it as George starts singing "Amazing." I carelessly misidentified it as "Fastlove" in the recaplet (for which I should get my card revoked) and you know what? I didn't get a single email about it. You guys? I'm scared.