The Good Fight recap: The gang tries to resist sexual tension and draws dots

One of my favorite things about The Good Fight’s parent-series, The Good Wife, was how it would frequently toss Alicia, Will, and Diane into different kinds of legal processes: an inquisition, where you can only ask three questions; frustrating mediation sessions; a Blue Ribbon Panel. My favorite one, though, was military court, because it always felt like they were truly fighting an uphill battle, and the stoic Leora Kuhn (Linda Emond) was one of the show’s best judges. So, needless to say, I really enjoyed Thursday’s The Good Fight, “The Gang Goes to War,” which sees Caleb and Liz defend one of Caleb’s army buddies, with Judge Kuhn presiding over the proceedings.

We begin with Caleb visiting military court to see his buddy Corporal DeMarcus Laney testify against Sergeant Meyer, his sociopathic superior who enjoyed killing Afghani civilians oversees. This Meyer guy had a mason jar full of teeth! While on the stand, DeMarcus admits to tampering with Meyer’s rifle in order to stop him from committing war crimes, but that ends up screwing DeMarcus over because the military police arrest him and charge him with insubordination, sabotage, and negligent homicide since Meyer killed an innocent person when he used his rifle.

Because he apparently owes DeMarcus his life, Caleb asks Gavin for a month off to defend him, but Gavin rejects his request. Instead, he assigns Liz to help Caleb with the case. Pairing Liz and Caleb up on this case removes any ambiguity about what happened between last week: They did indeed hook, or as they put it, “experiment.” However, they vow that it can’t happen again and put all their focus on this case. Spoiler alert: They sleep together a couple more times in this episode, even though they know it’s a bad idea. They just can’t deny their chemistry!

Military court is just as difficult for Liz and Caleb as it has always been in the Good universe, because no nonsense Judge Kuhn refuses to make any accommodations for these civilian lawyers. I’m so glad they brought Kuhn back because she’s a low-energy yet very entertaining judge. Plus it reminded me of how Will Gardner jokingly wondered if there weren’t any other military judges when he was forced argue in front of her for a second time. After a rough pre-trial hearing, Liz asks a very bored Diane for advice, and Diane tells her Will grew to like and respect Judge Kuhn, which is an effective way of conveying the history behind this story.

So, the trial gets going and Jay manages to find several of DeMarcus’ mates to defend his actions; however, things take a turn when President Trump pardons Meyer on Twitter. Suddenly, all of DeMarcus’ defense witnesses change their minds about testifying because they’re gonna have to work with him. However, this ends up working in Caleb and Liz’s favor because this means they can recall Meyer to the stand without worrying about his pleading the fifth again since. So, they do just that and force Meyer to admit to all of the messed up things he did. In the end, the jury finds DeMarcus not guilty.

Meanwhile, Diane, who is bored and aimless after giving up her quest for Memo 618, has a sudden shock when she sees Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer (Annaleigh Ashford) from her premiere dream in the RBL office. To her surprise, this woman isn’t Weinstein’s lawyer in the real world. Her name is Georgette Stoddard and she’s actually has a really serene presence. See, she used to be addicted to writing everything down, but then one day she lost all of her notebooks and realized her compulsive scribbling didn’t matter. So now she just compulsively draws dots in her notebook because it’s calming, which is a very quirky detail. Of course, Diane ends up picking up this habit when she gets frustrated about Trump. Apparently, drawing dots is Diane’s microdosing or Book Club of season 4, the thing she picks up to cope with the madness of the world.

Georgette ends up asking Diane to sit with her in court because she has a case before Julius. Diane doubts that’ll matter, but agrees to anyway. To her surprise, though, Julius has changed and has stopped kowtowing to the rich and powerful. What accounts for this change? Well, Fake-Julius from last week’s satirical play still taunting him for compromising his principles. More importantly, the Mystery Man who threatened Kurt last week visits him, commends him on his work so far, and encourages him to “Keep doing what he’s doing.” This reignites a fire in Julius that’s rather thrilling to see — especially for Diane. After court adjourns, Diane heads to office and tells him they need to have a conversation about Memo 618. And just like that, Diane is back in the game.

Finally over in the weirdest part of the episode, Lucca flies to St. Lucia with and gets pulled into a high-stakes poker game with Bianca and her friend and famous friends, whose names are bleeped out (This friend group started out as a book club, Bianca explains, which feels like a nod to last season’s arc). Lucca wants no part of this because she can’t afford the buy-in, but Bianca gives her the money to play and somehow Lucca ends up winning over a million dollars. Lucca tries to give it back, but Bianca refuses to take it. What I found really interesting about this story is how it contrasts with the rest of the season. On the one hand, we have Memo 618, which paints the rich and powerful in a negative light, but then on this side, we have Bianca, who is also rich but really just wants to make a friend. And she’s willing to pay for Lucca’s time and give her a million dollars charm her.

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