#MK at the end of the season: Opens a door to chaos
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Can you believe MK learned he was a Monkey Demon and his first instinct was to assume he was going to destroy everyone/hurt the people he loved. And then the moment he thought his destiny was to die for them, he was a little too down for it. And then after he realized his destiny was inevitably to destroy the ones he loves as he knows them and reset the cycle, he was back to being like "ah okay fuck destiny", BUT FOR A LITTLE BIT THERE. HE WAS SO READY. Something is so wrong with him
#MK the whole season: What if we're only chaos#MK at the end of the season: Opens a door to chaos#It is funny that LBD was like ''Heroes? Please. You're mere agents of chaos'' and then s5 was like: well. maybe a little bit yeah#Like huh#okay#the news come out: you can get MK to kill himself if he thinks it'll protect the people he loves#Not surprising. but hurtful to me#lmk#lego monkie kid#lmk rant#lmk MK#lmk spoilers#U know how chaos was compared to the sun. Wonder if Wukong and MK were made from that chaos in some way#Or if there are just gonna be some fun parallels later
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TGF Thoughts: 5x10-- And the violence spread.
So, thatâs it for season five. Iâm still trying to sort out how I feel about the season as a whole and Wacknerâs arc. Iâm hopeful that writing this will help me decide.
This episode has a Previously, and itâs rather conventional. Iâm guessing itâs here to bookend the season, with conveying information being only a secondary objective. Â
Did we see Rivi scream, âYouâre done, Wacko, youâre done! Canceled! Canceled!â in the last episode or is that new to this previously? I feel like I absolutely wouldâve had things to say about a) Wackner being called âWacko,â which has been RIGHT THERE this whole time, and b) the use of âCanceled,â which is a thing Rivi would never say but is VERY thematic (you know, cancel culture and also Wackner having a TV show and also this being a TV show thatâs wrapping up* Wacknerâs arc).
* The way things end this episode, Iâd say weâre done with Wackner. The Kings have said they arenât sure about the plan for season six, so never say never, but I think that if we see Wackner again, it will be as part of a different arc. Â
I went back to 5x09 and while we do see the same shots of Rivi screaming, whatever heâs saying in 5x09 is in Spanish. So either he was saying this in Spanish or the dialogue here is totally new. Â
Iâm a little sad that I knew in advance Robert King had directed this episode, because I want to know how long it wouldâve taken me to guess. Iâd like to think this first shot, of Diane flopping down on her bed in a very pretty floral print dress, then Kurt flopping down in the opposite direction, wouldâve given it away. We usually donât get shots that are both striking and kinda balanced unless RKâs directing. Â
This also has some big season three opener vibesâthe scene where Diane turns to Kurt and says, âIâm happy,â thus jinxing the entire season. Â
Diane and Kurt are about to go on vacation, which means, of course, that Diane and Kurt are definitely not about to go on vacation. Iâve watched 12 seasons of this show; I know all the tricks! Â
If I didnât get it from the initial staging of the opening shot, the camera panning to Diane and Kurtâs suitcases and then back wouldâve been another clue that RK directed. He ALWAYS has the camera in motion. Â
I love that Dianeâs travel outfit is a dress you could wear to a fancy party and a statement necklace. Of course it is.
And if I needed evidence that RK and MK wrote this episode (which I didnât; it is a finale so I knew they wrote it), Diane quoting Waiting for Godot is a clue there. Â
I really should read Waiting for Godot, shouldnât I? Â
âWow. Educated and a good lay,â Kurt responds. I know that the political stuff between Diane and Kurt can get more than a little murky, but banter like this reminds me why they stay together and why politics never drive them apart. Also, itâs really nice to see Diane and Kurt have some fun banter that isnât about politics. Â
And Diane making kissing noises and asking Kurt to meet her halfway! This just feels like Iâm spying on someoneâs private life and I love it. Not in a voyeuristic way, since this is actually a little uncomfortably private, but in a, âah, yes, these do feel like real peopleâ way. This is the kind of âa little goes a long wayâ character moment I always want more of, and Kings episodes ALWAYS include stuff like this.
And there it is. The phone rings as Diane and Kurt are about to start out for the airport. Diane thinks the call must be for Kurt, but itâs for her. Itâs a very flustered Liz, informing her that STR Laurieâs execs are on their way to the office for a surprise visit.
If the Diane/Kurt scene didnât tell me that Robert King directed, I almost certainly wouldâve gotten it from the sudden cut to Liz, walking through the hallways and doing a million things at once with a ton of background noise. No one loves chaos the way Robert King loves chaos. Â
This episode STRONGLY reminds me of the Wife season five finale. It is equally chaotic and also spins a ton of plates. But, mostly, the similarity I see between the two episodes is that they are both extremely fun and captivating to watch because of how much momentum they have, but everything just feels slightly hollow and not exactly focused on the thing you want to see. Â
(Shout out to my friend Ryan, who messaged me the 5x22 comparison before I could message it to him!) Â
I decided I should rewatch the first few minutes of 5x22. I am now 15 minutes into 5x22 of Wife and 2 minutes into 5x10 of Fight. Oops. Â
Apparently, STR Laurie planned a surprise visit because they heard RL was dysfunctional. You donât say! Â
I felt like 5x09 concluded with STR Laurie being won over by Allegra and the RL team, so this is a bit of a surprising place to start the episode. But, since Diane seems surprised too, Iâll allow it. Â
Now Liz and Diane have 90 minutes to agree on a financial plan! Kurtâs on the phone with the airline before Diane even hangs up with Liz. Â
Diane is determined not to lose out on her vacation and asks Kurt to change the flight to 8:00. âKurt, we are going on this vacation if it kills me!â is a line I would worry was foreshadowing on basically any other show.
The RL/STRL PowerPoint template is pretty ugly. They want to call 2021 their best year yet, thanks to the deal between Rivi and Plum Meadow Farms we saw last week. Even though we saw champagne and signatures, the deal isnât done yet because Plum Meadow can back out if Rivi goes to jail.
RK also loves close-ups more than any other director on the show; I do not love close-ups. Â
The Plum Meadow deal is such a big deal that for the quarter, they go from $45 million to $5 million without it. They should just not say numbers. I can believe itâs big enough to take them from a modest profit to being behind projections or whatever, but I canât believe that they have $5 million in other business and $40 million on this one deal. Â
It seems that Rivi was arrested. I donât think it is ever said in this episode why. I assume the arrest relates to his behavior in Wacknerâs court, since there were police officers there, and I suppose that Rivi is a big enough deal the police would actually take him to real court, but are we not going to address the weirdness of Rivi being arrested in a fake court where his employees are being tried, then taken to a real court by the same people who just an episode ago were disillusioned with real court? This seems like a plot point.
Carmen on a frantic phone call in the backseat of a car feels very 7x22. Â
Who is James that Carmen has in her contacts!? And why does everyone always put Liz in their contacts as âElizabeth Reddickâ when everyone calls her Liz? Â
Carmen calls Marissa to go argue in Vinettaâs court since sheâs on Rivi duty. Carmen doesnât take Marissaâs job in Wacknerâs court seriously and then notes that this instruction is coming straight from Liz, so Marissa falls in line. Â
Wacknerâs case of the week is about rural Illinois wanting to form its own state separate from Chicago. Thereâs a farmer who feels like his tax money is only going to the big city and he wants it to stay in his community. Â
Theyâve just now added stage lighting to the set of Wackner Rules, dunno why they wouldnât have done that earlier!
I donât know what standing youâd have to have to bring a case about wanting to divide the state in two to court, or if this is even something a court would or should decide, but, sure, Wackner and Cord, go for it. There are no rules! Â
This map splitting Illinois into two new states that Cord is holding is a dumb prop because Galena, where this farmer is from, is in the same section as Chicago. Do I pause every reference to Chicago on this show and then google information to see if the writers bothered to look it up or pretend theyâve ever set foot in Chicago? You know I do.
âSecession!â the audience screams. Does the audience of Wackner Rules really want to see this?
A Good Fight Short! And it really is short: âStop this obsession with secession and breaking up the Union. Itâs boring and itâs dumb, end of song.â I feel like thatâs the thesis statement for this episode, or one of them (that this episode seems to have about ten thesis statements is kind of my problem with this episode, tbh). This episode is very much about danger of things becoming too fracturedâthe COTW, the copycat courts, the firm dramaâand I feel like the writers come around to just saying no, this is enough, we need structure and consistency.
But more on that later. MUCH more on that later.
Marissa is swearing more because âthe world has required it.â She notes this to Wackner as she calls him out on the secession case. Cord barges in.
Take a look at the employee of the month poster on the back of the door at 5:39. Then at 5:40, look at whatâs in the box just to the right of the center of the screen: itâs an employee of the month poster with Wackner on it! Cute easter egg. (Would Marissa definitely notice this and have questions? Yes. Is this here as a cute easter egg for eagle-eyed fans? Almost certainly.) Â
âInsane is just one step away from reality if you get people to believe, and you know what makes people believe? TV.â Cord explains when Marissa asks how they can possibly be litigating this case. Thatâs thesis statements two and three, folks. The first is that if you get people to believe, then anything is possible, which sounds like a tagline for a Disney movie but is actually super dangerous; the second is that reality TV is a way to persuade people and change opinions. Â
So weâve got: (1) Factions are bad. (2) People are persuadable and the rules donât actually matter. (3) Reality TV changes minds. Letâs see if there are more.
(Yes, these theses do kind of add up to a wholeâThe rules donât matter, so if you persuade people, through reality tv, you get factions of people believing their own sets of rules and factsâbut what I'm interested in tracking throughout this episode is how well the writers actually bring these theses together.)
(And this is setting aside that key themes in previous episodes, that I think many of us were looking for resolution on, included outlining the flaws with the extant ârealâ justice system and exploring the role of prison in the justice system. From this episode, I donât think the writers ever intended to really tackle either of those issues. Thatâs fineâI'm not sure that TGF has something to say about prison abolition and I donât want a thought experiment where the writers actually try to fix the legal systemâbut feels a bit disjointed. Iâve said it before and Iâll say it again, but 5x08 and 5x09 needed to do a better, clearer job of setting up this finale. The key themes of Wacknerâs arc were always present, but they needed to slowly narrow the scope so the resolution felt inevitable and clear. Instead, we spent time on things like parking spaces (when we couldâve had a real plot about how Wacknerâs court gains legitimacy through violence, incarceration, and playing on peopleâs frustration with the real systems) and Delâs focus groups (when we couldâve instead done a plot about Wackner gaining fans who wanted to use his methods to do ill). Everything I just mentioned in the parentheticals is in the show! Itâs not subtext! We see it all! We see Cord use violence and prisons to enforce Wacknerâs rulings; we see the cops turn to Wackner out of frustration; we see that the people drawn to Wackner Rules and to Wacknerâs court are increasingly sounding more and more like right-wing populists! I canât be too hard on this arc because, again, all these ideas are there. Iâm not coming up with them on my own!)
Iâm just saying: this ending wouldâve been a lot clearer and a lot more interesting had the writers focused on what I mentioned above instead of the distractions of the last two episodes. Â
Whew, that was a ramble. Hope youâre ready for more rambles.
On a similar note, Iâd like to reiterate my problems with how the writers used Marissa after the private prison reveal. I donât have much more to say than what I wrote last week, but itâs another example of the same problem. Marissa objecting to Wacknerâs court because she notices what itâs becoming and how Cord plans to use it for political gain (two Illinoises (??) changes the Senate and the Electoral College...) always was going to be part of the endgame. Marissa only seriously objecting after the fourth or fifth line Wackner crosses feels bizarre. Â
Cord does NOT like that there is another court, and wants to protect Wacknerâs IP. Wackner, as we saw last episode, does not feel threatened by the other court. In fact, he seems to be excited by it. Â
I love Liz questioning Dianeâs outfit like itâs unprofessional. Itâs a little low-cut and showy, but I donât think unprofessional is the word Iâd use for it. Â
Now they have 45 minutes to decide The Future Of The Firm and Diane wants to be considered a name partner. Oh, that debate is still raging?! Every time I think itâs done it comes back, which should probably be a sign to Diane that her options are to leave and start something new, jettison Madeline and the others, or step down. Staying on as name partner and calling it a black firm is just not an option. Â
âDiane, there is a split in the firm that...â Liz starts, before asking some associates to leave the room. Ha! The reveal Liz and Diane arenât alone is a pretty fun touch.
âThe Black equity partners donât want to be in your work group,â Liz informs Diane. âBecause they think theyâll be punished by this firm?â Diane asks. âNo, thatâs paranoia. We donât punish here,â Liz responds. âOf course you do. My fracking client. My union client. The Black lawyers who work on those casesâthey're considered traitorsâ Diane says. âBecause those CEOs are racists,â Liz counters.
Lots going on here, and Iâm not sure I understand it all. Why would the equity partnersâwho are partnersâfeel like theyâre being punished by being in Dianeâs work group? (And also what does a âwork groupâ mean and why havenât they talked about it in the past?) When Diane starts talking about the lawyers who staff her clients, sheâs not talking about equity partners; she is talking about associates.
And people are giving associates shit for working on Dianeâs clients whom they happen to be staffed on!? Thatâs sad, though believable.
âSo what do we do? Only bring in clients who can pass the racial smell test?â Diane asks. I mean, actually, yes. IF the goal is to be a black firm and to have that designation mean something in moral terms rather than marketing terms, then yes. Â
âItâs okay if youâre a drug kingpin like Rivi, but itâs not okay if you want me as lead attorney?â Diane says. Also, yes. Diane makes good points here. Â
âDiane, this is not about you,â Liz counters. Um, sure, but it has to be about something, Liz. Unless youâre trying to build a firm you donât control that makes 88% of its revenue from a drug dealer (40 million out of 45 million this quarter = 88%; I told you they shouldnât give me numbers) but happens to have black people in charge, you have to grapple with this question. I donât think anyone whoâs fighting for the firm to be a black-led (not owned, bc STRL) business is the type of person who thinks that having a black-led firm that does all the same shit as any other firm is in itself a good thing, so you NEED to address your client list. Madeline is anti-Rivi, anti-Cord, anti-Wolfe-Coleman (the rapist guy), pro-social justice, and pro having a black led firm. Â
âI mean, why... why do white people personalize this?â Liz asks. âOh, now Iâm just a white person?â Diane responds. I... donât know what to do with this! Liz is right that Diane is taking this personally; Diane is right that Liz needs to deal with the rest of the client list. But no one is saying the things that REALLY need to be said: That all their decisions are meaningless in the shadow of STRL, and that deciding to be a black led firm isnât the end of the discussion if they havenât decided what types of clients they want to have. Â
âWhat happened, Liz? Last year we were intent on an all-female-run law firm,â Diane starts. Oh, THIS AGAIN! Diane never learns, does she? She never seems to realize that no one sheâs approached with this idea is NEARLY as in love with it as she is. She probably still wonders to herself why Aliciaâwho partnered with her at the end of season seven basically just because it was the easiest, most frictionless thing to doâdidn't seem more committed to their firm. Â
âDiane, there is history here that we are trying to...â Liz says, but Diane cuts in to note that women (women like Diane Lockhart!) have history too! In fact, sheâs spent â35 years fighting gender discrimination to get to this position.â âAnd we have spent 400 years fighting racial discrimination to try and, you know...â Liz starts, before cutting herself off to get back to the ticking clock.
Sigh. Just talk about the actual thing instead of talking around the thing, guys. Diane is obviously deserving of A name partnership, in the abstract. This is an undeniable fact. And while Diane is definitely making this about herself rather than the big picture, I donât think Liz trying to trump Dianeâs 35 year career with the history of black people is going to win her any arguments? Like, just say what you mean and say it clearly. What Liz, I think, wants to express is that Dianeâs individual accomplishments arenât the issue here and everyone thinks sheâs deserving (though Liz suggested Diane was not deserving a few episodes ago, which I didnât understand then and donât understand now). The problem is that Diane is trying to fight a battle thatâs about something much larger than herself with, âbut I'm a good lawyer!â Â
And thatâs KIND OF what Liz is saying here, if I add all her sentences up and read between the lines, but, again, why not just say it? Â
âAlright, now we have 43 minutes to fix race relations, gender relations. STR Laurieâs gonna fire our asses, and you know it,â Liz says. I am curious what that would look like. Wouldnât that just mean that STRL wouldnât control them anymore? Iâm sure being fired would be bad and all, but wouldnât it free them from the contract they wanted out of last year? Â
âLetâs split the firm down the middle. I hire half the lawyers, you hire the other half,â Diane suggests. What does this mean? Why are you hiring your employees? Huh?
âYou hire the white associates, and I hire the black associates?â Liz confirms. This seems like a very bad idea that would make things a lot worse and open them up to lawsuits! I also still do not know what theyâre even talking about. And I donât know why Allegra isnât a part of this conversation.
âIâm not saying itâs good. Iâm just saying itâs what weâre left with. It's what we can agree on,â Diane says. I really wish I understood what âhireâ meant in this context because I donât understand why they have to split anything or why this has to be done now and I donât understand why this would possibly be a good solution. Can you imagine the backlash when people realize all the white people report to Diane and all the black people to Liz and that people were taken off of the accounts theyâve worked on for years to accomplish this? And this must be something that the employees would know about eventually; otherwise they could just randomly assign half to Liz and half to Diane. Â
Iâm sad Madeline isnât in this episode because I feel like we needed to see more of her POV as well as the associate POV. I donât really understand the divides at play within the firm or what the staff and other partners are asking for, but I suspect it isnât this.
Hallucination Jesus is back, and at least thereâs actually a point to him this time (he shows up when Jay is in Vinettaâs court and reminds Jay that Vinetta will rule based on her religious beliefs). I still dislike the hallucinations.
Jay advises Marissa, who is Jewish, to talk a lot about Jesus in her defense. Â
Charmaine Bingwa is really great as Carmen, and obviously she is not fluent in Spanish, but itâs so funny to me that the only time you can hear that sheâs Australian is when sheâs trying to say Oscar like sheâs speaking Spanish. Â
"I know youâre hiding something when you speak English,â Rivi says to Carmen. Heh. Â
âCommunity courtâ is such a nice, unthreatening term for referring to Wackner and his copy cats. Thanks for that, Carmen!
Itâs a smart plan to mention Jesus a lot, I guess, but Jay and Marissa both shouldâve realized that Vinetta is too smart to tolerate obvious pandering. Iâm a little surprised Jay doesnât get up and argue since Marissa is, obviously, not familiar with the New Testament. Â
Marissa wins this round with facts and logic.
Why is the judge who was handling Riviâs previous charge now in bond court? Make it make sense.
I like that Carmen calls out the ASA for swearing hahaha Â
Why... would this Matteo kid just casually mention he was holding a gun, omg. Â
In Vinettaâs court, you can be charged with murder and tried because... you had a gun and also there were murders at other times. Coolcoolcool no problems here.
Community courts for civil cases? Sure. Thatâs basically arbitration. Community courts for criminal cases? Bad, bad, bad idea. Â
Vinettaâs reasoning: âThose murders happened on our street, and the police havenât convicted anyone because they donât care. We care. This is self-defense. And how is it different from your court?â Aside from the whole imprisoning people in her basement thing, Vinettaâs not wrong. I almost brought this up last week but hesitated because I couldnât remember the details enough to decide if I wanted to recommend it, but thereâs a book I read a few years ago that seems relevant here: Ghettoside by Jill Leovy. Again, been a while so donât take this as a wholehearted endorsement or anything, but from what I remember, the central issue at the heart of the book (itâs non-fiction) is that a poor black community (I think in LA?) doesnât trust the police (in part) because the police donât solve murders, and then with no way of getting justice through the court system, thereâs more violence as a stand-in for justice. https://www.vox.com/2016/8/26/12631962/ghettoside-jill-leovy-black-crime
Iâm not sure if thatâs QUITE what Vinetta is saying but it seems similar, and itâs a decent point (though not a justification for her court). Why should she trust the system to improve her community when itâs ignored her community for years?
I like that the writers chose two very different, very understandable characters for their community courts. Itâs easy to see why Wackner and Vinetta feel the need for alternative courts; itâs easy to see why others would trust them. This arc doesnât really work unless thereâs a legitimate frustration with existing systems... Â
Marissa calls Wacknerâs court a âjoke,â which she should understand by now isnât the case. (Marissaâs smart; she knew it wasnât a joke the second she saw David Cord get involved.) Â
Vinetta accuses Wackner of copying her court, which alarms Marissa. This isnât addressed again, and I donât know if itâs true! I could really go either way on this. On the one hand, I absolutely believe that Wackner saw/heard about it, liked it, and did it himself without thinking much of itâand if this is the case, then the ending where Vinetta gets in trouble for violating Wacknerâs IP is a lot more of a gut punch. On the other hand, I donât really feel like the seeds for this were planted. We see Wackner innovate a lot and try new things and he has an explanation for why he does everythingâhow much of that is Vinetta? And Vinetta clearly watches the show and likes it or she wouldnât have recognized Marissa, so itâs a little hard for me to just believe her claim when literally all I know about her is she has a court that looks like Wacknerâs and she is aware of and feels positively towards Wackner rules. Also, Wackner knows about Vinettaâs court (from Marissa) and sounded excited about it last episode. Sure, he didnât necessarily know which one it was, exactly, but I assume if heâd copied the idea and then heard about a case involving people from the exact same community where he found the idea... his reaction would be different. So IDK. My reasons for doubting Vinettaâs claim are probably based a little too much in things Iâm not meant to spend that much time paying attention to. Â
âI fucked up. Itâs in the same court, but now itâs a murder case,â Marissa tells Diane. I do like hearing characters admit when they fucked up! Â
Diane hears that STRL is delayed, so she heads out to help Matteo. When she goes to change into her pantsuit, she finds that sheâs grabbed Kurtâs bag by mistake. âOf course. That makes sense,â she reacts. Â
Diane pushes her flight to the next day, also telling Kurt, âAnd yes, for some reason, I took your suit instead of mine, so fuck it.â I love it when the characters feel like real people. Â
I am not sure why Kurt is getting to the office when Diane is leaving or why Kurt is thereâto pick Diane up on the way to the airport, maybe?
Carter Schmidt walks into RL at the worst possible time, threating to blow up the Plum Meadow deal. Another 5x10 to Wife 5x22 similarity: heâs in both episodes. Â
Liz heads out to help Carmen with Rivi, and then STRL arrives. Oops. Â
Credits!
One thing about Wacknerâs court that should definitely be a warning sign even though it seems noble: he ignores just about every warning sign, like this rowdy crowd screaming WE LOVE YOU WACKNER or the potential interests at play in a case about secession, because he thinks his fair judgement can overcome these obstacles. If the world worked that way, thereâd be no need for his court in the first place.
Is anyone representing the State of Illinois in this trial? If not, then... how is it happening? Â
Dr. Goat, some dude who claims to have some hidden historical document about how Illinois is actually two states, is clearly making stuff up and yet Wackner indulges him and Cord. I feel about this the same way as I feel about the Devilâs Advocate: That Wackner would not allow this to go on for more than five seconds before calling bullshit and therefore there is no reason I should have to sit through it.
Why is some guy screaming, âNo taxation without representationâ like dude you absolutely have representation. But of course, Iâm expecting him to be logical, and the point is that he is not.
Dr. Goatâs Latin phrasesâshock!-- donât actually translate into anything like what he said. Even though this information is verifiable by a quick google search, the crowd starts screaming âLiar!!!!â at Marissa. If only I could say this felt unrealistic.
Wackner asks Dr. Goat to bring in the document. Â
âYou look like youâre heading to the beach,â Vinetta says to Diane, who looks like sheâs heading somewhere but definitely not to the beach. Vinetta asks where Diane was headed on vacation. Diane says sheâs headed to Lake Como, and unnecessarily clarifies that âItâs in Italy.â She assumes Vinetta doesnât know that... but Vinetta does.
âSo youâve been there before?â Vinetta probes when Diane says itâs beautiful there. âJust once. We donât get away often. We thought weâd splurge,â Diane says. Vinetta stares at her and smiles, and Diane hits her head on a basket thatâs hanging in Vinettaâs kitchen. If I just write out the dialogue here, it sounds like a perfectly average conversation, but everything about this conversation is so charged: Diane is afraid to look like a wealthy white woman; Vinettaâs pleasantness is pretty clearly also a way of sizing up Diane. Â
Vinetta shows Diane pictures of neighborhood children and young adults killed as a consequence of gang violence. You can see sheâs not trying to do anything other than help her community, even if her methods are highly questionable.
Diane argues that Matteo should be given over to the police; Vinetta disagrees: âThe police havenât arrested anyone for those murders, any of these. Since the BLM movement, theyâve pulled back from our streets. No oneâs coming to help. Thatâs why I started this court. Itâs not a joke to us.â Wait Iâm sorry did Vinetta just blame lack of good detective work in black communities on... the BLM movement?!?!?! Is there any foundation to this!? Why canât it just be that the police werenât actually doing a good job of policing/finding justice and were being antagonistic towards the community instead of being helpful and no one trusted them?? That explanation is literally right there.
Jay suggests the Jesus strategy, again. Â
âItâs women! We could just move on, install men,â STRL guy says. I donât know if heâs joking, but ugh. Also, what is RL if it has neither Diane nor Liz? A bunch of lawyers who will all promptly quit when they see their bosses get fired and a few opportunists? Â
Kurt is watching golf in Dianeâs office, and the STRL people love it. Of course Kurt accidentally makes friends with them. Â
Court stuff happens. Itâs not good for Rivi, and then Liz and Carmen come up with a theory: Plum Meadow is stalling the deal so they can find Riviâs more stable second and make a deal with them instead. Â
Wackner giving Dr. Goat a single point on his stupid little board, for any reason related to his obviously fake totally unverified document, is dangerous. Why would you signal to a crowd thatâs clearly not interested in fact that they have a point? Thatâs basically egging them on.
I know Wacknerâs judgment is obviously not 100% soundâneed I remind you of the PRIVATE PRISONS?-- but I thought it was more sound than this. Â
Wackner shows off his knowledge of paper and proves that Dr. Goatâs document is a fake. Why... did he just give Dr. Goat a point??? Â
Or is he moving the point from Dr. Goat to Marissa? Â
Dr. Goat sounds like a fake name I would call a character in my recaps long past the point of anyone other than myself remembering the joke. (See: Mr. Elk)
âThe truth is ugly. The only thing uglier is not pursuing it,â Wackner tells Marissa. How is taking on a case about very obvious falsehoods, funded by someone with a vested interest in the case, that gets people riled up, some noble pursuit of truth? Â
STRL and Kurt are now drinking and discussing hunting, while Dianeâs arguing for Matteo in Vinettaâs living room. Vinetta isâas was always obvious, sorry Jayâfar too smart to fall for this patronizing bullshit. She screams at Diane and plays back a recording (on a baby monitor) of Diane coaching Matteo to lie about his faith.
Soooooo yeah no you canât do that, that is bad, recording conversations between lawyers and their clients is not good even if it leads to you exposing their schemes...
Then Vinetta places Diane under arrest, which obviously isnât going to end well for Vinetta. Â
Liz and Carmen suggest a post-nup to Rivi to see if Isabel is planning on turning on him.
âIâm going to have to kill her,â Rivi says sadly. I donât think Rivi will ever kill Isabel because we already did that with Bishop. Â
Iâm going to assume that Diane chooses to stay in basement prison instead of calling one of the many, MANY, MANY people she could call to get her out/take down Vinetta because she doesnât want the situation to be publicized or further deteriorate. That said, itâs really not clear why Diane just accepts being sentenced to basement prison with a cell phone. Â
Love the STRL man looking at that picture of Diane and HRC. Theyâve gotten so much mileage out of that photo. Â
Wacknerâs court has no rules, but at least since it has no rules, I canât complain about how its rules make no sense! Â
What is this, debate practice?! Ugggghhhhh I canât deal with this case for much longer. Â
Marissa takes a breath, then decides to pursue a strategy she knows could blow everything up.
âThen why care what Judge Wackner decides? Why should you defer to him? Why defer to anyone?â Cord says thatâs the pointâthe people have decided to trust Wackner. âSo if you donât like this courtâs decision, youâll just start a new one?â Marissa asks. âI guess,â Cord concedes. Â
âSo then why does this matter? This court?â âIt matters only insofar as we continue to agree that it matters,â Cord says. âSo if you donât like Judge Wacknerâs rulings, you can just ignore them and create a new court?â
Good point, Marissa. Good point. (Does this count as a thesis?)
âIâm guessing that I will like the way the judge decides,â Cord says. Well, thatâs basically a threat.
Wackner takes a break and heads to chambersâwithout Marissa. Â
Kurt goes to visit Diane in basement jail. Heâs granted a conjugal visit, which means Matteo gets moved up to the bedroom so Diane and Kurt can have some alone time.
Diane is staring at an image of Lake Como in her cell. I thought it was odd she brought a printout of her vacation destination with her, so I LOVED the line where she explains that Vinetta printed it out for her. COLD. (You know who also wouldâve done this if theyâd for some reason had a basement prison? Bree Van de Kamp. You know what show DID do a basement prison arc Iâd rather forget? Desperate Housewives!) Â
I love how Diane responds to basement prison by making jokes non-stop.
âI thought the craziness would end with 2020,â Diane says. Nope.
Kurt brought alcohol; Diane brought pot gummies. Â
I love that Kurt has never had pot before. I was going to say that I bet Dianeâs had a few experiences with recreational drugs when I remembered we had a whole damn season of Diane microdosing. Â
Christine and Garyâs acting and their chemistry really bring these basement prison scenes to life. The writing and directing are really sharp, but itâs the actors who make these scenes something special. You can tell Diane and Kurt love each other a lot. You can tell theyâre disappointed about their vacation and exhausted by the chaos of the day. You can tell theyâre in disbelief over this situation but also find it funny. Â
Didnât Rivi and Isabel have an adult daughter who died of COVID a few episodes ago? Weird she isnât mentioned in this scene. Maybe from a different marriage/relationship?
Isabel called the SAâs office because she thinks Riviâs a threat? I think this is a power play.
Heh, Carmen saying, âShut a black woman up!?â in disbelief in court. Love it. Â
Isabel instead flips her story and supports her husband and fights for his release. With no intervention from Plum Meadow, this gets the judge to free Rivi. I donât really understand whatâs happened here or why. I get the resolution, but I donât get why Isabel called the SA or why this went away so quickly. I still donât even get why Riviâs been arrested.
Diane and Kurt put up Christmas lights for ambiance and talk about how they never go on vacation.
âI wanna see the pyramids on this coast!â drunk & high Kurt insists, hilariously. âI mean hemisphere. I like the Aztecs. They, they care about people.â Iâm not going to transcribe the rest of the dialogue because it loses its magic when youâre not watching the scene. Â
After some fun banter about travel and movies, Diane changes the topic. âI should quit, shouldnât I? That judge upstairs? She looked at me like I was the most entitled white bitch on the planet. And thatâs the way they look at me at work.â
Kurt tries to say thatâs not true, but Diane knows it is: âYes they do. Iâm the top Karen. And why do I care? I mean, I... I could find another firm. I could quit. I canât impose my will on people who donât want me.â
YES. I see a lot of debate over what the ârightâ thing to do is here. But I think we are long past ârightâ and âwrong.â At a certain point, this stops being about absolute moral truths. If Diane doesnât have the respect of her partners and employees, that is a very real problem for the firm and for Diane. How can she continue to impose her will on a firm that doesnât want her, all the while claiming to be an ally? (The back half of that sentence is the most important part.) Forget whether or not Diane âshouldâ have to step down. Forget whatâs âfair.â If the non-Diane leadership of RL thinks the firm should be a black firm, and the employees of RL think so too, and Diane just doubles down on her white feminism, sheâs creating an even bigger problem for herself and ruining her reputation in the process. Â
Kurt stands up on the prison cot and warns Diane she might make a decision sheâll regret. This scene is so cute. Why canât other shows do drug trips where the characters just act silly and have great chemistry? Why does it always have to be some profound meditation on death whenever characters get high?
âI think I like starting over. I like the chutes and ladders of life. I mean, I want the corner office, but then I wanna slip back to the beginning and fight for the corner office. I mean, I think maybe itâs better that I donât get the top spot,â Diane says. LOVE to hear her admit this. Iâm not sure I wouldâve come to this conclusion on my own, and it sounds like itâs a bit more about how the writers like to write (you know, the âwe love our characters to always be underdogsâ) than Diane, but... you know what? I believe it. I fully believe it. Diane LOVES to fight, LOVES to feel like sheâs in the right, LOVES power plays and to be making progress. She LOVES winning. The fact that she isnât just choosing to retire right now, even though sheâs past retirement age and has a great reputation, is in itself enough for me to believe that she would find it fun to repeatedly start over.
Plus, itâs a fun new direction for the show to take in season six, because theyâll get the same sense of conflict without the actual conflict. This seasonâs arc was firm drama and resulted in a firm name change... but it didnât feel like a knock-off of Hitting the Fan. Diane trying to work her way back into power (I assume by becoming a better actual ally, otherwise doesnât she just end up in the same exact situation?) should also provide conflict without being repetitive.
Hahahahahaha Kurt immediately reacting to this serious statement by being incredibly silly and horny and then Diane singing âI Touch Myselfâ to him, man, I love these two. I want to know the story behind this song choice.
Wackner emerges from his chambers. The score is tied. Wackner calls Cord corrupt and notes that they canât just decide to call Downstate Illinois a new state based on his ruling. Now itâs thesis time!
âI was taken by Mr. Cordâs arguments of individualism. So much of our country has been built on people finding their own way, not being held back by bureaucracy. Yet, if we only follow individualism, that way lies chaos. And that was not the point of this court. Or at least not my point. Judgment for the defense. There will be no Downstate Illinois.â
âIf we only follow individualism, that way lies chaos.â is probably the clearest of the many theses of this episode. To recap, we have:
(1) Factions are bad. (2) People are persuadable and the rules donât actually matter. (3) Reality TV changes minds. (4) Institutions only exist when we collectively agree they exist (5) Individualism = chaos. Â
But letâs put a pin in this for now and let the chaos of individualism play out. Â
The crowd does not like Wacknerâs decision, and decides that an appropriate way to express their displeasure is to make anti-Semitic remarks towards Marissa and then start throwing chairs. What nice people. Â
As the crowd goes totally 1/6 on Wacknerâs court (thanks for pointing this out to me, RyanâI cannot believe I didnât make the connection myself!), the door slamming into the desk finally pays off since Marissa and Wackner are able to use it to keep the crowd from reaching them. Â
They immediately turn to the police, or they would, if they could get service. Iâm sure itâs not a coincidence that as soon as things get bad, they want to involve the existing system. Â
Wackner Rules is, somehow, still taping in the midst of all the chaos. I donât know if I think theyâd air this, but someone certainly would. (I wonder if any of the cameras we see in these scenes are actually the cameras filming the other angles of the riot.) Â
Cord shakes his head and walks out, unharmed. Â
âYou think theyâll kill us?â âI think they might,â Marissa and Wackner fret. Â
âMy dad said the whole world would be a better place if everybody realized they were in the minority. âNo matter where you are,â he said, âMake sure you keep an eye on the exits, and make sure youâre closer to the exit than the Cossacks are to the entrance.ââ Marissa says. Love Eli Gold coming through with thesis number 6 (and maybe thesis number 7). Â
âYour dad sounds a little paranoid,â Wackner says, correctly. Remember how I mentioned I accidentally wound up watching 5x22? Eli calls Alicia and responds to her hello with, âDISASTER!!!!â I miss him.
âHe was, but he wasnât wrong. He said, âStay away from parades. Theyâre cute until theyâre not. And donât trust any pope who was Hitler Youth.â âWhatâs that law called?â âGodwinâs Law. My dad said anybody who argued for Godwinâs Law has never been near an actual crowd. Crowds love you, they hug you. Then they grab a gun and try to kill you.â
âWhy? Why do they do that?â âI donât know. Hate is fun. Itâs clear-cut.â Â
I really like all of this. It is a little preachy, but it isnât wrong and itâs self-aware. And, more importantly, itâs in character. I absolutely believe that Marissa would tell lots of stories about Eli in a moment of extreme stress. Itâs nostalgic, probably comforting, and it also helps her feel like sheâs on the right side with the right arguments. So, even backed into a corner, sheâs still a winner: she has theory on her side. Â
Wackner speaks a foreign language (I do not know what language but I wish I did) and says, âA guy could get killed doing this,â which makes him and Marissa laugh as things crash around them.
Idk about you all, but I couldnât really get myself to actually worry about their safety during this scene. Maybe Wacknerâs, just a little, but I got the sense we were supposed to focus more on the chaos and destruction and monologuing than on the actual danger. Thatâs not to say the stakes didnât feel high, but rather to say that this didnât feel like an action sequence where you donât know whatâs going to happen next. The point was to watch the court fall and think about why it fell, not to worry about if Marissa would live. Â
Diane and Kurt are woken up by sirens and loud noises. The cops arrive and are shocked to find professionally dressed white people in a basement cell. They let Diane and Kurt out with compassion, but scream, âdonât you fucking moveâ to the people on the floor.
âItâs okay, they didnât do anything,â Diane says. This is, as I theorized earlier, probably why Diane just sits there until her punishment blows over instead of escalating things. Â
If the cops werenât there to free Diane, why were they there? Why, because they like David Cord and David Cord has gotten Chicago PD officers to protect Wacknerâs IP. Â
If I had to say one thing in favor of Vinetta being the originator of the community court idea, it would be that itâs SUCH a gut punch to watch Diane and Kurt walk away from their bizarre little adventure as Vinetta gets arrested in the background, and it hits ten times as hard if Vinettaâs only being charged because some white guy is claiming IP thatâs actually hers.
(I think Vinetta is probably, at this point, actually being arrested for imprisoning people illegally, but, still.)
âPfft. Some judge,â one of the cops who adores Wackner says of Vinetta. Racist much? Â
Marissa and Wackner emerge from the backroom. âI think I better get back to work,â she says, meaning her RL job. "Me too,â Wackner says, grabbing a Copy Coop apron. Heâs an employee of ten years. Â
I donât think this lands as well as itâs meant to. I think the point is supposed to be that Wacknerâs just some guyânot a billionaire, not an academic, not a judge, not a lawyerâwith an idea. But itâs a little too neat. And it doesnât explain how Wackner financed his court initially, nor does it explain why he has basically unlimited access to Copy Coop space and resources. Iâd buy it if he were the OWNER of Copy Coop, but I have so many questions about him being an employee. Â
Diane tells Liz sheâs actually going on vacation this time, and they laugh about how Kurt bonded with STRL.
âI want you and Allegra to be name partners. Iâll be an equity partner,â Diane says. âWhy?â Liz asks. âFive years ago, when I hit rock bottom, this firm took me in. So I donât like the idea of splitting this firm in two. And I canât lead if no one will follow.â âAnd your clients?â âWeâll manage them together.â YES! I love this. I donât love it because I necessarily think it had to go this way, but because itâs so refreshing to see Diane say that she actually is willing to take a step back because she cares about the firm and the people there more than she cares about being a name partner. This isnât something we usually see. When we hear âthis firm took x inâ itâs usually being said incredulously against someone whoâs decided to leave and steal clients (cough, Hitting the Fan, cough). Â
Itâs been pretty clear for most of this arc that Diane and Liz like working together and they like their firm, but that no one (other than Diane, I guess) is willing to let RL lose its status as a black firm, and that the employees and equity partners werenât going to be satisfied until Diane stepped down. Diane really had three options: Stay and piss everyone off and claim the whole firm for herself, quit and go somewhere else and totally abandon the good working dynamic she had, or step down and put her money where her mouth is. Â
Also yeah the clients were never actually going to be an issue! They were only an issue because Diane intentionally went about informing them she was stepping down in a way she knew would make them worry! Â
âI think I need to prove myself,â Diane says. Iâm not sure thatâs the key issue or that she can ever prove herself fully, but weâll worry about that next year.
âI missed you,â Liz says. âIâm here,â Diane replies. âI know. Thank you,â Liz says. Â
Diane decides sheâs going to move downstairs so Allegra can have her office. I think thereâs another office on this floor, since she, Adrian and Liz all had offices. This feels a little bit like Dianeâs in love with the idea of making things difficult for herself and maybe hasnât fully grasped the point, but, you know, Iâll take it. Â
Diane tells Kurt her decision and he asks if it was the right thing to do. She says she doesnât knowâbut she says it with a smile. Kurt notes heâs going hunting next month with the STRL folks and will put in a good word for her. Ah, yes, because STRL still controls all of this and all of this is moot! Thanks for the reminder Kurt! Diane says she wants in on the hunting trip. Of course. Â
And the elevator doors close. Remember how closing elevator doors was a motif earlier this season??? Itâs back!
Then we get a little coda with Wackner Rules airing a new episode thatâs just violence and destruction. This sequence seems to straddle the line between being there for thematic reasons for the viewers and there to show what happened in the showâs universe, but I think itâs main purpose is theme, so I will not go on a full rant questioning why Del would want to air this.
A white blonde lady in an apron watches the destruction of Wackner Rules. She looks concerned. âThat was violet,â she says with dismay. And then we see sheâs holding a guy in a jail cell in her kitchen. Â
And then we see other courts, as America the Beautiful plays. Oneâs in a garage debating kicking someone out of the neighborhood; another is across the street about the same case. Thereâs one in Oregon about secession. Thereâs one among Tiki Torch Nazis deciding only white people can own property. Thereâs (inexplicably) one about pronouns. Thereâs one with arm wrestling, one that happens while sky diving, and a bunch of others. Itâs pretty ridiculous, and not necessarily in a good way. It feels at once like the natural extension of the Wackner Rules show and like an over the top parody youâd see on another show. Tiki Torch Nazis screaming âonly white people can own property!â is the opposite of subtle writing. Tonally, this sequence feels more like the zany humor of Desperate Housewives or the insanity of BrainDead than anything TGF has done before (and TGFâs been plenty surreal), and it doesnât quite work for me. It feels like it is trying to prove a point in the corniest, most on the nose way possible. It almost feels like itâs parodying its own plotlines. Â
On my first watch, this ending for Wackner left me stumped. I knew the writers were making an argument against individualism (Wacknerâs speech + the repeated references to The Apprentice) and cults of personality. But I couldnât figure out a real life analogue to Wacknerâs court, and since this ending was so obviously trying to be About Something, that bugged me. Sure, that last sequence could be an argument against people making community courts, but WERE people making community courts? I didnât see the urgency.
And then I talked to @mimeparadox. And as soon as he said that it was about factions and people playing by their own sets of rules beyond the justice system, it clicked. Iâd been looking for Wacknerâs plot to be a commentary on the legal system. It is much broader than that. Itâs a commentary on the weakening of democratic systems (the Big Lie, etc.), more broadly, and Wackner and his common-sense approach are just a way to get liberal viewers to go along for the ride. Â
Now that I understand the point, or what I think is the point, I like this conclusion. Circumventing the system leads to chaos; thatâs why we have institutions and bureaucracy, and I think the show is arguing that these institutions should still be respected despite their flaws. The many theses of this episode all come together to make this point (though the reality TV stuff is a little more tenuous and I'm a little shocked we got through all of this without any commentary on social media?): If we stop having a shared belief in institutions and instead follow individual leaders (whom we may learn about through reality TV), the rules will stop mattering and weâll end up with a fractured country and widespread violence. Â
But, and maybe this is just about me being upset I missed both the obvious 1/6 parallels AND the point of the arc the first time through this episode (my defensive side feels the need to also note I first watched this episode at like 5 am when I was barely awake), I donât know that I actually think this episode does a great job of driving its point home. There are SO many moving pieces to the Wackner plot and SO many references. There are so many threads we never return to from earlier in the season, and thereâs so much that strains credulity (like Wackner taking Dr. Goat seriously for more than a split second). Itâs pretty clear what the themes areâeven though Iâm saying I missed the point my first time through, I've hit on all these themes separately in past recaps and postsâbut, I dunno, something about this episode just feels scattered. Maybe itâs all the moving pieces, maybe itâs all the moments where it sounds like the characters are voicing related ideas that donât quite snap together to form one coherent picture, or maybe itâs that Wacknerâs plot gets two endings (the actual ending + the coda) and itâs up to the viewer to put together how they relate.
I really donât know. At the end of the day, I think there was a little too much going on with Wackner and that the writers needed to use the episodes between the private prison reveal and the finale to narrowânot broadenâthe scope of what they were trying to do with Wackner. But I also think that what they were doing with Wackner was really, really smart and original. I donât think I can overstate how impressed I am that the writers took an idea that sounded, frankly, awful when I first heard about it and turned it into something captivating and insightful that I was happy to spend nine weeks watching. Â
Overall, a few bad episodes aside, I thought season five was the strongest season of TGF yet. I havenât seen this show be so focused in... well, maybe ever. Having two overarching plots that received consistent development and felt like they were happening in the same universe at the same time REALLY helps make season five feel like a coherent whole, and I canât wait to rewatch it. Â
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