(Season 5, Episodes 4-6)
The Scott Wallace ordeal mercifully comes to a close, albeit an unsatisfactory one. Three members of the firm reveal surprises to us, and Jimmy astonishes me tremendously by finally being a standup guy. And Richard Bay’s head looks set to explode!
5.4 “Appeal and Denial”
Continuing on the theme of judging your clients, Rebecca took the unusual approach of treating her own client as the guilty party in a case of a husband on trial for the attempted murder of his wife — Rebecca was defending the husband. Whether or not he was in fact abusive was something for her, at most, to potentially address after getting him off for the attempted murder. Treating him as if he were scum doesn’t go to serve anyone.
The Scott Wallace appeal parade continued, with an evidentiary hearing on the perjury charge. Richard was back on his heels and getting defensive. I’m actually not sure if he just couldn’t see how wrong he was, or if he was just trying to save his own neck. But I like when he gets smacked around.
Nevertheless, sanctions, suspension, or disbarment I expected — we got none of the above, and instead Scott Wallace had his conviction set aside and won a new trial. Television often forgets that the stars of a show don’t necessarily need to be the heroes of it. Meaning, Donnell and Associates don’t always have to win for us to come back each week.
We also learned that Lindsay was pregnant, after Lucy found a discarded pregnancy test in the bathroom garbage (who takes one of those at work?), and opened a package only to discover a pregnancy book. However, with neither Lindsay or Bobby having ordered the book or taken the test, there was another pregnant woman in the office … can you say Ellenor?
As an aside, I’m really enjoying Ellenor and Helen as a twosome. There’s something fun about them.
5.5 “We Hold These Truths…”
Paul Lewiston (Rene Auberjonois) alert! Here playing a ridiculous judge who liked to tell defendants tales about Ray Charles before sentencing them, Auberjonois was one of my favorite parts of Boston Legal. I was so disappointed when he left the show, and his brief return at the end actually made the finale less bitter.
His small role here also provided me with a tremendous image of Jimmy, yelling at this misguided jurist in defense of his client, a man whose sentencing lay inexplicably at the mercy of his ability to keep a straight face during one of the judge’s speeches. He may have been a bit harsh in the end, but I was really impressed with Jimmy. Nice job!
Eugene did another A+ job in court, this time being thrown onto a murder trial at the last minute in defense of a man who ended up being innocent. One of The Practice’s biggest strengths is Eugene Young; I’m not sure why he plays second fiddle so often. But why did he seem so rattled when he learned of his client’s innocence from Helen?
The prep for the new Scott Wallace trial continued, with some intimidation on Bobby’s part aimed at the perjuring brother of the victim. I think Bobby might need to learn some breathing exercises.
5.6 “Show and Tell”
This episode was a little puzzling as far as its format was concerned. It was done as a documentary shot by a news program, with the cameras following the participants in the Scott Wallace re-trial. But unlike the death row trial in season two that used a similar format, there was no explanation to all of this, no reason beyond the presumption of sensationalism to explain the interest in the case.
I did enjoy the “behind-the-scenes” interviews with both the participants as well as the rest of the lawyers at Donnell and Associates, and I loved watching Richard unravel in court and in his office. By the end he was berating the interviewer for judging him. That guy’s on the edge, and I reiterate my contention that he’s going to be a serial killer before his arc is up.
But a “not guilty” for Scott Wallace? There was reasonable doubt to his guilt, but also unreasonable doubt to how else to explain many of the victim’s injuries, if not for a second party inflicting them. Like I said above, they don’t always have to win for us to remember that the crew at Donnell and Associates are the stars.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Dec 24, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
