Will decides it’s time for Diane to leave the firm; Alicia and David Lee defend a surrogate mother’s right to bring her baby to term.
Recap:
We pick up right after Diane’s anti-Will interview with the Law Advocate. She goes straight to Will and tells him that she talked about his possible disbarment and the money he took from the client. After Will leaves her mid-conversation, Diane gets the message from Eli. Whoops, too late!
There are more interviews! This time, Peter and Alicia are taking lovely couple photos and begrudgingly answering questions about their living situation.
Jump with me to read more.
Mandy Post phones Will to fact-check her article; she wants to know if he has stolen any more money from clients. Will fires back at Diane and asks Kalinda to look into Diane’s old cases.
Alicia meets her clients Brian and Kathy and their surrogate, Tara, at Dr. Tuft’s office. The doctor informs them that there’s an 85% chance that the baby will be born with Pautau syndrome and will likely die within a year. Brian and Kathy decide that they want Tara to terminate the pregnancy, and they will cover the costs of the operation.
Peter wants Marilyn back because it doesn’t look good that he fired the best ethical consultant.
Will calls a quorum to get rid of Diane and appoints Alicia as part of the negotiating committee to make up her exit package. After that secret meeting, she goes to her next one with the fourth years. They’ve heard the rumor that Diane is being pushed out, and they want Alicia to confirm it.
Tara has decided that she doesn’t want to terminate the pregnancy; she feels the baby has a good chance of survival.
Alicia and Tara meet with Brian, Kathy, and their lawyer, Mr. Schmidt (Christian Borle). They’re suing Tara for breach of contract if she chooses not to go through with the abortion.
Will tells Diane it’s time to go.
Eli and Peter attempt to rehire Marilyn and set her up in Springfield, but she wants to be in Chicago, as close as possible to Peter. Hmmm.
Since Brian and Kathy have fired Alicia as counsel, Alicia takes on Tara’s case, pro-bono, and David Lee offers to be first chair.
First on the stand, Tara’s OB-GYN, who agrees that the fetus is viable. After Alicia’s done questioning the doc, Lee takes it further, asking about the amniocentesis, hinting that Dr. Tuft may have done a poor job. Lee intends to sue the hospital, and if they win, it will provide a possible $10 million payout.
The negotiating committee meets to put together an exit package for Diane. They sample Jonas Stern’s exit package, and most of them agree that she should settle for half of that. Alicia and Will are thinking that the package should be fair so that they’ll be able to keep Diane’s clients when she goes.
Back at the trial, Dr. Tuft is on the stand. He says that Tara’s fetus won’t be viable for another 48 hours. Lee cuts in again and asks about the malpractice suit. An argument ensues, and the judge silences everyone and determines that the fetus is inviable.
Diane rejects the offer, and Will offers Alicia the chance to replace Diane as managing partner. WHAT?!
Kathy is on the stand and explains why they added the option to terminate the pregnancy to the contract should the fetus have major developmental disabilities: their first child died six months after birth, and they didn’t want another child to go through that pain.
Marilyn is back and presents Eli with a conflict of interest. Barry Rovinski’s company owns the building that Alicia and her new law firm will be leasing. She suggests that they reconsider his candidacy.
Cary knows about the offer for managing partner and urges Alicia to refuse it. If Will only spoke to Alicia about it, then how exactly does he know?
The judge rules that a contract cannot force an abortion, moving opposing counsel to sue for breach of contract, this time because Tara didn’t perform up to par with other parts of the contract.
Robyn needs Kalinda’s help with looking into Dr. Tuft, but Kalinda isn’t too keen on helping those that are leaving the firm, until Robyn drops the ball and tells her that Alicia is leaving too.
Marilyn expresses her concerns about Rovinski to Peter, and they chat about literature.
Back in court, Tara is on the stand, and her risky sexual activity is brought to light.
During their recess, Peter comes to see Alicia and asks that they move up their vacation/renewal of their vows because he’s trying to forget how attracted he is to Marilyn he loves Alicia so much.
Mr. Schmidt approaches the judge, stating that Tara approached Kathy, offering to abort the child for $100,000. Tara doesn’t deny it, but all of that doesn’t matter now; Robyn found out that Dr. Tuft miscalculated the age of the fetus, and it is now viable.
Will and Alicia present Diane with her final offer for an exit package, and she refuses it. She wants appreciation, spelled M-O-N-E-Y, and won’t leave without a fuss unless she gets it.
After that tension-filled meeting, Alicia tells Cary that they have to leave, this week.
In other news:
Alicia finds out that Grace has been added to the Top 10 Hottest Politician’s Daughters, and she doesn’t like it. She mistakenly turns away Grace’s youth pastor, thinking that he’s some creep that found her through the site.
Review:
I loved this episode! We got to see David Lee in the courtroom, and WOW! We need more of that. I was shocked that Will would offer Alicia the opportunity to become managing partner…and even a little more stunned that she’d turn it down. Maybe she thought that she and Will would begin to hate each other like he and Diane. Though, I am pretty sure he’s not going to like her so much when she leaves and takes the firm’s clients with her!
– Lindsay
