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heyheyloki · 4 years

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No One Important

Summary: You’ve been by Shigaraki’s side since you both were little, you knew everything about him as he did you. When you get arrested, you’re questioned with how deep the relationship between the two of you go.

Shigaraki Tomura x M!Reader

Word Count: 2405

The room was cold, dimly lit. It was your worse nightmare come true. The one time you weren’t careful, the one single time, and now you end up here. In the custody of the police who caught you red handed. You knew you were going to be sent to jail, and while you kept a cool head about it on the outside, on the inside you were freaking. You were never fond of the idea of jail, hell, you don’t know if anyone really is. But jail wasn’t why you started to grip your hands harder together. The simple and short reason just came down to a person, and that person was Shigaraki Tomura. The leader of the League of Villains that have set a seed of fear within Japan itself.

Your body sat in a metal chair, your wrists cuffed to the metal table in front of you. Seriously, in times like these, you really wish you had Shigaraki’s decay quick. Sadly, yours won’t help get you out of this mess.

For some reason, you thought it would be hours before someone actually comes in to interrogate you. Although, when that single door opened, you were proved wrong. Another man, much older, walked in. His appearance itself was plan and had nothing noticeable about him, but you do remember his face since he was the officer that gave you a look that made you pissed off to your very core when they brought you in.

When he sat down, he just stared at you. You, staring back, held a look that the cop thought could only be held by a killer. It was dark, cold, and distant. One that surged with unbelievable darkness and would swallow anyone whole into an empty abyss if they looked long enough.

“I don’t think I need to tell you that no matter what, you will be heading off to jail.” He started out saying, even his voice average. “But, if you work with me, we can make you an offer.”

You scowled. “And here I thought the cops don’t work with people like me.”

“Well, if you have information we need, we’ll work with anyone.” He explained.

“Fucking hypocrites,” you uttered under your breath. It seriously took everything in your power not to start grinding your teeth since you knew he would take it as a sign of fear when it actuality, you were just pissed off beyond belief.

The cop took a minute of silence, collecting his thoughts before he opened up a tan colored folder, the contents stock piled with stuff about the League of Villains. It held a few theories in there, witness statements from UA students during the attack, and a statement from Izuku Midoryia. You knew him since Shigaraki couldn’t ever shut up about how much he hates the damned brat. You didn’t care much for kids.

“Your leader, Shigaraki Tomura, how long have you known him?” He asked.

Your lips remained closed as you eyed down the cop. Both of you knew that you wouldn’t start talking unless he had something over your head, and jail didn’t seem to be something effective enough. Though, in your mind, you were ready to screw up their investigation. It was the perfect opportunity in the more imperfect situation.

“A few years.” You lied, your words stern as you use one of your best skills.

The cop took a second to write that down on a new page in his folder, a page just for you. After all, you were the second more dangerous threat to them. First being Shigaraki.

“He recruited you? Or did you seek him out?” He questioned, his voice a bit more lighter than before.

“He sought me out.” You confessed. “I just so happened to have skills that weren’t being put to use and he was there.”

The cop nodded, writing it down. You thought he would just ask another simple question, but before he did he pulled out a picture from his folder. It was of Izuku Midoriya.

“Do you know him?”

“No.”

“Did you know Shigaraki was targeting him?”

“Not at all.”

You sat there, watching as the cop’s sights narrowed on your face. It was clear to you he knew something was wrong, but you seemed to genuine in not knowing much about the boy. You could tell it was messing with the cop which only made you to continue this game even more.

“Alright then, so it seems Shigaraki Tomura was a private person. Would you say that as well?” He questioned.

You couldn’t help but stare at the man for a moment, your brain kicking back to the first time Tomura truly opened up to you. During that time you felt like you were going to explode, in truth, it made you the happiest man in the world to know you could do something like that for him. Especially when you both started to drift apart as he got older, closing himself off from everyone, including you. Seriously, it took everything in you to not to cry when it happened.

“Yeah, he is.” You stated, the first truthful thing you’ve said this entire time.

“Alright then,” the cop started out, “did you have any part in the attack at UA High School?”

“Nah,” you hummed. “The boss made me stay at the base. I was not allowed to leave.”

“So, he’s controlling?”

“I guess,” you uttered as your mind left you. You could remember the look in his eyes when he told you to say behind. Normally, they were bloodshot and soaked in fear and hate. In that moment though, all you could saw was desire. Desire to keep you safe from whatever may happen while he went to go attack a well-known school. While he went to go kill All Might. He never confirmed anything to you until later in time when he confessed that he just wanted to keep you out of harms way. That he was more afraid of you getting captured by those bastard heroes than if it was him.

“I was more of an assist if needed, nothing more than a tool to use on smaller missions.” You tried to divert, making sure he didn’t see you pause.

“I see, so, basically his personal assassin?” He asked. Noticeably getting more comfortable around you since his hands were now down on his lap instead on perched up on the table in a dominate manner.

“Yeah, I suppose I was.” You verified.

“Than I guess you wouldn’t happen to know Shigaraki Tomura’s true name?” The cop questioned, eyeing you down.

You let a faint chuckle leave your lips. “He wouldn’t tell anyone.”

While that may be true now, you just happened to know since you both grew up together. You were with him through everything and anything, promising to stick by his side to the bitter end. And you supposed, this was going to be the end on your side. Jail wasn’t exactly the kindest towards people like you. Sure, you could defend yourself? But for how long until something truly horrid happens to your in a place like that.

“I see,” he uttered before digging through his folder once more. Quick to place a picture of Shigaraki on the table top in front of you. When you looked down at it you tired your best not to let even the most faint smile creep up on you, knowing that if you did, the cop would figure it out.

He pointed to Shigaraki’s real hands before saying, “Do you know what that’s from? What does it mean to him?”

Around Shigaraki’s wrist was a burn mark, the size of your hand. In truth, he had a lot of them planted along his body, some intentional, some not. That one just happened to be an unintentional one that happened when you both were young and you had no control over your quirk. He used to always bother you when it came to those, but other time he started to pester you less. You thought he had just accepted the burn, but in truth, he just happened to grow fond of it.

“Well, I mean, it’s a burn.” You said in a deadpanned tone. You didn’t know why he was asking such a question when it was obvious what it was.

“I know, but the hand print,” the cop started out by saying, “who’s hand print is it? Who caused that burn?”

“No one that I know of. It was probably during a fight he had before I ended up joining.” You were lying right through your teeth, and you would do it over and over again if it meant he was safe. Even at the cost of your own head.

“Ah, I guess I just wasted my time with that one.” The man stated to himself before putting the picture away. In your mind, you truly wished he didn’t.

The cop sighed. “Now, we don’t have much on you. But, I’d like to ask you a question anyway.”

You nodded. “Okay.”

“I want to see if you know anyone named, uh, let’s see here,” he hummed as he flipped through his notes. “An [Name]? Does it ring any bells? Has Shigaraki ever mentioned it before?”

Oh, yeah, he has. Many times in many different ways. He loved the way your named flowed out, hell, he adored it so much he couldn’t even call you by your codename at times. He would just spit it out at the base, when you were both alone. You knew he struggled a bit when you both were out on a mission or in public, but he did try because he didn’t want you to get captured. It was odd to you how they got a hold of your true name, but that wouldn’t be a mystery for long.

“The boy who was attacked by Shigaraki, Midoriya, when your leader approached him at the mall a while back he mentioned his name several times. Has he ever said it around the base before? Is it one of the other members?” He revealed.

You knew Shigaraki had that habit. Part of you wanted to be mad, angry even for not telling you that happened, but you couldn’t even if you tried.

“He has, but it’s not anyone at base. None of us know that guy.” You simply put. In the back of your head, even if you did rat yourself out, you knew they would use you as a bargaining chip with Shigaraki. That reason alone made your belief that all these bastards were sick and corrupt even stronger.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since you did say he was a private person.” The cop stated, his little act good until he said, “Except what he said doesn’t aline with your statement.”

“That so?” You questioned. You couldn’t break under pressure, it’s exactly what they want. You swore you would die before you ever let someone like this have the upper-hand in things. “What did he say than?”

The cop eyed you down, looking for even the smallest bit of sweat to graze your skin. When he didn’t see any, he complied with your request and read quote for quote, “When it comes down to it, I hate basically everything. But the Hero Killer pisses me off the most right now, hell, he even hurt [Name]. I don’t know if he’s native or just so cocky that he thinks he can get away with that.”

The man gazed up at you, wondering if your neutral expression changed at all. It didn’t. In that moment, you were willing to do anything to just have him continue, even mask your happiness.

“When another UA student showed up, Shigaraki made up the ruse that he was a fan of Midoryia after seeing him on TV during the Sport’s Festival. Since he had his hood on, no one could tell it was the leader of the League. Just as he was about to leave though he said,” the cop stated as he cleared his throat, “Oh, you were here with a friend? I didn’t know, sorry about that. I should probably get going too. [Name] will get mad if I don’t show up on time, he’s very picky like that.”

The man sighed as he closed the folder, moving it to the side a bit. He leaned back into his chair before huffing out, “We originally thought that name was just someone close to him, or maybe even just to throw us off our investigative course. But based on several of your statements and the burn marks, I’m starting to believe it’s someone a little more than just a person he trusts.”

“Is that so?” You questioned.

“It is. You stated before he was private, so perhaps you had no idea. But at the same time you stated that it was no one at your base, even though the Hero Killer was a member of the League and supposedly hurt [Name] in some kind of fight or a falling out.” The cop explained. “Now, if Shigaraki is such a private person, it’s hard for me to believe that [Name] wouldn’t be someone who works very closely with him.”

You knew it was game over. You were close, but not perfect enough to pass this level in the game. When the cop placed his hand back on the table, you knew it was really game over. “So, mind telling me who Shigaraki is to [Name]?”

In your mind it raced over so many different points in your life that you shared with Shigaraki. The fights, the late nights, the mid-day talks, everything. Though, the most vivid one was the day he expressed such love to you in a way that words could never describe. You remembered the way his blue locks obeyed gravity, invading his sweaty and memorized face as he gazed down at you. You remember the feel of tears in the corners of your eyes, not daring to fall. His hand soon coming up to your face and wiping it away with his thumb, careful not to hurt you with his quirk.

You sighed, your gaze hard on the cop as you felt the protective walls you had up start to fall. You needed to say it quickly or else he wouldn’t believe you. You couldn’t hurt Shigaraki more than you probably already have just by being caught. Perhaps he would come for you, but in the end you just needed to tell one more lie. One more lie before you reveal the truth to Shigaraki and only him alone.

“No one important.”

#shigaraki #shigaraki x male reader #shigaraki x reader #tomura shigaraki x reader #tomura shigaraki x male reader #my hero academy fanfiction #my hero fanfic #my hero academia x male reader #my hero academia x reader

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dweetwise · 4 years

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A cute Ace x fem reader where they play hide and seek during a trial

i don’t think i’ve ever written a request this fast but hey, strike while the iron is hot and all that! it’s a little dumb and a whole lot of fluff but i hope you enjoy <3 (disclaimer: i don’t actually play immersed in dbd pls don’t mori me)

word count: 2543

Ace X f!reader: Hide and Seek

“You want to do it now?”

You glance up from rummaging through your offerings to look at Ace. He's smiling wide and there's a mischievous glint in his eyes, kind of like whenever he tries to get one of the others to play poker with him—oh, right. You’d made a bet a few days ago.

“The killers are so blind!” Ace had laughed when you both managed to escape another trial, you without even taking a hit. The others sometimes made jokes about your sneakiness, claiming your ‘blending’ abilities were rivaled only by Claudette. This particular trial, the Pig had been visibly annoyed, completely ignoring Ace after the last gen got done and only focused on finding you, muttering something about ‘losing her fourth stack’. “I run into you several times each trial. You’re not that hard to find,” Ace continued, taking a good-natured jab at your skill to stay out of sight. “Because I don't actually try to hide from you?” you argued, raising an eyebrow. “Wouldn't find me if I did,” you added, challenging. And you should have known Ace never backed down from a challenge. “Wanna bet?” the man grinned. “You manage to avoid me an entire trial, you win." “Oh, you're on.”

It took a while for the opportunity to present itself, as you'd been thrown into trials either separately or with some of your more serious teammates. You're pretty sure Laurie would have kicked your asses for slacking off, and you didn't want to set a bad example for the new girl, Cheryl.

But now, you're waiting by the pre-trial campfire for the Entity to pick which killer it wants to torture you with, taking in the sight of a yawning Quentin and a grinning Nea loading her flashlight with batteries like it was a lethal weapon. You figure this opportunity is as good as any.

“Hey, guys,” you start, getting the duo’s attention. “You mind if we fuck—" ‘Around this trial’ would have been the rest of your sentence, but Nea interrupts you by bursting into laughter and Quentin makes a disgusted face. "Oh my fucking god,” Quentin visibly cringes, glaring at Ace. “Keep it in your pants, dude.” “If you would let the lovely lady finish,” Ace starts with a smirk. “She was about to ask if we can use the trial to settle a bet.” “With hide and seek,” you add before they get any more lewd ideas. “Go nuts,” Nea quips and Quentin just shrugs with a “Whatever”.

You return your attention to the task of choosing an offering, settling for a reagent to increase the mist. When you go to throw it into the fire, you see Ace fiddling around with something, his back turned to you.

“Are you bringing bond!?” you squawk, grabbing his hand and yanking his sleeve up to display the familiar aura-reading twine wrapped around his wrist. "No, no! These are… bracelets! All the rage, back in my day—” Ace hurries to explain, gesturing animatedly with his other hand. The movement causes some cards to fall out of his sleeve. “And open-handed!?” you demand, hands on your hips. “Oh my, how did those get there?” Ace feigns ignorance, kicking the cards under a log. You bite back a laugh at his cheating antics, at this point knowing better than to expect him to play fair. “Guess that means you're scared of losing,” you say, a smirk pulling at your lips as an idea forms in your head. Predictably, Ace immediately perks up, taking the bait. “In your dreams, princess,” he says, puffing up his chest. “How about we raise the stakes? No perks.” You hesitate for a moment. Spine chill and urban evasion have saved your ass on countless occasions, but since you were only going to be hiding from Ace and not the killer… how hard could it be? “Deal.” When you fade back to consciousness, you’re standing by the Thompson house. You’ve spawned right by a generator, but instead of getting to work, you make your way towards one of the outside walls of the trial, crouching down to hide with a good view of two of the closest generators.

Soon enough, you see Ace make his way over to the machine you were just by, pushing through the corn and glancing around. Not seeing anything, he seems to frown before kneeling down to start his repairs. You snicker to yourself and start sneaking to the other generator, keeping an eye on Ace the entire time.

Halfway through your repairs, you hear Nea’s pained scream of taking a hit somewhere within the trial. It seems like she’s keeping the killer busy.

As soon as you hear Ace’s generator pop, you duck down and start making your way along the trial wall. You flatten yourself against a tree when you see Ace approaching, before he disappears into the pallet gym your nearly finished generator is at. With the wall blocking the crucial line of sight, you seize the opportunity to bolt away, the sound of your footsteps drowned out by the machine. You hear him opening a locker and scoff at the action; like you’d make such an amateur mistake.

Another gen pops, apparently Quentin’s handiwork, while you cut through the cornfield. You run into Nea, being chased through the corn, and quickly dive out of the way and crouch in a row of stalks as the killer—the Wraith, good to know—follows, not far behind her. Predictably, he doesn’t see you.

By the time you get to your destination, the second story of the house, Ace has gotten your generator done and Nea has been hooked and unhooked. The killer is once again chasing her, and from your vantage point you can even see her repeatedly clicking the flashlight in the Wraith’s face while looping the cow tree.

The generator on the balcony hasn’t even been started, but you’re waiting for Ace and Quentin to finish theirs first, working on a machine together in the corn right below the balcony.

Ace’s back is turned to you and he keeps glancing around, trying in vain to spot you in the field. Damn, if you'd only brought diversion into the trial, you would have thrown a pebble at him to confuse him further. Feeling cocky, you lean over the railing and wave down at the two instead. You see Quentin glancing your way with a smirk, before looking back at the generator.

“You need some glasses, old man,” you hear Quentin snark. “Huh?” Ace says, getting his wires crossed and making the machine explode as he whips his head around to look at the house, but you’ve already ducked down safely behind your generator. You wait for the duo to finish their repairs and disappear in the direction of the shack before starting the generator in the house.

When your generator pops and the exits gates get powered, Nea is just about to be death hooked, and hearing her final scream, you feel a little bad when you make your way to a corner of the map instead of pressuring an exit gate. But soon enough, you spot Ace running to the house to try to catch you leaving after your repairs, proving your hunch was correct—he’s so predictable, bless his heart. A little while later, you see him come out of the house and look around in confusion, but then you hear Quentin’s pained scream and Ace seems to sigh and utter a curse before running in the direction of a gate.

You try to find the hatch but have no luck, and then you hear a screech as one of the massive gates slides open, followed by Quentin’s wail as he finally goes down. You spot his prone aura by the shack, before it disappears into thin air; huh, guess he managed to crawl out.

Now knowing which gate is open, you start walking to the other, a little on edge not knowing where the killer is after losing his last prey.

To your surprise, Ace is pulling on the other exit gate’s lever, effectively ruining your plans. You start making your way back towards the shack, taking a detour to avoid the killer's patrol route between the gates.

You're a little nervous Ace is going to get found, taking an unnecessary risk in getting both gates open. If he gets caught, you're throwing your little game and saving him, the bet be damned. Though it's not going to be easy, with Nea dead and Quentin out and neither of you having any perks. Even though you’ve known the entire time you were both likely to die from this dumb game, thinking about Ace getting hurt still makes you uneasy.

Exit gate now in sight, you carefully look around for any signs of the killer. The Wraith could just be standing still in the exit, completely invisible to the naked eye. Even if he was there, you could just run out and take a hit in the back before escaping, as you know from Quentin’s chase he doesn't have NOED. Still, you'd rather not get injured at all.

There's no telling shimmer in the gate, so you decide to just go for it. You walk into the structure, and nothing happens. You're nearly out when you hesitate, turning to look back into the trial; what if the Wraith has found Ace? What if he comes out of nowhere, grabbing Ace off of the exit gate lever since neither of you has spine chill and—

There's footsteps right next to you and you try to whip around, but then someone is grabbing you from behind and your heart leaps into your throat as you let out a startled yelp—

“Gotcha,” Ace's voice whispers in your ear. The relief floods over your body even as you shove at him playfully, making him let go of you with a chuckle. “Fuck you! You scared the shit out of me!” you argue even while your face is splitting into a grin. “You're not the only one who can be sneaky, doll,” Ace quips, returning your grin with a self-satisfied smirk. “What are you even doing here? I saw you at the other gate!" “Ah, the old bait and switch," Ace chuckles. “I wanted to get both gates for you, so you didn’t have to risk the killer finding you. And then it was only a matter of luck! A classic 50/50,” he grins.

Damnit, what a stupid and dangerous and— …Kind of romantic… —and unnecessary and idiotic stunt!

“Get over here,” you say, yanking him closer by his shirt. “I missed you,” you mumble softly, hands wrapping around his neck as the surprise makes way for familiar affection. “I missed you too, sweetheart,” he says, eyes softening and a hand wrapping around your waist, the other coming up to cup your cheek. “I missed seeing this cute little face,” he says, pecking your nose sweetly. “You avoiding me wasn't nearly as fun as I'd imagined,” he jokes, but there's a tinge of uncertainty in his voice. “If it makes you feel better, I basically stalked you the entire time,” you murmur, leaning your forehead against his and a hand scratching at the baby hairs on his neck. “Though I almost threw a rock at you at one point.” He chuckles at the confession, a warm puff of air in the space between you. “Can't take your eyes off of me, eh?" he grins. “Not when you're being so oblivious and adorable,” you murmur. “Well, I clearly underestimated you," he admits, and is that a little blush you can see on his cheeks? “Likewise,” you smile. “So, what do you want for your prize?” “Oh I'll think of something, don't you worry,” he wags his eyebrows suggestively and you roll your eyes from the corny gesture. “But here's your consolation prize,” he says, finally leaning down to capture your waiting lips.

You eagerly respond to the kiss, moving your lips against his while your heart flutters from the affection, even moaning a little when Ace pulls you even closer against him. It’s all so familiar; the scratching of his goatee, the way he playfully nips at your lip, the scent of his cheap cologne lingering even after all these years stuck in the realm. You don't even mind losing the bet, not when you get to be in his arms and kiss him silly.

But then Ace is suddenly pulling away, lifting his head up to look back into the trial over the top of your head.

“I think we have an audience,” Ace says and you glance over your shoulder, his arms still around you.

There's a slight shimmer just beside the exit gate where the Wraith seems to jolt from surprise. A small pause later the familiar bell rings, and then you have an embarrassed killer in front of you, looking at the ground and sheepishly scratching the back of his neck. You just stare at him stupidly, a little ashamed over being caught making out in the exit. How long has he been standing there?

“Hey bud, thanks for letting us goof off this match,” Ace is thankfully speaking so you don't have to, but the words manage to confuse you. Was the Wraith in on it? You genuinely thought you'd been able to hide from the killer the entire time, especially since he was so focused on Nea.

The Wraith looks up bashfully, nodding his head and shuffling his feet. Then he pauses, points at you and then Ace, and makes a heart shape with his hands. Ace huffs out a surprised laugh while you blink owlishly, and the killer hurries to leave, ringing his bell and the sound of his footsteps scurrying away from the exit.

“Looks like we have a fan,” Ace muses, turning to look at you again. You smile up at him and you’re just about to lean back in for another kiss, when a realization hits you.

How did Ace know the killer was there? You saw him take off spine chill before the trial, and he hadn't even flinched like the perk usually makes you do when the killer is looking at you. Unless…

“Did you bring premonition!?” you realize, and now Ace does flinch a little from being caught off guard. “So, err, remember when you said some perks are so bad they shouldn't even be considered perks—” Ace hurries to make excuses. “You little shit!” you exclaim in mock offense. “You cheated! No prize for you!” “Aww,” Ace whines and honest to god pouts. “Fair enough. Damn, and I only did it to keep you safe… oh well, still worth it,” he mumbles defeatedly, mostly to himself. “Ugh, fine, get back here,” you grumble, pulling him into another kiss to stop him from moping because it's breaking your heart.

When Ace just chuckles against your lips, you realize you've been played. Instead of snarking at him some more, you take advantage of his open mouth to shove your tongue down his throat and relish in the way his laugh turns into a needy groan.

And next time you're bringing the pebble, rules be damned.

#dbd headcanons #ace visconti #dbd fanfic #ace visconti x reader #dbd #dead by daylight #dweetwrites #request

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florrickandassociates · 7 years

Text

TGF Thoughts: 1x05-- Stoppable: Requiem for an Airdate

1x05 thoughts under the cut.

This is big, guys: the first five word title in The Good history.

Did I accidentally press play on an episode of Law & Order? Obviously I didn’t, but TGF isn’t even trying to disguise the inspiration for this week’s case. It’s very clearly about Unstoppable, an unaired episode of SVU starring Gary Cole (yes, Kurt McVeigh) as a Trump-like figure. It’s so clearly about L&O that they’ve used the same font and titled the TGF episode “Stoppable: Requiem for an Airdate.”

In this episode, the COTW explores what it would be like if there were a suit brought against an episode’s writer who leaked the full episode online when the network refused to air it. Julius Cain sees this as confirmation the firm is “anti-Trump.” Adrian believes this is a first amendment issue because, he believes, political pressure is the reason the episode has been postponed. I believe that argument (though I think it would be hard to prove) but I’m not sure how applicable it is to the network suing a writer for distributing copyright material.

“Simple matter of fact, you voted for the man,” Adrian retorts when Julius tries to argue against him. Adrian, you’re going to need a stronger argument than that for court. Also, didn’t you promise Julius you would not treat him differently because of how he voted, and that you wouldn’t tell others? I’m sure word’s gotten around, but a little discretion, Adrian?

Diane walks in late and Lucca explains the case to her. The writer is an acquaintance of hers, and he works on “one of those Chicago shows.” They’re deciding if they want to take it.

Ugh Julius.

“Have you listened to anything the man said?” Adrian asks when Julius tries to defend 45 on the particulars. Thank you, Adrian.

Julius tries the “if it was Obama or Clinton…” retort. Nah, DON’T EVEN. This devolves into overlapping political rants as Barbara tries to get the men to calm down and Lucca quietly explains the case to Diane.

The lawyers have trouble coming up with an actual argument to use against the network. Diane suggests fair use, which seems weird to me because, in my very limited knowledge of legal things relating to copyright law, that’s what people talk about when they make gifsets and fan videos, not when they upload full length episodes. But I will set this aside, because 1) I don’t actually know anything about the law, and 2) The important thing here is that Diane is contributing to the conversation, reminding us all that she’s a good lawyer.

Barbara calls Adrian outside. “Adrian. Why are we doing this?” she wants to know. This is yet another one of those moments where Adrian’s leadership style rubs me the wrong way. He always seems to be making decisions without Barbara, and then catching her up to speed as though none of her concerns are valid and she needs to have everything explained to her. Barbara shouldn’t have to ask the question “Why are we doing this?” as frequently as she does. If they’re partners, she shouldn’t ever be asking that question in this context.

Adrian’s explanation is that he wants to get his foot in the door with all the Chicago TV productions (of which TGF, of course, is not one). I don’t like that he has to explain it to Barbara, but I like this explanation… and for once, it actually feels like the show is kinda sorta tuned in to things happening in Chicago.

Barbara accepts this explanation and changes the topic to Diane’s capital contribution, which they still haven’t received. “Hey, can that wait a week?” Adrian asks. You mean a week on top of the several weeks real time it’s already been? “Not if we want to be consistent,” Barbara replies.

“Okay, I need you to do it,” Adrian says. Oh? “How come I always have to do all the dirty work and you get to go and have fun in court?” Barbara wonders. Good question. Also, how come Adrian gets to assign tasks? “’Cause you’re so good at the dirty work,” Adrian answers. “I hate when you disguise curses as compliments,” Barbara says. I like that line. I don’t like that she’s still saddled with having to do what Adrian says, especially since every discussion between these two tends to end this way.

Kresteva arrives at RBK. He’s looking for Maia, and he wants to discuss the fake news. Yesha is there, which means either Kresteva waited around long enough for Yesha to get to RBK or Yesha was already there talking to Maia. If it’s the latter, again, I ask: DOES MAIA EVER ACTUALLY HAVE WORK TO DO?

“This article is completely false. It is untrue,” Maia insists. Kresteva won’t believe that it’s false, because someone in the article said they sold her jewelry. “Did you try calling the store?” Maia wants to know. This is logical. Who cares what someone said? Wouldn’t there be, you know, a receipt? Some kind of record? Surveillance footage? Kresteva makes me so mad.

“I just don’t understand how this article could get so much wrong,” Kresteva says. Yes, Mike, and I don’t understand how the novel I’m reading right now is about people who never actually existed. It boggles the mind.

“It makes up stories to encourage clickbait,” Yesha says of Fake News, which seems like a weird use of the word clickbait. The stories are made up to encourage clicks, not to encourage clickbait.

Kresteva has more evidence: the story is on 12 other sites, some of which are well-respected. “How do you account for that?” Kresteva asks. Ooh! Pick me! I know! I know! It’s one of two answers: 1) The legit news sources offered proper context for the allegations and said they could not confirm them or 2) The legit news sources only reported on this because the writers needed to say they did (Fake News is a real problem, but to my knowledge, Real News outlets reporting Fake News as fact is not as much of a problem). I guess there’s always a third option, that Maia did go on a spending spree, but I doubt that.

Like, I really don’t think a legit news source would think a fake story is fun and then run it without a disclaimer that it’s probably fake? The main problem with legit news sources in this day and age seems to be how they frame facts and what makes the front page (THE EMAILS, YOU GUYS, THE EMAILS) and what doesn’t.

But even Kresteva knows the jewelry story is fake: once Maia’s agitated enough, he asks her about a different story: one about her visiting her father in prison. Yesha chimes in to say she was there for that meeting; nothing happened. But Kresteva’s ahead of her, somehow (he shouldn’t be, since we know Yesha has a Maia Chumhum Alert!), and he means the other two visits. Yesha denies it, but Maia has to stop her, and Kresteva knows he has something.

And, as much as I hate Kresteva and his smirk and his lies, this was entirely predictable. You don’t have to be a Kresteva-level super villain to question Maia about something risky and likely illegal that she did without covering her tracks well. Hell, there’s probably security camera footage of Maia with the Schtup List! Sorry, Maia. I hate to let Kresteva be right, but… yeah.

Diane observes Kresteva leaving his meeting with Maia, and Marissa observes Diane observing Kresteva. “What’s wrong?” Marissa asks. She also says that “Mrs. Kolstad wants to see you now.” And, yes, Marissa said “Mrs.” Did Sarah slip up, or is Barbara married?!

“Are we in trouble?” Marissa asks. “Because I need this job.” Before I can even think anything snarky about how Marissa could probably charm/network her way into a different assistant job pretty easily, Diane sarcastically replies, “Oh, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“We’ve had to make a difficult decision here,” Barbara begins. “Uh oh,” Diane says. “That’s what we tell associates when we release them.” You’re on the right track, Diane.

Barbara levels with Diane about the capital contribution, and Diane says she understands. If they don’t get the contribution in a week, Diane will have to be “of counsel” which means (I had to look it up because, shockingly, seven seasons of TGW didn’t teach me everything I could ever need to know about the law!) that she’d be affiliated with the firm but not an associate or a partner.

Diane accepts this too, and then warns Barbara they should get a lawyer for the firm because Kresteva’s questioning Maia.

Yesha asks Maia why she went to see her father. GOOD QUESTION. Maia explains the Schtup List.

“So you do know, by doing this, by helping your father, you’ve implicated yourself in wrongdoing?” Yesha asks. I FUCKING HOPE MAIA DOES, BECAUSE I KNOW THAT AND I AM NOT A LAWYER.

“He’s my father. What could I do?” Maia asks. I am sympathetic. But you could, like, not implicate yourself. Why would your dad ask you to implicate yourself for his benefit? Why would he need Maia to get the information? Why wouldn’t his own attorney’s investigator be looking into this?

“You can keep yourself out of jail,” Yesha says, which is more of a warning than an answer. The stakes have changed. Maia’s not looking at bad publicity that makes her look like a spoiled rich girl. She’s looking at jail time now.

I’m starting to have a Maia problem, show! I like the idea of Maia—a privileged young woman who’s gone through life without ever having to worry about making big choices or being able to provide for herself who’s suddenly faced with a scandal that destroys everything she thought she knew about the world, her parents, and the things she’s taken for granted. I like the way Rose Leslie plays Maia. I like Maia’s relationship with Amy (a lot, and I need it to come back on screen soon). What I don’t like is the execution of Maia’s plots. Outside of the first two episodes, where she had scenes with Amy (again, #BringAmyBack), Maia doesn’t seem to have an interior life. She doesn’t like being harassed—okay, but who does? That thread needs to be pushed farther. What is the harassment doing to her? Are her friends calling her up, wondering if all the bad things are true? Is the harassment feeding into the self-doubt she’s experiencing as a result of having her world turned upside-down? Is it making it hard for her to concentrate at work? There are so, so many ways the show could go deeper here.

Instead, we just see the surface. We see that there’s a lot of harassment and fake news, but not how Maia takes it. We see that she’s not working (no, I’m not letting go of this) but we don’t see any plots about why someone in her situation might, understandably, have trouble focusing. We see her getting involved in conspiracy drama a lot, but we rarely see her questioning her parents (y’all, we shouldn’t need to see Lenore fucking her brother-in-law and Henry implicating Maia in the scandal to understand why Maia might mistrust them). We see her sitting in the office, but we don’t see anything about what it’s like to be a 25 year old who’s been in school for as long as she can remember finally entering the workplace in her first job. We see that she and Diane work in the same place, but, outside of Inauguration and that scene in The Schtup List where Diane encourages Maia to talk to her mom, we don’t see Diane mentoring her and we don’t see how they interact.

The writing for Maia is just not there. And that makes me sad, because it’s like the writers aren’t even trying. There are no botched attempts at deepening her character—no, the attempts we’ve seen are actually quite good! The problem is there are very few attempts at all! How can a show that’s so good at characterizations so consistently miss the mark with Maia, and during the episodes where it counts the most?! Maia is always off in her own world, involved in a conspiracy I’ve known about for less than a month and am already tired of, and… why?

(I think I said this last week, but omg, PLEASE PUT MAIA ON A CASE ALREADY. COTWs are wonderful things, structurally, because they necessitate character interactions. Have Maia do some research for Lucca. Or have her in court, observing and offering her recommendations when appropriate. Literally anything that gets her feeling like part of the show and not like a girl who’s never faced consequences continuing to behave like she will never face consequences.)

(I don’t believe that’s necessarily how they’re trying to portray Maia. That’s just what I think the writers run the risk of by having Maia never actually working.)

Kresteva meets with Henry Rindell. Boy, that police brutality task force sure has a wide scope.

The woman representing the network in the COTW is someone that I suspect will become a recurring character if this show runs for longer than these first ten episodes. She feels both pleasant and aggressive. Her name is Amber Wood Lutz.

And the judge is someone who has apparently been in four episodes of TGW, but aside from thinking he looks vaguely familiar, I don’t have any impression of him.

Diane is considering downsizing her apartment again in order to get her capital contribution together. (Doesn’t she only have a week? She can’t sell her apartment in a week, can she?)

Someone’s there to see Diane: It’s Kurt!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Marissa offers to stay and take notes. Heh.

“She’s… chatty,” Kurt remarks after Marissa leaves. “She is that, “Diane replies. Diane doesn’t quite know what to say to Kurt, but she looks happy to see him. I really hope these two can work it out, because they’re so good together.

“You called?” Kurt reminds her. Diane denies it, but Kurt saw the call “last night.” Wait, that call towards the end of 1x04 was the day before 1x05? (I’m really bad at not nitpicking the timeline.)

Diane calls it an accidental dial, but we know the truth. (Last week, I wondered why Diane hung up after only letting it ring once. Guess that was intentional after all!)

Kurt’s there to ask a favor: he’s giving a speech to the police association and wants Diane to take a look at it. Couples revising speeches/pieces of writing is apparently something I am very, very into so this request makes me happy.

Kurt leaves Diane a gift, which she opens, curiously. It’s a gun, and I think she likes it.

Case stuff happens. Amber makes the point about fair use being about brief excerpts. Thanks, Amber!

Now they have a co-exec producer on the stand and there must be some inside jokes going on here. It somehow devolves into writer dude and co-exec producer dude screaming at each other about Yale and Princeton. I’m amused. Especially by the fact that the judge agrees that he hates Yale. For a second, I thought he must be the Harvard judge from 4x02, but he’s not.

Fair use doesn’t work, but Adrian isn’t ready to give up.

The next scene is simply bizarre. Adrian, Barbara, Diane, and Lucca (I guess because they’re ones Kresteva is targeting) interview a lawyer. It’s some white dude who rambles a lot, and then begins to rap??? I’m not sure what’s going on or why it is happening or what the hand gestures accompanying it are, but I’m here for the confused/stunned/trying not to laugh reactions it receives.

It’s Lucca who decides they should call Elsbeth. This is weird, as Lucca has not (as far as I can recall) ever dealt with Elsbeth and Diane has used Elsbeth to help several times. But, whatever.

At the restaurant where the interview takes place (which they’ve filmed at several times), Diane runs into Neil Gross. He calls her over. She asks how he’s doing. “Harried, angry, worried,” he replies. Diane tries to make conversation, but Neil keeps cutting her off—he likes the sound of his own voice; he likes seeming like a friendly guy but ultimately just talking about himself. He is interested in Diane’s firm because it’s all African-American.

Neil whispers to Diane that he’s looking for a “fighter” and wants to come to her firm. This feels very planned out, no? He happens to know where she works and happens to show up at the same restaurant?

Elsbeth is working on her own again, and now she’s rented office space in a children’s dentist’s office. We don’t know it’s Elsbeth at this point, but it couldn’t be anyone else.

Elsbeth still has the same laptop with the foam flower stickers that she’s had since season 1. Does that thing still work? Adrian finds this incredibly weird, which, fair.

And then Elsbeth appears! She greets Lucca like they’ve met before, which I’m 99% sure they haven’t. Elsbeth mentions that she’s been in the hospital, and that there was disagreement over whether or not she was sick. I just rewatched her first scene in 7x15 (skimming through for Elsbeth/Lucca scenes) and she mentions high blood pressure there—a connection?

Then she remembers to greet Adrian, and by greet I mean she says, “God, you’re tall” and while looking surprised.

I love Elsbeth.

“Our firm needs a lawyer, and Alicia once gave me a piece of advice,” Lucca begins. Elsbeth looks so delighted to hear Alicia’s name that it makes me smile even more than hearing Alicia mentioned usually does. Though Lucca is offering Elsbeth a compliment—Alicia’s advice is to hire Elsbeth when you’re in trouble—Elsbeth doesn’t respond to the compliment and instead responds to the mention of Alicia. “Alicia Florrick? I like Alicia. How is she?” Elsbeth asks.

But, TGF is determined to withhold that information. To that point: At the mention of Alicia, Elsbeth’s Alexa-like robot, Ada, begins to play Alicia Keys, interrupting our shot at hearing more about Alicia Florrick.

This moment made me cry when I watched it this morning. Yes—it made me cry. I knew TGF wasn’t going to give us updates on how/what Alicia’s doing, and I also know that’s exactly the approach I want it to take. But what I didn’t anticipate was that Alicia would be referenced multiple times in almost every episode and alluded to frequently. And I certainly didn’t realize that every time there’s a suggestion of an Alicia reference, I would move just a little closer to the screen, clinging to the hope that I’d find out just a little more about my all-time fave.

That’s why this scene hit me as hard as it did: when Elsbeth asked how Alicia was doing, I wanted to know, too. I was even a little hopeful we’d get something and nervous it wouldn’t be an answer I wanted. But before I could fully process my excitement, Ada began to play Alicia Keys. It was unexpected and funny, but it also took me out of the show. On the one hand, it’s Elsbeth quirk. On the other hand, it’s the show clearly maneuvering so that it doesn’t have to answer questions about Alicia. Ada playing Alicia Keys is reminiscent of the car horn that blares just as a witness is about to swear on the stand or the title credits in 5x10 coming in before Robyn can finish saying “holy shit.” It’s censorship on a show that’s uncensored. And it’s entirely self-imposed. Maybe I’ll be wrong about this, but my takeaway from this gag was that nudity’s fine now, the f-bomb can be dropped freely, and cases can be more overtly political: the only thing forbidden is sharing more of Alicia Florrick’s story.

And that’s why I cried, just a little. Because the set-up of this joke made me want more and then the punchline reminded me I can’t have it. And even though I know that’s for the best, I’m still sad.

I may also have cried from laughing at the absurdity.

Fantasia is still Elsbeth’s assistant—yay! I would love to meet Fantasia.

Elsbeth makes me happy.

Maia heads home; her dad’s been released on bail following his meeting with Kresteva. Maia asks why they changed their mind on bail. Henry replies with a lie—that he doesn’t know. Yeah, right.

I don’t know why Lenore is dressed the way she is, but alrighty then.

Henry says it feels like nothing’s happened now that he’s back home. Sure?

Maia says she can’t stay for pizza, she has to get back to Amy. This made think we would get to see Amy in this episode. Sadly, no.

Lenore steps away to answer a call, and Maia seizes the opportunity to tell her dad about her mom’s affair with Jax. Henry doesn’t seem to mind/understand fully. I would love to know what Maia’s relationship with her parents was like before the scandal. Did she always take her dad’s side?

Diane is looking at her lovely house in France again, and at the 1.5 million euro price tag. She then switches over to browsing cheap apartments in Chicago, and Diane, girl, whatever your search terms are, if that’s all you can find, THEY ARE THE WRONG ONES. There is a studio that doesn’t have a full kitchen for $1,500 a month, a room in a cluttered apartment with no furniture that’s $1,800 a month, a black and white picture of an apartment that boasts that it has “freshly painted walls” for $2,000 a month, and other options that are even worse. “Not happening,” Diane says. No, of course it’s not. I don’t know what kind of budget she’d be on after selling her apartment (I assume she owns) but I can’t imagine it would be so strict she’d need to live in a shitty studio that’s $2,000 a month. Try a different neighborhood, maybe?

Diane remembers she has to look at Kurt’s speech. It only takes a few lines before she realizes they’re going to need to talk this through. By the time Kurt arrives, the speech is covered in red marks, most of which say some variation of “SIMPLIFY!”

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Diane reassures Kurt as she pours him a glass of wine. Diane explains her changes are all focused on one point: that the speech is too technical. She reminds him he’s able to explain himself well on the stand. What I love about this scene is its specificity. Not only is it a wonderful display of how Kurt and Diane interact—Diane is comfortable challenging Kurt’s opinions; Kurt is a bit obstinate but ultimately able to incorporate Diane’s feedback because he trusts her—but it’s also written in a way that makes sense given the strengths of the characters. Kurt knows how to describe the specifics with the precision required of a ballistics expert. Diane knows how to identify the main theme of a document, simplify it, and spin it into a story—because that’s what she does as a lawyer. And, not only does she know how to rewrite it, she knows how to work with Kurt, like she would if he were a witness, to get him to be the one to rewrite it. It’s collaborative, reminds the audience where both of the characters strengths lie, feels true to the personalities of both characters as well as the relationship they have, and we get to hear enough of the speech that it’s convincing—and apparent—that Diane and Kurt have significantly improved it by working together.

Case stuff happens. Network lawyer Amber ends up saying “fuck you” as she leaves a “settlement talk.” How professional.

Case stuff happens.

Elsbeth is creeping on Kresteva in a diner. Have I mentioned yet that I love Elsbeth? Whatever issues I had with overuse of Elsbeth or the shtick getting tired in the last few seasons have totally disappeared. I! LOVE! ELSBETH!

Case stuff happens and they go after someone important. Also, Colin appears to watch Lucca and he makes silly faces at her. Lucca gives him the finger behind her back, which makes me wonder if anyone sitting in the gallery behind her noticed.

After court, Amber warns Adrian that his strategy about going into entertainment won’t work if he’s going to embarrass important people in the business.

Meanwhile, Colin compliments Lucca and advises her not to be sarcastic in court. “This is so helpful, being graded, thank you,” she says sarcastically. “I think we have a sarcasm problem here,” he replies. Heh.

Colin tells Lucca he tried to get Kresteva not to go after her firm. Lucca just walks away. Colin calls her out on not thanking him, but Lucca explains that things have gotten worse and Kresteva’s still coming after them. Colin is not happy about this.

The TV writer is really pleased that Lucca was awesome in court, the kind of awesome you only see on lawyer shows. Not that we’re watching a lawyer show, or anything.

Adrian’s thinking about settling now, even though everything’s going well. He’s worried about what Amber said.

Meanwhile, Diane spots Marissa chatting with Neil Gross. Of course Marissa is chatting with Neil Gross. If Marissa was comfortable making small talk with Colin Sweeney, of course she’d be comfortable talking to Neil Gross.

“Look at this place! A real African-American law firm,” Neil Gross observes, sounding like he’s looking at a museum exhibit or something. LOOK AT ALL THE CUTE LITTLE MINORITIES, HERE FOR ME THE RICH WHITE MAN TO APPRECIATE! Ugh.

“Everywhere you look,” he adds. Um, just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you can talk about people like that. Marissa unhelpfully but hilariously points out that everyone involved in the current conversation is white. Funny, that. Gross reaches out to the one white lawyer (okay, the one white lawyer who actually does work, NOPE NOT LETTING THIS GO UNTIL THE WRITERS GIVE MAIA WORK TO DO) at the firm when what he’s looking for is diversity. How about that.

Gross likes Marissa and wants her to stay and take notes. I bet he doesn’t meet many people that act like that around him.

Neil Gross uses the word fight five times in this scene—and once in the earlier scene at the restaurant. He says it so many times I was wondering if he’d say “Keep on fighting the good fight” at some point. Anyway, he likes that RBK is fighting against the network in court. So, turns out they weren’t auditioning for the entertainment biz after all. Unfortunately for Diane, Neil is saying this just as Lucca and Adrian are advising the client to stop fighting the network. Diane rushes to stop that conversation.

Elsbeth sits down with Yesha and Maia. Yesha insists that some of Maia’s issues are only Maia’s, to which Elsbeth says, “then she should quit the firm, because her issues are hurting the firm’s interests.” Thanks, Elsbeth! I don’t think Maia quitting would get the firm out of this mess—from what I can tell, Kresteva’s strategy is “go after RBK for anything under the sun until they stop taking police brutality cases and word gets out what the DOJ can do to you if try to go into that business”—but I’m a little surprised Maia hasn’t offered to quit. Maia’s scandal is bringing all sorts of trouble to the people who were kind enough to take her on and it’s jeopardizing the business they’ve put their lives into developing. I don’t know how badly she needs this job (for financial reasons or for her mental health—hey show, if you showed her working you could show that it was a constructive escape for her, just a thought) but it’s almost weird to me she doesn’t feel guilty about the position she’s putting others in. Maybe that’ll come later? Or maybe she’s just having trouble believing she could be that much of a liability? Or maybe that kind of obliviousness is part of her entitlement.

Alternatively, what does it say about me that my first thought in this situation would probably be, “I need to offer to quit immediately”? Maybe I’m the strange one here.

“Why is your dad out on bail?” Elsbeth asks Maia. Maia doesn’t know. Maia tells Elsbeth about the Schtup List. Elsbeth’s next question is if any of the names are connected to the firm. They’re not—Maia already looked them all up (smart! Credit where credit is due—Maia’s first thought was to look up the names and that’s also where Elsbeth’s mind went. If you’re on the same page as Elsbeth that has to be a good thing).

Elsbeth compliments Maia’s lipstick in the middle of a sentence. It really is a nice lipstick. That color looks fantastic on Maia, and it’s just bright enough that I can understand why Elsbeth likes it so much.

As Maia explains that her lipstick is either Dior or Chanel, Elsbeth pieces it together: the names on the list aren’t the connection to RBK—Maia is. She downloaded the list and implicated herself. The only catch, Elsbeth reasons, is that that would “require your father turning on you, and wouldn’t turn on you, would he?” Maia isn’t sure. Arrrrgh. As I said before, I hate that Maia is in the wrong here, because she’s just trying to deal with family drama and it’s unfortunate that these very normal trust issues are playing out in the public and with lawyers involved… but she is in the wrong and did make her choices.

After Elsbeth leaves—after cautioning Maia to be suspicious of her dad—Maia looks upset and Yesha looks like she wants to say something. She decides against it.

It’s time for Kurt’s speech! He has, indeed, taken Diane’s advice. And, even better—Diane shows up to support him! He does a good job and his delivery is great. Diane looks on from backstage, proud. Once the speech is over, Diane compliments Kurt. He kisses her; she kisses back.

Fortunately for Maia, her dad has not turned on her. He still asked her to implicate herself, but he hasn’t given up her name to Kresteva. How do I know this? Because Kresteva says so in a vague, blink-and-you miss it line as he arrives home for the day. “Rindell’s still reluctant to give up her name.” And then, after a response we can’t hear: “No, just a more aggressive posture.” So, sounds like Kresteva cares about the Schtup List and causing panic at RBK than actually getting Henry to turn on Maia. But it also sounds like he strongly suspects that Maia is how Henry got his hands on the list.

So, fun fact about Kresteva’s house: It was once Jonas Stern’s house. I doubt it’s supposed to be that way in-universe, but it’s definitely the same one When Alicia, Will, and Diane went to after Stern died. I recognize the Frank Lloyd Wright inspired décor. (This also makes the show feel more like Chicago than usual.)

Kresteva arrives home to find his wife drinking and chatting with Elsbeth. They just happened to hit it off at Trader Joe’s when Elsbeth introduced herself as a “friend from work.” And now Elsbeth has all sorts of access to Kresteva’s personal life. But access isn’t the point: Elsbeth is showing Kresteva she’s not afraid, that she can make things personal too, and that she’s a step ahead of him.

Well, access might be the point too, since she’s been in Kresteva’s study.

And she left her business card on his desk (she calls her place of work “The Tascioni Firm”) so there’s no way he could possibly miss that she could have had access.

“Stay for dinner,” insists Deirdre Kresteva, who is currently drinking wine and eating ice cream out of the carton. You mean to tell me they haven’t eaten yet?

Mike walks Elsbeth out and threatens to have her disbarred. But Elsbeth doesn’t take uncalculated risks like that: she has something on him.

And, if you need proof that Elsbeth is the best ever (and that she’s perfectly suited to go up against Kresteva), she got an audio recording of Kresteva threatening her, which means he can’t lie about it! FINALLY. I wish everyone could say, “Yes, you did” and whip out an audio recording when Kresteva starts with his bullshit.

Kresteva calls it an illegal recording, and Elsbeth says it’s not because it’s used to contradict a lie. I’m pretty sure that of the three times we’ve seen Elsbeth make recordings, she’s cited three different reasons why it’s legal, but I don’t really care because I’m so excited about someone being able to refute Kresteva’s bullshit alternative facts.

In court, Adrian is now clearly auditioning for Neil Gross. This involves some hyperbolic comparisons that don’t impress the judge.

But the speech doesn’t matter. 45 tweeted about the case, and now it’s a First Amendment case. This is an important case for the show to have its characters win. It sends a clear message: it’s possible to fight back and win. (And the show is practicing what it preaches by being overtly political.)

Amber is pissed about her loss and tells Adrian it won’t help his business. Lucca wonders if that’s accurate—seems Adrian hasn’t looped her in on the Chumhum thing.

Lucca and Colin are having milkshakes, as promised. Colin asks Lucca to tell him about herself. He says he’s shared everything about himself and his family, but knows very little about Lucca. “There is nothing about me,” she replies. Nope, no way that’s true.

“Are your parents happy that you’re a lawyer?” Colin asks. “I guess,” Lucca replies. Colin complains that the conversation feels like a cross-examination. He has to ask if her parents are still alive, she’s that reluctant to share! (They are.)

He asks who her best friend is. Her reply is curiously phrased: “I don’t have a friend.” She doesn’t say she doesn’t have a best friend, and she doesn’t say that she doesn’t have friends (which would be the responses I’d expect). She says she doesn’t have “a friend.” I don’t know where I’m going with this; I just found her use of the singular “friend” weird.

And she repeats it, because Colin doesn’t believe her and makes her say it again!

Colin doesn’t believe her, and starts staring at her oddly. “What? Please don’t say you’re gonna save me,” Lucca teases. “No, I’m gonna kiss you,” Colin replies. “Okay,” she says as he leans in.

“Then I’m gonna save you,” he jokes. Heh. I can’t say I’m interested in Colin or learning more about him, but I don’t dislike him. My only fear about his character is that he’ll share the bulk of Lucca’s non-work related screentime, but that has very little to do with Colin as a character. And, I like that he has a personality outside of “Lucca’s love interest.”

They end up making out against a car, and the alarm goes off. They don’t care.

Cut to a really creepy shot of Lucca kissing Colin in bed. It took me a second to figure out what this was an image of (I must’ve had my screen on low brightness).

She decides to share some information about her life. To be more specific, she decides to share her feelings about her friendship with Alicia. “I had a best friend,” she begins. “Who?” Colin asks. “A co-worker,” Lucca replies. “He or she?” “She.” “Had? She’s not a friend anymore?”

“I think she is,” Lucca states. An odd thing happened when I watched this scene: I realized that the only part of TGF that’s actively harmed by Alicia’s absence is Lucca’s personal life. That’s not to say that Alicia needs to come back in order for Lucca to be complete or that this isn’t the right strategy—I trust that as Lucca and the show both get distance from Alicia, this will become much less of a problem, and it’s not a big enough issue to warrant an appearance from Alicia.

But, seeing how important to Lucca her friendship with Alicia was confirms something that many doubted in season 7: that Lucca didn’t just exist to be Alicia’s new friend without any interior life or problems of her own. Most of the discussion I saw about Lucca last year revolved around whether or not she was the “New Kalinda,” and it drove me crazy. Yes, Lucca was added to the cast because the show needed Alicia to have a female friend to talk to, and yes, she joined the show right after Archie left. But that was never all there was to Lucca. It’s just what dominated the discussion about her.

Watching Lucca in TGF feels like a counterpoint to those arguments. I’ve always thought Lucca’s friendship with Alicia was as much about Lucca as it was about Alicia (my 7x13 discussion of the laundry room breakdown scene makes this point), and I’m happy to see that TGF is embracing that aspect of the relationship. Nothing Lucca’s saying here feels new to me, and that’s fantastic. She’s mentioned before that she doesn’t have friends (she specifically says this in 7x13), and her loyalty to Alicia in season 7 suggested that she doesn’t take friendship lightly. It would be weird if Alicia’s absence didn’t affect Lucca, so I’m happy to give the show a little bit of leeway here. If the show has to be vague about Alicia’s whereabouts in order to develop Lucca without reopening The Education of Alicia Florrick, fine. I get why the writers would want to take that approach.

“I don’t make friends easily,” Lucca explains. “Why not?” Colin asks. “I don’t like to get hurt,” Lucca says. Lucca’s answer explains something I’ve been wondering about. Lucca is a friendly, nice person. She’ll stick up for others and offer her help. She has a social circle. She’s comfortable talking to people she doesn’t know, and she’s good at banter and small talk. Why, I wondered, doesn’t she have friends? It’s only after watching this scene that it clicked: being friendly and having friends are different things. And there’s a difference between being someone people would want to be friends with and actually being friends with people. I was missing the fact that Lucca intentionally maintains distance. (I know I keep going back to that 7x13 scene, but really: the certainty with which Lucca insists Alicia commit to their friendship is important. “I mean, do you have a ring or anything? I’ll commit,” she says. How fucking huge was that, for both Alicia and Lucca?!)

I don’t know what to make of “I don’t like to get hurt.” I don’t take that line to be about Alicia, since Lucca does say she thinks they’re still friends (maybe Alicia’s traveling and hard to reach?) and since Lucca’s reluctance to form friendships predates her first meeting with Alicia, so what’s she referring to? Is this a fear or did something bad happen? If so, what was it? Actually—I care less about what it was and more about when it was. Middle school? High school? College? After that? Did a friend actively hurt her, or was it a different type of pain? Some sort of loss? A best friend who moved? A friend who drifted away just when Lucca needed her to be there the most?

“You afraid I’m gonna hurt you?” Colin wonders. “No, I don’t get hurt by boys,” Lucca explains.

If we do have to sit through most of Lucca’s personal life screentime being shared by Colin, at least they’re using it to develop other elements of Lucca’s character, too.

Diane is looking at more real estate postings, and I feel the need to share that her search terms are even worse than I thought, since one of the places she’s looking at is in UPSTATE NEW YORK. It says it’s a 1.5 hour commute to the city, but I don’t think that means Chicago…

Kurt spent the night at Diane’s! He notices the moving boxes. Diane tells him she’s looking for a change. She doesn’t explain the financial constraints she’s under, but he can sense that she’s not packing up because she just decided to. He offers to let her move in with him.

She declines the offer. “It’s my problem,” she explains. Kurt accepts that answer and kisses her goodbye. As much as I’d love for Diane and Kurt to make it work, I’m glad they’re not moving in together out of desperation. They need to keep working through their issues, and I’m pleased (but not surprised) to see that Diane doesn’t want to rely on anyone to get her out of her current situation.

Diane shows up at work with an update on Chumhum. They’re going to get Neil Gross and his $58 million a year. Adrian wants to know if there’s a caveat, and there is. With a smile on her face, Diane explains that there’s a small one. “I like this firm a lot. I think it’s got a great future. But in good conscience, I can’t encourage Neil Gross to come here if I’m only of counsel.” I’m 100% with Diane on this one. Adrian, Julius, and Barbara want to postpone that discussion, but this makes complete sense to me. Why should Diane bother to bring in a $58 million/year client if she’s not going to have any equity in the firm? Out of the goodness of her heart?

It’s Diane’s next request I’m more skeptical of. She asks to be made a name partner. I have three very contradictory thoughts about this. The first is that Diane is not being unreasonable; she is a huge name, she’s landed a gigantic account, and shouldn’t be a junior partner in the first place. The second is that despite this, Diane makes this power play with little concern for the culture of the firm that took her in when no one else would. It’s the lack of awareness that concerns me more than the request. I take no issue with her wanting her old status back and wanting a seat at the table. I just wonder what kind of tone this will set for the firm, going forward, now that Diane’s suddenly gone from a junior partner with a moderate amount of influence to a name partner. As a junior partner, she’s already hired two white people without giving that a second thought; what kinds of decisions will she make as a name partner? Is she aware of how her presence on the masthead will change public perception of the firm? Does she care? The third thought is just that this is so fast. I was hoping to see more than five episodes’ worth of Diane fighting to stay afloat and adjusting to that lack of power. I was particularly hoping to see more plots about her interactions with Barbara, and while those plots won’t go away if she becomes a name partner, they’ll be different than what I was hoping for.

Adrian says they’ll have to check with the full partnership, but the answer is yes. I’ll believe this is really happening and there’s no last minute catch when I see Diane’s name on the wall and not a second earlier. Tbh, with this show’s track record, I might not even believe it then.

“She’s gonna be trouble,” Barbara says as Diane exits. Indeed.

#The Good Fight

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