Reviews @ PXDCO

Is this the part where I burst into song? So you know my favorite things are musical numbers? Nothing makes me happier than people bursting into song and spontaneously dancing, whether or not anyone else can hear the music. I think that is the genius behind this show. Also, God.

Wethersby and Stone are losing clients to Posner and Klein, and no one's quite sure how it's happening. Jordan's people meet with the big clients, think they've hooked them good, and next thing, they're signing with P&K. They've got a leak, and no one that can be fixed with a tampon. Taylor claims to be all over it, but she and Matt squabble (because he doesn't know she's pregnant and it makes things weird when he says things he doesn't know are offensive and she's saying things she won't explain and offending him). Matt eventually discovers the leak, who only boarded ship with Jordan and Eli because he didn't get an offer with P&K, so now he's trying to finagle his way in. But rather than share the news himself, he points Maggie in the right direction and lets her share the news. She and Eli have an awkward, eighteenth-century-romance-novel meeting of unspoken longing and pining, but they are much more interesting together when they're not in each other's faces for every case. They both agree that they "miss things."

The other subplot of note? Patti enlists Keith to help her daughter, Angela, fight a DUI charge. Patti tells him that Angela had a single glass of wine, that's all.(She's also a med student dependent on financial aid, so this isn't exactly a great thing to have on her record.) Keith wants noooo part of this, given that Patti is a mother bear like none other. Which is exactly how she bullies him into it, but Keith doesn't grump much, since pretty Angela sends his head spinning. The man's jaw literally drops. Keith's able to finesse Angela out of the charge, having uncovered some sexual harrassment on the part of the cop who pulled Angela over. Keith takes her to dinner to celebrate, but after their date, he learns from the DA who dropped the charge that Angela tested positive for cocaine. Can't wait to see him try to tell Patti.

The case of the week is a client that Eli is hell-bent on landing, Jim Cooper. Cooper's son (played by LJ from Prison Break, playing another Junior and looking milky-eyed and sad as is his forte) has MS, and Cooper wants to grow pot for a clinical trial aimed at his son's age group. Eli's excited about this because a) Cooper is "the greatest humanitarian of our time," b) it will raise morale, and c) signing Cooper will send all the other big clients running back to Wethersby and Stone. Just as Eli's plotting a way to get to Cooper before the other firm, he has a vision of all the Cooper case files going up in flames.

Eli and Jordan sneak up on Cooper at his son JJ's swim meet. JJ's in remission and a strong swimmer, hoping to qualify for Olympic trials. His dad is all business about the case: he wants a strategy that will win. Eli proposes suing the government for holding a monopoly on pot production, since they're the only ones with legal sanctions to grow it for DEA trials. Cooper loves this. I, myself, love Stephen Culp. Of course, as soon as they secure Cooper and Eli starts celebrating, he turns straight into an AWESOME VISION. You guys, there are Fosse-style dancers with FLAMING BATONS. Also swinging a flaming baton? JORDAN. The girls, they dance around him in sync, surrounded by fire, while Victor Garber sings Croce's "You Don't Mess Around With Jim." It's not quite "Father Figure," but my pretty hell, it's so good I want to eat it with a spoon.

The boys and Cooper meet with the DEA, who is less than sympathetic and toeing the company line of "pot is a gateway to other drugs." Cooper doesn't want to waste time, given that a single attack could have lasting damage on his son. His tunnel vision on this is a result of his wife's early death from complications due to MS.

Sidenote: The show never comes out and fully says that MS is not fatal, but my research shows that largely, it's not. Which is not to say that it's not debilitating, because it certainly can be and complications can be fatal. My grandmother died as a result of complications from MS, and while there are other family members who have the disease, it's also not hereditary. You can have a genetic predisposition to it, but it's not something you can necessarily inherit. The show never really comes out and says either, but it's implied. Not that this show has never played fast and loose with the facts before.

Anyway. Eli tells JJ that he's going to do everything he can to secure the clincal trial, and JJ juuust avoids rolling his eyes in Eli's face. Eli then steps directly into another vision–the third so far–wherein the elevator he's riding falls. When he exits, he finds himself in Cooper's laboratories, which are voing up in flames. Eli dives out of the way and comes to only to find JJ, Cooper, and Jordan smirking at him.

So Eli finally goes to see Chen, who can't believe he's ignored three separate visions and waited this long to come to him. How much clearer can "Don't Mess Around with Jim" be? Eli doesn't understand, since he's never had a vision turn him away from a case, and since helping find a cure for MS can only be a good thing. Chen's like, ours is not to ignore the will of God. Except he's way more laid back and dude about it. Eli grouses about not a puppet of the universe.

In court, he battles over the semantics over pot-related MS studies, which have excluded teens because no one wants willingly to hand over the doobie to high schoolers. Eli argues that MS doesn't discriminate against age, so neither should the government. Later, however, JJ tells Eli that if he takes part in the study, he'll never be eligible for Olympic pre-trials, and this boy loves to swim. He says it's the only part of his life that's still his, since everything in his life has to be his dad's way. The only time JJ doesn't have his dad's voice in his head is when he's underwater. Eli asks him if he wants the clinical trial, and JJ says no. Cooper knows, but he doesn't care what JJ wants and doesn't listen. Eli asks if maybe Cooper just wants what's best for JJ, and JJ answers that he wouldn't say that if he really knew Cooper. He tells Eli that if he wants to win for his dad, fine, but don't win for him, since he never asked for Eli's help.

Cooper gives a heartfelt testimony that includes the lie that JJ's willing to give up swimming for the clinical trial. Eli's like, remember you're on the record. He's trying pretty hard to avoid Cooper perjuring himself on the stand, but also pissing Jordan off. They recess, and Eli repeats everything that JJ told him, without the part about how his dad is a controling mind-warper. JJ looks ready to piss his pants. Cooper dismisses the kid and reams out Eli for talking to JJ behind his back and putting ideas in his head. Eli tries to speak for JJ, but Cooper tells him that he hired the firm to win, not to parent. He then threatens to pull his donations from Nate's hospital: if Eli's messing with his family, he'll mess with Eli's. And with that, he takes off. Eli thinks they should drop him, but Jordan overrules him: they're working for people with business practices of first do no harm, not people with shiny halos.

Eli gives a closing that argues the facts of the case–the legal constraints or lack thereof–that would be true even if Jim Cooper weren't the world's biggest dick. No, that's really what he says. And, to the absolute and obvious panic on JJ's face, he wins. Eli makes one last plea for Cooper to let JJ make his own decision and tells JJ to tell his dad what he told Eli. But JJ folds, because this is his dad he's facing, and there are some things 16-year-old children–or the children of parents, no matter their age–struggle with when it comes to their parents.

The upshot of it all is that the firm is doing better, getting clients, and springing for the good bagels. Eli tells the leak, a guy named Rudy, that he has to believe in the cases and the work. He thinks he can do that. Jordan tells Eli that he was very gracious and apologizes for not giving him the same benefit of the doubt.

Post-win brews with Chen. Eli's like, the Big Man and I, our relationship is evolving. Maybe I was right, maybe some good will come of this study. Chen says that God tried to tell Eli something and he ignored it. Eli asks what happens if that's true. Chen's like, let us consult our Biblical history! Chen is a dude I'd like to party with.

JJ visits Eli at home, and Eli admits that it's hard to stand up to a parent, and to Cooper. JJ says that no one's ever stood up to him before. Eli says it helps that Cooper isn't his dad. JJ wishes he weren't his dad and then lays this on Eli: "I want to be emancipated. I don't want to be his son anymore." He wants to take his dad to court, and he wants Eli to be his lawyer. He doesn't want to live in his dad's house, talk to him, or have anything to do with him. "Will you help me, Mr. Stone?"