Eli Stone: They Sing, They Dance, They Litigate

Eli Stone was once a normal corporate lawyer until he heard the music.  That is, he heard (and saw) George Michael, who delivered him divine messages set to bouncing 80s hits.  In last year’s finale he saved San Francisco when he had a vision of an Earthquake that destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge and a nearby community.  But a corporate lawyer and a prophet?  Who’d have thought that the two could exist in one body?  As someone who used to work at a law firm, not I.  But ABC’s quirky dramedy manages to combine the law, the lord, and a lot of singing and dancing into a surprisingly entertaining and smart hour of television.

For its second season, Eli (Jonny Lee Miller at his very best) returns to work at evil San Francisco law firm Wethersby Posner & Klein after recovering from a surgery in which he had his hallucination-causing aneurysm removed.  So he’s seeing a shrink, played by Sigourney Weaver, who’s determining whether he’s fit to practice law and helping him deal with the absence of music in his aneurysm-free life.  But Eli’s having a hard time dealing with the loss of his gift of prophecy.  He even imagines he has his gift back, which results in a fabulous opening scene where Eli’s secretary Patti (Loretta Devine) leads a group of singing and dancing folk down Market Street.  Think Austin Powers’ opening scene except that Loretta Devine sure can sing and Jonny Lee Miller can dance (who knew?).  But daydreams aside, the loss of Eli’s visions is having real effects on the people he loves most.

The most immediately affected is Eli’s brother, Dr. Nate (cutie-pie Matt Letscher), who has his very first vision as he goes to see a patient.  Suddenly he’s not in his office, but in a bank, and a crane is crashing down about to kill them all.  Poor Nate!  Not only does he think he’s going crazy – or just stressing over moving in with his girlfriend – but his visions are sorely lacking in the musical department.  No Other Member of WHAM!?  No singing cast members?  Nope, just cranes and death.

The vision also spells trouble for another cast member: senior partner Jordan Wethersby (Victor Garber).  Jordan was in the bank, deciding not to re-sign the evil mortgage-lenders (how appropriate!) when the crane comes crashing down on Credit Dauphine just as Nate predicted.  Understandably Nate shows up at Eli’s office freaking out, and Eli takes him to his personal faith guru, Dr. Chen (James Saito).  Dr. Chen puts a needle in Nate’s forehead and bam: he’s back in the boardroom with Jordan and evil bankers.  But what’s that now?  Jordan didn’t take the elevator and instead took the stairs, meaning the search and rescue team is looking in the wrong place.  So it’s off to court to get an injunction to get the rescue team looking in the stairs!

However, Jordan’s daughter, Taylor Wethersby (Natasha Henstridge), who also happens to be a lawyer at the firm and Eli’s ex-fiancée, isn’t thrilled with Eli’s attempts to “save” her father.  How can she believe Eli if he doesn’t seem to really believe in his visions himself?  (Probably because it wasn’t his, but I guess that’s besides the point).  Truth be told, it’s never quite clear why Taylor is so mad at Eli.  Her anger at him is pretty irrational, but since her father’s buried under rubble and her ex is claiming to have divine knowledge as to how to save him … oh, I think I get it now.

Anyway, Taylor grabs her snarky boy toy of the moment, Matt Dowd (Sam Jaeger), and Eli snatches up his wide-eyed ingénue Maggie (a superior Julie Gonzalo) and they head to court.  But then Nate has a seizure.  It turns out that Nate may have an aneurysm – they’re hereditary you know.  And Eli finds out he can’t really be in court because he hasn’t been deemed fit.  But didn’t his shrink Sigourney Weaver sign his “permission slip” yesterday?  Eli looks at the slip and it’s blank.  Something fishy’s going on here.

After seeing a distraught Nate safely to the hospital, Eli returns to his shrink’s office to find out it’s been vacated for 3 months – exactly the amount of time he’s been seeing Shrink Sigourney.  But who should appear just as he turns his back on the vacant office: mystery nameless shrink!  As it happens, she’s not a shrink but God.  OK, actually she’s not “God.”  As Sigourney points out, “God is such a narrow term.”  He should think of her as God’s “fiduciary.”  Nice.

And so Eli figures out that when it comes to the aneurysm and the accompanying visions, it’s either he or Nate.  Eli can’t see Nate’s life ruined by the life-disrupting visions and asks for his aneurysm back.  Sigourney nods and tells him this time around he’s going to have to take the lead.  What does this mean?  Well apparently it has something to do with going back to court.

Eli bursts back in just in time and tells the court he received a divine message.  He also reminds the court that they should not consider him crazy because we accept the existence of a higher power in our courts.  We swear on the bible after all.  Why shouldn’t we trust that Eli knows where Jordan really is?  He predicted the earthquake, didn’t he?

Well, the judge loves his passion but doesn’t buy his shtick, and the injunction doesn’t get passed.  But former-amour, Taylor, believes Eli now that he’s permanently ruined his career, and they head off to find Jordan Wethersby exactly where Eli/Nate said he’d be.  And speaking of Nate, he just found out he doesn’t have an aneurysm after all, but Eli says they have to order another MRI, this time for Eli.

As the episode closes Eli sees that his aneurysm is back – he’ll soon be hearing the divine music again.  And Nate realizes just what his brother did for him.  That Eli Stone, he’s really something.  Why don’t you check him out some time?  Don’t you want to hear the music?

Season 2, Episode 1: The Path (originally aired October 14, 2008)

For more on Eli Stone, click here.

Tuesdays at 10/9C on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC