Eli Stone and the Unabomber Prophecy Manifesto

Last week on Eli Stone, Eli’s brother Nate discovered that their psychic/prophet/loony-drunk dad kept a diary of his visions that were all about Eli.  Still feeling the “prophecy bug,” Nate continued to read the diary this week, and tries to enlist Eli to help a six-year-old patient of his with lead paint poisoning-related illnesses.  Eli, however, has no desire to follow the instructions of his father’s “Unabomber prophecy manifesto.”  Eli doesn’t want to live by the book.

However, Eli is shortly struck by a vision of he and his boss, Jordan Wethersby, riding the metro.  They’re about to argue a case at “the highest court in the land.”  They get off the metro and find themselves facing the Capitol Building.  Turns out, Eli’s arguing the lead paint case at the Supreme Court.

But Eli’s supposed to be defending Jordan in court this week.  His boss is about to lose his firm, because of his “crazy” desire to take it in a more moral direction.  Eli’s torn up about what to do and goes to his spiritual advisor and buddy, Dr. Chen, to whom he shows the book.  Dr. Chen recognizes a name in the book of an old, scary teacher of his and a painful method of seeing into visions.  One excruciating needle to the chest later and Eli is transported to his law firm – except it isn’t his firm anymore.  The Wethersby has been dropped from the firm name, and the ever-obnoxious Matt Dowd informs him that Eli lost Jordan his case by being even crazier than the man he was defending.  Eli returns to the present day and knows he must drop out of Jordan’s case and leave him in the hands of his daughter, Taylor.

His time freed up, Eli takes the lead paint case and enlists Maggie to help because she’s “biologically incapable of turning down a poor, sick kid case.”  She hates him, but is, of course, in.  They meet with the little girl and her parents, and Eli ensures them that he’s going to sue all the paint companies – even if this kind of case has never been won before and they’re outside the statute of limitations.  Unfortunately for Eli, the judge thinks their case is frivolous and is going to throw it out, until Eli has another case-saving, face-saving vision.  Eli realizes they have to sue under the public nuisance doctrine.  The judge likes it and sends the case to trial.  But it never gets there, since the defense offers up a cool half million to the clients in exchange for their silence and Eli’s agreement never to sue the lead paint alliance again.  Eli’s confused.  What happened to the Supreme Court?  But Maggie makes him realize this is what’s best for their clients, so they take the deal.  And Eli takes what he knows to a rival lawyer, who happily, if suspiciously, takes up the cause.

Meanwhile Jordan is fighting to prove his sanity with the help of overprotective Taylor and fellow lawyer Keith.  His conniving firm partners, Posner and Klein, are doing a wicked job defeating him, especially when they bring his concerned wife to the stand.  Almost undone, Jordan decides that he must take the stand in his own defense to prove that his new moral direction for the firm is not proof that he’s suffering from post-traumatic stress.  As he’s preparing, he has a huge blow-out with Eli, whom he yells at for “indulging his personal fantasies.”  Distraught, Eli runs again to Chen and want to see his dad’s diary.  Chen’s read it and tells Eli he doesn’t want to know what’s in the book.  He says that things are going wrong because Eli’s messing with the plan.  Eli doesn’t care and takes the book back anyway.

So Jordan takes the stand and proves that he’s merely having a midlife crisis of the best kind.  Posner and Klein try to make him look foolish for believing in Eli and his visions, but Jordan’s having none of that.  He’s had a moment of clarity and wants to serve the public interest.  He doesn’t know when it became crazy to want to be better.  He wants to be young, stupid, and idealistic again.  He wins his case.  But he loses his firm when the board votes him out as managing partner.

Lucky for Jordan, overprotective daughter Taylor recently reviewed their real estate files, and discovered Jordan owns the building.  That leaves Posner and Klein out on their butts.  Karma’s something, huh?  Jordan also realizes that Eli did the best thing for the case by dropping out.  He asks Eli if he’ll follow him to his new firm.

“We all have visions, Eli,” he says.  And Eli agrees to follow his friend into their new moral venture.

Eli returns to Dr. Chen with the Unabomber prophecy manifesto in hand.  He tells Chen he didn’t read it, and he tosses it into the fire.  He’s not going to try and control the uncontrollable.  But, since Chen has read the whole ominous book, I doubt that’s the last we’ll hear of it.

For now, however, the burning of the book seems have had some repercussions.  Eli has another vision.  He’s back at the Supreme Court.  Rival lawyer is getting ready to argue his case when he bumps into Maggie.  She goes up to speak and declares that she’s there to represent the Lead Paint Alliance.  Cue Eli nasty vision face.

Sure it wasn’t quite the shock ending of House kissing Cuddy, (OMG – did you see that?!), but it does mean that Eli’s future is always changing.  At the end of last season, Eli had a vision of Maggie as his adoring wife, bouncing baby on her hip.  And now she’s defending the enemy.

But twist endings aren’t the things that make Eli Stone worth watching: it’s the dialogue on faith, change, and hope.  That, and the musical numbers (speaking of which, where was my big Supreme Court theatrical?).  In a grim world, where oversexed teenagers and desperate housewives are some of the biggest draws on TV, it’s nice to know that there’s a show out there talking about more.  After all, we all have visions of the future.

Season 2, Episode 3: Unwritten (originally aired October 28, 2008)

For another take on this episode, check out Cameron Cubbison’s review here.

For more on Eli Stone, click here.

Tuesdays at 10/9C on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC