Eli Stone: For Keeps

Should I stay or should I go?  That was the question on everyone’s mind this week on Eli Stone, and appropriately enough it was also the title of the episode as Eli’s firm, Wethersby Posner and Klein, split un-amicably down the center.  While Jordan Wethersby (Victor Garber) and Eli (Jonny Lee Miller) struggled to keep the lawyers at their new pro bono, morally-conscious-clients-only firm, Martin Posner (Tom Amandes) worked to wheedle them away.  Who would the new morally-upstanding but financially-troubled firm be able to keep?

Concerned that her boyfriend – and emotional nitwit – Matt Dowd (Sam Jaeger) would leave her and her father for the morally corrupt firm of Posner and Klein, Taylor Wethersby (Natasha Henstridge) turned to Eli to give Matt the pro bono bug.  Begrudgingly, Eli agreed and convinced Matt to join him on his latest case.  And this week, Eli had a goodie: his client, Sana (Parisa Fakhri), a young Pakistani woman, was facing deportation after Homeland Security found out that her marriage was none too sound.  Turns out her hubby, Carter (James Snyder), was what they call a “gay green card husband.”  But sham marriage or not, Sana could not return home to Pakistan, because her father would “honor kill” her for engaging in a very “western” relationship with her boyfriend, Will (Jonathan Chase).  For those of you not in the know, honor killings are a horrific and very real tragedy.  The United Nations Population Fund estimates that as many as 5,000 women are slaughtered each year as part of cultural “honor killings,” many of these in Pakistan.

Eli and Matt, however, were not going to let that happen to Sana.  The boys tracked down Sana’s cousin in the US, and he provided them with a letter from Sana’s father, proving that he intended to “restore his honor” when Sana returned.  Homeland Security mega-witch lawyer, however, tossed out a rather cold deal.  She said she’d drop the charges against gay green card hubby Carter but Sana had to return to Pakistan.  Sana, unwilling to see Carter sent to jail, agreed – basically accepting a death sentence.

Well, Eli and Matt were having none of that and had to find a way to keep her here.  Finally, it was Matt who convinced Sana that boyfriend Will and Carter would never forgive themselves if she left.  They’d never be able to live without knowing whether she’s dead or alive.  Sana couldn’t torture her men that way, and so they went to court.  The judge agreed that Sana’s safety was in jeopardy and allowed her to stay.

But Matt Dowd wouldn’t be staying.  The stress of the Sana case was too much for him – he likes to get a good night’s sleep – and he decided not to keep his job at the new firm.  He told Taylor that he’d be going to Posner and Klein, and she tried admirably to pretend that she wasn’t bothered by it.  But perhaps Taylor was having enough trouble deciding whether or not to keep something of her own. (Here’s a hint: it’s Matt’s, too.) Could Matt’s decision to leave lead Taylor not to keep her little, craving-inducing secret?

While Matt and Taylor were busy with all that drama, Eli was busying himself trying to keep Maggie (Julie Gonzalo).  After last week’s episode, where Eli had a vision of Maggie defending the evil lead paint companies for Posner and Klein, Eli was convinced that he had to keep her at their new firm.  Also, the opening shower scene vision may have helped.  There’s nothing like seeing your engaged coworker (who you’re subconsciously in love with) naked in the shower to start off your day.

Concerned by his nudie vision of Maggie, Eli went to his acupuncturist/spiritual guru Dr. Chen for some advice.  Chen was pretty sure Eli just had the hots for her, but Eli was super-duper sure he doesn’t (yeah, ok).  So he went to convince Maggie, who didn’t really need much convincing.  “My life is [fiancé] Scott and you … err the firm,” she said.  She and her Freudian slips weren’t going anywhere – even after Posner offered her a senior associate spot, her own pro-bono department, and $20K for the Ecological Preservation League.  But that was before Eli’s second shower vision.

So Eli envisioned himself back in Maggie’s bathroom as her fiancé Scott, but this time it wasn’t Maggie in the shower but rather a redheaded adulteress.  Uh-oh.  And all this was just in time for Maggie and Scott’s engagement party.  Eli tried to tell Maggie about Scott’s affair, but was interrupted, of course, by Scott.  Scott ironically told Eli to back off and Eli told him that he knew about his other shower buddy.  The two came to blows, with Eli laying the wrath of god on him.  Who knew prophets could throw a punch?  “Tell her or I will,” he said, as Maggie came running.  But there was no need to tell anything.  Maggie knew what was up.

The next day at the office, Maggie told Eli the engagement was off.  Scott wouldn’t get to keep her, but neither would Eli.  Maggie told Eli she was in love with him (duh!) and that she knew he didn’t feel the same way (are you sure about that?).  She was going to take the job with Posner and Klein – and even managed to negotiate herself a better deal with Martin “Darth Sidious” Posner.  And with that, Maggie was off to the dark side.

By episode’s end, I was still missing my song and dance number.  That’s two weeks in a row, Berlanti!  But we did get some gratuitous nakedness and some commendable attention on the much-ignored global problem of “honor killings” in Arab and Asian societies.  With or without the musical numbers, Eli always gives you something worth sticking around for.

He’s a keeper.

Season 2, Episode 4: Should I Stay or Should I Go? (originally aired November 11, 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