Eli Stone: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

This episode made me curse several times as I watched it, though not because there was anything wrong with it, for Eli Stone continues to be perfectly written, structured, and performed.  But I wanted to throw some shurikens at or deploy nunchucks on several of the characters who make stupid, whiny decisions.  Stupid, human (it’s amazing how much those two qualities overlap), and ultimately very believable decisions.

The main conflict this week comes courtesy of soulless slimeball Martin Posner, who, along with Marci Klein, recently deposed their partner Jordan Wethersby from their top-tier law firm after he was inspired by Eli Stone to radically transform the firm’s mission from being all about the green to being all about the public good and the pursuit of altruism.  Wethersby is going out on his own now armed only with his conscience and the office building, which he gets to keep since it is in his name.  Meanwhile, Posner has taken all of the firm’s largest clients and is busily trying to woo all of the lawyers away from Jordan and over to the dark side by offering them higher salaries and perk packages.

Eli is particularly concerned that the awfully cute (sickeningly cute in my book, just like that little blond twerp kid with the stupid, spiky hair and oversize glasses from Jerry Maguire) Maggie Decker will be swayed from the firm, as last episode he had a vision of opposing her in a big court case.  Viewers will remember that last season Eli and Maggie almost had a thing after Eli split from his fiancée Taylor Wethersby (not as cute as Maggie, but she makes up for it by being an obnoxious pill), but it wasn’t to be, and Maggie found herself engaged to a guy that Eli actually saved from dying on the Golden Gate Bridge after he had a vision of it collapsing.  Eli realizes that he shouldn’t have bothered when he has yet another vision, this one of the tool cheating on Maggie before they even get married.  Needless to say, this is a rather Maggie-central episode.

And speaking of Taylor being obnoxious, well now she asks Eli to help convince her new beau Matt Dowd not to leave her father Jordan and the firm for Posner’s evil empire by showing him what it’s like to really get emotionally involved in a case and to care about a client-which is Jordan and Eli’s mantra and decidedly not Posner’s.  Dowd has always been happily smug and consciously superficial-he’s after the sports car and has been offered a partner position and a full ride by Posner.  Still, Eli, instead of telling Taylor to go out and play in traffic (like I would have done), agrees to try.

The case they take involves defending a Pakistani woman who, along with her husband, has been arrested by Homeland Security for fraud.  Turns out she married her gay best friend so she could extend her green card and stay with the man she actually loves.  Uncle Sam found out and plans to arrest the gay friend and deport her back to Pakistan where she’ll literally be killed by her father for having dishonored him by not agreeing to the arranged marriage that he had set up.  Disturbing, to say the very least.

There are a couple of noteworthy surprises in the episode, one involving Taylor (let’s just say that you’d think a successful lawyer would have paid more attention in high school health class).  What continues to impress me about Eli Stone, unlike Chuck, is that it manages to manufacture oodles of really sensational conflict in each episode and makes it appear seamless.  There are twists that are unexpected and the characters always react realistically and in character without telegraphing their choices beforehand.  The sincerity of the emotions consistently shines through.  Eli-and now Jordan-are two guys trying to change the world, two guys daring to be idealistic in a profession that operates through cynicism.  But they are never shown to be holier-than-thou saints-just flawed characters struggling to do the right thing, and that’s what I call the basis for compelling television.  The ratings are low, but hopefully ABC knows they have a really special show here that needs to be nurtured.

Season 2, Episode 4: Should I Stay or Should I Go? (originally aired November 11, 2008)

For another take on this episode, check out For Keeps by Kaitlyn Edsall.

For more on Eli Stone, click here.

Tuesdays at 10/9C on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC