And we’ve reached the point of no return.
Whatever facsimile reality we’ve been operating in has become completely undone by the end of The Good Fight Season 5 Episode 9.
There’s just no way around it. We are no longer in the realm of believable.
There’s only so much suspension of disbelief we can take, and the penultimate episode of the season firmly crossed over into the side of make-believe, which is saying something for a series that’s prided itself on pushing the boundaries of reality.
Does anyone else remember Jeffrey Epstein’s cryogenically frozen penis? But even that was grounded in some reality, or at the very least a particularly descriptive New York Times article.
What we have now is a show that no longer exists with the confines of our world, and while that’s OK, it does take some time to adjust our thinking.
Because if we’re not operating within this “world,” can we still get mad when things don’t play out how we expect?
Bypassing the authorities makes sense in this instance, especially since the cops are the ones bringing arrestees to Wackner’s court for sentencing without holding an actual trial.
However, Liz, Diane, or anyone else at the firm wouldn’t file a lawsuit against Wackner for false imprisonment, and other charges are beyond ridiculous.
So maybe it’s not so much that we’re mad the show has moved into highly improbable storylines so much as the characters we’ve watched and supported and adored for years aren’t acting the way we expect them to.
After all, this show is called The Good Fight, but if the characters simply exist within this crazy universe rather than fighting the good fight, maybe the show needs a new name.
So with my diatribe out of the way and begrudgingly accepting there are things out of my control, like how the fictional characters don’t react the way they’ve been set up to act, we can move on to the episode at hand.
At the top of the hour, it didn’t seem like things could get much crazier. First, you had cops circumventing the law entirely and bringing arrestees to Wackner’s court for “alternative processing,” also known as illegally imprisoning people without due process.
However, we stumbled upon something that could only be attributed to the Wackner effect by the end. We found another false judge holding a kangaroo court in her house, but she was essentially holding them hostage, this time.
Wackner at least had the “decency” — if it can be called that — to hold alleged criminals in a private prison, but this new “judge” is false imprisoning people in cages in her basement.
Let that sink in for a minute. Judge Vinetta is holding neighborhood YOUTHS in CAGES in her BASEMENT. How crazy is that?
Wackner’s court, with its silly costumes and scoreboards and cliche penalties, is downright respectable compared to this cockamamie copycat court.
Up is down. Left is right. White is black. Nothing makes sense anymore, and I’m done trying to figure it out. This is madness. This is insanity. This is justice, according to Wackner.
And yet, if this is justice, then what does that mean? Can anyone theoretically hold court in their house and pass down any ruling they feel like simply because they can?
Justice and due process go out the window, and suddenly, the law means absolutely nothing.
Who cares what the rules are if people can make up their own and do whatever the f*ck they want?
This is some Lord of the Flies level anarchy shit up in here. Whatever commentary or political statement the writers are trying to make just gets lost in translation because this is utter nonsense.
Everything about what’s happening is screwed up to the nth degree… and that’s the point.
In hindsight, the past year and a half read like the most absurd season of television written by a heavy-handed high school student obsessed with TV tropes. It’s illogical, lacks structure, and jumped the shark-like half a dozen times.
There’s no way what has happened in real life should have happened, similar to how there’s no way the events on The Good Fight Season 5 should have been allowed to happen.
In lesser hands, you could chalk up Wackner’s storyline and the 9¾ Circuit Court as poorly planned and written, something that started with amazing potential but faltered along the way before becoming something inconceivable.
The Kings, though, aren’t novices and have managed to craft something reflective of our society without being an actual replica beautifully.
They have managed to capture the mood of society and the country and transfer those feelings of anger, confusion, and fear into something else entirely. It’s a master class in storytelling, so bravo.
Elsewhere, the remainder of the hour was spent better acquainting us with Allegra, and she’s even kookier but also more perceptive than she first seemed.
On the one hand, she wants to focus on the absurdity of space law, but on the other, she understands the firm’s power dynamics better than maybe even Diane and Liz.
Yes, Allegra has big ideas and a big personality, but she’s still such a delight. The way she goes about things are unconventional, but if you can sift through all of the craziness, there’s merit to what she has to say.
She’s more intelligent than people give her credit. Her nuttiness isn’t so much an act as it is who she is at her core. However, she doesn’t have a problem letting people think she’s off her rocker and underestimate her if it serves her purpose.
That’s what she’s done with Diane and Liz, both of whom think they can use Allegra to get their way, but in the end, it may end up be Allegra who’s pulling the strings.
She’s already managed to convince Diane, Liz, and David Lee to let her keep her name partnership and even got David Lee to stand up to the firm’s Dubai overlords to get more money instead of cutting funding.
And that was only after a week or so at the firm. So imagine what she can do once she gets settled and is no longer a cat.
As a side note, Allegra as a cat on Zoom was freaking hilarious. This was a perfect example of using “ripped from the headlines for good,” as we all remember when the lawyer using Zoom had to let a judge know that he wasn’t a cat after inadvertently activating a face filter.
Some stray thoughts:
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Did anyone care about Oscar’s partnership with Plum Meadow Farms and his new business venture? With an episode already bursting at the seams, this subplot got lost in the shuffle and didn’t resonate. Also, the killing of cows, although fictional, made me uncomfortable and further devalued this subplot. -
Why is Marissa the only voice of reason on the show at this point? I love Marissa to pieces, but shouldn’t other characters be objecting to what’s going on in Wackner’s court beside her? -
If Del goes back to Los Angeles, does that mean he and Liz are done? I didn’t have any strong feelings about this pairing either way, so it doesn’t matter one way or another to me, but Liz does deserve to be happy.
So what did you think, Good Fight Fanatics?
Has the series jumped the shark?
What will happen in the season finale?
Is Allegra the right fit for the firm?
Hit the comments below to let me know your thoughts.
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Jessica Lerner is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
You can view the original article HERE.
