#jay dipersia

You know, I came to this show when my rabbit hole consisted of MICHAEL SHEEN's entire filmography, and I decided to watch the entire thing instead of only S3 which he appeared in. I've stuck with the show, because I find it incredibly fascinating.

Last season got cut short due to the pandemic, and this episode serves to remind the viewer where we left off a year ago, and fills in the gaps of this past year.

This show has always had a great talent at incorporating current events and news into the goings-on of the episodes, and so does this season premiere. Being a legal drama that came out of THE GOOD WIFE and started its run early in Trump's first term as president, the tie to the real world events are strong and important, and I've felt this show does a fantastic job at creating a story around and including them.

This first episode really serves to make up the missing year in short time. ADRIAN (DELROY LINDO) announces he will be leaving the firm because of the Democratic Party's offer he got at the end of last season, to be a presidential candidate in 2024. The death of George Floyd and the following protests stand as a conflict between who the Party wants Adrian to be (the token Black candidate), and who he actually is as a Black man. At the end of the episode following Biden's win and the insurrection of January 6th, Adrian tells LIZ (AUDRA MCDONALD) and DIANE (CHRISTINE BARANSKI) that he will be moving to Atlanta and try to help facilitate change there.

Diane, meanwhile, is still engaged in her fight against Memo 618 and serves as JULIUS' (MICHAEL BOATMAN) lawyer against the bribery charge. Using intel from Adrian against JUDGE HAZLEWOOD (TAMBERLA PERRY), Diane gets a new judge assigned to the case -- who turns out, is a worse choice, and eventually sentences Julius to seven years in prison. Trump's last ditch pardoning effort before his term is over also extended to Julius, as Liz informs the others at the end of the episode. Diane is also engaged in a Supreme Court gun law reform case.

With the pandemic, the show also deals with the firm having to shift into online mode and what that means for job security of its employees. Liz and Diane see this as the moment they had been waiting for to finally comply with the order to lay off 20% of their employees. While MARISSA (SARAH STEELE) is one of the first to go -- she is now attending law school to become a lawyer --, Liz is concerned that many of those 20% are Black associates, meaning the firm may soon not be a Black firm anymore. In order to fix this problem without having to demote Diane, they offer LUCCA (CUSH JUMBO) a position as equity partner on the firm. Being in London on behalf of BIANCA (CHASTEN HARMON) who offers her the post of CFO and much more money than her old firm can afford, Lucca eventually decides to leave the firm as well.

While Marissa is let go, the other investigator JAY (NYAMBI NYAMBI) is hospitalised with Covid. At the hospital he begins hallucinating Frederick Douglass, Karl Marx, Jesus Christ, and Malcolm X, who advise him on how to deal with the rise in police brutality on Black people and the question of resistance vs retaliation. Even after he is healthy enough to leave the hospital, he still sees these hallucinations around him.

This episode, while structured around the individual character beats, makes sure to stop a moment at important key dates of the past year. We have the beginning of Covid and the first lockdowns in March, followed by the death of George Floyd and the demonstrations against police brutality which are strongly tied to Jay and Adrian's character beats. We have the announcement of Kamala Harris as Biden's vice-president, and also the death of Supreme Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which are found in the beats of our female main characters. We have election night and the following days -- and may I just say, Diane watching the election is a damn mood -- and finally, at the end, the Capital riots on January 6th.

I quite liked this episode as a season-opener. I think the creators did a great job book-ending the last season and working in certain moments that had been meant for the end of season four. We get a proper goodbye for Adrian and Lucca who are leaving the show, goodbyes that were cut short due to the pandemic. The episode tied in all the important points we have had throughout the last season, and reminds the viewer nicely where we left off, where we still have unfinished business, and where these characters are currently situated in their lives. It's very nicely done. Looking forward to what this season brings.