S02.E09: Safe To Fall

[WendyCR72]

Airing on February 22, 2021:

Emily and Sam face off in the courtroom in an emotionally gripping case that will determine the fate of a mentally ill young man who attacked his father. Also, due to financial struggles, Rachel crashes at Mark and Amy’s place, reigniting Mark and Rachel’s flame.

[nittany cougar]

I can't stand Emily.  She is all chaos and stress and drama.  I hope she gets so stressed out that she has to quit her job.

I hate Amy's Barbie hair and her chirpy demeanor.  She and Mark are pretty much chemistry-free in my opinion.  I've never bought this couple.  He has more chemistry with pretty much every other woman on the show.

Why would Mark let his ex-girlfriend stay at his house with his current girlfriend?   Why would Amy let that happen?   What an odd setup. 

 I'm unclear how someone who allegedly has their own law firm cannot even afford a place to live. She can afford an office in Los Angeles but can't afford an apartment.  Okay, show.

Edited February 23, 2021 by nittany cougar

[In2You]

It's clear Mark and Rachel have a past but it seems like Lola doesn't know about it. They were giving the impression before that she did. 

Mark and Amy are chemistry free but I'm not here for a cheating story either.

Emily and her new man also have no chemistry. And it just makes no sense how quickly things progressed with them. 

 

[Irlandesa]

The Rachel story was weird in this episode and I thought Mark and her past was hinted at in a previous episode in  a way that made Amy go "how could you not tell me?" but then it's not an issue at all here. 

And Rachel went from giving Mark grief in past episodes to kissing him.  The show is consistently inconsistent with these two.  I've always felt the show hinted at a past relationship but then they would say or do things that undermined it and I'm still not clear if they were boyfriend/girlfriend in the past or if they just hooked up in college.

I don't care if Emily and her boyfriend have chemistry or not.  I hate her so I want her far from anyone else on campus.  I'm even leaving abandoning my early days shipping of Mark and Emily. She ruins everyone.  I was rooting against her "educate yourself" BS with Sam but I knew she'd be proven "right." 

And she ruined Luke too.

I loved the side story with Castillo and The Biscuit. 

[jabRI]

I just think they are giving way too much screen time to Emily.  I also don't get how Rachel is homeless, but Amy is not.  I mean they are partners, wouldn't Amy know that Rachel has little or no income coming through the firm?

[tennisgurl]

I cannot stand Emily, she is just so awful and self important and sucks up all of the shows energy every time she is on screen with her whiny asshole bullshit. Not only is she needlessly rude and shitty to people, people who have done nothing to her, she is a pretty terrible lawyer, even if the show will usually paint her as being right and give her a win. She comes across like a spoiled child, rolling her eyes at the prosecution in court, practically stomping her foot when the judge wont give her everything she wants, and half of her cases seem to be based around her yelling, almost bursting into tears, and lecturing everyone because this is all really about Emily and her issues. She has even ruined Luke, who is still in love with her for no conceivable reason and always defends and excuses her awfulness. Sam is a much more patient person than I am, because after that condescending presumptuous little speech she gave Sam, I would have said something a bit stronger than "she was rude." How dare she assume she knows anything about Sam and her life? Then Luke trying to defend her? How can Sam even tell that this case is "really important" to Emily when this is always how she is? I am glad that Sam cut things off with Luke, as much as I originally enjoyed them. Its clear that Sam has real feelings for Luke but Luke is still hung up on Emily. Sam deserves better. Ugg, educate yourself on being not horrible, Emily. 

The situation with Rachel is really weird. I have always assumed that Rachel and Mark had a bit of a thing in the past, and I thought the reason Mark was being weird around her was because he was worried that something would happen between them. Which it did. Amy/Mark are not the most interesting couple, but I hope that this is the end of that, I don't want a cheating story. Is Rachels firm doing so bad that she is actually homeless, despite having enough money and clout to start her own LA firm? Where did that money do? Does she have a serious gambling problem or something? 

The subplots were actually a lot better than the main plots, they were cute and fun and while I miss Lola being at the courthouse, I like getting to see more of the other judges. 

Edited February 23, 2021 by tennisgurl

[TOWTooMuchTV]

A little bit of me wanted to see Emily Kuroda go off on Sam Mrs. Kim style during questioning.

Other than that, I agree with what most everyone else has said. Emily is over the top annoying and self righteous and I don't care about her and her new boyfriend. I would love to see Luke truly move on with Sam or anyone else at all. Is the actress who plays Lola really quarantining or on maternity leave or something? It made sense but still felt weird that all of her interactions were on Facetime sitting in that one room.

[HurricaneVal]

7 hours ago, nittany cougar said:

Why would Mark let his ex-girlfriend stay at his house with his current girlfriend?   Why would Amy let that happen?   What an odd setup. 

I don't think Amy knows they were together, together.  She knows all three--Lola, Mark and Rachel--were close friends (roommates?) in law school, but I don't think she knows Mark and Rachel were more than that. 

Judge Campbell's scenes with Sara were really nice.  It is good to see something from the other judges, and see that they are humans with quirks and soft spots.  We knew that Judge Campbell was a horticulturist from that Zoom session from his patio, but his office took it next level, with the big golf simulation really only used for a backdrop for the rest of his beloved plants.  Sara is learning that all the judges have human sides, not just Lola, and that's good for her to see. 

Happy Sherri singing around the office to reclaim her space after Laski moved out was priceless.  Laski holding Uhura hostage to get his deer mount back was also a bit of good business.  It shows Laski's human side, he's pissed about the theft, recognizes it is more or less just office shenanigans, and instituted retaliatory shenanigans.

The best plot point, though, was the seemingly normal defendant turning out to be truly suffering from schizophrenia, and not just faking it or using it to cover up a drug fueled rage.  And Sam recognizing that and doing the right thing.  When the defendant started seeing Emily as "other" in that scene, and the camera showed how his brain was seeing her, and how it looked like the "other" was taking Emily over, it was a good illustration of how (maybe) mental illness feels from the inside, and how threatening and frightening that can look to the person.  I literally said "wow" at that scene.  Probably the best depiction of mental illness I've seen on TV.  You understand why he took the knife and stabbed his father if that was what he was seeing at the time. 

Then later on, it was a small point, but Emily told the sister that a lot of mentally ill patients use drugs or alcohol as a way of self-medicating so while they may appear to be druggies, there are underlying issues drawing them to drug use.  This is very, very true, and something that isn't well understood in today's society.  It was a good point, I just wish it had been made in a broader context than just "Latinos stigmatize mental illness".  That's an important message too, but I'm just saying it isn't just Latinos who try to self-medicate their mental issues away by using.

[Court]

Here's the thing, this show has made me hate Emily. I wanted her to be flat out wrong about the defendant even though I recognize the story the show was trying to tell.  I would have much rather seen Rachel or Amy in that role because all I did was be so annoyed with Emily. The show needs to make her be wrong and suffer consequences. Her behavior is also making me hate Luke. She was a complete bitch to Sam and nothing excuses that. I've been an Emily apologist in the past because I understand her trauma but that's no excuse. 

[Irlandesa]

35 minutes ago, Court said:

I've been an Emily apologist in the past because I understand her trauma but that's no excuse. 

Me too.  Last season I sympathized with her and what she was able to give. I thought they handled her hesitancy with Luke quite well even if we might have wanted to see him get more.  It made sense that the price of admission to being with her was having to deal with the effect of her lingering trauma.

But this season?  Ugh.  And we still don't know why the two of them broke up.

Quote

I don't think Amy knows they were together, together.  She knows all three--Lola, Mark and Rachel--were close friends (roommates?) in law school, but I don't think she knows Mark and Rachel were more than that. 

There was a party in a recent episode.  Was it a holiday party?  Birthday? I don't remember.  It was one of those stupid "we got all tested for COVID so let's gather" parties.  Rachel, Amy, Lola and Mark were all sitting in a courtroom talking.  Something was said that made Amy go "why didn't you tell me?"  I forget what ti was but I got the impression that she realized something had happened between Rachel and Mark in that moment. 

Edited February 24, 2021 by Irlandesa

[In2You]

This episode was so oddly written that I rewatched clips and rembered yes Lola does know about Mark and Rachel's past and so does Amy. So why was it being danced around?

 

Shout out to this twitter shipper for the clips 

 

[possibilities]

I didn't think anyone was pretending, I think Amy was acting like she just trusted them both, because both have indicated their past was a long time ago and not a thing anymore.  Likewise, Lola trusted them both to behave like adults, and told Mark to just tell her what was going on. Really, there's no issue if there's no issue. But for some reason they decided to suddenly write Rachel to be desperate and obnoxious and Mark to be weak and indirect.  I hate shit writing like this. Hey! Showrunners! Just stick to the legal stories and stop trying to inject adolescent melodrama and character assassination into the show!

 

[jabRI]

I actually feel bad for the actress that plays Emily, she is getting the Gabby stigma from Chicago Fire, she's bound to get annoying to just about every one

[In2You]

11 hours ago, possibilities said:

I didn't think anyone was pretending, I think Amy was acting like she just trusted them both, because both have indicated their past was a long time ago and not a thing anymore.  Likewise, Lola trusted them both to behave like adults, and told Mark to just tell her what was going on. Really, there's no issue if there's no issue. But for some reason they decided to suddenly write Rachel to be desperate and obnoxious and Mark to be weak and indirect.  I hate shit writing like this. Hey! Showrunners! Just stick to the legal stories and stop trying to inject adolescent melodrama and character assassination into the show!

 

Oh I don't think anyone was pretending I think the writing was a little muddled and unclear. And Mark needed to put his big boy pants on and act like an adult.

[HurricaneVal]

I was very irritated by their kiss.  They're both adults.  That situation in no way seemed rife with sexual tension, they were just chatting on the patio about the current situation and then they're kissing.  It seemed so........random.

[Brian Cronin]

How in the world have Amy and Mark NOT said "I love you" to each other yet? They've been living together for almost a YEAR!

And yeah, the Rachel stuff was really weird. The law firm is not doing well and yet Rachel's partner, Mark's live-in girlfriend, has never even SLIGHTLY hinted at that? What the what? You can do stories where Rachel is worried about the firm without going to a place that made no sense. 

Sam is weird, because she has that unfortunate situation where she, a minor character, is better than most of the regular characters. That almost never ends well.

Does anyone know the song that opened up the episode? I googled the lyrics and nada and even Shazam failed. So weird. 

Even Tunefind doesn't know!

And that's, like, the entire POINT of Tunefind!

[Avabelle]

14 hours ago, Brian Cronin said:

The law firm is not doing well and yet Rachel's partner, Mark's live-in girlfriend, has never even SLIGHTLY hinted at that? What the what?

That would require them to give her an actual storyline and it’s become very clear that since making her a regular they’ve absolutely no idea what to do with her.

Not here for the affair storyline - they both suck. A shitty boyfriend and a shitty friend.

[Brian Cronin]

2 hours ago, Avabelle said:

That would require them to give her an actual storyline and it’s become very clear that since making her a regular they’ve absolutely no idea what to do with her.

Not here for the affair storyline - they both suck. A shitty boyfriend and a shitty friend.

I didn't like Amy before, but yeah, holy shit, she's been absolutely NEUTERED as a character since she became a cast member. Who in the world just removes ALL OF THE personality of a character after you make her a cast member?