S02.E13: Love's Illusions

[WendyCR72]

Airing on April 26, 2021:

Quote

Lola returns to the Hall of Justice and presides over a case where Amy represents a young woman accused of a swatting incident that resulted in the Dean of a university being shot. Also, Amy and Rachel make up, and Amy brings her divorce papers to her dying husband.

 

[KaveDweller]

I really liked the main case. The defendant was sympathetic, even though she was guilty of something. Sam's reaction to the whole thing made me wonder if she has been a victim of some kind of abuse in the past. I am glad she's getting a chance to be first chair, although, I doubt we will see that trial. Super creepy for the dead of a college to be chatting with teenage girls.

Luke is making some very bad decisions. If he is going to testify against this bad cop, does he really think he has to worry about some witness form? They would give him a deal, I'm sure. However, is he was going to go done the route of hiding his witness statement he should not go telling a judge of all people about it.

Sara's situation is messy. I thought it was obvious from that kid's first appearance that she was going to be an abuse victim, but it's still messy for her to have to report against Brenner's friend with so little evidence.

[UnoAgain]

Not a fan of Amy this week... I feel like she's projecting a bit... Yes what mark and Rachel did was bad... But realistically it could be understood as a momentary thing... Definitely something to be mad about... But when you got a whole- ass husband on the side it makes her anger feel weak... And she's had tons of time to bring this up... Also her using rachel's guilt to get a promotion felt icky.. I wish Rachel woulda been like... Ok nah.. I let you be snippy becuz I screwed up... But I also ain't snitch about u being married and you tryna become equal partners when I'm the one not even living in an apartment anymore... Lemme call Mark and have a chat.... But the show likes to let some folks off the hook

[possibilities]

Emily's hair was fantastic this week. 

Luke is out of his mind. They KNOW he signed that statement. He can't possibly expect to get away with stealing evidence out of the file. He ought to get a lawyer's opinion, not confess to Lola. 

I'm glad Brenner is not totally dismissing Sarah's concerns. 

I actually hated the defendant this week. SWATting someone is not how you deal with your situation. She was victimized by the Dean, and he should be held accountable for his behavior. But the way she went about it was reckless as well as stupid. What did she think would happen? The SWAT team would storm the campus and do what? Find her nudes on the guy's hard drive while looking for an active shooter?

 

[greekmom]

First, I enjoyed the twist in this week's court trial.  Also the fact that Emily wasn't in court and we saw Amy's court chops.

One thing that bothers me is everyone in court referring to Judge Carmichael as 'Lola'. They refer to the other judges by their last names: Benner, Laski, etc but Lola is Lola.

Not sure how they are going resolve the Luke situation.

I knew from the previous week that the little girl was being abused. Sara was really put in a pickle by being volunteered military style as a tutor.  Benner just brushing it away is of course typical. Hopefully they get the kid out of there. 

[HurricaneVal]

12 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

Sam's reaction to the whole thing made me wonder if she has been a victim of some kind of abuse in the past.

There was definitely something going on there.  I like that she confronted her boss about the case, and also that he brushed her off.  Which is what would happen in the real world.  Sometimes this show is a little too unreal in how nurturing they are of the inexperienced characters.  The actress playing Sam really did a good job with her body language and facial expressions as she was showing how uncomfortable she was.  She didn't have many lines, but she didn't need them.

Luke, Luke, Luke.....dude....  What are you doing?  You should either come clean from the beginning, or hold back on all the statements until you get Lola's advice.

I think we knew that Amy wasn't divorced yet.  Did we know he was in fragile health and was dying?  What's the story there?  Was Amy running away because she can't deal with it, or is it one of those things where she's married to the guy so he gets health insurance?  Or he doesn't want to divorce her because he's dying and she'll get the whole estate without the hassle?  From the quick look we got, he looked to be well off--other than the dying part.  I did like seeing her in court, she is ruthless.  She is a complex character, I love how I enjoy her ruthlessness when she's passionately arguing for a sympathetic client, but hate her ruthlessness when she's equally passionately arguing for a deplorable client. 

Using her butthurt over the Mark and Rachel kiss to leverage a promotion?  That was cold and ruthless as well.  And it leaves you with all the questions.  Is she really that hurt?  Is Mark really "the one" for her, or is she just using him?  Is she constantly scheming about her career advancement, so did she seize on the situation to advance her career without thinking it through?  It seems to me that with how closely interlinked all these characters are, Mark is going to learn how she took advantage of the situation to guilt Rachel into that promotion, and he's going to question those motives.  And when he learns about the dying not-ex-husband?  I believe he's going to gain the upper hand in the butthurt balance in that relationship.  Does Rachel know about the not-ex-husband?

[illdoc]

1 hour ago, HurricaneVal said:

Does Rachel know about the not-ex-husband?

That Amy is married--yes. That he's dying? Probably not.

[possibilities]

I was surprised that folks were calling her Lola, instead of Judge Carmichael this week. I thought it was a plot point in a previous episode, that Sherri was sternly correcting someone who called her Lola.

[Irlandesa]

I'd be more impressed with Amy's push to get a promotion if it weren't for the fact that Rachel is apparently the only partner and the firm is struggling financially.  A partnership seems pretty logical in these circumstances, especially since it usually involves a cash buy-in. 

15 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

They would give him a deal, I'm sure.

Sure but his job would be at risk, I'd think.

So Emily confesses her kiss to Joaquin and tells him that she wants to be with him but then has a "I'm not asking you to wait for me..." which is a passive aggressive "hang out until I know whether or not I have to make a choice". 

[tennisgurl]

I possibly watch too many shows that love social issues and their dramatic twists because I guessed right away that the Dean would be sketchy from reading the episode description. No show can resist a male authority figure being inappropriate with a teenage girl or a super dramatic mid courtroom twist. It wasn't a bad case, and I feel bad that the girl was taken advantage of by some creep, but what she did was still serious. Especially because, as was said, she could have easily gotten the wrong house or someone else could have been there and been seriously traumatized at best and hurt or killed at worst, even beyond how upsetting a possible shooting must have been for everyone at the college. 

What Mark and Rachel did was wrong, but its hard to take her riding around on her high horse as the wronged party that seriously when she has a whole ass husband that she has never told Mark about. Who is also sick I guess? All things that are probably good to mention to a serious boyfriend. I don't love that Amy basically used Rachel's guilt over this to be made partner, but I don't really understand how their firm works anyway. If they are so small, should Amy be a partner anyway? Who else is there? Are they still basically in the toilet? In that case, they have a lot bigger problems to deal with, although they apparently only affect Rachel and not Amy considering Rachel is practically homeless while Amy still has her nice house and everything. I guess Amy has more private savings? 

Luke needs to get a lawyer, not talk to Lola about it. I am happy to have Lola back though, she looked extra fabulous in her courtroom outfits, I am excited to have her back in action again with everything going on. 

I suspected that the girl Sara was tutoring was being abused, but yeah this is a really though spot for Sara. She really did do the right thing though, if there is a chance of abuse its better to be safe than sorry in these circumstances. What a messed up situation. Also glad that Brenner is willing to listen to her and consider what she said, even if its against her friend. 

[Empress1]

5 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I'd be more impressed with Amy's push to get a promotion if it weren't for the fact that Rachel is apparently the only partner and the firm is struggling financially.  A partnership seems pretty logical in these circumstances, especially since it usually involves a cash buy-in. 

I always assumed they were partners since it was just the two of them.

[KaveDweller]

1 hour ago, Empress1 said:

I always assumed they were partners since it was just the two of them.

I did too, but at least this explains why Rachel was the only one struggling financially.

I didn't really see it as Amy pushing for a promotion, as much as a renegotiation of their arrangement. Rachel isn't really her boss, they are partners of some form already.

[Brian Cronin]

Here's the felony swatting law in California: 

Quote

Any individual who reports, or causes any report to be made, to any city, county, city and county, or state department, district, agency, division, commission, or board, that an “emergency” exists, who knows that the report is false, and who knows or should know that the response to the report is likely to cause death or great bodily injury, and great bodily injury or death is sustained by any person as a result of the false report, is guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof shall be punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170, or by a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine.

How do you EVER prove that the person knew that the swatting would likely to cause death or great bodily injury? What a loosely defined law. How do you ever get a felony conviction? I guess if they, like, went on a chat and said, "Oh man, I hope someone gets shot" perhaps? It seems really hard to get a felony charge (the misdemeanor is the same charge, only without the death/great bodily injury part. So that part is easy to prove). 

Why did Amy think this was such a longshot? 

[Brian Cronin]

Also, what kind of deal was the D.A. offering that included the girl pleading to a FELONY? Boy, this case didn't make sense. 

[Dowel Jones]

On 4/27/2021 at 9:08 PM, Brian Cronin said:

How do you EVER prove that the person knew that the swatting would likely to cause death or great bodily injury?

Perhaps because she reported it as an active shooter, which increases the likelihood of a lethal reaction by police.

 

On 4/27/2021 at 1:15 PM, tennisgurl said:

Luke needs to get a lawyer, not talk to Lola about it.

Yep, and I don't mean Emily.  He needs a shark now.

[Brian Cronin]

13 minutes ago, Dowel Jones said:

Perhaps because she reported it as an active shooter, which increases the likelihood of a lethal reaction by police.

But if that was enough, then she should have been convicted, right?

[Dowel Jones]

Absent the reveal of the online relationship, probably so.  She's lucky she broke down and fessed up about it, else the dean's actual part wouldn't have been introduced into evidence.  Even so, Judge Carmichael rightly chastised Amy for the violation of discovery rules.

[Brian Cronin]

10 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

Absent the reveal of the online relationship, probably so.  She's lucky she broke down and fessed up about it, else the dean's actual part wouldn't have been introduced into evidence.  Even so, Judge Carmichael rightly chastised Amy for the violation of discovery rules.

But Judge Carmichael ruled on the case without letting the Dean's behavior factor into the case. She just said that the State did not prove that she knew or should have known that injury/death could have occurred. And I'm just wondering how you could EVER prove it, then, if you couldn't prove it here. It seems like a loosely written law.

[Irlandesa]

50 minutes ago, Brian Cronin said:

She just said that the State did not prove that she knew or should have known that injury/death could have occurred. And I'm just wondering how you could EVER prove it, then, if you couldn't prove it here. It seems like a loosely written law.

Social media. Getting drunk and mouthing off to her friends that he hopes he gets roughed up.  Or if it's a well known consequence.  The usual.

[KaveDweller]

6 hours ago, Brian Cronin said:

But Judge Carmichael ruled on the case without letting the Dean's behavior factor into the case. She just said that the State did not prove that she knew or should have known that injury/death could have occurred. And I'm just wondering how you could EVER prove it, then, if you couldn't prove it here. It seems like a loosely written law.

The state needs to prove someone intended to kill someone to get a murder conviction. So, proving someone intended to cause harm with the swatting is the same principle. 

[Brian Cronin]

8 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Social media. Getting drunk and mouthing off to her friends that he hopes he gets roughed up.  Or if it's a well known consequence.  The usual.

Sure, but then what did they have HERE? Why did they think they had such a strong case that they wouldn't even offer her a plea bargain that didn't involve her pleading to a FELONY? And remember how Amy was all, "I'll try to get it knocked down to a misdemeanor, but it will be tough." How was it tough as they apparently had NOTHING? 

[jabRI]

rachel and amy are so confusing.  I don't remember what they were before if not equal partners, like the post said, it's just the two of them.  unless rachel invested more at first, so she got more shares, and that's why she's broke and amy isn't? does anyone remember?

 

i don't think luke is going to try and cover this up.  i think he's embarrassed and ashamed of himself, and  needs to figure out the next steps before talking to mark about it.  he wouldn't have gone to lola about it if he was trying to cover it up forever.  besides, these are public records, not like they aren't discoverable on both sides.