FAMILY LAW – Season 1 Episode 3 – SPOILERS

The week’s new client is Marlee Liu-Hartford (Steph Song) whose husband Dwight (Haig Sutherland) wants temporary custody of their children because Marlee (he says) is addicted to gaming. She is in fact addicted to Second Life, which describes itself as “an inclusive haven of self-expression,” and is not a competitive virtual environment, but more a place for role-play. Cecil (Brett Kelly) uses his Second Life account to experiment with furniture arrangements, while Marlee’s simulation involves a virtual affair with Freyr (aka Herbert Dyckman, played by Laban Pitman-Johnson).

Marlee met her husband Dwight at ComicCon. “We met when he accidentally goosed me with his sword at ComicCon 2013 lineup,” she explains, “and then a week later, he said, ‘Ashau nashveh tu’ on the Jumbotron at the Star Trek convention. It means ‘I love you’, in Vulcan. (The English to Vulcan Translator. renders the phrase as Nash-veh ashaya du.)

The couple was getting along fine until Dwight got a job with a gaming company that took up all of his time. Left alone with their two kids, Marlee got involved with Second Life where she met Herbert in a virtual scenario based on a fictional comic series called Vikings of Valhalla. She named her avatar Gefion (after the Norse goddess of abundance). The object of her virtual affections named his avatar Freyr (son of Njörd, the Norse god of the sea).

Abigail (Jewel Staite) tells Marlee to quit cold turkey, and when that doesn’t work, tracks down the man behind the virtual Viking in hopes that seeing him in person will jar Marlee back to reality. Freyr turns out to be hotter than expected, but this tactic ultimately succeeds and Marlee gets back together with her husband. Abigail is subjected to much criticism from her siblings and from her father for her methods but it is never acknowledged that she got the correct result, and did, in fact, follow the maxim: “Put the needs of the children first.”

At the end of the previous episode, Lucy (Genelle Williams) panics when her wife Maggie (Ali LIebert) starts pushing her to evaluate sperm donor profiles, so she heads out to a singles bar, meets Asha (Celia Reid), and begins an affair. It’s worth noting that the music playing when Asha and Lucy meet is “Got It Bad” by Nuela Charles which includes the lines: “Holy heaven I just need a release / ‘Cause I’ve been searching for a rhythm that can set me free” which is perhaps a reference to the “rhythm method” of birth control. There are indications that Maggie might be aware of Lucy’s extramarital activities and is just not saying anything.

Harry (Victor Garber) loads Abigail with menial work, so much that she has to do some of it during her AA meetings. She hands him a stack of briefs she was assigned to review, and waits for a thank you, but he tells her “You’ve never thanked me for giving you this job, so I see no reason to thank you for doing it.” So she literally has a thankless job. Abby’s daughter Sofia (Eden Summer Gilmore) has an emergency situation of which Abby is not notified because she has been banned from school property; has been taken off the notification list; and her husband Frank (Luke Camilleri) was too busy to answer his phone.

Abigail is preoccupied with Felicity, the woman who had a one-night stand with Frank at a convention in Chicago shortly before she and Frank separated. (Toward episode’s end, she shows Frank her 30 day sobriety chip from Alcoholics Anonymous and suggests she move back in with him and the kids. He says she should wait until she’s 90 days sober. Later she finds out via social media that he plans to get together with Felicity again. It must seem to Abigail as though Frank is using her alcoholism as an excuse to end their relationship.

Daniel (Zach Smadu) and his girlfriend Danielle (Yvonne Chapman) will soon mark their second anniversary of living together, and the office staff has been taking bets on just when he’ll break up with her to avoid common-law (like he did with exes Hannah, Alex, and Georgia). When Abigail returns to the office she is surprised to encounter a celebration of the couple’s just-announced engagement, complete with champagne, and this turns out to be the last ingredient in Abigail’s perfect storm of isolation.

Behind the final scene, the Whitehorse song “Wallow” plays.

“Broken records, buzzing flies, empty bottles
Graphic evidence of a war as it heals
Scratch the itch, pick the scab, don’t let it seal
This is a martyr’s scar
Oh and if I wallow here, it’s my history to burn…”

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Season 4 premiered on The CW on 23 July. New episodes drop Thursdays.
In the US, Seasons 1 through 3 of FAMILY LAW cam be streamed on The CW.

Seasons 1 through 3 can be streamed on Global TV in Canada, and on Apple TV in Australia.

* Last Updated 3 months ago ago