FAMILY LAW – Season 2 Episode 1 – SPOILERS

While Joanne (Lauren Holly) is having a change of heart and Abby (Jewel Staite) is winning a case, Lucy (Genelle Williams) is having a particularly difficult time. She is embarrassed on the witness stand, forced to endure dinner with Harry’s right-wing girlfriend Crystal (Lynda Boyd), and utterly vilified by her wife Maggie (Ali Liebert) . The first of those events happens shortly after Norma (Catherine Fitch) consults Svensson & Svensson about a cat video with her ex-husband’s distinctive, octopus-like birthmark in it.

Bert Choi (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), has been presumed dead for years. Over Daniel’s usual objections, Abby tracks down Norma’s undead spouse and finds him working as a farmhand on a pot farm some 65 kilometers outside Vancouver under the name Ezra Warner. Ezra says he has no memory of being Bert.

Using Lucy as an expert witness, Abby tries to establish that Bert knew what he was doing and intentionally faked his death, but when Lucy’s testimony supports the notion that Bert is experiencing “dissociative fugue“, Abby successfully discredits her own witness. After the hearing, Norma tells Abby: “You were good in there, like Mike Tyson when he bit off Evander Holyfield’s ear.”

Following the (possibly temporary) breakup of her marriage, Lucy has been staying with Abby and Joanne. When Joanne discovers this, two strange things happen. When Abby criticizes her half-sister for cheating on her wife, Joanne comes to Lucy’s defense. “Abigail Jane Calliope,” Joanne exclaims. “Your sister had a momentary lapse of judgement.” Then Joanne visits her former husband Harry (Victor Garber), with whom she normally refuses to interact, and not only updates him on developments in Abby’s life, but also brings him up to speed on the situation between Lucy and Maggie.

We find out that Daniel’s mother (Harry’s second wife) was Joanne’s best friend until she slept with Harry. On learning that Daniel’s mother is currently working “somewhere in Guatemala”, Joanne remarks: “She always was a do-gooder.” But the change in her seems inspired, not by Daniel, but by Lucy, who is the daughter of Harry’s third wife Monique who died when Lucy was eight. Clearly, there is something we have not been told about Harry and Joanne’s breakup.

Crystal pushes Harry to introduce her to his family, all of whom dislike her, so Harry invites his children to a family dinner with Crystal as a surprise guest.

When Harry leaves the table (for unexplained reasons), Crystal attempts what she might believe is friendly conversation. She tells Abby: “Must be tough for you being around people who drink. I’m so happy that I can hold my liquor. If I couldn’t drink my bubbles, I’d kill myself.” She tells Daniel (Zach Smadu): “I tried to tell your dad that you were ready for partnership, but do you think he’d listen to me? Good thing Abby tipped the scales in your favour.” But before all that, she disposes of Lucy.

CRYSTAL: “I read that Tegan and Sara are coming to town. Will you and Maggie be going?”
LUCY: “Because we’re gay and they’re gay?”
CRYSTAL: “Of course not.”

Each of the three leaves the table after receiving his or her personalized version of Crystal’s insensitivity, so when Harry finally returns he finds Crystal alone, seemingly puzzled as to why this should be.

The episodes most intense scene happens near the end, when Lucy decides to phone Maggie, who is in an impressively vituperative mood.

LUCY: “How are you feeling?”
MAGGIE: “Emotionally? Like shit. Physically, fine.”
LUCY: “Maggie, what I did, it – it’s not who I am. Okay? I’m a better person than that.”
MAGGIE: “Oh, Lucy. Do you really believe that? When we first met, you were dating someone else. I told myself you could change. Who was I kidding? You are a deeply-damaged human being. Incapable of honesty, fidelity – love. [pauses] You’re not a good person, Lucy. You’re rotten to the core.”

Finally, as Abby’s daughter Sophia (Eden Summer Gilmore), having decided she no longer hates her mother, abandons her father and moves in with her grandmother, “Gun Burial,” a song by Dominique Fils-Aimé, plays in the background:

“Did I pull the trigger?
Did I bury the gun?
Fact that you’d burn down paradise
Within the blink of a random eye
Makes me wonder what’s left”

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Seasons One through Three of FAMILY LAW cam be streamed on The CW.
In Canada, Season Three will begin airing on Global TV this winter.
In Australia, Seaaons Two and Three can be streamed on 9Now.