FAMILY LAW – Season 1 Episode 7 – SPOILERS

Last episode, Daniel (Zach Smadu) asked Harry (Victor Garber) to make him a partner in the firm, and Harry declined. Also, Abby (Jewel Staite) saw Lucy (Genelle Williams) kissing someone other than her wife. After Abby lets Lucy know that she knows she’s cheating, this week’s client, Bailey Jacobs (Kai Bradbury), arrives seeking spousal support. He explains that he was in a lengthy relationship with Crystal Steele (Lynda Boyd) and her husband Gavin (Roger Haskett), and put his career as an artist on hold to cohabit with them in a ménage à trois, but was summarily kicked out without explanation or compensation. Crystal turns out to be a right-wing YouTube influencer with a large following who supports a narrow, exclusively heterosexual definition of marriage. The Steeles deny everything, but offer Bailey a $50,000 settlement if he will sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Despite the advice of his lawyers, Bailey doesn’t want to sign a lie, so Daniel and Abby tell him to sleep on it. Then Abby runs into Crystal, who is aggressively antagonizing the firm’s office manager Jerri (Bobbi Charlton). Abby takes Nina the Receptionist‘s phone and hands it back to her. Nina is careful to read Abby’s “read out loud” instruction first, then reads out the text: “Bailey won’t sign. so there’s nothing stopping him from going public, and then he will control the narrative.” Crystal says nothing and leaves. Lucy suggests that Abby’s tactics could get her disbarred, but Abby implies that if Lucy were to tell on her, she would tell on Lucy.

While watching Crystal go public with her version of events, calling Svensson & Associates “crooked” and stirring the ire of her many followers, Nina casually remarks: “Holy smokies, Miss Bianchi, she stole your idea!” So without Lucy saying anything, Harry and everyone else knows that it was Abby’s fault when a stink bomb hits the Svensson’s offices.

In the course of things, Jerri and Crystal have this exchange:

JERRI: “For the record, I’m not mentally ill. I’m not an attention seeker either, though my wife Eleanor might disagree.”
CRYSTAL: “I’ve got nothing against you, okay? Some of the things I say on my channel, it’s just clickbait, you know? It’s nothing personal.”
JERRI: “Of course. Feeding stereotypes that endanger people’s lives. Why would I ever take that personally?”

It turns out that Bailey is not the only person to have throupled-up with Crystal and Gavin. Also, Bailey and Gavin still have feelings for each other, and these discoveries lead to an agreement in which everyone, including Crystal, gets to save face. Once again, Abby’s borderline unethical behaviour is rewarded with success. (There must be a point of diminishing returns on that kind of thing.) To top it off, Harry announces that Crystal was impressed with how Svensson & Associates handled things, and has hired them to represent her in her divorce proceedings. “We’re a law firm,” he tells Daniel, “and she has deep pockets.” Then he tells a very surprised Abby: “Oh, and you don’t have to work with your brother for the time being. You’re with me on this one. This could get ugly. I’m going to need a street fighter, someone who doesn’t mind getting her hands a little dirty.”

Already alienated from his sister Lucy after finding out that she (and others) bet on the end of his recent engagement, Daniel seems entirely disgusted at this turn of events, and we hear David Vertesi‘s song “Life Ghouls“:

“Past desires
A thousand miles down
Like vast empires
Now nowhere to be found”

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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.