Loveday Writing

As the day progresses, Julia is experiencing further consequences as she now can’t go anywhere without people recognising her, and an Institute’s client who is having a bris tells her that she can’t come to it as she would be a distraction.

Julia eventually ends up breaking down, crying and hiding under a big sweatshirt in her office. Isaac comes to see her and reassure her, but also emphasises that the team needs her. Later, Isaac goes to see Leon. Leon tells Isaac to tell Julia that she needs to create a new narrative and make him the villain. Later, Isaac comes to see Julia at her apartment and tells her to make a statement. He says if she shows people who she really is, they’ll fall in love with her.

Later, Julia goes to a hotel to see Sam, who has seen been kicked out of home by his wife and fired from his job. Julia tells him again that she has no sympathy for him as married men shouldn’t be using dating apps. When she asks Sam why he went on the app, he says he doesn’t know. She also reminds him that he came to the Institute and said they needed to do something about the video, and knows what to do.

Later, Julia and Sam appear on video together, with Julia making it clear that she didn’t know he was married and her brother when they hooked up, and that she is a person with feelings. The video works and the public is no longer against her. Julia thanks Isaac for helping her and makes it clear that she knew it was Leon’s idea. When Julia arrives home, she finds Leon waiting outside for her with a six-pack of orange soda. Julia makes it clear to him that she may forgive him in time but she’s not there yet.

Edie – Edie kicks off her time in the episode by meeting with Amanda and the Judge presiding over the case in the Judge’s chambers. Amanda is waiting on the arrival of a key witness in a few days, however Edie argues that it’s delaying the trial, and the Judge agrees. Afterwards, Edie tells Amanda that their hook up in the previous episode was a mistake and she can’t blow her life up over it. Amanda suggests that they keep hooking up but remain professional when it comes to the case, keep everything separate, and leaves the ball in Edie’s court.

Later Edie consults with Leon at his apartment, but he only wants to talk about Thanksgiving when she was nine after he spots her looking at photo of that day. Edie tells him that she’ll consult with him at the office from now on.

Later, Edie meets with Julia at a diner. Edie tries to playfully tease Julia over the viral video, but apologises when she sees how upset she is. Julia tells her that she saw her and Amanda hooking up, and points out that she is jeopardising the case, her career and her marriage.

Later, Edie and Leon meet up at her office and she asks him for as much detail as possible as to how he started using his own sperm with his patients. Leon tells her that he started doing it in the early 80s and the Institute didn’t have the same storage capabilities, his first patient was a woman who was having trouble conceiving and they suspected her husband was the problem but he refused to admit it or get tested.

Moments later, Edie tells him that he spun a good story about caring for his patients and the jury will love it, but he tells her it was the truth and he doesn’t care what the jury thinks. He also commends her on her skills as a lawyer, bringing up a pro bono case from her past. When she asks him if he followed her career, he makes a remark about being invested, which leads to her asking Genevieve if he gave her money. She eventually realises that a scholarship she applied for was funded by Leon. Edie confronts Leon about it and he tells her that he saw her potential and wanted to fund her education. She asks him why he just didn’t tell her the truth, he says a lot of people would have gotten hurt if he did.

Later in the episode, Edie thanks Julia for talking to her like a sister and not Tim’s ex, after Julia apologises to her for talking about the hook up.

At the end of the episode, Edie goes to see Amanda to tell her that they’re done, only to hook up with her anyway.

Roxy – Roxy kicks off her time in the episode having a “business meeting” with her parents. They are forcing her to make an appearance at a rich client’s birthday party. When she gets to the party, it’s clear that the birthday girl, Caitlyn, is spoiled by her parents, which is shown through hers and her friends’ attitudes.

While Caitlyn and her friends don’t want to do the somersaults that Roxy is showing them, another girl, Izzy, shows interest. When Izzy shows potential, Roxy spends the party training her, and Caitlyn reveals that Izzy is her nanny’s daughter and she was forced to invite her. When Roxy insults Caitlyn and then her parents for spoiling her, she leaves.

Afterwards, Diane calls Roxy and tells her to apologise to Caitlyn’s father, Mr. Marcus, but Roxy refuses. Whilst Diane shows her dog love during the phone call but not Roxy, Roxy snaps and kidnaps the dog from the pet groomer’s. Diane goes to Julia’s apartment to get him back, but she only ends up arguing with Roxy. Julia holds the dog and gets Roxy to agree to giving the dog back if Diane agrees to give Roxy space, they agree, Diane takes the dog and leaves.

Later, Roxy goes back to the Marcus’ home, seemingly to apologise, only to offer her coaching services to Izzy and leave as soon as the Marcus’ arrive. At the end of the episode, Roxy finds Isaac during his run and runs with him, flirting as they go.

In the final moments of the episode, Amanda discovers Diane waiting for her in her office, saying she wants to testify against Leon.

Overall I felt this was a solid episode as it explored a necessary aspect of the scandal, the social media aspect. I felt it was realistically explored with how quickly the video went viral, how it unfairly affected Julia more than Sam, although I did feel the tides turned unrealistically quickly and I found it a little disturbing that people would “ship” Sam and Julia, but that’s the internet for you!

I also appreciated the humour in the episode, especially between Julia and Edie and that they’re relationship is developing. I also enjoyed seeing Roxy find a new path for herself in training Izzy, and her flirtation with Isaac, as Roxy and Isaac got together in the original series.

It will be interesting to see where we go from here considering Diane wants to testify against Leon.

Stray Observations:

-Some of the hashtags that were trending about the viral video included #BechleywithBenefits and #BrotherHumper.

-Julia describes sex with Sam as unmemorable.

-Roxy won her silver medal at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics.

-Apparently Roxy has really good hearing.

-Apparently Roxy knows a guy that works in SEO that could push Julia’s viral video to the 10^th search page. This same guy scrubbed the internet of a story that reported Roxy’s DUI two days before trials.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “I am sick of being paraded around like a circus freak with a 15-year-old silver medal!” (Roxy to Ron and Diane)
• “I’m not leaving this chair or this sweatshirt ever!” (Julia to Isaac)
• “My grandmother has that sweater.” (Julia to Isaac on his light purple sweater)
• “So, you’re a medal dropper.” “I’m sorry, do you have one?” (Isaac-Roxy when Roxy mentions that she has a silver medal)