Loveday Writing

Meanwhile, Edie, Amanda and Tim are back in court. Edie and Tim are asking for Amanda to hand over the laptop, as the evidence from the laptop her team have provided is inconsistent. The Judge asks her if she’s accusing Amanda of prosecutorial misconduct, Edie hesitates to answer and Tim takes over her argument. The Judge rules that Edie can view the laptop in Amanda’s office under her supervision.

Meanwhile, Donovan and Julia are out bowling and he talks about his kids. While he loves them, he does view parenting, at times, to be liking serving a prison sentence, and he’s only a few years away from being on parole, making it clear he doesn’t want to have more kids. He asks Julia if that’s a problem and she says no, but she’s clearly lying.

When Edie and Tim are back in Edie’s office, he tries to get her to tell him the truth about what she did when he was away in the previous episode by telling her that she can tell him anything, however she stays silent.

Later, Edie, Julia and Roxy meet up at the diner. Edie describes her situation with Tim and Amanda as being on a diving board and that she can’t turn back, but she’s also not ready to dive. Roxy arrives and tells them about the meet and greet at the gym. Edie asks Roxy about the relationship and Nick, asking her how old she was when she dated him. Roxy is reluctant to go into detail and instead calls Edie and Julia out for trying to give her love advice when Edie is cheating on Tim and Julia doesn’t really have much dating experience.

Later, Julia meets Rivka and her many children at the Institute. Rivka tells Julia that her mother had fertility treatments to conceive her and Leon is her father. When Julia asks about Rivka’s own children, Rivka tells her she has five and her first one was born at 20. When Rivka asks Julia if she has any kids, Julia says no, and Rivka tells her she has plenty of time if she wants them. Rivka tells Julia she wants Leon to tell her stories about the Bechley family, so she knows where she comes from.

At Amanda’s office, Amanda suggests to Edie that they go on a weekend getaway to the Catskills. Edie tells her now’s not a good time for it, especially as Tim is growing suspicious and asking questions, Edie also tells her that she’s not ready to destroy her marriage. When Amanda has to leave the room, Edie notices her laptop display an email notification and sees Amanda’s emails open, and takes a picture with her phone.

Later, Julia calls Leon about Rivka, whose case he can remember. When she tells him that Rivka wants to know their family history, he tells Julia to give her medical records, but Julia tells him she wants stories about the family. Meanwhile, Tim goes to see Amanda. He asks her about her marriage, if she has any kids and where she grew up. He then goes on to tell her that he went up against Edie in law school trials and she took advantage of the crush he had on her, suggesting without outright saying, she may be doing the same thing to her.

Meanwhile, when Julia returns to work after a date with Donovan, she finds Leon at the receptionist desk. Leon is still reluctant to share stories, giving Julia basic ancestry details. Afterwards, Julia meets Edie at her office. Edie tells her that she discovered an email on Amanda’s laptop which reveals that the police didn’t have a warrant when they searched the laptop and therefore they conducted an illegal search. This is good news for Leon’s case but bad news for Edie personally because if she reveals this in court, Amanda will know she’s seen her emails and won’t trust her again. Julia tells her that she’ll support her no matter what she chooses but she does need to make a decision.

Meanwhile Roxy goes to see Isaac at his office and tells him about the meet and greet that Nick organised. Isaac also asks her about her past relationship with Nick, when she admits they dated over 10 years ago, he also asks how old she was when she started dating him. Roxy angrily storms out.

While Edie and Tim are working late, Tim tells her about chatting with Amanda. Tim tells her that he thought she’d hate her but she’s pretty cool. Edie shows him the photo of Amanda’s emails and he tells her she means everything to him, enhancing her guilt.

Meanwhile, Leon calls Julia and reveals to her that the reason why he’s reluctant to share family stories with Rivka is because his mother would tell him a story on his birthday every year about how he was born premature and due to the trauma of his birth, she gave up her career in mathematics and would never let him forget that. He tells her that he always wanted to make Julia feel wanted and not push her away. Julia tells him that Rivka invited them over for Shabbat and that he should come but he doesn’t have to tell any stories.

On another training day at the gym, Nick offers Roxy a full-time job. Roxy asks if she can still train Izzy there. He says yes, if it doesn’t interfere with her full-time work, he also makes a remark about the sweatpants she is wearing. Roxy goes to the locker room and starts taking pills again, another hint that her relationship with Nick was predatory and toxic. Meanwhile, Julia and Donovan go for a walk, with Julia taking Donovan to her mother’s bench. Donovan reveals that his wife died four years ago, six weeks after being diagnosed with colon cancer.

Later, Edie and Amanda go back to court where Edie reveals the email to the Judge. The Judge rules that the laptop be excluded from the trial and asks to see Amanda in her chambers.

The episode ends with Edie, Julia, Roxy, Tim and Isaac attending Shabbat. Leon arrives with a photo album and tells everyone of how his mother, Claudia, once accidentally signed an anti-civil rights petition and went to the trouble of tracking down the petitioner once she realised what she had done and asked him to remove her name from it. He tells Rivka that she, Edie, Julia and Roxy come from a line of strong women.

In the final moments of the episode, Edie, Julia and Roxy sit on Rivka’s front steps and help Julia deal with the fact that she does in fact want to have children in the future.

Overall, this was another good but not great episode. While I appreciate the continuing use of the tooth tapping as a transition between the introduction of a new sibling to what Julia is up to, it is in danger of getting old. While I’m happy that Rivka served a purpose in this episode, as opposed to Brian in the previous episode, by showing that some of Leon’s children will want to know more about the Bechley family itself, I am beginning to feel that meeting more and more children is getting old. I get it’s the whole premise of the series, but yeah, I am getting a little sick of it. It would be good if the focus shifted to Edie, Julia and Roxy, which is the path that the original series took and I think is necessary with this series, now that we’re at the halfway point.

Stray Observations:

-Leon’s mother’s name was Claudia, his father’s name was Ernest.

-On one occasion when Leon and Julia are talking to each other on the phone, they are both doing a jigsaw puzzle.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “I’m just getting warmed up.” “It’s the fifth frame.” “I really shine in the second half.” (Julia-Donovan-Julia on Julia’s bad bowling)