'Bluff City Law': Will Elijah and Sidney's reconciliation be ruined by Emerson's identity?
This article contains spoilers for episode 1.
NBC's poster child for this generation of legal dramas, 'Bluff City Law' just premiered and while the first half of the pilot is slightly slow, the latter half - particularly, the ending - is where the twist in the tale arrives in the form of a bitter half-sibling situation. Elite Memphis-based lawyer Elijah Strait is able to reconcile with his prodigal daughter Sidney in the wake of his wife and her mother's death, but the reconciliation takes a turn for the unknown at the end of the episode, when Sidney overhears a considerably younger colleague at her father's law firm call Elijah 'dad'. Will this ruin the chances for a peaceful future between the father-daughter duo?
At the beginning of the episode, we see Elijah struggling to make amends with Sidney, who still despises him for cheating on her mom. But after a lot of coaxing and convincing, Elija is able to make her join the family law firm and better their bond, as the two 'alphas' come together with the same burning passion, out-of-the-box thinking and 'fighting for what's right' in terms of the cases they take up.
After a difficult round or two of sitting through two very different, but equally intense cases, right when one would think that maybe Elijah and Sidney's relationship isn't all that broken beyond repair, a young lawyer at their firm, who previously totally avoids Sidney, ends up calling Elijah 'dad' in front of her. Sidney picks up on that immediately, as she asks Elijah "What did he call you?" and the older man just smiles at her, in a possible confirmation that the younger boy, Emerson (Stony Blyden) is, in fact, his child.
It could mean two things: either Emerson is Elijah's child from the extra-marital affair he had, or maybe he took him in after his relationship with Sidney turned sour and hence she never found out about the new addition to their family. But Sidney's words about her mom reveal she was quite close to her, so it's odd that her mother would have forgotten to tell her such pivotal news. Unless Sidney's mom was looking out for her and actively keeping the information from her because her dad possibly had done something Sidney wouldn't approve of. Which makes it likely that Emerson is, after all, a child from an affair Elijah had.
The pilot begins establishing that Sidney and Elijah's relationship has been strained for a while and it was wholesome to see the two bury the hatchet and overcome their difference to finally reconcile. But will that happen now that the cat is out of the bag? The whole reason behind their estranged relationship was Sidney's resentment over Elijah's infidelity, and by the looks of it, the ghosts of Elijah's past are manifesting into more real hassles in his present relationship with his daughter.
'Bluff City Law' airs on Mondays at 9 pm, only on NBC.