'The Good Fight' Season 4 Episode 7 Review: A frustrating waste of time that's not improved by its lampshading
Spoilers for 'The Good Fight' Season 4 Episode 7 'The Gang Discovers Who Killed Jeffrey Epstein'
'The Good Fight' has had a lot of stellar episodes this season, but this episode wasn't one of them. Apart from the B-plot, setting up the status quo for Season 5, this episode largely felt like a waste of time. One could make a reasonable argument that that was the point, and they'd be right, but that doesn't make its premise any cleverer.
As implied by the title of the episode, Liz Reddick (Audra McDonald) has been tasked with the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's death — specifically, with whether or not his death was a murder. "No conspiracy theories!" is a rule Liz lays down early in the episode, as she gets the firm's investigation underway. It's not long, though, before the episode devolves into exactly that.
For a show that has spent much of its season setting up the mystery of Memo 618, conjuring up a mystery surrounding Epstein's own death is done admirably quickly. An envelope meant to be delivered to Epstein's girlfriend via her hairdresser with a coded message inside and a reference to a mysterious "BUD" are all it takes for a structured investigation to turn into a room with crackpot theories being thrown left and right.
There's enough research into the actual facts of the case to highlight the point that the show is trying to get across — that the details surrounding Epstein's death are not just mysterious, they're bizarre. It's not possible to look closer into it without following a fair few crackpot theories in the hope of finding either answers or a definitive dead end, and the firm ends up with neither. In an Indiana Jones-style tomb way out in the Virgin Islands, as the investigation runs down its final lead, Marissa Gold (Sarah Steel) and Jay Dipersia (Nyambi Nyambi) find a literal empty space.
With a shrug, Marissa points out that they got so lost in the investigation, they lost focus on the actual tragedy of the crimes Epstein committed, which appears to be the takeaway of the episode. Of course, the show can't resist throwing one last gag at the audience, with the reveal of "BUD" simply being Epstein's cryogenically frozen penis, hammering its point home: none of the conspiracy theories matter, which would have been a great message if it weren't for the show devoting an entire episode to covering it.
It's not a dip in quality — the show's humor, excellent pacing and careful examinations of the subject matter spiced up with lively dialog are all still on full display here. It's the concept itself that falls flat, which makes it an especially disappointing unplanned season finale.
The scenes devoted to developing the longer seasonal arcs are much stronger. Diane Lockhart's (Christine Baranski) outrage at Julius Cain's (Michael Boatman) arrest, the day after he first testifies about Memo 618, is emotionally powerful. The story of the partners trying to retake their firm, only to be outmaneuvered by Gavin Firth (John Larrquette) at the last minute is legal drama at its best and much more fitting of a season finale.
All of it, unfortunately, is lost under the mess of conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein that this episode chooses to focus on, all of which is thematically appropriate — but no less frustrating to have to watch. All episodes of 'The Good Fight' Season 4 are now available to stream on CBS All Access.