Trama

Billy scrambles to get his wrongful death lawsuit into court by any means necessary.

SYNOPSIS BY STEPHONI 0F SERIES 1, EPISODE 2 OF GOLIATH. EPISODE TITLE: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. c 34 SCENES, 54 MINUTES. The opening credits roll to Bartholomew, The Silent Comedy. Scene 1. Billy McBride, still behind bars following his beating by a cop, is looking anxiously at a wall-clock. He is running late for his appearance in State Court, where his old lawfirm, Cooperman McBride is moving to have his action against Borns Tech dismissed. Scene 2. Rushing into the courtroom Alma Perez, the judge's clerk tells him: "The judge dismissed it Mr McBride, you missed it". Scene 3. At the pound Billy finds his red Mustang convertible has been mysteriously damaged - windscreen, headlight, dents. Scene 4. On a bench outside her school, Billy is trying to assuage his daughter Denise, who was tasered by the cop the previous night. "We're good" she says, then: "Dad, get your Sh.. together!". Scene 5. On another bench Billy is looking across a wide stretch of sand at the ocean. People are recreating. Levee Camp Blues by Son House is the background score. He takes a slug of liquor from a bottle in a brown paper bag, then (perhaps recalling Denise's admonition) empties it onto the ground. Scene 6. Billy is back in his second-floor apartment in Ocean View Hotel trying to sleep when the maid lets in Patty Solis-Patagian, who gives him a loud tongue-lashing for failing to show up at the court hearing. As she storms out she tells him to "fix it!". The hotel maid glares at him before closing his door. Scene 7. Donald Cooperman's always-darkened office; his scarred face, horn-rimmed glasses, clicker in hand. He tells Michelle, Callie and Leonard Letts to pursue Billy now with a malicious prosecution claim. Michelle and Letts urge him to "let sleeping dogs lie", the case Billy brought is dead, dismissed. Cooperman insists that "some dogs you have to hit, kick, when they're down, to ensure they stay down". Michelle suggests his emotions are in play. Callie (perhaps ingratiating herself) stays silent. Letts says he will be unable to explain to his employer Borns Tech why a fresh action against Billy has been filed. "Just tell them because I said so." is Cooperman's retort - which hints at the power the man actually wields. Scene 8. An aerial shot of Billy's red Mustang passing through a sunny, treed suburb. Rachel answers her door to him, he pleads with her through an inches-wide gap: I've always shown up for my court dates; there's this guy is following me; I'll file again, in both State Court and Federal Court. She shuts the door, rejecting his excuses. The last shot is of Billy seated on her porch, despondent. Scene 9. The Marquez brothers on a vessel in a marina. Karl Stoltz, a menacing, dark-suited figure, in conversation with the easier-manipulated brother. Stultz pretends to be brokering a drug-smuggling deal, but is really there to learn how much they told Billy about the explosion that wiped out their fishing boat. Scene 10. Billy shares at an AA meeting of adults whom he knows from the past, including Alma, the judge's clerk from scene 2. Scene 11. Outside after the meeting Billy confronts Alma, a plump Latina woman in her thirties, pressuring her with some secret he is holding over her to get his case back in front of judge Keller. Scene 12. Patty qua realtor is showing a couple through a foreclosed property when Billy makes an unwelcome appearance, to beg her to help him put things right with Rachel. Scene 13. Lucy Kittridge (played by Olivia Thirlby) at her office desk. Callie Senate, rather meanly drops on her all the preparatory work for both Billy's Federal and State actions, to be done by close of business. Lucy says she has never even laid eyes on Cooperman; Callie replies that she is on his radar. Callie is looking her age, whereas behind Lucy's mousy, studious looks lies beauty. Is Callie jealous? Scene 14. To classical Belle Canto Cooperman in his darkened office watches Lucy at work from what must be a ceiling camera. Scene 15. In Chez Jay Frankie is serving Billy coffee when Rachel appears. She has been getting hang-up calls. Billy and Rachel readily make up, though the relationship can't still be sexual: they are attorney/client, her suit against Borns Tech being back on. Scene 16. Next door in Billy's Ocean View Hotel rooms Rachel is daubing Billy's facial injuries from the cop beating. The scene ends in sex. Scene 17. Three other junior Cooperman McBride lawyers are in Lucy's glassed-in office, gossiping about the mystery which is Donald Cooperman. Is the burned face a Vietnam legacy, or did Billy McBride do it? Callie creeps up on them, catches them, and belittles them. Scene 18. Returning with Patty to the lounge in his cheap hotel apartment, now functioning as his legal office, Brittany Gold introduces an unattractive older woman, Marva Jefferson, to him, explaining she is her replacement. Brittany wants to return to her "other Job". Billy emphatically resists, promising her she'll get paid. The upshot is both Brittany and Marva will stay, Marva as a trainee. At one point Brittany introduces Marva to Patty, taking a stab at the surname and landing on "Sultan something". Patty's ungainly surname is a standing joke in Goliath series 1. Scene 19. Rachel drives to Gina Larson's house where she meets her nephew Jason out front, and hugs him warmly. Gina is most unwelcoming. She brings up her late husband Ryan's suicide note when Rachel insists he would never have killed himself. This is the first we have heard of any suicide note; certainly Billy is unaware of it. Scene 20. Brittany, bikini-clad, sun-lounging and coke-snorting in a big upmarket hotel, is clearly back plying her old trade. Scene 21. In Billy's "office" he and Patty are sparing over their respective competence as lawyers. Michelle walks in. Billy tells her "weird sh.t" has been happening to him, blames Cooperman. Michelle scoffs, urges him to give up the case. "You can't win". Marva has news for Billy: the case based on High Seas law in Federal Court has been dismissed without explanation; but his "friend Alma" has managed to get it reinstated in State Court. Scene 22. Walking beside Callie the perpetually-angry Leonard Letts is cursing foully about the already-dismissed case resurfacing and Cooperman's personal vendetta against Billy. Callie says dismissal is assured this time around as the case is before "the gnome" (ie Judge Keller). Scene 23. Billy and Patty in a strategy meeting in some bar. Billy says Keller is not necessarily Cooperman's friend, is a good judge but "a nasty little prick". Patty weighs up the odds against them, concluding should they survive tomorrow they should settle. Billy is the truer, and braver, lawyer. "Part of being a lawyer is knowing when you're onto something." he says. Scene 24. On a balcony of Borns Tech's magnificent headquarters building Leonard Letts is advising Wendel Corey to throw some money at Billy's/Rachel's suit, to get rid of it. Presumably Wendel Corey is the head, or near the head, of Borns Tech. Letts argues Cooperman's vendetta should not be indulged, that "he works for us, he acts like it's the other way round". Corey orders him to do Cooperman's bidding, without question and respectfully. The conversation turns to Ryan Larson's job at Borns Tech. Larson was not a fuel engineer as Letts had thought, but something else it is better he does not ask about. The scene raises big questions: who exactly is Cooperman; and if Larson was murdered, why? Scene 25. Callie informs Lucy she will be her second in court in front of Judge Keller. She expects her to smile and not to stutter. Scene 26. Still in the big hotel where we last saw her, Brittany, in a skimpy black dress, walks to her car to the approving stares of men. A young valet parking guy asks for a date, is sent off, tail between his legs. Scene 27. Billy in his bed hooked up to the sleep-apnea machine, is wide awake. Scene 28. Cooperman is watching a video of Billy's beating by the cop, laughing sadistically. A call from Wendel Corey: Letts is wary of Billy, the case "needs to go away", tomorrow. Callie enters the gloom. Cooperman tells her: "The dog has to stay down, Callie." She makes a play for Cooperman, standing before him in front of his desk unconsciously rubbing the ivory handle of his cane. Cooperman obliquely rebuffs her advance. As she departs he repeats the dog remark, adding "He is rabid!". Scene 29. The morning of the hearing. In his hotel rooms Billy, suited-up, is wearing a deadly serious, focused expression. Scene 30. Callie, Letts and Lucy, looking formidable, emerge from an elevator and walk past Patty and Rachel into the courtroom. Scene 31. Billy pulls into the courthouse carpark, takes a slug of liquor. Scene 32. The courtroom. Judge Keller takes his place on the bench. Billy arrives late. Vicious sparing between Billy and Keller quickly breaks out during which Billy accuses Keller of being "bought" and Keller dismisses his suit and fines him for contempt. The scene ends with Billy forcing Keller to grant a fresh hearing, which he is entitled to for being held in contempt, and where he will be able to reopen all matters. Was that Billy's gameplan all along? Scene 33. Cooperman, who has been video-linked into the proceedings throughout, releases a drawn-out "no", a howl of frustration and rage. Scene 34. A shocking finale. Billy and Rachel are walking away from the courthouse, a black van races up behind them, strikes Rachel and speeds away. One moment she is alongside Billy, pretty and talking to him, the next she is supine on the road, blood pooling from her head. The episode ends with Billy looking down at her body, aghast.