While the Florrick and Childs campaigns struggle to get leverage against dark horse candidate Wendy Scott-Carr, the team at Lockhart, Gardner & Bond try the test case in a class-action against a pharmaceutical company and have their first encounter with Louis Canning (Michael J. Fox), a specialist in defending corporations.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Attack of the Political Ad: Deconstructed. Eli tricks Glenn Childs' campaign into releasing a JibJab-like flash video making fun of Wendy Scott-Carr for getting breast implants. It backfires horribly when Scott-Carr reveals she'd gotten the implants because of a double mastectomy due to breast cancer: Childs' campaign manager resigns, and Eli hurriedly orders his social media people to stop linking to the video.
- Boob-Based Gag: Deconstructed. Eli finds out that dark horse candidate Wendy Scott-Carr has gotten implants, and tricks Glenn Childs' campaign into releasing a JibJab-like flash video making fun of them. It backfires horribly when Scott-Carr reveals in an interview she'd gotten the implants because of a double mastectomy due to breast cancer: Childs' campaign manager resigns, and Eli hurriedly orders his social media people to stop linking to the video.
- Fake Boobs: The B-plot revolves around Eli trying to take advantage of a discovery that Wendy Scott-Carr had gotten implants, which they think will poke holes in her image as a fighter for the underprivileged. She successfully defends it as a concession to vanity following a double mastectomy due to breast cancer.
- Murder-Suicide: Lockhart/Gardner is trying a class-action against a pharmaceutical company over an antidepressant that caused psychological disturbance in many patients. The test case involves a woman who murdered her husband and then committed suicide.
- Out-Gambitted: In the end, Canning and his clients offer a $35 million settlement, which the firm celebrates as a win... only for Canning to privately tell Alicia that he estimated the jury damages at $90 million and was hired to get that down to $40 million or below.
- Panty Thief: Played for drama: a pair of the plaintiff's panties were found in her stepfather's gym bag after his murder. Canning accuses them of having an affair, but the plaintiff says she caught him stealing her underwear a while back and then was accused by her mother of having an affair with him, which led to her moving out.
- Sex Sells: Canning outmaneuvers the firm on the test case by suggesting jealousy over an extramarital affair was the cause of the Murder-Suicide, which makes more sense and is more interesting to the laymen on the jury than the pharmacology they wanted to rely on. Will and Diane counter by leaning on an expert witness to discuss symptoms of hypersexuality experienced by several patients, including increased desire for exhibitionism and anal intercourse. Canning counters that by suggesting a Parental Incest angle between the plaintiff and her late stepfather.
