Inauguration
Diane Lockhart and associate Maia Rindell represent the police in a police brutality case. The other side is represented by Adrian Boseman, a black man who runs a majority black law firm that takes on mostly black clients, and consequently a lot of police brutality cases. Diane thinks it's time to retire and considers this her last case, while Maia doubts the rightness of her own side in said case and ends up uncovering evidence that helps the other side.
Maia's parents and paternal uncle get accused of running a pyramid scheme, and as Diane had all her money invested with them, she can't retire after all. Having already quit her job at her old firm, she has to look for a new job, and is offered a place with Reddick-Boseman, as is Maia, which they both accept.
Tropes
- Bathroom Stall of Angst: A man comes to Maia's workplace to yell at her for her family scamming him. She runs to the bathroom. When Lucca follows her, Maia bolts into a stall to hide that she's crying.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: In a business sense. Diane asks Kurt to finalize their divorce to save his money from suffering the same fate as hers.
- Call-Back: To the original series.
- Diane has learned her lesson about metadata since the debacle with Kalinda.
- Diane tells Maia that people she thought were saints have stabbed her in the back, referring to Alicia.
- Establishing Character Moment: Maia expresses concern as to whether her firm is on the right side in a police brutality case.
- Irony:
- Looking at the video evidence, Maia discovered a car in the background that would have been filming the police brutality in question in the time that was missing from the phone video, and finds it proves that the other side is in the right. When she gets fired, the opposing firm immediately hires her.
- The Rindells ran an invitation-only investment scam, and Diane steered people toward them in good faith, so now no one wants to be associated with her. Turns out, they never invited any black people, so the main clientele of Reddick-Boseman doesn't care. They hire her.
- Nepotism: Maia Rindell is hired by her godmother's firm.
- Ponzi Scheme: What the Rindells have been accused of, with Diane one of the victims.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Maia gets suspicious for the first time when her father asks her out of the blue if her uncle Jax has told her anything about the fund, and if he tries to call him first, Jax says a lot of crazy things.
- Title Drop: A visual one. The episode begins with the inauguration of Trump.
