The Good Fight Season 5, Episode 6 recap: And the two partners had a fight…

The Good Fight Season 5 treks into intriguing territory this week as Diane (Christine Baranski) and Liz (Audra McDonald) find each other on opposing sides. Since this season began, there has been a lot of conversation about Diane being a name partner in a primarily African American firm. A lot of folks aren’t happy about it, and this week, it finally catches up to Liz.

A suggestion is made by Liz to Diane that she take a “backseat” in light of the pressure being put on her by the other associates and partners. It’s an awkward conversation to have, but it is one The Good Fight takes on in stride. They highlight two sides of a social issue that other shows would want to stay away from, and I commend them for it.

With a decision to make, Diane struggles to figure out what is right. Should she put her foot down because she has worked incredibly hard to get where she is or step aside because this is an issue of race and diversity? It’s tough to say but luckily she has some help from a mentor of hers, aka Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Elaine May). Well, her ghost, anyway.

The decision Diane ultimately makes is going to spell disaster for her and Liz’s friendship, and it’s certainly going to impact the dynamic of the firm. It’ll be interesting to see if people will be sympathetic towards her reasoning or boot her out. My guess is as good as yours, but I think we all know where this story is headed.

And with that, let’s talk about this week’s episode of The Good Fight Season 5!

The Good Fight Season 5, Episode 6 recap: Diane’s decision

There isn’t really a “right” or “wrong” answer to the situation Diane and Liz found themselves in. And because of that, there is a lot of gray area with the decision Diane had to ultimately make. The issue at hand is whether or not Diane should give up her partnership at a Black law firm. It’s one of the only ones in Chicago, and with Diane as a name partner, it jeopardizes what they stand for.

The series handles this whole storyline as best as it can, and highlights all aspects of it. On one hand, Diane looks to Kurt (Gary Cole) for advice who tells her that race and gender shouldn’t be a part of her decision. And then there’s RBG’s ghost who tells Diane that she should never step aside so others can climb instead of her. While RBG and Kurt are in agreement, Liz and the rest of the partners at the firm don’t feel as strongly. For them, it’s simply about a White woman being one of the main faces of the law firm.

It’s a frustrating predicament and ultimately, Diane does what is best for her. It may not have been the best way to go about it, but this isn’t a simple situation. Understanding her value to the firm and the work she’s done to get to this point, Diane decides she is going to stay name partner and not step down.

She goes about this by telling all her clients that she is handing their cases over to other partners in the firm. Diane knows that by doing this her clients will get upset and threaten to leave the firm, thereby proving the worth she brings to the firm just on her own.

David (Zach Grenier) finds out after he is bombarded with phone calls and immediately tells Diane she is not to step down in any capacity. All of this rubs Liz the wrong way, but Diane didn’t have a whole lot of options here. Of course, she could have simply said no she won’t step down, but even by doing that, there would have been some resistance. Or worse yet, they could have still found a way to get her out permanently.

I will say that the clients she chose were more racist than not, so she used race as a means to manipulate the situation in her favor. Every time she pointed out a Black partner to one of her clients, they would hesitate and get uncomfortable. I’m not sure I love that approach, and I think this is where it steps out of the gray area and is just straight manipulative.

It’ll be sad to see how this puts a strain on Liz and Diane’s relationship, especially because Liz has stuck by her side from day one. In fact, she was instrumental in giving her a place at the firm and giving Diane a fresh start. We’ll have to see how this plays out in the back half of the season.

The Good Fight Season 5, Episode 6 recap: Judge Wackner

Judge Wackner (Mandy Patinkin) spent a lot of this episode in a courtroom facing a lawsuit regarding a case that he ruled on in his makeshift courtroom. It’s a shift in the dynamic we’ve seen, but it’s hilarious to see how much of Judge Wackner’s principles and methods actually work.

He is a man who operates on a system of belief and values and having to deal with people who are trying to take advantage of the system is frustrating for him, to say the least. The lawsuit against him eventually goes away with some external persuasion, but I’m not sure he would be happy to know how that went down. In other words, someone beat the crap out of the guy trying to sue Wackner and he took back his case as a result of it.

It goes against everything Wackner stands for, but at the end of the day, justice was served one way or another.

Tune in next week to see how Liz and Diane navigate the murky waters of awkward friendship!

What did you think of this week’s episode of The Good Fight Season 5? Tell us in the comments below!