Episode 26

<--   26 April 2005   -->

Badly bruised from last night’s assault, Alice walks into work with James. She is telling James about the increasing weirdness of the situation surrounding Greg and Tim Lovely and her growing suspicion that one or both of them is responsible for their mother’s death. Nancy arrives and is shocked at Alice’s condition. Nancy also looks bad, since she’s come straight from her voyage to Mrs. Lovely’s “cabin” which, apparently, does exist.
James meets with Greg in the interview room and Greg is only interested in the “Gypsy” woman who has ostensibly been hired by Tim to care for their mother. Greg thinks that Tim hired the Gypsy to kill his mother and he begs James to get to the bottom of this situation once and for all.
Alice visits Mr. Jackson who is now in custody for trying to bring his giant cross into Old City Hall and the altercation with the police that ensued. Mr. Jackson, who seems to want to die for the sins of man, calmly explains to Alice that she “needs to let him move on”. Alice is concerned that Mr. Jackson plans to hurt himself. Ian waits for Alice outside the cells and he wants her to give a statement against Lanny Bodine. Alice is hesitant to do so, as Lanny is mentally ill and Alice recognizes that he is just an over-medicated, abandoned mess; the kind of person she spends most of her time trying to help. Ian is less sympathetic.
Elliot is approached by Unstable Man who presents to him Noah Willis, Gordon and Gloria’s five year old son. With Gordon still in custody, Gloria went to Sick Kids Hospital to try to rescue Jacob and ended up causing a small commotion and being arrested herself. In the panic Unstable Man grabbed Jacob because the boy was afraid and he wanted to protect him. The police are now combing the city looking for the boy and Unstable Man is afraid.
Alice meets in Timothy’s with Shawna Beness, on trial for throwing a crib at her sister-in-law Christie. Shawna lost her patience over Christie’s highly structured, utterly counter-intuitive approach to parenting her little girl. Shawna is annoyed that her family thinks she should have pled guilty “for the sake of the family” but she is fed up with her brother cow-towing to her controlling sister-in-law, who insisted on reporting her accident to the police out of spite: “assholes – I’m surrounded by a bunch of colossal assholes”.
Elliot meets with Gordon and Gloria in each of their cells to try to piece together a strategy for helping these helpless people. Gloria gave the police a fake name when she was arrested because she had just purchased her “new name” from an ex-con and wants a new life free from persecution. She planned to take Noah from Sick Kids Hospital because hospitals are dangerous: “Gordon’s done research on hospitals. More people die there than anywhere else.” Elliot asks Gordon how he and Gloria can live believing all of these things ... that the government is poisoning our planet to increase the real estate on Mars, that hospitals are trying to extract mold from our children... Elliot desperately wants to understand how these people can function believing what they do.
Alice appears in Mental Health Court on behalf of Mr. Jackson. He wants Judge Malone to punish him severely this time...to punish him “beyond human endurance”. But when Judge Malone refuses Mr. Jackson becomes upset, almost inconsolable. He begs to be punished and Judge Malone refuses. Dr. Neuman wonders if Mr. Jackson plans to hurt himself and against Mr. Jackson’s pleadings he is sent for a 30 day assessment. As Mr. Jackson is being led out of the dock, Lanny is being led in. He looks at Alice, stares right through her, and asks if she is his lawyer. Alice is too shaken to respond. Afterwards, Alice tells Zona about her reservations against helping the Crown convict Lanny as Zona packs up her office. Zona’s had her fill with being a Duty Counsel and plans to go into private practice. Later, Alice begs Nancy to defend Lanny and Nancy is hesitant but Alice thinks it’s important that they help him. Nancy visits Lanny in the cells and he is hostile to her. When she tries representing him at his bail hearing, he lunges violently at her from the dock and Nancy can’t go on representing him.
Elliot attends in Mental Health Court with Gordon and Gloria. Unstable Man appears with Noah and the misunderstanding at Sick Kids is explained from Elliot’s perspective. Crown Kaye believes that Gordon and Gloria are a threat to the safety of their son but Elliot insists this is not the case. He musters up all the passion he can and tries explaining that the actions of these people just can’t be explained in rational language that we’d understand but basically they are good people who need each other and if we can’t help them then really who can we help and what is the point of any of this. Elliot almost breaks down during his submission and even Kaye is moved. Judge Malone agrees to release Gordon and Gloria in the custody of the bail program and their Children’s Aid Society case worker agrees to provide them with more information about the health of Noah.
After another chaotic bail hearing between Greg and Tim (and their “wives”) James is able to get Greg released on bail. Afterwards, James and Doctor Neuman sadly inform them that their mother has been dead for five years. Greg and Tim pretend to deny this, but the truth is they’ve known all along and are just in complete, curious denial. Finally, they both sadly acknowledge her death.
As night falls, Elliot sits in Timothy’s with Unstable Man, helping him adjust in his chair without hurting his back. Meanwhile, Ian and Alice undress each other in Alice’s bedroom.