Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Here's hoping Nick George CALI'd in Legal Professions


Spoiler alert: Don't keep reading if you haven't seen the new episode of Dirty Sexy Money.




Whoa.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa.

And here I was, in the first few minutes of DSM's first episode of the season, thinking that I was going to have to blog about Nick playing mediator to Patrick and Tripp.  Ugh.

Ethical issues are so much more fun than father-son ADR.  Was anyone else having flashbacks to Legal Professions when Nick walked into Patrick's penthouse and found Ellen's dead body?  First thought: Nick is already their lawyer, so if Patrick had really killed Ellen, he wouldn't have been able to say a word.

Second thought:  Or would he?  He just saw the body.  Granted, he only came over because Patrick and Tripp called him.  Does that count as a "communication?"

Third thought: What about when they asked him to take the body out to the country house and burn it down with her inside?  Um, I may be wrong, but I think that fits into the felony-exception.  True, Nick's participation in the elaborate cover-up wasn't a mandatory (the Darling men had Clark the chauffeur do the deed as soon as Nick split) ... so maybe not.

Fourth thought: Nick represents the Darling family.  Does that mean he represents Patrick specifically and individually?  What about the fact that Patrick's interests are now at odds with the rest of the Darling family?  Is that a big enough loophole for anyone out there?  Anyone?

Anywho, I don't know how to come out on this.  Patrick didn't murder Ellen, but he definitely broke some laws.  Off the top of my head ... fraud, conspiracy, arson, obstruction of justice, and the always-fun desecration of a corpse.  Nick knows about it, but he's Patrick's lawyer.  WHAT IS OUR IDEALISTIC LAWYER TO DO???

And then Dirty Sexy Money took it up a notch—as soon as the cop chopper showed up, I knew that Nick wouldn't have ratted out Tripp and Patrick.  But arresting Leticia for the murder of Dutch George!?  I must say, the scene of her being led away in handcuffs, calling Nick's name for help, was heart-breaking.

So where does all this leave our intrepid lawyer hero?  Granted, this is a show that features gratuitous limo sex, but DSM writers can't really expect Nick to defend the woman accused of murdering his dad.  True, Nick probably believes—like I do—that Leticia is innocent, and the defendant should get her choice of counsel ... but REALLY?

Sound off on Nick's ethical issues in the comments section below, boys and girls.  And then let's all take a moment and mourn for dearly departed Ellen Darling, pictured above.

Random thoughts:
Did Lisa really manage to lay all the blame at Nick's feet after he caught her making out with Jeremy Darling?  Yup, sure did.

Favorite moment of the night:  When Tripp asked Brian to counsel his sister-in-law Ellen, the former reverend replied that he left the church to focus on the family business so he would no longer have to pretend to care about the problems of others.  "When you sent me to Munich to close down that factory and fire all those people, that was fun."

No comments: