TVSquad

(S01E06) The secret is out. After hiding his condition from his boss, colleagues and clients for two months Eli Stone has finally come clean. Now, the world (or at least San Francisco) knows. Reaction is mixed. Some, like Eli's ex-fiancee and his brother, are glad that it's all out in the open now.

His colleagues' reaction? We know at least one person's opinion --more on that later. As for his boss and mentor, Jordan Whethersby...well, needless to say there's an extreme cold front coming between him and Eli. But, we'll discuss that in detail after the jump. For now, let's talk about Eli's decision to fess up.

Gallery: Eli Stone -- Season 1

There are two sides to his revelation (and, no, I'm not going to debate myself over it). On one hand he can be called a liar and a coward for holding back this information for so long from the law firm in general and Jordan specifically. Jordan seems to have been the father that Eli never really had, and really took the young lawyer under his wing to mold him into a younger version of himself. By holding back for so long, and then lying to Jordan in the process, their relationship is pretty badly damaged.

On the other hand, it took a big pair of berries to get up in the middle of a disbarment hearing and 1) lie to the judge that you were the one who signed the medical form saying that your brain scan was clear; and, 2) tell the judge about your brain aneurysm and the visions that they cause. Talk about putting your fat into the fire! If this weren't television, I could see the judge asking for Eli's lawyer-like secret decoder ring right then and there. Course, if he fessed up to Jordan about this in the first place, I'm sure that the senior partner would have been a bit more understanding and provided some sort of solution -- possibly the one that the disbarment judge gave to Eli (regular physicals and psychological examinations). But, since this wasn't written into any of the other episodes we can just file this all under speculation.

To the reactions. I wasn't surprised about Jordan's final reaction to everything he learned about Eli: you could see it bubbling underneath his skin as he and Eli were in front of the camera. By the way, that was a fairly ingenious move to sue the Bar for breaking the Americans for Disabilities Act. Plus, I think some of the frustration also came from the fact that he couldn't technically fire Eli (because of the letter the firm signed during the pilot episode). Hence, the reason that Jordan pretty much demoted him to an associate rather than a partner. I also think some of his frustration and anger was aimed towards Taylor as well. His own daughter, someone that he just hired for the firm, lying and keeping Eli's condition away from him. I'm a bit shocked that she wasn't relegated to the minor leagues with Eli.

The reaction that I was surprised about was Maggie's. For the first time in this entire series I actually found a modicum of appreciation for her. Initially, I thought that her anger towards Eli was a bit out of line. But, once she asked him if he would have been any different if he wasn't diagnosed with the aneurysm I was leaning to her side of the argument. Doesn't mean that I still don't like her. We can only hope that this will make Maggie a stronger lawyer.

You would think that Eli's case would take up most of the episode. Amazingly, there was a whole poop-load of stuff going on in this week's installment. Here is a summary.

• I wish Eli's father didn't die, because I would certainly love to see Tom Cavanagh on this show on a regular basis. He plays a totally different character from the people he portrayed on Ed, Scrubs and his CBS show that lasted only two episodes (Love Monkey). Cavanagh was on twice this episode and, during one flashback, we learned that he had visions as well and tried to tell Eli all about it.
• Speaking about the senior Mr. Stone...there is now a closer connection between Eli and Dr. Chen. It seems that Mr. Stone visited Chen while he was working at at television repair shop. During that meeting he asked Chen to watch over Eli in the future. It's starting to look like the visions of the senior and junior Stones are more of a gift than part of an illness.
• Patti is now Taylor's assistant. This looks interesting. Luckily, Eli let on to Patti that it was Taylor who convinced Jordan to represent him during the disbarment. So, hopefully it won't be too much of a blood bath.
• Keith Bennett and Matt Dowd join forces for a case involving a baseball player who may have murdered an opposing team coach during a 'roid rage episode. With Bennett coming from the streets when it comes to practicing law, and Dowd the high-end corporate lawyer, their solutions to getting the baseball player off were quite different. In the end, neither of their solutions worked when some new evidence was revealed. It seems like this may be a case that continues through multiple episodes.
• This was the second time where Victor Garber sang during one of Eli's musical visions. I like how Taylor was surprised that it was a CCR song that was emanating from his brain rather than a George Michael song.
• Finally, it was Old Television Lawyer's Week on Eli Stone. First, L.A. Law's Alan Rachins appeared as one of the lawyers Eli asked to represent him during the disbarment. And, he was playing Douglas Brackman Jr., the same character he played on the 80's law drama. Later in the episode Steve Harris appeared as the baseball player being accused of murder. Harris played Eugene Young in the ABC legal drama The Practice.

Next week -- Dragons, Knights, and Eli's new role as Associate Savior.