We’re six episodes into NBC’s The Firm, and new characters just keep getting thrown our way, causing a messy web of plots. It doesn’t help that there’s always a trial of the week to distract viewers from the Sarah Holt case that is the backbone of the entire series.
So, let’s focus on Sarah Holt and not the trial of the week that centers on an immigrant getting framed for arson. Last week Mitch’s crew found a shredded piece of paper in Holt’s apartment with the names of the four former nurses that took care of the elderly lady who Holt supposedly met and killed all in one day.
Why would she have nurses’ names when she just met the lady? That’s a good question. Mitch and the team think she is lying, but it isn’t until this episode when Tammy finds that the shredded paper was missing something at the bottom and pieces it together to find a number in the lower right corner. What does it mean? It means that Holt, an auto insurance adjuster, worked for a company who insured the elderly lady. The Firm just adds more webs upon more webs.
Mitch wants to meet with the technology department of the company, but instead meets Martin Moxon, a VP at the company. This seems to be a path that needed to be crossed and was in fact bothering me quite a bit in previous episodes. We now know exactly who Moxon is and that he gives Mitch a series of numbers to seemingly help with the investigation.
Another layer is added to this episode when the mobsters that are out for revenge against Mitch and his family return and one thug meets up with their daughter Claire and briefly sends everyone into a panic. However, the dead mob boss’ son (who is now running the family) decides not to put a hit out on Mitch, his wife and their daughter.
If the trial of the week is what keeps bringing you back week after week, then this one must have burned some bridges. The immigrant accused of arson basically gets screwed thanks to a judge (Alias’ Victor Garber) who is up for re-election. Sounds about right, doesn’t it? But the fact of the matter is that none of this weekly trial means anything to the overall series plot. The judge turns out to be a little prejudiced, but in the last six months he has been only sentencing white defendants to prison to help fix his stats.
“Chapter Six” could be considered a stepping stone in the right direction, and in a lot of ways it was. The one thing about The Firm is that it’s a slow burner and is taking more time to build than normal law dramas. We’re now two weeks away from ‘The Chase’ that bookends each episode. Does anyone else have a feeling that the episode when time finally intersects will be the true beginning of this series?