With blinding speed and ecstasy-inspiring sweetness, Howard Lyman is so moved, seconded, voted and in. Welcome to Lockhart/Lyman. The rest of the equity partners greet you with some seriously welcoming arms.

EXECUTIVE SESSION - ALICIA & MIKE

This is where Mike Kresteva gets her alone and goes from being a complicated person -- like Alicia, like Judge Winter, like everybody -- to being a full-on mystery of a person. Part Bond Villain, part Phantom of the Courthouse, part Colin Sweeney, part Diane Lockhart.

Mike: "I have two reports before me. In one, we pass it up the line and nothing was weird."
Alicia: "A lie."
Mike: "In the other, we follow the drop gun all the way to Peter's involvement. Messy."
Alicia: "The truth."
Mike: "So which do you vote for? Because I want it unanimous. A minority report will bring yet more bull."
Alicia: "Review them for me again, while twirling your moustaches."
Mike: "The compromised report will help your husband secure his position and possibly greater power than he has ever known, while the more forthcoming report..."
Alicia: "This is just that loyalty/business thing, isn't it? But from the angle of righteousness. I always want things to be simple and they are never simple."
Mike: "Kinda sucks, huh?"
Alicia: "Dude, it sucks so bad."

So this is what we do here: There's the truth, and then there's our personal involvement -- both financial and personal, both in the real economy and the one built on favors and mutual trust -- with the people it affects. This world is a spider web, in addition to a hornet's nest. It is a spider web containing infinite hornet's nests. Which is why you plan your moves very carefully. Touch here, it wiggles way over there. So now, like, do you see how Dunaway got so offended by you at the beginning of the episode? And why both Diane and I yelled at you for plucking those strings? Because guess what, lady. It's not that you didn't live here all along. You've always lived here, blithely, with the rest of them down there, while we were up here doing all the work: It's just that you never knew.

Alicia: "Both ways I have a conflict, obviously."
Mike: "That boy plead for justice. You looked him in the eye and he asked for your help clearing his father's name. Bringing the man who murdered his father in front of him to justice. That's all he wanted. That's what you were built for."
Alicia: "I know it. I know it in my whole body and in my heart."
Mike: "And you're not going to do it, are you? You're dropping out."
Alicia: "...Yeah."