"The Good Wife" on Sunday began with a mature content warning and then shows a doctor named Hallie Fisher being caught on hidden camera talking in a frozen yogurt shop about receiving $100 per specimen for aborted baby parts.
The abortion doc boasts, "We know where not to grab," so they can get the specimen, even changing it to a breech birth.
Cut to lawyer Ethan Carver (Peter Gallagher), who tells Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) that he's appalled about a doctor talking about selling baby parts. Firmly pro-choice Diane snorts to Ethan the video is "an effective piece of propaganda," while he reminds her, "It's a human being."
A group called Citizens for Ethical Medicine shot the video and Ethan's right-wing boss, Mr. Dipple, wants to sue the abortion clinic, hoping Stacy Groom, who says the doctor tricked her into donating fetal tissue, will help them bring the issue to court.
Ethan asks Diane to do a mock cross examination of Stacy to see if she would be a good witness, and she uses information investigator Jason Crouse (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) digs up to demolish her. Ethan concludes they can't put Stacy on the stand.
In the midst of this, Diane asks Jason, who also works for Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), to work full-time for Lockhart, Agos, & Lee but he declines, saying, "I like keeping my options open."
Later, Ethan approaches Diane again, saying that Dr. Fisher is suing to stop the release of the undercover video and notes that it's now a First Amendment issue.
Diane protests "which you're using as a weapon to attack women and medicine and choice."
Still, Ethan persuades Diane to take the case.
While Dr. Fisher's attorney argues the secret tape was made illegally, Diane and her co-counsel Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry) claim the yogurt shop was a public place and thus she had no expectation of privacy.
Later, one of Diane's clients, Bea Wilson of National Council for Women's Rights, appears outside of court to ask her, "How can you do this?" Diane stresses she must support the First Amendment.
After various legal maneuvers, the judge invites Diane into chambers and wonders why she's trying so hard to win, declaring, "This is not your case."
Diane asks if he thinks she shouldn't be pursuing it because of her politics. While she argues for free speech, he says the videos should be deep-sixed. Determined Diane then tells Ethan they will put Stacy on the stand as a whistleblower and she testifies that the doctor never told her the fetal tissue would be sold.
When the judge refuses to give Diane an evidentiary, she says he should remove himself because in private chambers, he had revealed his bias "against me and my client." With the judge outraged in open court, Diane tells Ethan she must withdraw from the case.
Diane has also upset her liberal friends like Wilson. Cary, who's just happy it's all over, tells her, "It's time to get our clients back."
Also on the episode, Alicia's daughter Grace helps her and partner Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo) drum up business for their flagging firm.
Meanwhile, attorney Louis Canning (Michael J. Fox) courts Lucca to join his firm and even tells her about three clients he might assign her.
Lucca tells Alicia they should poach Canning's three clients instead, but the prospective clients aren't won over. However, Grace lines up some prominent new clients, including Wilson and her liberal national women's organization.
"They're not happy with Diane Lockhart," Grace smiles, then reminds Alicia she owes her thousands as her percentage for bringing in the clients.
Following up on last week's cliffhanger, viewers also learn Alicia decided to launch a study of voting machines instead of voting for or against DNC head Frank Landau. In a hint of conflict to come over her investigator, Alicia also calls Jason and is surprised to hear Diane's voice in the background.
Also, Eli Gold (Alan Cumming) begins a romance with businesswoman Courtney Paige (Vanessa Williams) even though he worries her idea to pay all her employees $75,000 a year will taint her as too socialistic to be one of Peter's presidential campaign donors.
Later, Courtney and Eli are alone in her office and he awkwardly tells her, "You're beautiful."
Eli tells Courtney he doesn't have money like her, but she beckons, "come here" and they kiss.
"The Good Wife" airs Sundays on CBS.
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