Recap: Drop Dead Diva – “The Chinese Wall”

Little White Lies

There is an obscure legal concept known as an ethical-wall, which is more commonly known as a “Chinese Wall.” This is a legal theory that allows lawyers from the same firm to represent two clients on opposite sides of a case. Courts frown on it, but so long as the “Chinese Wall” is maintained, it will be permitted.

In this week’s episode, it was under the guise of this theory that Deb (as Jane) decided it would be appropriate for her to represent her mother in a divorce action, while her ex-boyfriend, Grayson, represented Deb’s father. While Deb’s heart was in the right place wanting to mediate a possible amicable resolution between her parents, it was clearly not in her parent’s best interests. Try as she might, Deb was forced to realize that her parents had only stayed together out of love for her and had been maintaining a sham of a marriage for 6 years. It was just a few “little white lies” they told her in order to maintain the façade of their marriage. In truth, Deb’s mother had found someone else to share her life with and her father was trying to do the right thing by not telling her upon the request of Grayson – who wanted Deb to not be distracted by her parent’s divorce when he proposed. But the best intentions did not prepare Deb for
the pain she felt anyway: the pain of knowing her parents had maintained a sham-marriage; the pain of knowing that her boyfriend knew that her parents were getting divorced and did not tell her; and the pain of realizing that she no longer had a place in their lives. Her life now was that as Jane, not Deb. So Deb opted to gracefully bow out of the divorce case and move on – as everyone else was trying to do with their lives.

This left Deb free to work with Kim on the David Beckham case – not THAT David Beckham. In this instance, David Beckham was a dog; a cloned dog to be exact. Jane and Kim had been retained by the owner who was unhappy with the cloned version of his prize champion dog. He wanted his money back because the dog was untrainable and would not follow the most basic of commands — apparently, there is no guarantee in cloning that the cloned version will be an exact duplicate, for such personal traits as personality type and training cannot be duplicated. While not able to persuade the court that their client deserved to get his money back because he was dissatisfied with the product he purchased, Deb did manage to find another way was to persuade the company to give him his money back. For a little online surfing had revealed that this year’s current dog champion looked exactly like David Beckham and, with DNA tests to prove it, Deb and Kim unearthed a
scheme whereby one of the cloning company employees had created a litter of pedigree pups using their client’s dog’s DNA – without his consent and certainly without paying for the privilege of using his dead dog as a stud in order to create the cloned pups. After this potentially criminal activity was revealed, the cloning company quickly offered to return the cloning fee and take the dog back. However, when suddenly faced with the prospect of having to return the dog and get his money back, Deb’s client was suddenly taken aback for he realized he had grown attached to the clumsy, untrainable dog and, while David Beckham the 2nd would never be a prefect champion, he was his best friend and he realized, “there is no price on unconditional love.”

This episode was about how lies of omission can unintentionally hurt us and the lies we tell ourselves can hurt even more. For Deb was forced to see that she had been lying to herself that her parents’ marriage was fine; and the dog owner discovered that in the end he valued love much more than a monetary prize. Love and truth are priceless.

WHAT WORKED:

It was a bit heart-tugging to hear Deb tell Fred gently as he was lecturing her on the pitfalls of representing her mother in a divorce case: “What I need is a little less guardian and a little bit more angel.” It was her way of reminding him that she really just needed a friend, not just a guardian angel.

Another tender moment was when Deb’s father caught “Jane” trying on Deb’s beauty pageant tiara and he was generous enough to tell her: “For what it’s worth, it looks nice on you.” It was a compliment freely given and showed a level of compassion that gave us a glimpse of the father the Deb loved and cherished.

It was also adorable watching Fred try to figure out which classic romantic film to try to emulate in order to woo Stacy. His ultimate choice of the John Cusack classic “Say Anything” was fitting and inspired. Plus, it kind of worked. For as Fred happily exclaimed at the end, “she remembered my name!”

Finally, it was great seeing the nicer, kinder side of Kim. Up until this point, she has been a hard-as-nails type person who has her laser-sights on Grayson. In this episode, she seemed to have let go of that relentless pursuit and began to actually focus on the case at hand. It made her appear to be more a real person who may ultimately be a good friend for Deb.

It was also very comedic to watch Deb realize that Jane’s former boyfriend (a court bailiff) wanted to rekindle their romance and she had to gently break it to him that “there is someone in my life right now.” Those scenes were hysterical for Deb had not yet felt like an attractive and desired woman in Jane’s body before. Plus, her grace in handling Jane’s boyfriend’s awkward attempts to jump-start their relationship again were delicately done. It was nice to see that she could be so considerate of someone who loved Jane.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:

Deb was a little to quick to hug her parents and it did not seem believable that she would feel so comfortable to act so rash and inappropriate. It was done purely as a laugh joke, but should have been avoided. It took the viewer out of the tender moment of her seeing her parents again, but this time as Jane.

GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE:

“Drop Dead Diva: The Chinese Wall” was written by Thania St. John and directed by Lawrence Trilling. “Drop Dead Diva” stars Brooke Elliott, Brooke D’Orsey, April Bowlby, Ben Feldman, Margaret Cho, Jackson Hurst, Josh Stamberg, and Kate Levering. “Drop Dead Diva” airs Sundays on Lifetime Television.