Spoilers

“Under the Influence”

Two storylines collide, both dealing with the influence over people. Alcohol and manipulation by a therapist. Well, he was not a therapist at the time.

I hated that character of Danny. I hated watching what he was doing to Maxine. Tearing her down, preying on her insecurities and trying to isolate her from her friends and co-workers. Danny was a grade A jerk.

He had Maxine so messed up that she allowed a drunk driver go. The driver was just a few blocks away from her house and Maxine thought it would be okay, but the driver ran a stop sign and crashed into another driver, putting him into a wheelchair. Maxine told the drunk driver to go into her house and wait.

The rest of the episode focused on Douglas Wambaugh. The drunk driver called Wambaugh who instructed her to have some scotch immediately.

The episode showed how slimy Doug can be. He was doing all kinds of things that were borderline criminal to try and win his case. The show then seemed to show Douglas changing his tune. He helped the drunk driver plead the case out (instead of going to trial). Though it looked as if Douglas had learned his lesson and turned over a new leaf, he was actually setting up a lawsuit against the city for the guy in the wheelchair. It was a marvelously horrific lawyer trick that sent Wambaugh into a jail cell for contempt.

Maxine was able to pull herself away from Danny, finally seeing how his manipulations were affecting her, thanks to Kenny and Jill.

There are still several pieces of info dropped. Kenny and the new mayor are sleeping together, making office politics a new thing.