Eli Stone: Patience

Wow! What an episode. Well, not the whole episode; the last two minutes. For the first time on Eli Stone, I got a glimpse of where the visions may be taking Eli. Also, if the vision of the future he had is on target, then the thing in his head, the aneurysm, is either not fatal as I've been told, or -- perhaps -- Eli will have the surgery and live many more years. At least until 2018. That's if I'm to believe that the vision he had is the real future...

But first let's talk about the "Patience" episode. I'm not really loving that title, but I guess it makes sense when you think about the totality of the show. Eli has one of his sensory hallucinations and finds himself in Times Square, New York City, in the middle of a huge rally. People are chanting a theme, "Live Brave," and there are signs and banners promoting the Live Brave movement. The man at the microphone is named David Mosely and he's being cheered.

Eli follows the clues in the vision and discovers that David Mosely is a prisoner in Tipton Bay, a correctional institution rife with organizational abuses. Teaming with Keith Bennett, the WPK criminal lawyer -- who happens to have been Mosely's attorney ten years ago when the prisoner refused to heed his advice and wound up doing hard time -- Eli takes on David's case. The bad man in the center of all this is Warden Brown and with the help of Maggie and the unnamed legal clerks in the firm, as well as another clue from the vision, Eli finds the one man who can expose the warden's abuse of power and tyranny, Daryl Rhodes. In the end, however, David's parole is denied by the Governor, so he has to have patience and wait another year for a new parole review. Hence the title.

Eli is pulling all kinds of long hours working on the Tipton Bay Prison hearing, all pro bono which ticks off Marci Klein -- Klein as in Wethersby, Posner and Klein. She appears from the London office to needle Jordan about how he's running the office, in particular, letting Eli do all this free legal work and scaring off the big money clients. Jordan refuses to be intimidated by Marci, but she announces that she's taken office space on the 20th floor and plans to monitor the situation more closely. Oh goodie.

Meawhile, Patti coaxes Eli who connives a way to get Matt and Taylor to represent the rights of two gay chimpanzees -- Steve and Pete -- who have been forced to live apart at the zoo by anti-gay-chimp activists. Silly storylne; cute chimps. 'Nuff said.

The real kick in the head was the last two minutes, as I said. Eli sees the vision one more time and discovers that David Mosely is not the speaker at the event. He is there to introduce Eli Stone as the man behind the Live Brave movement. It's Eli who's the prophet. Eli kisses Maggie and their child, then takes the stage to thunderous applause. Oh my, does this mean, is this true? Is Eli meant to change the world? Who can say -- I'm left to speculate. Wow.

Other Points of Interest

-- The silly chimp story was kind of sweet, and they acknowledged that it was silly. Still, Matt vamped a very funny defense, citing Chimpanzee Torte Protection (CTP).

-- Chemistry between Eli and Maggie is definitely brewing, but I liked that he tried to push her away and back to her Ohio fiance. You gotta love a guy that noble.

-- Keith is a character with mucho integrity. He reaches out to David Mosely, offering to help him get the parole by teaching him the law.

-- For a guy who's worked 36 hours straight, Eli should have looked a little bedraggled, maybe in need of a shave. Unbutton that collar, man.

-- Taylor was impressed by Matt enough to give him a chance to take her out to dinner at the most exclusive restaurant in the Napa Valley. A ballbuster till the end, that girl. Matt was less smarmy this week.

-- No George Michael music. No brother Nate.

-- Dr. Chen is feeling neglected.

-- The first shots of David Mosely (David? Moses? Biblical connections to leaders) were done in silhouette, so all you saw was an African-American man being cheered by a huge throng. It looked a lot like Barack Obama at his rallies.