The Deep End Episode 1.02 Where There's Smoke

Dylan and Katie are basking in the afterglow of their night together when...DING DONG! Someone's at the door. And by someone, we mean Cliff. Dylan is a lawyer, so he's pretty good at piecing things together. He says, "So when I was comforting you after your breakup with your boyfriend...that was our boss! Who is married to our other boss?!" Told ya he was good.

Katie gives Cliff the heave-ho before he sees anything, but that doesn't stop Dylan from getting jittery around Cliff at work. Katie is having her own issues. Cliff promised she'd have a job at Sterling after passing the bar. If he doesn't keep his word, she'll spill their secret to Susan. Cliff beats her to the punch which makes Susan want to punch Katie. Instead, she promotes her. Unfortunately, Katie's new office is in Montana, a state that holds the record for the coldest recorded temperature in continental U.S. history. At least the mountains are pretty.

Cliff asks Beth to second chair his class action suit against a company that produced malfunctioning furnaces. Many people were burned, many others died. Beth is psyched to be working the case, but freaked when she discovers that opposing counsel is her dad, Don Branford. If you remember from the Pilot, this guy was a bit of jerk to Beth. Think he'll go easy on his baby girl in court? Nah.

Beth is shocked when her dad stipulates that the facts of the expert witnesses Beth has interviewed can be admitted into evidence without objection. She then agrees to let the judge sign off on it. It sounds like a good thing, right? Wrong. Cliff lets Beth know that, now that the witnesses don't have to testify to the heinous nature of the injuries, they'll lose their emotional edge. All they have now are a bunch of written statements. Daddy tricked her.

To make up for her goof, Beth finds the one defense witness whose statement doesn't quite match the others. A guy named Frank Mason omitted some testimony because he didn't want to lie. Beth tracks down Mason, who has been living with the guilt of not coming forward. Beth says to him, "You wanted to do the right thing. Now you're getting another chance."

Beth confronts her dad about Mason. She finds it convenient that a nice retirement package was offered to him after he signed off on the initial furnace findings. She has a subpoena for all of her dad's files. She'll find what she's looking for. If she doesn't, she'll know he destroyed evidence. We don't picture these two heading off to a father-daughter dance anytime soon. Magically, Beth's dad offers a very generous settlement.

Addy takes a retainer from the Nathans, two seemingly altruistic clients, before realizing they run a medical marijuana dispensary. When she and Malcolm spill this tidbit to Hart and Rowdy, they maintain that they are legally obligated to keep them as clients. Then Addy gets a package filled with a whole bunch of weed. Apparently, Addy's clients have decided that the Sterling office is a fine place to stash their stash while they deal with some heat from the feds. But now Sterling has to deal with the fact that the DEA is in their lobby.

Unwilling to see his employees treated as suspects in a drug bust, Hart says the marijuana is his. He's promptly arrested. Addy and Malcolm stakeout the clients' office and discover that the Nathans got paid upfront for their medicine. They round up a bunch of their patients and drag them to Hart's arraignment. Since the medicine has already been purchased, Susan argues the firm was only acting as a legal go-between until the patients could pick up their purchase. This, of course, makes the D.A.'s case go up in smoke.

Liam has a habit of comparing any kiss to his first one, as it was perfect. Addy decides to help him on his quest to find a smooch that will top that first one. Soon Sterling women everywhere are planting wet ones on Liam. But nothing does the trick. Beth says that she wasn't really at the top of her game during their past liaisons, so she sinks into a soft, sensually steamy lip-lock with Liam. When it's done, all Liam can say is "sorry." But once Beth has left the room, the only thing Liam can say now is "wow."