Harry's Law Episode 1.09 The Fragile Beast

Harry and Jenna watch Tommy's newest TV commercial, marveling at how over the top it is. It makes Harry regret agreeing to meet with Tommy the following day. Meanwhile, Adam walks Rachel home and thanks her for having dinner with him. Rachel urges Adam to talk to a professional about the shooting. Adam promises he will. As they part, Adam tries to kiss Rachel. She turns away, reminding him that she has a boyfriend and he's with Chunhua. Adam apologizes and leaves.

The next morning, Adam tells Jenna about kissing Rachel. Jenna promptly tells Harry, just as she walks into the shop. Harry assigns Adam a divorce case - he'll be meeting with client Lynette Zales that morning. Just then, a man named Miguel Martinez enters, hands Harry $400, all the money he has in the world, and asks her to find his girlfriend Sofia. Miguel explains that Sofia's husband has locked her in the basement. Miguel can't go to the police because both he and Sofia are undocumented. Miguel also can't go over there himself because he used to be best friends with Sofia's husband Chester. Declaring that he loves Sofia and she loves him, Miguel begs Harry to help him.

Adam argues with Harry, insisting she has to call the police. She disagrees - unless they have knowledge that a person's life is in jeopardy, there's no such requirement. Harry takes Damien with her to visit Chester, hoping to convince him to let Sofia out of the basement. Meanwhile, Adam talks to Jenna about his feelings for both Chunhua and Rachel. In the middle of their discussion, Malcolm walks into the shop, and Jenna gleefully shares that Adam kissed Rachel.

Harry and Damien arrive at the house of Chester Stewart, who explains that the situation with his wife is a private family matter. Harry tells him that what he's doing constitutes kidnapping and false imprisonment. Exceedingly polite and calm, Chester insists he's just doing an intervention because Sofia is suffering from a "fidelity lapse." He's certain that some time in the basement will bring her to her senses. Damien threatens Chester, which doesn't go over well - Chester offers to wrestle Miguel for Sofia. Harry calls Chester a "wacko," which doesn't go over very well either. Harry urges Chester to do the right thing, and let Sofia out before it's too late. Chester becomes upset, advising Harry that he's not good when he's upset; Harry and Damien need to leave.

Back at the shop, Adam meets with his new client, Lynette Zales. She explains that her marriage was good until it lost its heat, when her husband Dennis stopped wanting to have sex with her. Lynette then discovered that Dennis was sleeping with someone else, a woman they found on Craig's List to "spice up" the marriage by having a three-way. Dennis is now having an affair with that woman, and Lynette wants a divorce. And because Dennis cheated, Lynette wants to enforce the prenuptial agreement that protects her trust fund - Dennis will get none of it.

Harry and Damien return to the shop to meet with Miguel. Harry asks Miguel if Chester ever hurt Sofia. Miguel doesn't know of any incident in which Chester has hurt Sofia, just that he's locked her in the basement a few times. Harry decides to go back and talk to Chester, hoping some of her advice sank in. Malcolm and Jenna work in the storage room. Jenna can't stop talking about Adam kissing Rachel. Malcolm thinks it's funny that they're discussing Adam's kiss and not theirs. Jenna says it shouldn't have happened because they're co-workers. When Malcolm says he's sorry it happened, Jenna deflates. An awkward silence follows, which she interprets as a rejection. Jenna stalks off.

Adam visits Rachel at her office to apologize again for kissing her. Rachel wonders whether it's too soon after their breakup for them to be friends. Adam promises it will never happen again, then awkwardly shakes Rachel's hand. On their way to Chester's house, Damien asks Harry a good question: if Sofia's married to Chester, why wouldn't she be a citizen? Harry guesses that her citizenship hasn't come through yet. Inside the house, Chester bakes cookies. Harry asks if he's reconsidered letting Sofia out of the basement, but he hasn't, so Damien heads downstairs to get Sofia. But he can't because Chester has put her in a secure safe room. Now Harry's really getting worried.

Back at the shop, Harry updates Miguel. Because she believes that Chester could jeopardize Sofia's safety, she has to contact the police. Miguel's upset, but Harry puts her foot down, remarking that Chester isn't right in the head. Miguel explains that Chester has changed since he returned from the war in Iraq. Harry meets with Tommy, who offers to try talking to Chester. Tommy's a combat veteran himself - he was wounded in his first week of action in Vietnam. When Harry figures out that Tommy shot himself in the foot, she tries not to laugh, and agrees to let him give talking to Chester a shot. Tommy asks Harry if she likes his new commercial. Harry admits that she doesn't, asking if they can talk about his public persona at some point. Wounded, Tommy agrees.

At the shop, Adam and Lynette meet with her soon-to-be-ex, Dennis, and his attorney, Neville Johnson. Johnson argues that because Lynette willingly participated in the three-way, having sex with the third party shouldn't count as cheating. Adam insists that it does, because Dennis was having sex behind Lynette's back. Adam and Johnson agree to bring the third party in to get her take.

Harry returns to Chester's house with Tommy in tow. Chester doesn't want to let them in, but Harry pleads, and Chester finally agrees to listen. Harry thinks Chester's suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), but he disagrees. Tommy praises Chester's service, but reminds him that he was fighting for the very civil liberties he's now denying his own wife. It seems like Tommy gets through to Chester, who leads Harry and Tommy down to the basement safe room. He unlocks the door to reveal a bound and gagged Sofia. When Harry and Tommy enter the safe room to free her, they hear a suspicious click - Chester has locked them in the safe room along with Sofia!

Tommy can't get cell phone reception inside the safe room. Sofia explains that the walls are lined with lead. Harry can't believe they're locked in some wacko's basement. Sofia says that the Chester she married would never do something like this, but she doesn't know this new Chester at all. Harry starts to freak out. Sofia explains how when Chester started becoming more and more erratic, and she started bonding with Miguel over their concern for Chester. The more estranged Sofia became from Chester, the closer she got to Miguel.

Back at the shop, Adam deposes Marylin, the third party in Lynette and Dennis' three-way, and a drop-dead stunner of a French woman. Adam asks Lynette what the hell she was thinking, bringing someone as attractive as Marylin home for a three-way. Marylin admits she knew Lynette was unaware that she was still having sex with Dennis after the three-way encounters stopped. Given that Lynette was the one who hired her, Adam questions why Marylin felt more loyalty to Dennis. Marylin admits she fell in love with Dennis and is still in love with him. Game, set and match to a destroyed Lynette.

Jenna asks if either Adam or Malcolm have heard from Harry. They haven't. Malcolm asks Jenna to step into the storage room so they can talk, wanting to know why she's mad at him. Then he asks her out. Jenna's upset, thinking it's a mercy date. Malcolm tells Jenna to cut him some slack - he's barely 20 and doesn't read women well - but he really does want to go on a date with her. Meanwhile, Chester opens the safe room door to announce that he's reconsidered his position, and they're all free to go. He hands Sofia a photo album he made for her while he was in Iraq, so she could remember him if something happened. He apologizes for the inconvenience and leaves.

Adam sits with Lynette at the shop, trying to bolster her spirits. Jenna joins the pep talk, telling Lynette she should hold her head high because she honored her vows and did everything she could to save the marriage. Harry expresses her concern for Chester while entering the shop with Tommy. She wants to get Sofia and Miguel in a room to prevail upon Chester to get treatment. Harry asks Jenna if they know any therapists who deal with PTSD who will come to the shop on short notice. Adam volunteers - he might know someone.

Adam goes to Rachel's office to ask if she'll talk to her boyfriend, Thomas, a psychiatrist who specializes in PTSD, about helping Harry. At the shop, Jenna tells Harry that she's going on a date with Malcolm. To Jenna's dismay, Harry does not support this - at all. Adam and Chunhua grab an early dinner together and discuss his need to see a therapist about the shooting. Adam pauses mid-sentence when he sees Lynette sit down at a table with Marylin and hand her an envelope. He walks over to their table to accuse Lynette of orchestrating the whole thing - hiring Marylin to have an affair with Dennis so she could enforce her pre-nup.

Lynette stops by the shop to explain why she did what she did to Adam. Her marriage was loveless and Dennis could be cold. Adam guesses she probably made the mistake of marrying young. Lynette's tragedy is that she didn't marry young - she was in love then, but let it slip away because she had places to go and things to do. Adam takes this in. At the shop, Harry, Miguel, Sofia and Dr. Thomas Graham meet with Chester. Thomas tells Chester that Cincinnati has one of the best programs for PTSD. Sofia pleads with Chester to get help, and offers to go with him. She just thought Chester had changed; she didn't realize he was sick. Sofia tells Miguel that she'll never love anyone as much as Chester, and if she can get Chester back, that's what she has to do. Chester agrees to get treatment, and leaves with Thomas and Sofia.

Harry gets a drink with Tommy and thanks him for all his help. When Tommy's new commercial comes on the television, Harry tells him that his commercials are undignified. Tommy argues that they’re right on track. He tells Harry a story about a grade school crush who could never remember his name, which hurt him. With these commercials, Tommy knows no one will ever forget his name. Harry comments that men really are just fragile beasts... Adam shows up at Rachel's place to thank her for her help, then takes back his apology for kissing her, and confesses he's still in love with her. When he was caught up in the gunfire and thought he might die, he realized that he didn't want to leave the earth without tell her. And with that, he says good night, leaving Rachel stunned. Apparently, Adam isn't such a fragile beast.