Supernatural, "Folsom Prison Blues"

[kate_nepveu]

[Written Thursday night when Internet-less.]

So there I was, in a hotel room surfing TV channels for acceptable background noise, and there was an episode of Supernatural, the show which it seems like half my reading list watches. Heck, why not?

Of course I would land on an episode that required stupid legal stuff for its plot—and I assure you, it was very stupid. First of all, the privilege applied. Now that I have the Internet: see the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. And even in a state that doesn't follow the model rules, I assure you that no reasonable attorney could think that she had to tell the FBI about the conversation with Dean.

Second, you think she wasn't aiding and abetting by what she actually did? It will be trivial for the FBI agent to determine that she deliberately lied [*], and that's a much bigger pile of trouble than standing on attorney-client privilege. Granted, this means the show would have had to create tension in the last act some other way, and also miss a chance to see a non-dead woman again, but surely something less stupid could have been done.

[*] Unless she didn't actually tell them the nurse's name, but still, how many nurses could've died in that particular year?

That said, I definitely noted some appealing bits about the show, though I doubt I'll watch, partly because I'm not much for spooky and partly because I just don't watch TV often. I really liked the shot of the pivoting cell doors when they first get into prison, and the actors playing the Winchester brothers are watchable (though it seemed to me that Dean stole this episode something awful). And I didn't foresee the twist about 3/4 through, though I lacked the context to know that there needed to be a twist, if that makes sense. I did catch some of the significant sibling interaction, thanks to skimming spoiler posts, which I suspect kept the episode from being just filler?

Anyway: didn't suck, not highly motivated to watch more (I'll be looking for people's spoiler posts about the next episode based on the preview, though).

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

I dunno, I admit I was only half-listening, but ISTR that he said it was the best thing she could do to help, and she didn't *know* that it wasn't related to the representation, so I think in the absence of more information her obligation was to keep her mouth shut.

My undergrad didn't have a prelaw major either, but I was polisci and got some legal stuff--took a course on the Bill of Rights, like that. And I did some work in law offices--obviously I don't know if that's a possibility for this canon.

However, if he *should* know jackshit about the law, well then, that would explain his being wrong about the privilege, wouldn't it? =>

(And you're not uninvited; everyone's invited to public posts. Hello! And why don't I have a "law" icon?)

[hesychasm]

That's fair -- my first instinct was to say, what on earth, it does so apply, and then I tried to think why it wouldn't. But I agree, she should have kept her mouth shut.

The show's been vague about Sam's Stanford years/summers, but I think I'm also just reacting against widespread fannish inaccuracies re: his whole deal with being an aspiring lawyer. For an undergrad to grasp the concept of when privilege does and doesn't apply, I'm sort of "hmmm" about that. But I could see him taking courses like yours.

Thanks for letting me argue at you. ;-)

[kate_nepveu]

Though I should have said that in the law offices, I didn't learn anything about privilege! That waited until studying for the MPRE.

I dunno, is Sam a gunner? I wouldn't expect ethical obligations to be the kind of thing one learns on one's own before law school, but if in reaction to family stuff (based on my sketchy knowledge of their history) . . . ?

Anyway, Sam's still wrong. =>