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Good Marriage

Genre: Mystery/Drama

Director: Pedro Almodovar

Writer: Gwendolyn King

Producer: Rosie JoLove

Based on the novel "A Good Marriage" by Kimberly McCreight

Cast: Diane Guerrero, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Nicholas Braun, Bradley Whitford, Sonequa Martin-Green, Logan Browning, Stephan James, April Bowlby, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Stephen Kunken, Paul Schneider, Sanaa Lathan, Louis Mustillo, Justina Machado

Plot: After waiting for hours, Lizzie Kitsakis (Diane Guerrero) goes to couples therapy alone. She talks about law school. She planned to go into public interest work and wanted to protect people. Lizzie's parents had been hardworking immigrants, running a diner. Her father invested a large sum of borrowed money that vanished, and soon their restaurant was foreclosed on. Lizzie lost them soon after and had to move in with her aunt.

After law school, Lizzie became a U.S. attorney's office prosecutor. However, her husband, Sam (Kingsley Ben-Adir), alcoholism caused several problems that led to him getting fired. Then, Sam gets into a car accident. She got a job at her current firm. But to get it, she omitted information about the debts because law firms don't like hiring people in financial trouble.

Later, at her job, Lizzie gets a call from a former law school classmate, Zach Grayson (Nicholas Braun). Zach has been imprisoned at Rikers and needs representation. Zach's accused of assaulting a police officer. It happened after he came home and found his wife, Amanda, dead. Lizzie says she's not the right lawyer for this, but Zach insists she comes to see him.

The next day, Lizzie goes to see Zach, who explains the incident with the cop was an accident. Lizzie instructs him not to talk anymore because these conversations aren't secure. Before she goes, Zach tells her about finding his wife bludgeoned with his golf club.

Back at home, Lizzie sees Sam sleeping. She thinks he needs high-quality rehab, but they can't afford it. His parents are wealthy, but Sam refuses to ask them for money.

The next day, Lizzie talks to the partner she works under, Paul Hastings (Bradley Whitford), about Zach's case. Despite her reluctance, Paul tells her to take on the case. Lizzie visits the Brooklyn Criminal Court to find Adam Rothstein (Stephen Kunken), Zach's public defender. Adam also warns her that Zach has an outstanding warrant from his earlier years.

At home, Lizzie doesn't know where Sam is. Lizzie searches the room for clues about where he might be. She's worried Sam's out drinking. She sees the website for a bar called Enid's on his computer screen. When Sam finally calls, he claims to have been at home writing all day. Later that night, she finds a woman's earring in Sam's messenger bag.

Lizzie chats with the Brooklyn DA's office to get information out of them. She speaks to Steve Granz (Paul Schneider) about Zach's case. Steve mentions a sex party before the murder. Surprised since Lizzie didn't know about it, Lizzie checks out Zach's house for clues. She hears a loud crash at his house. Checking it out, Lizzie catches someone with red sneakers going out the back door and over the fence. She sees a car speeding. Lizzie immediately reports it to the police.

Later, Lizzie hires Millie (Sonequa Martin-Green), a former childhood friend, and a former police officer, to investigate. They've had a falling out, but Lizzie begs for help for old times' sake. After checking Zach's house, Millie plans to hire her team to check it for prints. Millie also needs to talk to Lizzie about something. Lizzie asks her to hold off until she deals with some of this. Lizzie finds some of Amanda's diaries and an ovulation kit. The diaries mention something about Amanda being raped by someone close to her.

Zach calls from Rikers, and Lizzie informs him that she's accepted the case and will try to get him out on bail. Lizzie asks him about the warrant from many years back. Reluctant, he admits it's for loitering. He hadn't paid it, which he realized was a mistake.

After asking for helpful information, Zach tells Lizzie about Amanda's friends, Sarah and Maude. He also says that Amanda had said she was infertile. Amanda ran a scholarship foundation, Hope First Foundation, that he started, where Sarah also works.

After reading Amanda's diary, Lizzie learns that Amanda's father had repeatedly raped her. Steve Ganz leaves a message saying that the prosecutor for Zach's case is Wendy Wallace (Sanaa Lathan), a potential candidate for D.A. and needs prominent case name recognition. Lizzie slams the diary down as she knows the case just got harder to fight. Steve suggests Lizzie visits Zach's friends before Wendy does.

The next day, Lizzie goes to the offices of the Hope First Foundation to see Sarah (April Bowlby). After asking for any info, Sarah tells Lizzie about the recent hacking problem where some parents' sensitive information was being used as blackmail.

Lizzie goes to Maude's house to talk to Maude (Logan Browning) and Seb (Stephan James). After she excuses Seb for a one-on-one, Maude confesses to Lizzie that she's Zach's alibi. She and Zach had been sleeping together when Amanda died as they have for the past three years. Maude says Zach left her place around 2:00 AM.

Later, Lizzie stops by a deli and sees a pack of matches from Enids. When she asks about them, the guy says the place closed down, implying that Sam wasn't drinking at this bar as Lizzie had suspected.

After a much-heated argument with Paul, Wendy plans to amend the indictment to include the homicide. Walking in unannounced, Lizzie arrives for Zach's emergency writ hearing but realizes that Wendy is Paul's ex-wife. After Wendy storms out, Paul shrugs Lizzie off to go to the hearing. Due to Zach's financial resources, his bail has been denied. Zach hangs his head in disappointment as Lizzie's tightened expression shows the same.

Outside the hearing, Wendy smirks at Paul, who glares back. After Wendy storms out, Paul admits to why he wanted Lizzie to take the case. Paul can't have his estranged ex-wife as DA. But as Lizzie's about to respond, she gets confronted by Maude. Maude demands to know why Lizzie didn't mention Zach's alibi of her and Zach sleeping together. Lizzie tells her that the alibi complicates things. Between Paul & Wendy, the case, & her marriage troubles, she needs to leave not wanting to be around Paul or anyone right now. Lizzie storms out to her car but stops thinking she sees someone walk by with red sneakers on.

Later back at home, Lizzie reads more of Amanda's journal discovering that Amanda believed her father had come to Brooklyn. After Sam arrives late, Lizzie confronts him about the earring she found. Sam doesn't know anything since he blacked out that night. It's the night when Sam ended up in the hospital. He found the earring in his pocket.

The next day, Lizzie tells Zach about the murder charge. She presses for more details about the loitering warrant, which upsets Zach. Confiding in him, She asks him more about Amanda, including her maiden name, "Lynch." Finally, after pressuring him, Zach says he wasn't with Maude that night. He called the police well before midnight, so there's no way. He suggests that Maude's confused, and Lizzie remarks Maude doesn't seem to be the confused type.

Leaving the interview room, Lizzie speaks to the guard about Zach's sudden bruises. The guard informs her that Zach isn't being assaulted. Instead, he's been banging his head against the wall. Lizzie asks why but the guard notes self-harm isn't uncommon for an unrestful soul in confinement.

At work, Lizzie chats with Paul who mentions that he once got a partner at their firm fired. He came across an envelope the partner had with compromising photos of a female legal assistant taken in secret. He reported it, which resulted in the board insisting they get rid of the partner. This worries Lizzie reminded of her unlawful hiring.

Driving to Wendy's firm, Lizzie begins investigating Amanda's father based on applied information. Lizzie then goes to Wendy to demand that they investigate him. However, Wendy refuses due to her thinking it's irrelevant. Lizzie tells her about Amanda's journal entries against her father. But falling on deaf ears, Wendy plans to subpoena them with no intention of investigating. Before Lizzie storms off, Lizzie remarks Wendy isn't the only one dealing w/ a bad marriage, past or present. If using her hatred of hers helps win, then Lizzie shouldn't expect anything else when/if Wendy's DA. Shellshocked, Wendy watches Lizzie storm off but then smiles.

A montage of Lizzie breaking down while driving around. While trying to call Sam, Lizzie just keeps getting his voicemail. She just needs someone to talk to, feeling alone. She then gets a call from Millie.

Lizzie sees Millie at the office of her company, Evidentiary Analytics. Millie introduces her to Vinnie (Louis Mustillo), her partner. After searching thoroughly, they determined prints on the golf bag and in the blood. But, unfortunately, the police have the golf club, so they can't check that.

Liking their results, Lizzie begins to contact Steve to get Millie and Vinnie paid for their work. As she facetime Steve, Vinnie notes that Zach needs money to pay for all their work. Seeing Lizzie's confusion, Millie tells her that Zach didn't sell his company for millions. Instead, Zach got a small payout to exit the company after being accused of wrongdoing by the board of directors. Hearing this, Steve mentions he recently informed Sarah about the bankrupt Foundation. Sarah was more concerned about finances. Lizzie wonders why Sarah didn't say anything about it.

Meanwhile, Lizzie has gotten many calls from Sam, apologizing about the earring and not knowing if he'd done something he needed to apologize for since Sam was blacked out. Suddenly Zach calls. Lizzie confronts him about the finances. Zach tells her to get creative in paying for these things, or else he'll reveal her secrets regarding her financial disclosures. Dumbfounded, Zach reveals he's had Adam look into her before hiring her. Knowing better, Lizzie accuses him of hiring her having the blackmail available in case. Zach drops the act admitting he has Lizzie by the throat so don't give him a reason to squeeze.

Seeing Lizzie's distraught, Millie Faber offers to pay for her lunch. After a long silence, Millie abruptly confesses that she's dying. After Lizzie comforts her, Millie tells Lizzie that she can no longer act as a go-between for Lizzie and her father once she dies. Contrary to what Lizzie has told others, including Sam, Lizzie's father is alive but in jail for killing the person who defrauded them. Lizzie's mother died of a heart attack. Lizzie's dad attributes it to their financial troubles. Her dad claims it was an accident, but the jury didn't believe him. Millie encourages Lizzie to come clean with Sam and reminds her that her father will be released soon.

Later, Lizzie needs to clear up this financial disclosure issue with her firm so Zach can stop holding it over her. She enters the office to look for Paul, but his secretary Gloria (Justina Machado) tells her he's out having drinks with Wendy Wallace. Lizzie also finds Maude at the office, upset after Wendy accuses her of perjury. Lizzie comforts Maude, who tells the truth that her alibi for Zach is invalid. Maude doesn't take well to this leaving Lizzie plopping in her chair defeated.

At home, Lizzie discovers that Zach's loitering charge happened outside the street corner when she met Sam. So Zach must've been watching her. But, most troubling of all, Lizzie figures out that Sam's earring ended up with matches with a missing earring from Amanda from the day she died.

Lizzie confronts Sam about the earring. He says that Sam saw Amanda at Blue Bottle, where he sometimes wrote but didn't know her. They get into an argument as Lizzie wants to figure out whether Sam could have been involved in Amanda's death, but Sam's memory is too spotty from drinking that day to know for sure. Lizzie has had enough and kicks Sam out throwing her company credit card at him for a hotel. She breaks down crying against the door.

Afterward, Sarah calls Lizzie to explain that she has been upset about the bankrupt Foundation. Kerry (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), Sarah's husband, is recently unemployed, which stresses Sarah out. Sarah also says she hadn't told Amanda about the Foundation's financial problems yet, but she did tell Maude. Sarah also adds an odd detail: Maude knew that a golf club was next to Amanda's body the morning after she died. But, of course, Lizzie knows that Maude hasn't spoken to the police yet, so it's highly suspicious that Maude would have known that.

Lizzie, Millie, & Vinnie go to Maude and Sebe's place to get more information. After Seb threatens to call the police, Vinnie shows that Maude's fingerprints are a match for fingerprints found at the crime scene in the blood and golf bag. Sebe tries to get Maude not to say anything, but Maude wants to come clean. Maude admits she was there that night.

After learning about Zach's financial problems and how he'd had e-mails from the school, Maude became convinced that Zach was responsible for the blackmail scheme since they didn't have his e-mail. This blackmail scheme tried to get wealthy parents to hide they've been buying their kid's grades resulting in those kids being expelled and the school year threatened to be restarted. Maude couldn't find Zach at the supposed "sex party", so she went to his house to find him. She sees the golf bag and grabs one of the clubs. Maude says someone else was in the house, and then Amanda came in. Maude heard the sound of a man running out. She says the man was in a ski mask in red sneakers but was too tall to be Zach. Maude dropped the golf club next to Amanda and started CPR. She called Seb, who's a doctor. Since he was there before an ambulance, he determined that Amanda was dead.

After their conversation, Lizzie goes into her office. She runs into Gloria, asking about Maude, who Gloria seemed familiar with. Gloria met Maude at a party that her old boss, a senior partner, used to throw. Except Paul got him fired. The ex-partner's name was Kerry Tanner. Paul confirms that Kerry is the partner he got fired. Kerry had harassed multiple legal assistants. Hearing this, Lizzie finally comes clean to Paul about her financial disclosures. He tells her to get the form amended first thing Monday morning.

A floral shop near where Lizzie thought Amanda's father lived confirms that Kerry sent the lilacs. Lizzie also realizes that Sam and Kerry might each know one another from the neighborhood basketball league, which Sarah confirms. Sarah adds that Kerry wears red sneakers.

After a brief chase, Kerry is put in custody despite Sarah's pleas. In a confession room, Kerry confesses that the death was an accident. He was convinced Amanda being friendly to him was a hint of something about the blackmailing. Kerry confronted her about it having her reveal it was Zach due to their financial struggles. When Sebe followed them upstairs, he overheard the confession. Kerry intentionally scared her but Sebe came in furious. Amanda started hitting Seb and fell down the stairs after Kerry tried to break them off each other. Kerry admits to planting the earring on Sam. Since Sebe didn't know what else to do with it, Kerry put it in Sam's pocket. We see a defiant Seb & a silent Maude get arrested as accomplishes of murder. Sarah finally closes the Open Heart Foundation needing distance from the bad baggage.

Walking out as a free man, Zach is gleeful. But waiting for him, Lizzie asks Zach why he hacked the computers, which he tries to deny. But hearing the camera's off, Zach admits it was him. Zach thinks the attorney-client privilege protects him. However, Lizzie acknowledges that privilege doesn't apply to ongoing crimes. An officer & Wendy Wallace walk out due to Zach's surprise. Lizzie lets him know she's reporting him for cyber fraud, a federal crime. As Zach gets dragged off kicking & screaming, Wendy commends Lizzie offering her a job where Lizzie won't have to jump through hoops or deal with other’s bullshit to become a partner.

After the trial, Lizzie drives Sam, who finally heads to rehab for ninety days. He finally decided to ask his mother for the money to go. Before he heads in, Lizzie admits to her family's past, which he quickly accepts as a reward for tolerating him. Lizzie heads to a prison, where she meets her father after avoiding him for many years. He apologizes blaming himself for the destruction of their family. Lizzie assures him that even though he committed a crime, she accepts his apology as he did it for his family. They embrace in a big hug.

Lizzie pays for Millie's surgery as payment for her help. She promises not to be distant and to be a better friend. Lizzie also beats any punishment for her lies to get hired. Afterward, Paul talks to her about becoming a partner, but Lizzie declines it. She's seen enough marriage dysfunction to realize her significant other is her strength, not an inconvenience. She walks out with her head held high for the first time in a long time.