'Eli Stone': See? Told You.

Eli Stone is determined to have his aneurysm removed, and he's getting his affairs in order. This week's vision: as he's leaving his neurosurgeon, Eli gets into a cab heading to the office, and suddenly he's in the back of a station wagon driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. As the driver wraps up a cell phone call with someone he affectionately calls "Macaroni," an earthquake hits -- during rush hour, in exactly three days (never mind that the Golden Gate is awfully uncrowded for 5:13 p.m.).

Instead of the office, Eli heads to see Dr. Chen. "As if one fake hallucination wasn't enough, now I'm getting one directed by Michael Bay," he tells Chen, who's fantastic at not letting Eli succumb to his despair.

Meanwhile, the firm politics continue, and Marcy Klein (Katey Sagal) is lobbying the partners for Jordan's ouster. But this is Victor Garber -- Jack Bristow, for heaven's sake -- and he's not scared that easily. And while Eli's talking to Patti and then Maggie, whose fiance, Scott, is moving to San Francisco on Thursday, Chen calls. There's a scientists on TV, protesting on the steps of city hall, warning that there's an earthquake coming.

Chen and Eli go to see the scientist, Dr. Foote, who's earthquake proofing his house and essentially has turned his entire house into an earthquake detector. No one believes him, his previous predictions of disaster haven't come true, and his wife has taken their family and moved away. He predicts that the epicenter of this one will be at Silver Terrace -- a 6.5 at least. And of course, if this is true, Eli's vision of the future is validated.

Eli's plan: go to court with Dr. Foote, and petition the city to close down the Golden Gate Bridge for a few hours on Thursday. "If I dismiss this case I'll have to start a three-month trial on accounting practices," the judge says. "I'll do just about anything to avoid that for a day or two."

Taylor's on Marcy Watch, trying to keep her father from facing sure calamity with the partners. They're in from New York and Chicago, checking up on Jordan's management. "Are you live blogging the office now?" he asks her. And Marcy's got Eli firmly in her sights. He asks Maggie to be second chair on the earthquake case, but she can't -- she's working as second chair to Marcy, who's now the opposing counsel. Oh, and Eli sees a photo of Scott -- and realizes it's the guy in the station wagon in his vision.

In court, with Dr. Foote on the stand, Marcy moves that the case be dismissed; scientific testimony is inadmissible unless generally accepted by the scientific community. No one believes this guy, and his wife left him on the date of the quake he predicted in 2005.

Taylor begs Eli to drop the case, warning him that Marcy's on the warpath to use Eli's behavior and methods of practice against her father. Eli goes to Jordan and offers to recuse himself and find alternate counsel for Dr. Foote. The rapport between Eli and Jordan, while far from the father-son kind of warmth that they once knew, makes clear that a deep bond still runs between the two of them -- maybe not of affection, as it once was, but certainly respect. Eli owes Jordan everything, and he knows it; and not just because Taylor used it as leverage to get Eli to drop the case. But Jordan won't let Eli quit. Every case he's taken has been with Jordan's approval. "My lawyers finish their cases," he says.

Eli warns Maggie that Marcy has chosen her as second chair to gain information about him -- not because, as Maggie assumes, she's spunky and a hard worker. Oy. In court, he puts Dr. Foote's estranged wife on the stand. She disputes the notion that she left Dr. Foote because she thought he was crazy, nothing that the real reason was his obsession with work to the exclusion of her and his family.

That night, Marcy shows Maggie her true colors, as Eli predicted, by pursuing information on the cases they worked on together -- how Eli acted, what motivated him, what he said. And the next day, Marcy puts Maggie on the stand as a hostile witness. Eli was focusing on representing individuals rather than corporations, Maggie said. And he was motivated in the Solinsky case to get the residents of Silver Terrace out so they wouldn't be hurt in the earthquake he saw in his vision of the future.

On cross-examination, Eli asks Maggie what she said to him when he told her about the vision. "That I believed you," she says, eyes filled with tears. Oh, crap. I almost like Eli and Maggie together now. They're terrific in this scene, and the emotion feels real. Does that mean I need to relinquish my position on Team Taylor?

The judge denies Eli's request. But the mayor believes him -- a senior aide calls Eli and Dr. Foote in, and says that the mayor has agreed to shut down the bridge. And Eli warns Maggie to tell Scott to stay off the Golden Gate Bridge when he gets into town.

Separately, Eli's got other things to worry about. He asks Matt Dowd to handle his living will, because he needs it to be iron-clad, drafted without sympathy or sentiment. "We're going to put your utter lack of humanity to use," Eli tells him. To his credit, Dowd has momentary flashes of sympathy for Eli, even standing up for him during his next-to-impossible-to-get dinner with Taylor, who's railing about Eli's pursuit of the case to her father's detriment. And he doesn't betray his attorney-client privilege, no matter how much he wants to score.

Later, Eli gathers Taylor, Patti, and Dowd into his office and explains to Taylor and Patti that he needs them to witness the signing of his living will. He doesn't want to be Terri Schiavo'ed. "You want us to witness you signing your suicide note?" Taylor asks incredulously. It's "about how and under what circumstances I don't want to live," Eli tells her. It's another moment that really showcases one of the things I like so much about this show -- the strength of the relationships between the people. They're not always close, but the bonds are apparent, and it feels real.

Back to Jordan's fate. Marcy has gathered the partners together for a vote on his ouster, arguing that by allowing Eli to pursue the cases he has, he's damaged the reputation of the firm. Jordan speaks up, defending Eli and saying that Marcy's problem isn't that he's eccentric; it's that he's working with individuals and not conglomerates. Every firm -- every company -- needs someone like Eli, he says. His speech wanders straight into Aaron Sorkin territory, but in the hands of Victor Garber, it comes off credible and emotional, without being too cynically manipulative. I've said before and I'm repeating again that I'm a sucker for Garber, and maybe that explains my reaction to the scene. Maybe it won't hold up on second viewing. But right now, I buy it.

By this point, it's about an hour before the earthquake's about to strike, and Eli stands on a table in the firm lobby to tell his co-workers to bug out to Golden Gate Park, a safer location during an earthquake than a 22-story glass building. Take my word on faith, he urges them, then asks, Jerry Maguire style, who's with me? No one answers, but people do start scattering. Have you ever hoped for a disaster more than you did during this scene?

It's no surprise when the partners vote to remove Jordan as managing partner of the firm -- and he takes it incredibly gracefully. "I can live with the partners' decision," he says. "I hope they can." And with that, there's a giant rumble, followed by smashing glass and falling beams as a 6.8 earthquake hits. "I'd like a re-vote," Jordan says on his way out of the room.

At Golden Gate Park, Eli, Patti, Maggie, Scott, Nate, and others watch as the bridge crumbles in the middle, in an effect worthy of Jerry Bruckheimer -- minus the stuff blowing up.

What did you think? Did all the ends get tied up a little too neatly? Do you buy Eli as a legit prophet? Are you really worried that the title character will meet disaster next week?

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