- Title: Franklin & Bash – Dead and Alive
- tv.com: link
Following the events from the season premiere the now homeless Franklin (Breckin Meyer), Bash (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), Pindar (Kumail Nanjiani), and Carmen (Dana Davis) move into Infeld’s (Malcolm McDowell) beach house. Franklin and Bash also get a new case involving a friend (Dan Martin) of Peter’s father whose credit was destroyed and home was foreclosed and sold at auction all because of a clerical error that accidentally declared him legally dead. Although the judge (Robert Wuhl) is a fan of the the pair, he only grants a five-day injunction for their client to resolve the matter before the real estate company who bought the property is then allowed to bulldoze the home.
The more the two slam their heads against slow moving government bureaucracy the slower the process appears to move. However, Carmen smells something fishy about the man’s death certificate and the county clerk who signed it that recently moved into a brand new home previously owned by the real estate company for far below its market value. Realizing Franklin and Bash have uncovered something, but have no proof, Rachel (Heather Locklear) allows the two to continue but threatens to pull the plug if the real estate company decides to flex is muscles in a way that looses the firm valuable clients.
Needing to get unconventional, the pair bring a wrongful death suit against the real estate company for “killing” their client. Trying to win their case, however, is complicated by Bash being high on pain killers and their new favorite judge being replaced by one far less whimsical (Ryan Cutrona). With the testimony of a dead man the pair are able to sway the jury and force the opposing counsel (Rob Benedict) into a settlement. Although unorthodox, their legal strategy works and cuts through several weeks of governmental red tape and reminds us once again that the pair are at their best when they think outside the box (and, although inadmissible, those chalk drawings were awesome).
In the episode’s other stories Peter attempts to win the heart of his new neighbor (Nicky Whelan), and Infeld and Damien (Reed Diamond) try to stop Ukrainian college student (Ana Alexander) from facing deportation after loosing her job which nearly ends with Jared marrying Infeld to Nataliya allowing her to remain in the country. Although Alexander leaves after a single appearance it appears Whelan is going to stick around for at least one more episode as Peter’s latest love interest. The episode also shows us Locklear’s character isn’t quite the one-dimensional cold bitch we got in the season premiere and does have a heart (even if it may seem a couple sizes too small, at times).
