Night Court – Pilot

By: Sammi Turano

The premiere opens with Abby Stone (Melissa Rauch) talking to a guy with tattoos and being awkward in the process. Gurgs the Bailiff (Lacretta) introduces herself and Abby reveals that she is the judge, like her father before her. She is excited about the job and wonders what happened to his former coworkers.

As she looks back at the stories he told her, Dan Fielding (John Larroquette) is working at a coffee shop, being snarky as usual. It turns out he is undercover.

Gurgs introduces Abby to the court, but keeps getting her name wrong. Neil (Kapil Talwalkar) moves things along while Olivia (India de Beaufort) and Paul present their first case, which involves a psychic who may be a fraud.

Abby wants the psychic to prove herself. At first it seems like she is the real deal, but it turns out Abby set her up by hiding her engagement ring. She gives her fifty hours of community service. Abby comments on Paul giving up so easily and causes him to quit.

Later on Gurgs brings Abby some of her dad’s things. They chat a bit about people messing with her name on the board  and then Neil lets Abby know they will be getting a new public defender. She finds an old pool ball and goes to visit Dan. However, he thinks she is the delivery person and then a Girl Scout and slams the door in her face. She explains who she is and takes him even further by surprise.

The two of them share memories about Harry and she offers him his old job back. He doesn’t want to do it because he doesn’t like people. She shares some more memories and he tries to push her out the door—with food. He promises to stop by and asks her to leave.

Gurgs is still upset over her name being messed up. Neil tries to calm her down, but she yells at the delivery woman who gets her name wrong.

Back in court Abby is working on a case when Dan shows up and runs into an old flame named Sally. She runs over to talk to him and introduces her to Olivia, who could not be less interested in talking to him. Olivia thinks bringing Dan on is a bad idea, but Abby thinks he will be a good fit.

Dan and Abby finally talk about the job and end up arguing. He ends up storming out in anger.

Gurgs is still trying to get revenge on her name messer upper and rants to Neil about it. She then realizes she might be overreacting and runs off upset.

Abby wants to know if Neil will ever admit he is the culprit, but he says he is trying to make his own fun. She warns him to be careful and they end up having a heart to heart where she talks about her dad and his magic tricks. Neil admits he can work harder.

Dan goes back to the court and goes through Harry’s old things. He ends up chatting with the janitor about his previous life at the court and how a big loss caused him to close off his heart. He wants to know what to do, but the janitor (Dimiter D. Marinov) is no help and tells him to tell shorter stories.

Dan then decides to open the box and a snake pops out. He vows to think about the job offer and opening his heart.

Court is a disaster until Dan shows up to help….for a few days. Abby thinks he will be there longer, making him already regret taking the job. He ends up saving the day…but not without snark.

The episode ends with the defendant flashing everyone.