Abhiroop Das
Created by Cullen Crawford, Netflix’s ‘Strip Law’ brings out the “sin” in Sin City through the legal shenanigans of Lincoln Gumb, a failed heir to his mother’s legal empire. Struggling to fit in with the city’s craze and whimsy, he believes that dressing clean and keeping things straight is the key to victory. Enter Sheila Flambe, a part-time magician and full-time bon vivant who teaches him that the only way to survive as a lawyer at the Vegas strip is to let loose completely. As Lincoln dons a fresh garb and picks up on many a legal sleight of hand, the cases he tackles also get exponentially weirder. By the end of this dark comedy animated series, however, Lincoln and Sheila are essentially tuned into the very beating heart of the city, making them almost invincible. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Strip Law Plot Recap
‘Strip Law’ begins with the dwindling legal career of Lincoln Gumb, whose late mother was the most prominent lawyer in the city of Las Vegas. Right after her death, her partner, Steve Nichols, immediately fires Lincoln from the firm, forcing the young attorney to start his own firm, Gumb Legal. Joining him is his uncle, Glem Blorchman, and niece, Irene, who are joined at the hip despite being polar opposites. Glem is a former lawyer who was disbarred due to his various schemes, while Irene is a prodigious teenager with a penchant for bodybuilding. While the team is hard at work day in and out, a string of losses forces Lincoln to consider shutting down the firm for good. While gloomily walking through the Las Vegas strip, his paths cross with Sheila Flambe, a street magician who once served as a juror on one of the cases he blew.
Although Sheila is an extremely skilled magician, she is always in and out of odd jobs. However, that also means that she has her hand on the pulse of the city, which is why she can easily recognize the cause of Lincoln’s failures: he is simply too uptight. Determined to change his life overnight, he lets go of all of his inhibitions and even gets Sheila to join his company as creative head. Together, they revamp his lawyer persona to the bone, complete with a shiny set of jackets, funny quips, and, most importantly, a magic trick to sell the case to the judge and jury, every single time. Before long, Gumb’s firm is overflowing with success, as the most eccentric people from all walks of life gather around to seek his representation. This includes a strip artist who is being forced to eat car keys, a wealthy local recluse who wishes to gain legal recognition as Santa Claus, and a person who was arrested for trying to have sex with a robot.
As Lincoln sifts through an endless stream of outlandish characters with even more outlandish cases, he begins to fall for Sheila. However, their dynamic is tested when a pro-animal protestor seeks his help in shutting down a TV show that pits magicians vs animals. Sheila, who once worked on the show, tries to secretly misdirect him from the case, before we learn that the entire thing is apparently a sham, and that all the pretend-dead animals are secretly being doted upon. While the duo has had trust issues for quite some time, things eventually turn for the better, and Sheila finally finds her name on the Firm’s wall.
Meanwhile, Glem also gets his license back and somehow wins his first case in favor of a town with a broken pipe that leaks Vegas’ regurgitated alcohol. However, Lincoln’s biggest challenge yet is the infamous Pringus and Bench firm, which is representing Toilet 2: an innovative device rumored to have fatal side effects. As the case takes on several shades over a lengthy and challenging trial, we see Glem shift and turn in sync, before the ending brings both plot threads to a climax.
Strip Law Ending: What Does Glem Turn Into? Will He Return to Normal?
At the end of ‘Strip Law’, things take a turn for the absurd as Glem turns into a buff monster named Glemissimo. Standing at thrice his normal height, with four arms and one eye, this new version of Glem feels straight out of a comic book fantasy, which also means that it is most likely not real. Given the show’s well-established history of inviting bizarre developments in one scene and brushing them off in another, Glem’s transformation hardly comes as a surprise. In fact, Lincoln himself has a similar, unbothered reaction to the event, where he casually wonders if his uncle will stay this way forever. That is unlikely to be the case, however, as all things point to life moving on just as usual for Glem and company.
The idea that Glem’s transformation may be imaginary is hinted at in the second episode of the show, where he similarly hallucinates an entire sequence of Kris Kingle riding his sleigh into the sky, before being eaten by King Kong. In reality, he is a witness to Kris Kingle’s death by a car crash, which he exaggerates due to his perpetual drunkenness. Just like the ending, this scene also takes place right after Lincoln deals with a major case, thus making the connection even more apparent. It is likely that Glem’s sense of euphoria is simply manifesting in extreme proportions, and that the version we see on-screen is a creative choice that only makes sense within its context. While the show is full of outlandish twists and turns, it has yet to fully dive into the supernatural, and the Glem cliffhanger isn’t likely to be the tipping point.
While Glem’s metamorphosis into a cyclops-like creature may or may not be temporary, it is still ripe with symbolism and connects to various other parts of the show. Most prominently, it makes a direct reference to that one time he spent 40,000 dollars on a custom-made, Glem-themed slot machine, which featured many Glem-themed items. One of them is the beast known as Glemmissimo, which appears to be the creation of the scientist who tried to warn Glem out of his gambling addiction. Given that the scientist is directly in cahoots with a shady tech company, it is entirely possible that Glem’s transformation is one of their newest tricks, and can spell real trouble for Lincoln and company. However, his apparent lack of surprise and interest still suggests that the entire scene is meant to be light-hearted and comic, just like the rest of the show.
What Happens to Pringus and Bench? Do Lincoln and Sheila Win?
‘Strip Law’ ends with Lincoln and Sheila securing a win against Pringus and Bench, prompting the latter two to use Toilet 2 to seemingly wipe their minds clean. Earlier in the episode, we learn that one of the many negative side effects of Toilet 2 is a process that destroys the brain, regressing a person back to their childhood state. It appears that Pringus and Bench use the device with the express intent of generating such an effect, potentially to cope with their loss. Initially, the duo gains the upper hand on Lincoln by familiarizing themselves with the jury and labelling Vegas citizens as people unworthy of human rights. While that logic seemingly works in this world, Lincoln flips the script by playing Russian roulette with himself, forcing the jury members to recognize the value of the lives of Vegas residents.
In many ways, Lincoln’s stunt at the final hearing is a direct mirror of how he wins his first case in the show. Pringus and Bench are meant to reflect Lincoln’s episode one self, who looked down at Sin City and its many shenanigans, and instead wanted to keep a clean coat for his entire legal career. And, just like how Lincoln comes to embrace the fun side of Vegas, so does the jury in the Toilet 2 case. Just like that time, Lincoln leans in on two main ideas for his argument: the recognition and application of “Vegasians” as a cultural identity, and the theatrics of putting his life at risk, specifically with a gun. The trick works wonders, prompting the judge to immediately grant Gumb and Flambe Legal the win, and deny Pringus and Bench of their career capstone.
Although Pringus and Bench’s decision to mount Toilet 2 can be seen as a perplexing move, it reveals its meaning in a blink-and-you-miss visualization of the duo’s final moments of mental clarity. Shortly after turning on the device, they imagine a starry sky drawn in a childlike art style, which is potentially a call-back to their childhood days and wonders. Thus, their move can be interpreted as an attempt to bury the present and return to a state of pure comfort, that is, the time when they weren’t lawyers to begin with. However, another, darker reading of the scene is that Pringus and Bench want to take their own life, or at least get entirely rid of their consciousness, and find Toilet 2 to be the easiest way to do so. The irony here comes from the fact that they spent the entire episode trying to defend the device’s legitimacy, only to ultimately use it for the very reason it is on trial.
Does Irene Return to Lincoln’s Firm? Was it All an Act?
Alongside Lincoln and Sheila’s victory in court, the episode also ends with Irene’s return to the firm, making the family whole again. While her surprise move from Gumb and Flambe Legal to Pringus and Bench is never quite explained, there are enough hints to suggest that it was a planned move on her part. The idea was likely to destabilize the lawyer duo from the inside out, and given how everything turns out in the end, Irene’s plan appears to be a success. This theory is also backed by the fact that Lincoln, Glem, and Sheila make no remarks about Irene’s departure or return to the firm, as if it had always been a part of their larger strategy. With this, the youngest member of the team is back on duty as the firm’s muscle.
Although Irene is technically responsible for the death of Pringus and Bench’s father, that incident can just as easily be ruled as an accident. Her real twisted side, however, comes out in framing the firm’s AI robot as the culprit, which is never quite brought up by the show again. As it turns out, the bot is also key to another unresolved mystery in the finale, namely, how Irene passes the lie-detection test. The best guess here is that the robot is secretly on Irene’s side, as every other time we see him on screen features him getting disrespected by Pringus and his team, and making sarcastic comments about it. However, with both the AI and the Pringus and Bench patriarch now dead, there is no way to confirm the reality of what transpired with Irene.
Assuming that Irene’s game plan this entire time has been to sow distrust within the ranks of Pringus and Bench, their ultimate conclusion gets one more layer. While the duo tries to get her fired after the incident, they ultimately give up since the company’s reins are about to be taken over by someone else. Without knowing it, both Pringus and Bench separate themselves from their roots, and it is this weakness that ultimately comes to haunt them in the form of Lincoln’s final rebuttal. By contrast, Irene continues to be the jolly heart of Lincoln and Sheila’s firm, and she isn’t likely to leave the dream team anytime soon.
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