The All Rise theme continues with "Sliding Floors" feeling even more serialized than the first season, and in many different ways. There's one thing about those cases. But Lola's pregnancy and long-distance relationship with Robin, as well as Emily's budding romance with Joachim and annoyance with the system, all keep cropping up again and again, not to mention the unresolved bond with Luke.

There is still a case-of-the-week structure to a large degree, but the overall thematic and character growth in this outing is much more evident, and even the cases seem clearly built around where the characters are in their personal and professional lives.

Mark, for instance, receives an anonymous missive containing pictures which throw the outcome of an old case he worked into some considerable doubt. The possibility is raised that he was manipulated to protect a police mistake, and he has to debate whether or not to reopen that case – and thus old wounds – at great risk to where he is now just for the sake of his principles. Of course, he decides to reopen the case anyway.

The big courtroom drama of “Sliding Floors” pertains to Maya and Tiara Gage, two very similar women convicted of the same crime but who have nonetheless been treated very differently because of their socioeconomic circumstances; Maya and is well-off and Tiara isn’t, which makes all the difference. This plot ropes in not just Lola but also Emily, Luke, Sam, and Benner. It’s making a necessary point that there are many forms of privilege and many forms of prejudice and that sometimes one aspect of a person overrides the other. Through this case, Luke and Emily find common ground in their idealism – though Luke is largely reaching conclusions that Emily already reached a long time ago – and Emily resolves to clear her caseload with the same kind of righteous energy that she’s becoming known for as #LawyerBae.

This episode also raises the idea of support systems, which factors into the Gage cases somewhat but is most obviously examined through Lola’s pregnancy. When she experiences some worrying pain in her stomach, her office quickly floods with doting people, from Luke and Sherri to Mark and Benner, all of whom are willing to provide the help that Lola is too stubborn to ask for. Deep down, that’s what she needs, and while she gives up on assembling a crib by herself, she knows she has people around her who care. And who could need more than that?

This recap of All Rise season 2, episode 3, “Sliding Floors”, contains spoilers. We recapped every episode — check out the episodes tag.