Diane and Adrian see the pandemic as an opportunity in The Good Fight sneak peek

After more than a year stuck inside and confined to small video boxes, you're probably tired of the word "Zoom" by now. But believe us when we say that Christine Baranski has just breathed new life into that cursed word.

EW is debuting an exclusive clip from The Good Fight's season 5 premiere, which chronicles how Baranski's Diane Lockhart, Adrian Boseman (Delroy Lindo), and the rest of the firm's lawyers weathered the unpredictable and frustrating past year. Set on March 20, 2020, the sneak peek above depicts the firm's response in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as Diane and Adrian inform the associates that they're being sent home for the time being.

"In the meantime, we're setting up a teleconferencing infrastructure. So download a program called Zoom.com — Z-O-O-M," says Diane, who sounds as though this is the first time she's ever said those words in that order but wants to put forth an air of confidence. The way she says "Zoom dot com," like it's this foreign new thing, truly makes the word "Zoom" sound interesting again.

Of course, leave it to this money-minded lawyers to find a silver lining in Chicago's stay-at-home order. After the meeting with the associates, Diane and Adrian regroup with Liz (Audra McDonald) and reluctantly discuss how this would be a great opportunity for layoffs because, in case you forgot, the firm's owner, STR Laurie, ordered them to cut 20 percent of the staff right before season 4's abrupt (and phallic) ending. How will that go? We'll have to wait and see.

Picking up minutes after the events of the unplanned season 4 finale, the season 5 premiere ties up some dangling threads and functions as a sendoff for Cush Jumbo, who plays Lucca Quinn, and Lindo, both of whom were originally slated leave the Paramount+ legal drama at the end of season 4. But they two aren't the only characters exiting the series: Joe Biden's victory last fall means the 45th president will be absent as well.

"Christine Baranski joked that we actually didn't lose two major characters," says co-creator Michelle King. "We lost three: Delroy, Cush, and Trump."

Co-creator Robert King adds: "It's kind of amazing how much the country has gone through [during] this last administration, and a lot of that has stayed with us, I think, because of the aftereffects of Jan 6, which I think is going to be an event that echoes throughout American history for a long time. In many ways, it was fun to not have the words 'Donald' or 'Trump' mentioned at all for many of these episodes, and yet there's still this sense that the world has changed."

On top of the Jan 6 insurrection, the effects of the pandemic and last summer's Black Lives Matters protests will also loom large over the fifth season, beginning with how Adrian leaves the series.

"It changed because we were writing it later in time. So what had happened in the world in the intervening months played into how Boseman was written off the show," Michelle King says. Robert King adds, "I would say the pandemic, but also George Floyd — the combination really impacts that conversation."

Losing Adrian raises issues of gender, age, and race at the firm. "It leaves a power vacuum, and then how that vacuum will be filled is the stuff of the season," Michelle King says.

The Good Fight season 5 premieres Thursday on Paramount+.

Related content:

• Delroy Lindo and Cush Jumbo returning for The Good Fight season 5 premiere
• Cush Jumbo exits The Good Fight ahead of season 5
• The Good Fight composer breaks down the bombastic main title music