The Good Wife is finding its way again, slowly but surely. With this midseason finale, the show promises to bring back the dynamics of the first two seasons with less focus on whimsical characters-of-the-moment and more on the characters we’ve grown to love.
Let’s talk Alicia.
Alicia’s life is a mess. At least her love life is, and her mother was not shy about calling her out on it last week. In typical Alicia fashion, she reacted on the spot and had dirty bathroom sex with Peter (with the whole family literally two doors away). The writers conveniently shelved this for now. The chemistry between Peter and Alicia has been sizzling since late last season after she got Will out of her system (and finally regained some ground with Peter who has apparently slept with everyone and their Kalinda). Their relationship is complicated and edgy, because while I admire that they play off each other beautifully on-screen, I cannot quite decide if she should forgive all his transgressions. Besides not having more affairs, turning a blind eye to Alicia’s affair and generally being good-looking, what has Peter done to redeem himself?
The other fledgling relationship that was brought into the limelight is that of Will and Laura. Will and Alicia ‘shippers will not be happy with this development. I am. While I enjoyed the Will/Alicia pairing, it quickly lost its luster thanks to less-than-average writing. Somehow, it became a burden on the couple and the viewers. Now, in an attempt to reinvigorate Will’s character, the writers are metaphorically shoving him in ASA Hellinger’s direction. In some twisted way, I feel like Laura is too good for Will. He’s not the most upstanding guy to say the least and his character has lost a great deal of charm over the past four seasons. Still, I have faith in the writers’ ability to bring Will back, and I am looking forward to seeing where the show takes these two especially given Laura’s traumatic sexual history. That should make for some juicy drama.
The big question of the episode is of course: what has Kalinda done?
Kalinda is creepy. That’s not to say that I don’t have a love-hate-love relationship with Kalinda but she’s creepy. She’s been up to no good in her past. I’ve always wondered “what has Kalinda done?!” That was until Nick showed up and our love-hate relationship tipped strongly in favor of the latter – and I was disappointed. All I could think was “that’s it?! This Nick dude is all of Kalinda’s baggage?” It was anticlimactic, a fact greatly amplified by how utterly annoying and dull his character was. Thank God, the writers have come out of hibernation and realized that Nick needed to go. Kalinda made that happen, somehow. And we’re left (relieved and) wondering again… what has Kalinda done?
Judging by the stricken look on Kalinda’s face in the final moments of the episode, chances are she killed Nick. My guess is that Kalinda would be pretty nifty at getting rid of a body, but who doesn’t smell this plot twist a mile away? Will team Alicia/Will/Diane/Cary have to fight team Peter/Laura /other ASAs in a legal battle over Kalinda’s conviction?
Cases & Bits
– Do I really want to know why Jackie is looking up types of condoms? Shudder.
– I missed Peter during this hour – especially now that he’s become one of the main driving forces behind the show. I hope his campaign takes center stage in the second half of the season.
– I’m interested in seeing how Eli’s judiciary investigation will hash out. This ploy to reach Peter makes me wonder who’s working so hard to get at him. Could it be Maddie Hayward pulling some very influential strings?
– Alicia and Matan proxy-fighting in court was entertaining, especially their outbursts at the end when the other two lawyers were apparently not doing a good enough job communicating their thoughts.
– How awesome is it that there’s a legal term called “fruit of the poisonous tree”?
Good Lines
Alicia: Zack, we never speak of this again.
Zack: I’m good with that.
Judge Morris: Has there ever been a mere miscarriage of justice—why is it always a gross miscarriage?
Conclusion
A promising mid-season finale for The Good Wife – bring on the second half of the season!
T Rating
B+
Haha your “slept with everyone and their Kalinda” line killed me. Wonderful review.
The double trial was interesting but I didn't love it. I am however extremely intrigued by Will and Laura's potential relationship. This could be quite interesting. And FINALLY we're done with the atrocious Kalinda-Nick plot. Even the writers have publicly admitted to the failure of this storyline. Good riddance!
Something is acting up (I keep getting double posts and if I delete one it deletes both!). I'm glad the writers acknowledge how badly they botched up the Nick / Kalinda thing. The salvage could prove to be quite interesting if my theory is correct and Kalinda permanently disposed of Nick. Excited for January! So much to look forward to! Thanks for letting me review for Nad's Reviews – enjoyed it!
Kalinda killing Nick is so expected. Let's hope she did something more amusing with him. Or better yet, let's just never hear of him again. Useless.