The Good Wife: The Deconstruction
April 26, 2015 10:06 PM - Season 6, Episode 20 - Subscribe
After resigning, Alicia thinks she's going back to FAL. This is not as easy as she thinks it's going to be. In other news, Kalinda sells out Bishop and ....
Okay, my watching of this was kinda interfered by coming home with late and with a houseguest, but as far as I can tell:
Alicia, no longer ever going be state's attorney, thinks she can go back to her firm. They plan on taking her back. However, a bunch of misleading phone calls happen, making both sides think the other side turned traitor. Kalinda briefly stops in from her other plot to figure out what went on and to have Diane and Alicia apologize to each other off screen, but it looks like Alicia's O-U-T by the end. I hate this development. Why can't things just go back to normal already?!
Diane and her buddy Reese's case of the week involves an old lady caught with pills and mandatory sentencing issues and Diane trying to get the lady off by claiming she's an addict. They try this story out on Cary's case officer, who obviously doesn't buy all of the shitty acting on the part of the old lady. On the other hand, turns out the pills were cut in half, so they manage to skirt the mandatory sentencing bit of that. In other news, Reese says he'll leave FAL if Alicia returns because she's tainted now. So...yeah.
Cary calls Geneva to say he'll squeal on Bishop, but what he doesn't know is Kalinda's already in Geneva's office with a plan. Geneva stalls him for 24 hours. Kalinda (a) gets into Bishop henchman Dexter's car and steals one of his in-car flash drives full of tunes while she tries to get him to squeal (he won't), (b) hops onto Bishop's computer and downloads files to "D.R.'s Jams 2." But the computer leaves a trace behind and an error message is left behind and Bishop catches the whole thing. Hey, did you know flash drives could be traced? Anyway, Kalinda turns in the flash drive to Geneva, Dexter realizes what happened to his flash drive and wants to talk to Kalinda, and Bishop is arrested. Dexter's gonna be a dead man. Kalinda has one final kiss with Cary, one final phone call to Diane, and has to leave a note for Alicia because GOD FORBID THEY EVER BE ON SCREEN AGAIN. (Seriously, I want to know if AP peed in JM's Cheerios or what the hell it was that they literally can't be in frame ever again.) Next morning, Kalinda is gone with her wall stash. Alicia finds the note, we never find out what's in it, but she bursts out crying. WTF.
So Kalinda's out of the show even earlier than we expected, Alicia's out of the law firm, and what the heck is the point of this show now? *sigh* Man, I'm hating where this went tonight. How about you?
Okay, my watching of this was kinda interfered by coming home with late and with a houseguest, but as far as I can tell:
Alicia, no longer ever going be state's attorney, thinks she can go back to her firm. They plan on taking her back. However, a bunch of misleading phone calls happen, making both sides think the other side turned traitor. Kalinda briefly stops in from her other plot to figure out what went on and to have Diane and Alicia apologize to each other off screen, but it looks like Alicia's O-U-T by the end. I hate this development. Why can't things just go back to normal already?!
Diane and her buddy Reese's case of the week involves an old lady caught with pills and mandatory sentencing issues and Diane trying to get the lady off by claiming she's an addict. They try this story out on Cary's case officer, who obviously doesn't buy all of the shitty acting on the part of the old lady. On the other hand, turns out the pills were cut in half, so they manage to skirt the mandatory sentencing bit of that. In other news, Reese says he'll leave FAL if Alicia returns because she's tainted now. So...yeah.
Cary calls Geneva to say he'll squeal on Bishop, but what he doesn't know is Kalinda's already in Geneva's office with a plan. Geneva stalls him for 24 hours. Kalinda (a) gets into Bishop henchman Dexter's car and steals one of his in-car flash drives full of tunes while she tries to get him to squeal (he won't), (b) hops onto Bishop's computer and downloads files to "D.R.'s Jams 2." But the computer leaves a trace behind and an error message is left behind and Bishop catches the whole thing. Hey, did you know flash drives could be traced? Anyway, Kalinda turns in the flash drive to Geneva, Dexter realizes what happened to his flash drive and wants to talk to Kalinda, and Bishop is arrested. Dexter's gonna be a dead man. Kalinda has one final kiss with Cary, one final phone call to Diane, and has to leave a note for Alicia because GOD FORBID THEY EVER BE ON SCREEN AGAIN. (Seriously, I want to know if AP peed in JM's Cheerios or what the hell it was that they literally can't be in frame ever again.) Next morning, Kalinda is gone with her wall stash. Alicia finds the note, we never find out what's in it, but she bursts out crying. WTF.
So Kalinda's out of the show even earlier than we expected, Alicia's out of the law firm, and what the heck is the point of this show now? *sigh* Man, I'm hating where this went tonight. How about you?
Although doesn't having Bishop use a Mac violate the "good guys use Macs, bad guys use Windows" industry paradigm? ;) (It was probably because the error message was clearer, but I couldn't resist.)
posted by pmurray63 at 1:08 AM on April 27, 2015
posted by pmurray63 at 1:08 AM on April 27, 2015
I don't know. This entire episode felt cobbled-together and amateurish. It was 8 pounds of story in a 3 pound bag. And the writing felt like your typical evening soap instead of TGW.
(The entire set of buyout package misunderstandings just seemed stupid and not in line with the characters we know. Diane and Alicia yelling "You betrayed me!" " No, YOU betrayed me!". The twee girly cover of Randy Newman at the end instead of the amazing original, urgent soundtrack they've been using to great effect over the past couple of seasons. Kalinda brought in as a Remote Important Person who never directly connects to Alicia to save her or say good-bye. Oliver Platt just happening to be in the office to reject Alicia's return. And I guess Alicia's sobbing over the note was supposed to be a reaction to both the loss of Kalinda and everything else, but it just seemed corny and way OTT.)
I found myself thinking the Eight Deadly Words. It's not that the characters are too bland or too evil, it's that they're not believable any more. The cast of TGW was Stepforded last night.
posted by maudlin at 7:00 AM on April 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
(The entire set of buyout package misunderstandings just seemed stupid and not in line with the characters we know. Diane and Alicia yelling "You betrayed me!" " No, YOU betrayed me!". The twee girly cover of Randy Newman at the end instead of the amazing original, urgent soundtrack they've been using to great effect over the past couple of seasons. Kalinda brought in as a Remote Important Person who never directly connects to Alicia to save her or say good-bye. Oliver Platt just happening to be in the office to reject Alicia's return. And I guess Alicia's sobbing over the note was supposed to be a reaction to both the loss of Kalinda and everything else, but it just seemed corny and way OTT.)
I found myself thinking the Eight Deadly Words. It's not that the characters are too bland or too evil, it's that they're not believable any more. The cast of TGW was Stepforded last night.
posted by maudlin at 7:00 AM on April 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
I have this pathetic faith in the writers/producers of this show and while I disliked the "run for SA" storyline, I stuck with it because I expected a big pay-off at the end and, well, it hasn't happened yet. I wanted this episode to be Alicia's come-home-all-is-forgiven (didn't that welcome-back scene make you feel all warm and fuzzy and relieved) but then we have the phone call/stealing clients confusion, sorted out in five seconds by Kalinda?!, then it's NewBigGuyClient taking precedence over the temporarily-disgraced wife of the Governor?? And Cary was pretty quick to jump on the Dump Alicia bandwagon despite her being *very* supportive of his legal troubles at the beginning of the season (didn't she mortgage her house to raise his bail money? His incarceration was certainly the motivating factor in getting her to run for SA). Why didn't he speak up when it came to the showdown with NBGC?
Kalinda's big farewell scene is with Grace? I understand it was a plot device and maybe having an Alicia-Kalinda-in-the-same-room scene would've been too distracting at this point. Kalinda saying goodbye into the camera? That's a big F U to JM. It's possible that I'm reading too much into this
I did love the throwaway line that her only remaining client is Colin Sweeney.
Prediction: Alicia will join up with Finn (ha, don't really think that is happening due to the previews) and her first case will be defending Lemond Bishop. Love that Linda Lavin's character still pronounces it Lemon.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:05 AM on April 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
Kalinda's big farewell scene is with Grace? I understand it was a plot device and maybe having an Alicia-Kalinda-in-the-same-room scene would've been too distracting at this point. Kalinda saying goodbye into the camera? That's a big F U to JM. It's possible that I'm reading too much into this
I did love the throwaway line that her only remaining client is Colin Sweeney.
Prediction: Alicia will join up with Finn (ha, don't really think that is happening due to the previews) and her first case will be defending Lemond Bishop. Love that Linda Lavin's character still pronounces it Lemon.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:05 AM on April 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
(Oops! I mentioned Kalinda remotely saving Alicia when it was the Ecstasy grandmother she saved.)
posted by maudlin at 7:15 AM on April 27, 2015
posted by maudlin at 7:15 AM on April 27, 2015
Well she did both, calling Alicia to sort out the misunderstanding. I guessed she would join Finns firm, but from the preview I wondered if she would go back to the original LG (more symmetry), which I guess is just Canning and Associates now.
I loved the shot of Alicia as the disgraced politician with her husband standing by her side.
posted by TwoWordReview at 7:53 AM on April 27, 2015
I loved the shot of Alicia as the disgraced politician with her husband standing by her side.
posted by TwoWordReview at 7:53 AM on April 27, 2015
Supposedly Kalinda will be seen in the finale.
Kalinda "left the show" years ago, really.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:23 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Kalinda "left the show" years ago, really.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:23 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah, the intrigue with the firm was not made very clear. And gee, what a coincidence that RD is there to put the kibosh on Alicia's return (not that his argument wasn't valid on some level).
Maybe they're just hurrying to tie up loose ends.
And yeah, they couldn't get Alicia and Kalinda in the same room for goodbye? There has to be something to the rumors.
posted by pmurray63 at 11:01 AM on April 27, 2015
Maybe they're just hurrying to tie up loose ends.
And yeah, they couldn't get Alicia and Kalinda in the same room for goodbye? There has to be something to the rumors.
posted by pmurray63 at 11:01 AM on April 27, 2015
No one really knows anything, but there's clearly some rift between Marguiles and Panjabi as they haven't been on screen together in 50(!) episodes now. And Panjabi apparently wasn't invited to the Paleyfest panel a while back.
Anyway, a frustrating episode that showed some glimmers of greatness. There's clearly tensions between Alicia and the rest of the characters and while the episode explored that a little, it was all based in tonight's drama and not the resentments that have (or should have) been boiling all season. And after all that the show's way forward is keeping them separate? Urgh.
posted by yellowbinder at 5:57 PM on April 27, 2015
Anyway, a frustrating episode that showed some glimmers of greatness. There's clearly tensions between Alicia and the rest of the characters and while the episode explored that a little, it was all based in tonight's drama and not the resentments that have (or should have) been boiling all season. And after all that the show's way forward is keeping them separate? Urgh.
posted by yellowbinder at 5:57 PM on April 27, 2015
This almost seemed like a series finale, and it would have been a good (but depressing) one -- Alicia loses her political career, loses her job at what's left of Lockhart/Gardner, loses (for good this time) the only friend she's made in 6 years. And things aren't great with Peter, so she's pretty much back where she started in Season 1 episode 1.
It actually sets up a potentially interesting Season 7 where she rebuilds her career, just like Season 1, but in a better way because of all she's learned since then. And I like that idea better than the "Alicia on the other side of the courtroom" scenario we would have had if she won.
I have to say, though, the bizarre situation between Juliana and Archie has really messed up this show. I didn't even like Kalinda that much as a character, but watching all of their contortions to use that character without her appearing in the same room as Alicia is very distracting. And I had to wonder which other characters (Cary? Dianne?) had similar things going on because she seemed to be avoiding them too most of the season.
posted by mmoncur at 9:28 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
It actually sets up a potentially interesting Season 7 where she rebuilds her career, just like Season 1, but in a better way because of all she's learned since then. And I like that idea better than the "Alicia on the other side of the courtroom" scenario we would have had if she won.
I have to say, though, the bizarre situation between Juliana and Archie has really messed up this show. I didn't even like Kalinda that much as a character, but watching all of their contortions to use that character without her appearing in the same room as Alicia is very distracting. And I had to wonder which other characters (Cary? Dianne?) had similar things going on because she seemed to be avoiding them too most of the season.
posted by mmoncur at 9:28 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
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The gov has been pretty darn supportive. I'm curious how their relationship will ultimately play out.
I loved the flash drive business. I thought it was a good example of how smart this show can be, and how well it integrates technology into its storytelling. Neither is new for this show, of course, but they are aspects I would mention if I was talking it up to someone. (This and Person of Interest have been my two favorites for several years now.)
posted by pmurray63 at 12:56 AM on April 27, 2015