The Good Wife: Judged

January 31, 2016 9:15 PM - Season 7, Episode 13

After a former bond court client is wrongfully imprisoned, Alicia argues against Judge Schakowsky; the student editor of a college newspaper is threatened with termination after writing a politically charged article.

I can't write a recap of this tonight: I'm busy, my brains are scrambled, and I really can't explain the legal wranglings in this episode beyond "bond court judge AGAIN," some guy from bond court got stuck in jail for 8 months, Alicia is getting sued for millions and Cary once again offered to take her and Lucca back (no response this time yet), and Diane was dealing with some college student drama.

However, I did notice the following:
(a) Jason's back with whackadoodle Silicon Valley merch I've never seen there.
(b) Lockhart Whatever is also still offering him a job.
(c) Alicia shows up at Eli's looking like the black widow of death, asking him for the contents of the voice mail in GREAT detail. Later Alicia has a straight up crying breakdown/Emmy nomination scene to Lucca while doing laundry, about how her life sucks and she lost Will and she is drinking a lot more all the time and she just wants to hide in bed forever. Lucca's response is to hug Alicia and say that she has no friends (what a coincidence) and will be hers.
(d) Yes, Alicia kisses Jason.
(e) We'll see how that goes.

Anyone have any deep thoughts?

posted by jenfullmoon (7 comments total)

This is a confusing season, I don't really have deep thoughts on the plot. The plot is meandering and weird.

My primary thought for this season so far is that Julianna Margulies has been incredible in scene after scene. She goes from deadpan to just holding on to losing her cool over and over and it always seems like a genuine struggle to keep going forward. I just think it's some of the best acting I've ever seen on TV.
posted by Drinky Die at 4:01 AM on February 1, 2016

I just think it's some of the best acting I've ever seen on TV.

She has been very good in a season that has given Alicia bad luck after bad luck. Everything seems to kick her or hold her back, and she is trying to rise above it. Riveting to watch her, but the also painful to watch at the same time...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 1:03 PM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

Any episode that ends with Cary saying "come back home" is a win. Just seeing Cary pop up as her lawyer is a win.

Of course that is balanced against the dropped storylines of Grace's client acquisition run, Louis Canning's offers, and other are-they-solvent-or-not? scenes and the ignored fact that any firm in the state would crawl over broken glass to get the Governor's wife on their letterhead. This episode could almost have been from earlier in the season, it was so focused on bond court and that judge.

Why couldn't the court stenographer testify in person to what she heard the bond court judge say? Of course she'd lose her job immediately but still, they didn't even bring that up as a possibility.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:18 PM on February 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

I just want to say that I LOVE the making out in the elevator scene. The rest of the episode was kind of a hot mess, but whatever.
posted by aaanastasia at 11:19 AM on February 3, 2016

Ok I watched this really late on tape delay but I just want to say two things: Yeah, Alicia's all tour-de-force on the laundry scene, but I thought Eli's moment at the end when he asked for (and got! yay!) forgiveness was the best acting in the episode. And also what is up with that super shitty plotline with Illinois Park College* and the defunding of the school paper? It seems like such a strawman setup because it's difficult to imagine any institute of higher education thinking that the correct response to an unpopular student-written editorial is to get rid of the school newspaper. I mean really. I know it's all trendy to hate on millennials who use the term 'safe space' but is this even remotely plausible? In conclusion, we need more Marissa Gold.

*Maybe someone who is more familiar with Chicago can suss out which uni this is supposed to be?
posted by tractorfeed at 8:21 PM on February 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

I feel like there were some cut scenes or something. It's been a running theme to have Diane defend arguments that challenge her own views, but it never seemed to get put into that context in this episode. It just happened.
posted by Drinky Die at 12:24 AM on February 7, 2016

Wrapping it up, show finale is May 8 according to The Hollywood Reporter.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 11:58 PM on February 7, 2016