The Good Wife: Cooked
October 18, 2015 9:22 PM - Season 7, Episode 3 - Subscribe

Alicia and Lucca deal with a drug case that's not at all what it seems on many levels. Ruth forces Alicia and Veronica to go on a cooking show together, SO GUESS HOW THAT GOES. Howard debates suing Lockhart Whoever and starts dating Jackie. And who needs a professional investigator when Grace is on the case?

Alicia and Lucca are dealing with two guys in a GHB drug deal. Alicia's client, Roland, tells her he had created a fake version of GHB that doesn't kill anyone, which makes the case complicated. Both attorneys are offered some quick deal, but after hearing that detail, Alicia tells Lucca not to take it . This leads to a lot of discussion about the analogue act, in which making a drug that's chemically similar still counts. (I feel like we're listening to the "dime bag of oregano" argument from A Few Good Men.") Lucca ponts out the catch-22 nature of this--the guy could get off if he was trying to make GHB and made a fake "by accident." Alicia ah, lays this out for her client and tells him to think about it for awhile--he's not a chemist, after all, and your intent is important here." So, okay, he'll say it was an accident...and then Roland blows it on the stand and is going to trial.

Despite having called Jason the new investigator earlier in the episode, I guess Jeffrey Dean Morgan wasn't actually available, so Grace of all people gets 'er done by figuring out that Roland doesn't actually exist--and he was seen with FBI agents. "You did that?!" "I know! But Zach helped!" (Seriously, a teenage girl can investigate better than that girl last week.) Alicia confronts "Roland" and threatens to quit, and then he basically entraps her and forces her to stay. WTF?

In Politicandia, Eli gets a closet for an office, Ruth won't let him have a literal seat at the table, and she's mad at him because Alicia will only campaign for six days. and Ruth forces him to put Alicia and her mother Veronica on a cooking show, "Mama's Homespun Cooking." Eli actually says to Veronica's face, "We're trying to show what a strong family Peter has--" and she laughs. When she hears about the cooking show, Veronica laughs her head off even harder and says she wouldn't miss it, and of course she shows up drunk, snipes at Alicia (and vice versa) and says her go-to meal is pizza. Eli giggles to himself in a corner and doesn't answer Ruth's phone calls.

Alicia tells Eli that she thinks she's being set up. "Is that a lawyerly way of helping him lie?" "No, but it could be interpreted that way." Was this strategy your idea? Come to think of it, no.... Ruth interrupts and is pissed at Eli, who says he didn't need to tell anyone to tank the cooking show, Ruth didn't know their relationship.

Alicia and Lucca hash it out. "So your guy is a lying egomaniac. Do you trust him to get through trial?" Nope. Alicia gets on Lucca a bit for that catch-22 idea, which she says she came up with when she was being pushed to reject a one year deal. Alicia thinks they should sever their cases, and Lucca is all, "great meeting, thanks, screw you." Lucca, I think she's doing you a favor.
In court, Alicia's about to speak up and Roland throws a fit and stops her and demands a recess. He confesses to being an undercover FBI agent and this is all a scheme to figure out if the judge will take a bribe. He tells Alicia has no choice but to do as he says and file for dismissal, and nobody else involved knows. Alicia corrects Eli on the situation later.

The judge is not happy when he's offered the bribe, and next thing you know, "Roland" is going to trial and he fires Alicia. You tipped him off--no, I didn't, maybe he just wasn't corrupt. I think she's delighted to be fired. Next time in bond court, the judge offers Alicia most of the cases, which she shares with Lucca anyway. Someone else warned him...yup, Eli. The judge says he probably wouldn't have taken the bribe anyway, but thanks. Meanwhile, Eli needs help with Frank Landau....

In other news, Howard wants to hire Alicia to sue Lockhart Whoever for ageism. Alicia's not interested, points out that Howard has to get fired first, and maybe he should actually do his job for awhile. Meanwhile, Howard gets romantically interested in Jackie and vice versa, they have a cute date and some kisses, and she helps him to bring in a big fish client. Howard decides not to sue, but David Lee hears it all and gets pissed off and tells everyone. Earlier in the episode, Diane got everyone to agree to farm off some of their smaller cases to Alicia--let her be our pawn and not Canning's, we somehow don't have enough associates again anyway*, I can't keep track of their shit any more--but Diane gets ticked the hell off at this. Oh goody, more feuds again.

* and apparently the girl Diane wanted to mentor is way too concerned with having time for her new boyfriend to take her up on the offer!

Other Things Corner:
* Grace calls herself a "fat cow" while seeing a photo of herself as a kid, which is just sad. Even worse is Jackie being all, "all babies are unattractive." Say what, Grandma?
* "And he has the most beautiful hair!" --Naomi the summer intern on her new Internet boyfriend.
* "Do these summer interns seem less committed to you?" --Diane
* "Well, someone had a good nap." --Cary upon hearing that Howard actually did some work. Howard is all, repeat that for the record please....
* What's the difference between semantics and the law? "I have a gavel," says Judge Schakowsky.
* "Snowball chi sounded cooler." -Roland on the name for his drug.
* "It was an...unusual experience. I hope you got what you wanted out it." --Alicia to Ruth on the cooking show.
" "My mother hated my laugh. She forced me to eat a garlic clove every time I laughed." --Jackie. Oh you poor girl, no wonder you're like how you are.
posted by jenfullmoon (11 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
The GHB case was tense, everything with Eli was fantastic, but then they need to have Alicia explain the very basics of wrongful dismissal to a partner in a law firm to put her on the hook.

And if she didn't accept Howard as a client, is he still protected by attorney-client privilege like Alicia says? Too much driving the plot to an end goal in this case.

But watching Eli machinate makes it all worth putting up with.
posted by cardboard at 6:39 AM on October 19, 2015


How can Jackie and Howard be so cute yet also feel like the apocalypse?
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:38 AM on October 19, 2015 [5 favorites]


Diane attempts to reestablish ties with Alicia; David Lee misunderstands something and condemns Alicia; instead of talking to Alicia, Diane trusts David Lee and severs ties again. How many times have they danced this dance?
posted by donajo at 7:51 AM on October 19, 2015 [2 favorites]


Agree with the ^. I loved this episode, tense, well-paced, Jackie!! but upon reflection, Diane and Alicia on the outs again (sigh). Grace is no longer the annoying child. Can we get a Cary storyline next week?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:45 PM on October 19, 2015


If Diane Lockhart offers to mentor you, you do not say no, idiot! Does she not even watch the show? Diane is the best!
posted by misfish at 2:08 PM on October 19, 2015 [4 favorites]


The whole scene where Diane offers cases to Alicia was filmed Kalinda-style, with the camera always showing only one actress. There's one part where you see the back of Diane's head, but it could have been a double.

That had me wondering, but later when Angry Diane shows up at the door they're definitely both in the room.

This is the sort of thing that goes through my brain now whenever I watch this show.

I did enjoy the Eli parts (knowing exactly what would happen when Alicia and her mom were on the cooking show and just letting it happen).

Nice to see Jackie again, and instead of ruining Alicia's life by causing trouble on purpose, she's just going to ruin it by being happy with Howard...

Did Diane seem to forgive Alicia at the end? When Howard started working hard and bringing in huge clients, after Alicia gave him some advice, she seemed like maybe she thought Alicia did her firm a favor.

I'm a bit bothered by the fact that twice, now, Alicia has gotten a "real" case by spotting the well-groomed young white guy in bond court.

Otherwise pretty good episode...
posted by mmoncur at 3:07 PM on October 19, 2015 [1 favorite]


This episode gave me all the old school Good Wife feels (Eli's trickery, complicated and engaging case, Grace as an amazing detective). But the wind was let out of my sails a bit with the Diane/Alicia misunderstanding. How has Diane not learned this lesson yet? She's such a smart lady!

Also, I'm still waiting for a storyline this season at Lockhart Agos that doesn't revolve around Howard.
posted by bluloo at 7:57 PM on October 19, 2015 [1 favorite]


I think the Kings try too hard to recreate the "the characters are mad at each other" drama that was great in certain arcs, particularly the arc about Cary/Alicia creating their new firm. But the thing there was that Diane/Will/David Lee deserved to be mad at Cary/Alicia, and at the same time Cary/Alicia's actions were also totally understandable. That's what made the drama good.

Whenever they do things like this episode's move where the characters shouldn't be mad at each other if they understood everything, the drama is hollow and frustrating.

Everything else about this episode was awesome though.
posted by john-a-dreams at 4:49 PM on October 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


This episode was supper annoying to me.

Alicia declines to be Howard's lawyer, and gives him some basic free advice (clearly labelled as such) on how to launch and ageism suit, which he should already know because HE'S A PARTNER IN A MAJOR LAWFIRM. He's lazy, not stupid. That wasn't a privileged relationship - she refused to act for him - and yet she claims privilege to her detriment when she could easily have said "Howard came to me asking about an ageism suit, I told him to actually do some damn work and declined to act for him. That's all."

But she WAS acting for generic white guy defendant/undercover FBI agent, and she blithely breaches privilege by blabbing to Eli all about it, putting herself at risk of being disbarred and actually derailing a totally valid investigation.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 5:25 PM on October 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


If Diane Lockhart offers to mentor you, you do not say no, idiot! Does she not even watch the show? Diane is the best!

And that just came off an yet another anti-Millennial screed. Young people today! They just care about boys and the social mediaz!
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 5:26 PM on October 20, 2015


I wish the whole thing had actually just been a full episode of Alicia Florrick and Drunk Stockard Channing Fight on a Cooking Show, a series I would probably watch weekly.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 7:09 AM on October 21, 2015 [10 favorites]


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