The Good Wife: Taxed
October 25, 2015 9:21 PM - Season 7, Episode 4 - Subscribe

In bond court, Alicia comes across a store that targets African-Americans. Diane goes up against Louis in an assisted suicide case. Eli sends the other female Florricks after Peter (if they can get in past Ruth) to talk to him about that topic as well.

Lesson of the Week: "You're under arrest. Sometimes it doesn't matter whether you did it or not." --one of the bond court dudes.

Bond Court Case Of The Week: The bond court lawyers are publicly and tackily playing "Perps By The Pound" on "Shoplifting Day," in which the winner gets to pick their days or something. Yes, it's what you think it is, every perp's weight adds to their total. Alicia doesn't want to play this game but is still coming in second.

An African-American woman (Maia) claims she didn't actually steal the sweater she got busted for, she just wanted to return the one her mother gave her as a birthday present. She refuses to plead guilty, which super pisses off the judge and leads to him harassing Alicia and throwing Maia in jail when she won't immediately plea. Alicia--and Crouse the investigator, actually here this week-- find out that the store tends to target African-Americans for stealing (or not) there, and when more of these clients come into bond court, they want Alicia. So basically everyone in bond court thinks Alicia is a jerk poacher. I think Alicia could just like, hand them some of her case load. It's only fair. Anyway, upon viewing the security cameras, we find out that Maia's mom DID shoplift the sweater. Dammit. Maia takes the plea.

We also find out during this case when Crouse testifies to what he saw in the store, that he's a former lawyer who got disbarred six years ago for hitting a judge and some other things I forget. Should I be worried about you, Alicia asks. Yes, Crouse says, there's a reason I come cheap. Oh boy.

Lockhart Whatever Drama Of The Week: Diane gets forced to go up against Louis Canning in an assisted-suicide case, arguing against euthanasia, which bugs her. Apparently Oliver Platt is busy this week, so Peter Gallagher subs in as Ethan Carver, the Voice of the Conservative/general counsel for Reese Dipple who doesn't like it when people change/cross categories. He makes Diane argue the case, which she is not thrilled about. However, every time Louis pulls his usual shit in court, she's there to open his pills for him and pick up his frequently dropped canes. Hah. Anyway, Diane's argument is that had the now-dead girl heard about a study at Duke that could possibly cure brain tumors, she might have wanted to stick around, and Louis trumps that by tracking down an online post that the dead girl had read about the study and written "garbage" in response to. And Louis for the win, apparently.

Oh, Ethan asks Diane and Cary to talk to Alicia and see if she can get Peter to veto an assisted suicide bill. Reese didn't want her to rejoin the firm, but if she can get that signed, he'll throw rose petals at her feet. Cary talks to Alicia about it, but she's fine with going solo, thanks. She also tells Eli she's not gonna talk to Peter about this issue, so....

Campaign Drama Of The Week: Eli talks to Jackie and Grace about how they should share their feelings about assisted suicide with him. Jackie shows up at the office and gets ticked off at Ruth for denying her instant access, and tells Peter so. Ruth also tries to blow Grace off when she shows up. After Peter gets out of a meeting, he ends up with Jackie and Grace in there arguing--Grace of course argues that it's God's choice and not humans' choice to die, Jackie thinks God respects your choices and he wouldn't want someone to die in agony. (Go Jackie.) Peter slinks out of the office unhappily. Oh yeah, and while Stockard Channing's not in this ep either, we find out that Veronica called to supposedly share her thoughts as well, but Peter blows that off. Ruth bitches to Peter about what Eli did, and Peter is all, "I don't care, FIX IT," so Ruth has some very nice chats with the other Florricks and smooths everything over. She then goes into Eli's closet to gloat at him.

Alicia Auditions New Besties: Lucca and Alicia go drinking. Lucca tells Alicia she will always be a disaster in bond court because she spends too much time on cases and cares too much. Then Alicia gets An Idea. "Wanna do it together?"

Quote Corner:
"You make me angry." -Diane to Louis
"Ma'am, when did you ever think bond court was about being fair?" -Judge
"I'm being taxed." --Alicia on the episode title, I stil can't say I quite get this one.
"I don't remember you showing so much cleavage." -Eli to Jackie, who really isn't actually showing any cleavage.
"Ouch, my head is hurting from the wrongness here." --Diane on how conservatives want small government except for abortion and euthanasia.
Apparently Jackie's code name is "Raptor?"
"Ms. Eastman is not serving you well and she's disrespecting me." -Jackie
"I am the calmest, sweetest man on the face of the earth. But there are times, and there are people, that sometimes don't just listen to reason." -Crouse.
posted by jenfullmoon (10 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I'm curious how accurate their depiction of this bond court is.

They seem to be getting back on track this season. So far, anyway.
posted by pmurray63 at 9:47 AM on October 26, 2015


I know absolutely nothing about bond court, so I wonder why, when Maia wouldn't accept the plea, the judge couldn't just set bond and let her move on to criminal court. There doesn't seem to be a reason to keep her there other than for plot reasons.

When Cary went to Alicia's apartment, I felt warm and fuzzy all over. Hurrah for Alicia being in a scene with anyone from The Firm!
posted by donajo at 5:00 PM on October 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


Another question - does Illinois allow public officials to run campaigns out of their state offices? Shouldn't there be a separate campaign office?
posted by donajo at 5:05 PM on October 26, 2015


One more thing - why doesn't a $900 sweater have a security tag on it?

I'll stop nit-picking now. It's a good show.
posted by donajo at 5:18 PM on October 26, 2015


Jackie is so misguided pretty much all the time that it was nice to hear her talking some sense to Grace for once.
posted by orange swan at 5:57 PM on October 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


donajo: GOOD POINT. Seriously, if they are that paranoid about African-Americans stealing from the store, how the heck did the mom get away with it? (Unless she started the paranoia.)
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:07 PM on October 26, 2015


Run Lucca, run! Was all I could think in that final scene.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 8:57 PM on October 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


I guess I didn't see the connection between Conservative Guy asking Diane to ask Alicia to intervene with Peter and Eli sending Jackie and Grace in. Did I miss it? Actually just having him, Ethan Carver, ask Diane to talk to Alicia was weird because I don't remember his group being a factor in Alicia's not going back to Lockhart/Argos/whatever.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:25 PM on October 27, 2015


Ethan Carver works for Reese Dipple, the conservative big fish that Diane brought on as a client at the end of season 6. Dipple is the reason that Alicia didn't go back to work for The Firm after the election. He told Diane that the Florrick name was sullied and he would take his business elsewhere if Alicia came back.

Eli's scheme didn't really have anything to do with that. He overheard Cary asking Alicia to lobby Peter about physician-assisted suicide and decided to fuck with Ruth by sending in more Florricks to mettle in politics.
posted by donajo at 8:07 PM on October 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


Ugh, another major plot turn based on someone overhearing something out of context. David Lee conveniently overheard exactly the right part of the conversation about not suing so he thinks they are suing. They're really running thin in office intrigue.
posted by skewed at 11:16 AM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


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