This week on The Good Wife Alicia was left to make some tough decisions, Caitlin showed she may actually be useful, Peter and Will nearly came to fisticuffs and Diane discovered a dirty little secret in the office. Sounds like a perfect episode right? Almost. Why not perfect? Very little Kalinda and zero Eli. I call shenanigans!

Peter vs Will – The Unsaid Reasons
Peter’s office is on a crusade to stop corruption, so they are having all of the lawyers in the office come to a panel (including Peter and new Deputy State’s Attorney, Cary) with their cases deciding if they are important enough to take on. Dana, still waiting to head over to her new place of employment, brings the case of Will stealing 45K from a client. 15 years ago. And then giving it right back.

Cary doesn’t like it, but Uber-Jealous Peter would love the chance to screw with Will so he takes it on. Cary says, and I’m paraphrasing, “Dude, stop being a jealous ass. You are only doing this because you suspect he’s banging your wife.” To which Peter says, “How dare you! I would never! This is serious business, good sir!” Peter’s reasoning: Will still represents the often discussed yet rarely seen, Lamond Bishop (bad man whose legit business dealing Lockhart/Gardner represent) so they can use this as leverage to get Will to give up any illegal doings he happens to hear about.

Cary and the increasingly obnoxious Dana head to Will’s office to try to slyly tell him what they’re doing. But Will is a smart man and knows they are just trying to intimidate them so he brings in Caitlin as a witness and Cary and Dana leave. But Will isn’t letting it go.

He goes and meets Peter outside the courthouse. They talk around the issue for a moment, but Will just keeps trying to get Peter to admit that the only reason he is doing any of this is because of Alicia. I was hoping they would come to blows, but we aren’t there. Yet. Although in the end, the talk with Will and a later one with Grace made Peter realize he may not be doing this for the right reasons. So he took himself off the case. But Cary is still on it, of course. And Dana who got screwed out of her other job (maybe because they realized she’s awful) and is staying.

the good wife executive order

Without amazing guest stars, the Terrorists win
The case of the week was actually two cases. First Alicia and Diane represent a man who is suing the government for torture. The government is saying” we couldn’t have tortured him – the guy was never at the compound he claims to have been tortured in Also we don’t torture. Of course.” There are a lot of circular arguments in this case that gave me a headache, but that was all made better by Aaron Tveit playing the lawyer representing the government. He’s pretty. Also Titus Welliver was back as now AUSA Glenn Childs. I don’t know why, since they barely used him. Maybe Titus was just hanging around the set.

Anyway, in the first case they prove he was there and the judge lets it go to trial. But then the government proves the guy (who is a suspected terrorist) also talked to some big bad Al Qaeda leader so he drops the suit against the government. And then the government charges him with a criminal case. The judge is very annoyed. But he is eventually cleared of that, thanks to Caitlin proving her worth and making a great catch on the redacted depositions they needed to read for clues.

The important thing is not the case, but what the case leads to…. Alicia having to go meet with representative from the treasury Gordon Higgs (the phenomanal Bob Balaban)  who is there to make sure that Lockhart/Gardner is not helping this guy with his terrorist activities. Or just keeping them a secret. Essentially he wants her to be his eyes and ears and spy on the guy. She is pissed because she is pretty sure this is breaking some sort of attorney client privilege under the guise of national security. The fact that he is threatening her with 8 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 doesn’t sit well either. She tells Will and Diane who offer her a free lawyer – the best at these things. But she’s a smart cookie. She know they are looking out for the firm, not her, so she goes to find her own lawyer. Enter the perfect and divine Carrie Preston, returning as completely bizarre and amazingly efficient Elsbeth Tascioni.

Elsbeth may not know the legal way of defending Alicia when it comes to these matters, but she does know how to stall. If Lockhart/Gardner can get the case dropped, then Alicia no longer has to report to Gordon. Elsbeth works her magic – spends a half hour reading a document, has Alicia take on an insurance case that creates a conflict of interest without saying it to Alicia (so she can’t tell Gordon that is what happened). Alicia loooooves Elsbeth because she completely flusters Gordon and keeps her from having to talk. The best line of the episode is Alicia saying to her, “I want to learn from you.” And lets hope she does. Bring Carrie Preston on full time! She can do two shows!

The benefits of keeping your phone on silent
During the case Kalinda and Diane called Will using speaker phone. At first all you see is Will talking in a non-descript room and then suddenly we hear (as well as Diane and Kalinda) a familiar sound. Alicia’s ringtone for Grace, “Mom, pick up the phone. Mom, pick up the phone.” It pans out and we see the two are having lunch together. And by that I mean renting a really nice hotel room for an hour in which to carry on their torrid affair. At least it was a classy place. The look on Kalinda and Diane’s faces were priceless. Keep that phone on silent, my dear.

This one little phone call from Grace (she wanted to go to Bible Study – she’s watching those YouTube videos again! Jackie was not impressed.) is going to have major repercussions. Diane is already starting to give Alicia the cold shoulder. Diane and Will are very contentious with one another. And now Diane has decided to bring in a guy to change the workplace insurance and one of the things they need to do – have a sexual harassment seminar.How subtle!  The awkwardness!

Again, little Kalinda and no Eli left this episode just short of amazing. However I laughed a lot. Between the phone ringing, Carrie Preston and Will and Diane trying to figure out how to deal with Alicia’s questioning, the humor was in high gear this week.

Next week: Cary and Kalinda time!!

Written by Melissa Miller. Find her on Twitter @serrae

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