Maybe it was because I had watched about eight straight hours of television before getting to watch The Good Wife this week, but this episode gave me a headache. I still enjoyed it, overall, but my head hurts. I’m also still wondering why people buy bitcoin. Or don’t buy it… whatever.

The Good Wife Recap – Season 3

It’s Not Money. It’s Bitcoin.
This week’s case involved Bitcoin. It’s basically virtual money. If the nifty little video that Zach showed Alicia didn’t help you understand this newfangled technology, well… Google it. Anywho, the lawyer who represents the inventor of Bitcoin is being sued by the Federal Treasury, again being represented by Gordon Higgs (Bob Balaban), for not giving up the name of his client. According to the Treasury, Bitcoin is a new form of currency and it is a big no-no to create your own form of currency in this country.

So the lawyer, Dylan Stack (Jason Biggs), hires Alicia to represent him. And then when this week’s judge, Judge Sobel (Michael Lerner), dismisses the case saying he doesn’t have to break attorney/client privilege, they arrest Stack for being Mr. Bitcoin and hiding behind being a lawyer.

Kalinda decides that the best way to attack this case is to figure out who Mr. Bitcoin really is. Meanwhile, Alicia, Diane and Will decide that they could get the case dropped altogether if they prove that bitcoin is a commodity to be traded, not a currency. Their witness was Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money. It was funny to watch him get insulted by Higgs, but the judge liked him, so the Treasury needed something better. They got a man who paid for a hotel room and the incidentals (including porn, it would seem) using bitcoin. Alicia’s answer to that – the hotel owner, who said it was a promotion and they also would have accepted frequent flyer miles. But the Treasury ultimately won the fight: bitcoin, unlike the frequent flyer miles, is able to be traded for real money and purchase items like a book on Amazon. So now it’s back to Kalinda.

She went to visit Decodacon (?) – basically Comic-Con for those who write computer code – which is in Chicago. Best bet would be that the real Mr. Bitcoin is there. Kalinda’s first target: Elaine Middleton (Jennifer Ferrin), a hot female code writer who applied for a patent on something similar to Bitcoin. But she says no it isn’t her. Kalinda’s next target is Bao Shuwei (Rob Yang), a sweet guy who while talented, seems a bit shy to have taken this all on. But he does offer something interesting: a new message in the code of Bitcoin that says “Stack is Innocent” that was posted while Stack was in court. But, as Higgs points out that is easy to set up to post at a specific time to make him look innocent. And when Elaine comes to the stand, she says the Stack is smart enough to be Mr. Bitcoin.

But Kalinda, in the end, figures it all out. She discovers that the message was put into the code by ghosting her computer by Bao. But when she tries to hand Bao to the Feds, he is gone…. and also has professed his love to Kalinda. And the Kalinda puts together the real puzzle – why all 3 of the suspects seemed like Mr. Bitcoin. Because all 3 of them are. Together. I loved her moment with Stack at the end. I also loved Stack’s last line to Alicia, who still seemed unsure of Bitcoin: “Real’s gonna change. Just watch.”

The Order of Minorities, by Jackie Florrick.
Zach is still seeing the often forgotten Nisa. Or at least, forgotten by me. Sorry Nisa… you’ve never made much of an impression. But I guess now that Zach isn’t seeing her at school very often, she’s been at the apartment and Alicia overheard some “I love yous” between the two youngsters and started to get a little worried. She said they should spend less time together. Zach tried to pull the “It’s because she is black, isn’t it?” nonsense, which Alicia immediately shot down. She just said they are moving quickly for kids, and think they should slow down.

Being a teenager, all this meant to Zach was he should take her to Peter’s apartment instead. Problem is: Jackie’s there. She tells Zach a lot of the same thing that Alicia said: they are too young to be moving so fast. But she also hinted maybe he should hang out with Eli Gold’s daughter more often, hinting that she was better than the public school black girl. So if you are Jackie, the older Jewish girl is better than the African American girl that is his own age. Wowza.

But it worked out for Zach in the end: when he went home and told Alicia that Jackie said the same things about his realtionship with Nisa, she told him nevermind Nisa was welcome to come over whenever. Well played, young Florrick. Well played.

The Increasingly Complicated Decisions of Kalinda Sharma
So Will and Elsbeth have an informal(ish) meeting with Wendy, Cary and Dana, asking him about his bookie/friend and any relationships that guy had with some judges. As usual, Elsbeth is being completely ridiculous, but it is her ridiculous that throws Wendy through a loop and ends up causing her to reveal to Will and Elsbeth the judges she is specifically going after. I love that Cary points out how Elsbeth played Wendy. Oh Cary…. marry me.

This information also gives Will a scare, which he shares with Kalinda. That bookie forgave Will an $8000 debt. And also may have led to a big win for Lockhart/Gardner by one of the specific judges. Dana goes to Kalinda and says if she doesn’t give something up on Will, she will go after Alicia. Turns out that the lawyer from last week gave Wendy Scott-Carr that waiver that may or may not have been signed by Alicia two years ago. Now, did Cary ask for it? I want to believe no, but I also have a weakness for Cary. And he wasn’t involved in any part of Wendy telling Dana to go after Kalinda. Either way – Kalinda is not happy.

She finds a file, the one that would do the most damage to Will. They tell Elsbeth, who leaves the room upon discovering that there may be anything harmful in the file, leaving Kalinda and Will to do what they are going to do. Will says nothing, but hints at having Kalinda help him. And then we see Kalinda later hands over the the file to Dana. Did she do something to it? Did she sacrifice Will to save Alicia, who helped her earlier with the Bitcoin case? What is going on?! Whatever it is – I’m on the edge of my seat and can’t wait for the next episode in a couple weeks. I also hope Dana goes away soon. She is horrid.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Are you as excited as I am by the previews for the nest episode??

Written by Melissa Miller. Find her on Twitter @serrae

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