THE GOOD WIFE season 3 recap – You may have heard, they fight in hockey

This week’s episode of The Good Wife, “Gloves Come Off” featured multiple triangles of the love and work variety. Some familiar faces returned, dates are made and broken, jobs are offered and best of all, a friendship (or two) is renewed. All in all, it was yet another fantastic outing for this series. It’s almost getting frustrating how amazing this show is. I want to hang out with the writers and hope a wee bit of brilliance rubs off on me. Can someone make this happen? No? Okay…. Let’s just get to the recap then.

The Good Wife “Gloves Come Off” Recap

Diane Lockhart: Saucy Minx
Oh, Diane. Apparently the loss of Caitlin meant Diane (Christine Baranski) felt the need to fill the vixen roll at Lockhart & Temporarily No Gardner. First she goes and testifies at a small court trial for Jack Copeland (Bryan Brown), Sexy Australian Process Server. The guy he manhandled in the lobby (you remember, when Diane clutched her pearls and breathlessly claimed, “oh my!” Well… not exactly like that.) is suing him claiming Jack threw the first punch. Diane was there to support Jack’s claim that d-bag guy who wouldn’t take the subpoena was the one who threw the first punch. She was also there to flirt with Jack a bit. He asked her out to lunch, then dinner. But when Dianne saw a pretty young thing come to pick up Jack, she said no.

But later when he called and asked her for drinks, she agreed. But after 40 minutes of waiting, Jack called and claimed he had a “complication” and couldn’t make it. Feeling a bit down, Diane did what oh so many people have been known to do when hurt by their current love – she went to see an ex. That’s right. Her old Republican forensics expert beau, Kurt (Gary Cole) is back. And he had a girl with him too. A “protege” as Diane referred to her. The three had a good ol’ fashioned political debate and then when pretty young girl left, Diane told Kurt she missed him and the two kissed…. and probably other stuff.

The next day, Kurt and Diane are on the phone and making plans for a weekend fishing trip. Yes, fishing. Diane Lockhart going fishing would make a great episode. I wish we could see it. But as she is making those plans, who should call but Jack! Diane fumbling on the phone, thinking she was on with Kurt, but instead with Jack so Jack asks who Kurt is and she gets even more flustered – oh the beauty of this scene! Diane does not get flustered easily. Jack wants to make plans for Friday night, which works because she doesn’t leave with Kurt til Saturday. Oh Diane… this is going to lead to trouble. But it is all worth it for the shot of Will seeing Diane being all giggly and flirty on the phone later. Again – Diane Lockhart, you are a saucy minx.

You may have heard – they fight in hockey
The case this week starts out simply enough. Grant (Peter Scanavino) is suing the Snow Plane Corporation for the death of his wife. We see via a cell phone video that Grant and his wife were on a snowmobile, he lost control because the steering stopped working and crashed into trees, causing massive head injuries on his wife that caused her to die a week later. Judge Rigby (Deborah Rush), whose quirk was never being able to find her glasses, told Snow Plane’s lawyer (David Costabile) that he was going to have to pay as this was pretty cut and dry, so to work out a settlement with Julius (Michael Boatman) and Alicia (Julianna Margulies). But the lawyer has a some new evidence – Grant had a previous head injury from his time in hockey, and if that was to blame for more than 50% to blame for the accident, Grant can’t sue. Will (Josh Charles) who used to have the case, says, but doesn’t say since he can’t while he is suspended, to sue the Hockey League. Which they do.

And who is the lawyer for the Hockey League? Why, Louis Canning (Michael J. Fox), of course! What fun! His relationship with Alicia is one of the greatest developments on this show, if only because I think it surprised the writers as much as any of us. They have amazing chemistry. The way they nudge at each other and mess with each other constantly is a thing of beauty. I hope they are on opposite sides of the aisle many many more times before the series is through. I don’t see myself ever getting tired of it.

So here’s how the argument went down. Grant got knocked out by a guy on an opposing team in a gloves off fight. Alicia was arguing that this is Hockey’s fault. The promote the fights. For instance, there is a website where they show clips of games and you can bet on fights and players all have fighter ranking. Hockey has never ordered a cease and desist to this website for showing clips of games, but when Alicia had someone post a video on YouTube-esque, the cease and desists came raining down within two hours. Point is – fighting is part of the game, Hockey loves it, and they are to blame for Grant’s injuries and his wife’s death.

Louis’s argument involves the base line brain function tests that are performed on all players at the start of every season. Their purpose is to be the “control” so when a player gets injured and the doctor runs the tests again, they can see if his brain function has been altered. Players fake the tests at the start of the season so they won’t get pulled from games. So basically, if Grant hadn’t faked the test, he would have been properly diagnosed and maybe not have killed his wife. Harsh.

In comes Lawyer/TV Star Frank Michael Thomas (played by Lawyer/TV Star Fred Dalton Thompson) who is also planning on suing Hockey for injuries incurred to multiple players during fights on the ice. He wasn’t going to get involved, but after the whole fighting website thing he felt this may be a win. He gives up his ace in the pocket – a neurologist who had a different kind of base line test that would work in a way where the players wouldn’t cheat. Hockey turned him away – they don’t want their players off the ice any more than the players want to be benched – so in the end it is hockey’s fault. The end result – suddenly Snow Plane gave up the $5 million Grant was asking for. Why? Because Louis/Hockey told them to. This was all just a play to find out what Frank (and his bigger law suit) were planning on bringing to the table! Louis, you sneaky bastard.

All the Triangles
This episode explored many, many triangles (beyond Diane/Jack/Kurt) of both the work and love variety. Let’s break it down….

Louis/Alicia/Diane: Louis was still trying to poach Alicia from Lockhart/Gardner. And when Diane told Alicia that she wasn’t going to get as big of a raise as she hoped, meaning Alicia wasn’t going to get her old house back, Alicia started to think maybe going to Louis wouldn’t be a bad idea. So she let him give her an offer. Alicia took that offer to Diane, who was really upset at Alica for it. But Diane, as managing partner, forced all the partners to give Alicia the bonus (for the record: Will, Eli (Alan Cumming) and Julius were for it. David (Zach Grenier) was against.). But I’m curious how it will change their dynamic.

Will/Diane/The Partners: Will is not supposed to be helping on cases, but he’s been trying to use semantics to get around it. Someone reported to the disciplinary board that Will had in face been going against the terms of his suspension and helping. Diane is pissed and trying to get someone to admit to it. Eli went to Will and said it wasn’t him, he thinks it was David. David said the same thing about Eli. Who is the mole? Will has Kalinda kind of on the case. I’m nervous to find out who it is.

Alicia/Cary/Kalinda: This triangle isn’t exactly a triangle. But when Alicia showed up to get information about a previous suit involving Grant getting in a fight on the ice, Cary (Matt Czuchry) was surprised it was her not Kalinda. He assumed Kalinda pawned it off on Alicia to avoid Cary, but Alicia volunteered. I think she misses Cary. And Cary, now back in his tiny office and no longer Deputy State’s Attorney and possibly on shaky ground as far as his job is concerned, misses her a bit too. Any scene between these two is pure brilliance and I hope that the combination of Cary’s job woes and the now open litigation spot in Caitlin’s absence means Cary soon comes back home where he belongs.

Will/Alica/Tammy: Tammy (Elizabeth Reaser) is back from London and doing a story on the Hockey suit. She first goes to Will, since it used to be her case, and discovers that he is suspended. Then later she goes to Alicia and to say it’s awkward is a bit of an understatement. Tammy also makes it clear that she and Will were not broken up until after Will slept with Alicia. And while she was kind of bitchy about it, I forever love her for it. Why? Because Alicia finally realized that she has been shutting Kalinda out (she refused her friendly offer of a beer earlier in the episode) when she also slept with a man who was in a relationship. So she goes to Kalinda and says she wants to start again, this time they always have to be 100% honest. And they agree. And I cry a little because I’m SO HAPPY. Until they are doing tequila shots after a case, it isn’t official. But still. It’s a huge step in the right direction.

So what did you think? I loved it. And now I’m anxiously awaiting next week with Matthew Perry. I love you, Chandler Bing.

Photos: CBS Television Network. Photo: David M. Russell/CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Written by Melissa Miller. Find her on Twitter @serrae