The Good Wife 2.10
Jan. 13th, 2011 08:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which brother Owen is back and schemes are uncovered.
While the plot of the week with its twist - the two young lovers don't turn against each other as all the lawyers expect, instead one sacrifices himself for the other - was nice enough (and paralleling/contrasting in a way what was going on with Lockhart & Gardner), the Owen scenes were undoubtedly the highlight for me. I was wondering how they'd justify bringing him back since someone told me he would be, given he has a job he likes far, far away, and not one that would play into either the lawyer or the political business. What they came up as justification is inspired because it both ties with and deepens what we learned about Owen in the first episode. That he lies at first to Alicia and says his boyfriend cheated on him whereas as it later turns out the reverse was the case (and from the sounds of it not for the first time, either) gives yet another layer to his tension with Peter. Any brother would consider the guy who cheated on their sister not worthy of her (for good reason), but if you're unfaithful yourself, there's that extra dimension of loathing the weakness you share.
The Owen and Jackie scene was amazing, not least because Jackie displayed about every -ism on sight (not for the first time, of course) while still not coming across as a caricature but as a person. (Not a very likeable one, but a person, as opposed to a WASP satire.) Also it was funny. Ditto for the Owen and Diane phonecall.
Owen's conversation with Alicia in the end: reminded me, in a way, of her "I get the romance, but what's the plan?" to Will at the end of season 1. The show's narrative has a really interesting attitude towards the whole love and marriage question. It's not cynical (vide this week's subplot about the lovers), but it doesn't hold with "love is the answer and the answer is love", either, or with love conquering all and giving into your passion as the supreme ideal. Lasting relationships are work. And, to use Alicia's expression, steering. Doesn't always guarantee happiness, either, but it's treated as a valid position, not just a narrative obstacle to be overcome, and that is really rare on tv.
The plot of the week's strategy of making each of the lovers thing the other has betrayed them first - which doesn't work out here - is, as I said, a parallel/contrast to what's been happening with Diane and Will over the course of the season so far. Will has a point about Diane being paranoid (and thus causing the very thing she feared) but he disingeniously ignores she has reason to be. There's an additional mirror/contrast accomplished by the fact Diane tells Alicia and asks her for confidentiality, and wouldn't you know it, the very day Will finds out about Diane's plans elsewhere and brings them up to Diane, thus making it look for a moment like Alicia told him. When Diane point-blank asks, though, it's Will who is in the position of the party feeling betrayed (since thus he finds out Alicia knew and didn't tell him).
Speculation: if the show wants to do Will/Alicia as more than a none night stand, Alicia will go with Diane (because that will remove the power squickiness of Will being her boss). If not, she'll go with Will. And whoever doesn't get Alicia will rehire Cary. (Who was ruthless this week but not in an evil, instead in a doing-his-job manner. I continue to approve of the presentation of Cary.)
Since the increasing emphasis on Blake behaving thuggishly, I'm assuming this subplot will be wrapped up by him doing the physical threatening and breaking & entering act in front of the cops one way (which Kalinda will have arranged). What I can't guess yet is how, since the script had Diane bring this up again to remind the audience, his connection with Will will play out in the fallout.
While the plot of the week with its twist - the two young lovers don't turn against each other as all the lawyers expect, instead one sacrifices himself for the other - was nice enough (and paralleling/contrasting in a way what was going on with Lockhart & Gardner), the Owen scenes were undoubtedly the highlight for me. I was wondering how they'd justify bringing him back since someone told me he would be, given he has a job he likes far, far away, and not one that would play into either the lawyer or the political business. What they came up as justification is inspired because it both ties with and deepens what we learned about Owen in the first episode. That he lies at first to Alicia and says his boyfriend cheated on him whereas as it later turns out the reverse was the case (and from the sounds of it not for the first time, either) gives yet another layer to his tension with Peter. Any brother would consider the guy who cheated on their sister not worthy of her (for good reason), but if you're unfaithful yourself, there's that extra dimension of loathing the weakness you share.
The Owen and Jackie scene was amazing, not least because Jackie displayed about every -ism on sight (not for the first time, of course) while still not coming across as a caricature but as a person. (Not a very likeable one, but a person, as opposed to a WASP satire.) Also it was funny. Ditto for the Owen and Diane phonecall.
Owen's conversation with Alicia in the end: reminded me, in a way, of her "I get the romance, but what's the plan?" to Will at the end of season 1. The show's narrative has a really interesting attitude towards the whole love and marriage question. It's not cynical (vide this week's subplot about the lovers), but it doesn't hold with "love is the answer and the answer is love", either, or with love conquering all and giving into your passion as the supreme ideal. Lasting relationships are work. And, to use Alicia's expression, steering. Doesn't always guarantee happiness, either, but it's treated as a valid position, not just a narrative obstacle to be overcome, and that is really rare on tv.
The plot of the week's strategy of making each of the lovers thing the other has betrayed them first - which doesn't work out here - is, as I said, a parallel/contrast to what's been happening with Diane and Will over the course of the season so far. Will has a point about Diane being paranoid (and thus causing the very thing she feared) but he disingeniously ignores she has reason to be. There's an additional mirror/contrast accomplished by the fact Diane tells Alicia and asks her for confidentiality, and wouldn't you know it, the very day Will finds out about Diane's plans elsewhere and brings them up to Diane, thus making it look for a moment like Alicia told him. When Diane point-blank asks, though, it's Will who is in the position of the party feeling betrayed (since thus he finds out Alicia knew and didn't tell him).
Speculation: if the show wants to do Will/Alicia as more than a none night stand, Alicia will go with Diane (because that will remove the power squickiness of Will being her boss). If not, she'll go with Will. And whoever doesn't get Alicia will rehire Cary. (Who was ruthless this week but not in an evil, instead in a doing-his-job manner. I continue to approve of the presentation of Cary.)
Since the increasing emphasis on Blake behaving thuggishly, I'm assuming this subplot will be wrapped up by him doing the physical threatening and breaking & entering act in front of the cops one way (which Kalinda will have arranged). What I can't guess yet is how, since the script had Diane bring this up again to remind the audience, his connection with Will will play out in the fallout.
