The Good Wife 5.18

[selenak]

I had mixed feelings about last week's episode which I haven't sorted out yet which is why you won't get a review about it from me, but this week's I unconditionally loved.



Okay, show, like Eli I bow and take back my original objection to your use of the NSA as seeming comic relief. This pay off made it all worth it. Loved everything about it, with particular highlights being Clark Hayden's threat of a civil discrimation suit based on the NSA worker's Cherokee heritage via putting up the NSA supervisor's phone number in a mosque as part of a cheap car sale ad to Peter's method of getting rid of the NSA surveillance for both himself and Alicia's firm.

Then there was Alicia "waking up", as Finn put it, in time to awesomely kick the state attorney's ass, which was a beautiful thing to see. Also was mightily amused about how alerted-to-NSA-surveillance Alicia used Louis Canning's phonecall to ask him about his opinion on Al Quaida.

Speaking of Louis Canning: any scenes with him, Diane and Kalinda in whichever combination, I'll take. More, show. Also, what with the "you're no Will Gardner" line last week which struck me as a clumsy way to make David Lee look bad (do we need one?), not least because David Lee, having worked with Diane for decades, knows what she's worth, I am glad the show itself does remember Will in fact was making BAD business decisions by overextending, and bringing Louis Canning in to deal with that Will-caused mess was satisfying for me because there is only so much "Will was the greatest" I can take.

Since one of my problems last week was Alicia not discussing the whole merger idea with Cary if she was considering it beyond a drunken musing with Diane - they're supposed to be partners! - I was glad to get some follow up on that.

In conclusion: loved the episode!

Comments

[eevilalice]

With Kalinda, it seemed like more than grief. Those flashes of blood, it was more like post-trauma. I did assume she went to Cary to distract herself but couldn't sleep with him because she kept thinking of Will as if they were trying to imply she'd been in love with him (it wasn't clear to me if she was also attempting to use Cary to further a case, though I couldn't think how). That, at first, was why I assumed she went to the female cop--to be with a woman specifically--but of course she certainly was after some info that time. It felt emotionally murky to me.

[selenak]

I've read someone else say that if a new viewer were watching the episode they would definitely assume Kalinda had been in love with Will. But I never got that impression when Will was alive, so it may simply be that the producers misjudged how they wanted to get across that Kalinda is distraught for Will as a friend.

[monanotlisa]

Agreed, long-time viewers would not consider Kalinda's reactions born out of romantic love -- platonic love, certainly; Kalinda and Will did have a lot of character traits in common (and incidentally a similar taste in women ;).