Original Air Date: 20 November 2011
Will: Apologies, Your Honor. I was commenting, "Are there any other judges in the military?"
Judge Kuhn: Good. To answer your question, yes, there are. And yet, here I am again. Happy days.
Review: This week's episode was about the comfort zone - or, more specifically, placing its key characters outside of the comfort zone, in positions they weren't used to be in. This is a tricky move, as it can backfire and alienate the viewers, if not done properly; but The Good Wife is probably the best network drama on TV and they know how to pull off almost everything.
But I'm diving into personal beliefs again and this is no place for politics. I won't discuss the case any further but just say it put Alicia in a different light: defending someone who, by all accounts, was guilty, no matter how you look at things. Was she used as a scapegoat? Probably. Was she singled out for being a woman? Could be. But that doesn't mean she didn't kill twelve civilians, kids included, so the verdict was a correct one here.
The entertaining factor of the week didn't come from the main plot - if we can call it that - though, despite Will's personal differences with Judge Kuhn. The episode gave all of us wanting to see more of Christine Baranski a lot to rejoice about. Not only was Diane involved in Eli's cheese war, but she was again the voice of reason when it came to her partner's troubles.
Not only did Peter not back down, but he assigned his former competitor, Wendy Scott-Carr, the investigation into Will's affairs. We didn't need to see Peter in order to feel his hands all over this situation. Wendy Scott-Carr is a woman who, more than anything, seeks justice, and if there's something to discover about Will Gardner, she will do just that, even more so than the easier to influence Cary or Dana. But I was talking about Diane and her involvement in all this. She confronted Will about his relationship to Alicia, one that not only affects him and the firm as a whole, but it's ultimately wrong, for so many different reasons. No matter how much I love them together, Will is still Alicia's boss and she's still married to Peter Florrick. They should really get a divorce and I don't get why Alicia has not filed for one yet.
Going back to Eli, his cheese war is funny, to say the least. It also put him in a new position, that of losing, something he's not used to and he definitely doesn't take well. I will go back to the American public again to say I don't understand how people can be so easily manipulated by a diagram and I'm always amused when I'm proven time and time again that intellectual superiority is something not easily encountered in that part of the world. But at least it gave us the opportunity of seeing Eli in a new light - the immature guy who is used to win all the time and can't understand how he got beat by a woman with a "prerecorded voice". Which she did have, by the way.
Other stuff: Kalinda may have found her match in Dana (Lie to Me alum Monica Raymund), who - oddly - has been around for a lot longer than I'd predicted, based on previous experience with the "ethnic" women going through Cary's bed. Alicia stood up to Jackie - who is more of a villain than Peter himself - and not only changed the locks to the apartment, but gave the most self-assured speech we've heard her give outside of work until now. It's all part of the new Alicia and I love the evolution of her character. I'm just wondering if buying Zach a car won't lead to trouble.
The Good Wife takes a break until December and, while the main question is what will Will do about his relationship with Alicia, the promo shows that Alicia and Peter will be thrown together by a serious family situation which may put her in a difficult spot on the long run.The Good Wife 3x08: Death Row Trip Back to Season 3
