In a season that has seen less focus placed on the case of the week and more focus placed on the characters, this week’s episode of The Good Wife was no different. Well, it was different in that the character focus was on politics instead of love. Peter’s potential run for office got some attention, but the real focus was on the politics within Lockhart/Gardner. It was nice not to deal with Alicia’s love life (for the most part) this week, and I enjoyed the power plays around the office.
While Will sat at home for a week playing guitar and getting harassed by his sisters, the other partners at the office were swooping in trying to turn Lockhart/Gardner in Lockhart/Lee, Lockhart/Gold, or Lockhart/Cain. It’s been great fun seeing David Lee and Eli go after each other and I think my favorite part of this episode may have been when Julius and Eli were agreeing to an alliance while David sat outside staring through the floor to ceiling windows of Eli’s office. Good times. With Will back in the office at the end of the episode, though, I’m afraid that the power plays may have come to an end.
Meanwhile on the actual politics side of things, Peter took the next step to running for governor. While trying to impress Donna Brazile (uncannily portrayed by … Donna Brazile) Peter had the unfortunate realization that all of his friends weren’t exactly friends anymore. The Good Wife has always done a good job looking at the nasty side of politics, and while this episode wasn’t nearly as juicy as what we saw during the campaign last season, we did see Peter pandering to his cronies and even shifting around personnel in his office just to appease them. Even Alicia got into the game, dismissing David as her attorney and dropping her thoughts of divorce. Will that be enough to get Peter the key note speech at the Democratic National Convention? We’ll have to wait for that answer.
The case of the week may not have been the main focus of the episode, but it wasn’t a stinker. Don’t you just hate Nancy Crozier? She’s so frustratingly effective with her passive aggressive faux-naive style in court. Of course in this case it didn’t help that the judge clearly had a thing for young blondes. Luckily Alicia was observant enough to realize the issue at hand and brought Caitlin in to counter Crozier. It didn’t hurt that Caitlin is both younger and blonder. Of course the tactic may have been great in the short term, but I don’t think Alica was too happy with the long term effects.
I like that Alicia is not a flawless heroine. We’ve seen her be petty and selfish in the past and I liked her reaction to seeing Caitlin get a premature promotion. She’s not a perfect woman and I think it adds a nice layer to the show. She was clearly pissed about Caitlin’s ascension to litigator, even staring down the young lawyer at the end of the episode. I’m curious to see what kind of sparks happen in that relationship as the season moves on.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Mar 04, 2012 @ 22:30 EST5EDT
