Finally, The Good Wife gave us a Kalinda-centric episode – sort of. I think we all know that Kalinda is the smartest person at Lockhart-Gardner and seeing her in action is fun. Yeah, yeah – we wish we would see a different kind of action. But smart is sexy. We find pleasure where we can.
AFTERELLEN BAIT
If you are a lesbian geek, which so many of us are, this episode’s theme was more than enough reason to watch. A conference for cryptographers called Decode-a-con? Awesome. The best part, of course, is that Kalinda attends the con in search of the case-of-the-week’s mystery character, “Mr. Bitcoin,” creator of a digital currency (a real thing, btw) that the Treasury Department wants to arrest. Geeky stereotypes are everywhere at the con, but Kalinda stops in her tracks at the sight of a tech-head who is decidedly against type (played by The Cape‘s Jennifer Ferrin) – and follows her into the women’s room at the earliest opportunity.
The sighting was far from random; Kalinda had traced Mr. Bitcoin to the lovely decoder woman.
“So you’re Mr. Bitcoin?”
“No. Elaine Middleton, MIT. You?”
“Kalinda Sharma, St. Mary’s High.”
Go Kalinda. Our favorite investigator found a linguistic match between the Bitcoin Manifesto and a patent application by one of the 10 hottest geek women. Not a bad way to pick up a brainy woman. However, the flirting is interrupted by a call from Dana, who wants to meet Kalinda at their special place so she can flirt a bit hoping that Kalinda won’t notice her evil stench.
This time, Dana has the document from last episode that Alicia suspected might be fraudulent. The opposing attorney turned it over to the State Attorney’s office to investigate. Now Dana is using it as a “trade” (blackmail) for Kalinda’s help with Will. Either Kalinda gives the attorney’s office something incriminating about Will or Alicia gets prosecuted – and probably disbarred.
Kalinda’s look pretty much says what we all think of Dana at this point.
FEELINGS, FEELINGS, FEELINGS!
In the absence of a love interest for Kalinda (and the possibility that her next one may be male), the very best love on The Good Wife is between Will and Kalinda. As promised, Wendy Scott-Carr is after Will – and he’s scared. But he has entrusted Kalinda with the truth about his past and she wants to help him clear his name. She’s really quite sweet about it.
With Dana’s ultimatum, however, Kalinda seems faced with a choice between Alicia and Will. Which, when you think about it, really is no choice at all.
Just bury the hatchet, you two crazy kids. A good BFF is hard to find.
FUN WITH GUEST STARS
Jason Biggs is all grown up – still playing a nerd, but a rich and successful one. I’d still keep apple pies out of his sight, though.
CNBC Mad Money man Jim Cramer plays himself, testifying that Bitcoin is not currency, thus subjecting himself to merciless trashing by Treasury attorney Gordon Higgs (returning guest Bob Balaban). Carrie Preston continues stealing every scene she’s in as Elsbeth Tascioni. I think Archie Panjabi had trouble containing herself in the scene with Elsbeth, Kalinda and Will.
FUTURE HEADLOCK
Wendy Scott-Carr is in full-on bitch mode, more determined than ever to bring down Will after Elsbeth made her life difficult with formerly friendly judges. I suspect that a few incriminating documents accidentally slipped out of the file Kalinda gave to Dana, but WSC will not be easily dissuaded from her evil mission.
We now know, though, that Will didn’t actually do anything wrong – he got in an $8,000 hole from a gambling problem, but his bookie forgave the debt. That’s not much money in the big picture and certainly not enough to make Will jeopardize his career.
The more intense confrontation may be another meeting between Alicia and Peter’s mom. Jackie. Alicia was stunned to realize that her caution to Zach to take things slow with his girlfriend Nisa was precisely the same as Jackie’s, even though the motivation was different. I like when Alicia tells Grams to butt out, but maybe that’s just me.
We have to wait two weeks to find out what’s next. Meanwhile, what did you think of this week’s The Good Wife? Do you think Kalinda betrayed Will? Are Alicia and Kalinda about to kiss and make up?
