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“The Good Wife” recap (4.21): Labors of Love

This week’s Good Wife didn’t provide us with enough lady love, but it did include Alicia getting some of her moral compass back, as well as some interesting speculation on Kalinda’s future. It begins with an Alicia family reunion at a funeral for someone none of them really knew, which I enjoy. Not because of the funeral part, but because Alicia and Momma Channing and Gay Brother Owen all together is one of my favorite things. They’re more natural in a lovingly dysfunctional way than Alicia’s stilted relationship with her own kids could ever be.

Thanks for dragging me to this funeral of a stranger, Mom. (Anytime!)

Turns out Momma Channing has actually corralled Alicia there to meet the deceased’s wife and co-workers, who are all coders at some tech company that is screwing them over real hard. The deceased guy died after falling asleep at the wheel after a week of 18 hour days at work, and now the company is pushing a shitty contract on all the coders because they’re afraid his wife will sue. Basically, companies are evil. Often, the tech-y, ChumHum-esque episodes are some of my least favorite because so much of it goes over my head, but I always love a good labor dispute. Plus, the coder who Alicia ends up primarily working with is played by Fran Kranz, otherwise known as Topher from Joss Whedon‘s Dollhouse. And man, do I miss Topher.

Should I just go to sleep for a while?

The lawyer who’s representing the evil tech empire is good ol’ Nancy Crozier, played by Mamie Gummer, who we haven’t seen since last season, and hoooly crap is she as evil as ever. As soon as she walked on screen, I thought: 1) I miss Emily Owens! And, 2) Is she a gay cop yet? Sadly, she’s just Nancy Crozier, and Nancy Crozier is the WORST.

And as they attempt to begin negotiations at Lockhart Gardner, Nancy Crozier quickly fires all 20 coder employees who have even suggested that their fast tracked contract is a piece of crap. The fires of injustice start to burn in Alicia’s eyes as says contemptuously, “You are really amazing, you know that?” To which Nancy Crozier replies, “I do know that.” Ugh, how can such a sweet face be so infuriating!

Speaking of things that are the worst, there are some other contenders in this episode, one of which is Peter, who after learning that he’s actually down in the polls, shares some wine and pizza with Alicia in his tour bus. He then pops out a ring, telling her he wants to renew their vows in Hawaii. Oh, barf.

Alicia says “I don’t know” because “things are good right now” so she doesn’t want that to change. But if things actually ARE good, wouldn’t this be a really hopeful moment instead of one that makes Alicia cautious? I know relationships are tough and messy and that’s the point of her and Peter’s whole relationship but I’m starting to be real over it. Alicia wants the appearance of being good with Peter, but stalls at any sign of real commitment, which I don’t think has to do with her and Peter’s complicated past at all, but everything to do with the fact that she still dreams about banging Will.

While the screwed over coders go to the National Labor Relations Board to argue that they were in the process of unionizing (which they weren’t, but which is the only loophole that will prevent them from being fired), Robyn and Kalinda meet with a dude from the Department of Labor. They don’t learn a ton about the case, but everyone learns something: Kalinda discovers that Robyn’s getting health care benefits and she isn’t, and some of Lockhart Gardner’s overworked assistants corner the Department of Labor dude on his way out after realizing that some of the shitty things the coders are disputing in this case are things they live under at Lockhart Gardner, too. Wuh oh, trouble in the roost.

Indeed, the assistants bring their concerns to the partners, and David Lee is rankled to the depths of his black soul. “These assistants, they think we need them!,” he huffs and puffs. Later, he threatens to fire them all to their faces. Diane says they can’t afford across the board raises for the assistants; Alicia says, well, we can if we don’t take increases ourselves this year. To which David looks at her as if she’s suggested relocating to the moon. But really, I just feel like she’s getting her soul back. At so many points in this season, we watched Alicia as she was pushed to edge of compromising what was right and what her job required, to the point where many of us wondered if she would eventually reach a breaking point. These labor disputes seem to direct her back onto the path of Being a Good Person and further and further away from One Day Becoming David Lee. And I love it.

What do they think they are, human beings?

Kalinda’s angst over Robyn’s better benefits, meanwhile, fits perfectly into Cary’s desire for her to go with them and the fourth years to their proposed new shiny firm. She says, sure. He says, exclusively. She says, nope.

A similar conversation ensues between Kalinda and Will, as she uses Cary’s pursuit to once again fight for her worth at Lockhart Gardner. He rolls his eyes at her, because she knows why she doesn’t have benefits: she can’t get them without exclusivity. It’s the price of her freedom. Kalinda then uses the elusive idea of her exclusivity to counter financial offers between Will and Cary. By the end, it sort of seems that Cary’s on top, perhaps because Will doesn’t believe Kalinda’s serious, but it’s hard to say.

I feel slightly torn about this entire situation. On the one hand, I’m leaning more and more towards the idea of Cary’s revolt actually working, and it’d be interesting to see Kalinda break ranks, too. She and Alicia hardly talk anymore, and it’s clear that Lockhart Gardner has never truly given her what she deserves. The entire thing could prove for a lot of tension, and an interesting fifth season.

At the same time, I’m unsure why Kalinda is even pretending she would promise her loyalty to Will or Cary. Perhaps realizing that after one month, Robyn has more benefits, resulting in pretty much the same pay and respect after Kalinda’s been there five years, has pushed her into realizing she needs more. But still, her freedom is so inherently linked to who she is, I couldn’t help but be disappointed if she actually did agree to exclusivity, anywhere.

Plus, if she went with Cary Agos and Associates, we wouldn’t have any more Robyn and Kalinda times, and those times are so good! And they’ve just started! There could perhaps be interesting (and sexy) conflict as they investigate against each other, but I sort of like them being on the same team.

In any case, this is all still a smart move on the writers’ part, because seeing what happens with Kalinda (and also, actually, Cary) is currently the number one thing that’s truly keeping me curious and eager to keep watching next season.

More jackets like this would also help.

As for the labor fights, things begin to swing in Alicia’s way, and Topher and his co-workers get their union. Yay! Except, actually, not so yay. Mean Mamie Gummer says smoothly at the end of proceedings that their tech company has actually been bought out, so none of this really matters anyway because the coders might still lose their jobs. And it’s been bought out by none other than ChumHum. Alicia blusters into Diane’s office, believing that she and Will encouraged the union talk to purposely drove down the cost of the company so that ChumHum could buy it, or something. I don’t really understand how it works because big business is stupid and evil, but there’s nothing Alicia can do about it.

They then immediately go to a partners meeting to discuss the assistants’ pleas. Alicia’s ready to fight the power for them, but Will assures her they came up with a fair solution for everyone, giving the two assistants who shouted the loudest better positions and benefits, while saying they’ll get to the other assistants “in time.” Alicia takes a second before understanding, “You bought off the ring leaders.” And once again, there is nothing Alicia can do about it. But man, do I love the smoldering disgust in her face.

Speaking of disgust, back to the Peter thing. While Alicia’s brother Owen lectured her at the beginning of the episode that “her body was telling her” that she wants to be with Will, he then meets with Peter during the episode and somehow something about that meeting, which didn’t really seem particularly heart warming at all to me, has changed his mind. As the fam celebrates Zach’s 18th birthday at home, Owen tells Alicia that he believes Peter really has changed, and is sweeter than they’ve given him credit for. Momma Channing then comes in and says Owen, have you smoked some crack? Alicia becomes increasingly upset and tells her mom, emotion cracking her voice, that if she talks to Peter about anything at all, she’ll never let her see her grandkids again.

So Momma doesn’t talk to Peter. Instead, she talks to Will. She finds him alone in the offices and asks him if he loves his daughter. Because if he does, he better move fast. Peter wants to renew their vows, and if Alicia does that, she’ll be gone forever. Will is quiet for a long moment, his face attempting to be neutral, and finally says it was nice to see her again.

This is that part where someone older and wiser tells you what’s right in front of your face.

Hm. No comment.

Alicia meanwhile does an interview with Charlie Rose and takes it upon herself to bash Kresteva, which she knows she has to do to help Peter’s campaign, and it works. She is the good wife. She and Peter once again celebrate in the tour bus, hot seat of romance apparently, and after she makes him promise to not put her through what she’s been put through anymore, she says yes, she would love to renew their vows.

Sigh, eyeroll, blurgh. One of the things that makes the Good Wife so good is that it’s so smart, but this is starting to become so predictable. We all know that in the next episode she’ll make out with Will again, and this all just seems so tiring. I know, of course, that this conflict within Alicia is the premise of this entire show, and as a writer, the moment you solve your central conflict, your story is done. So they can’t just make her leave Peter forever and frisk in the sunset with Will, or vice versa. But there has to be some type of more satisfying solution. Doesn’t there?

Next week is the season finale. What do you think will go down? How will we be set up for a fifth season?

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