Archive

“The Good Wife” SnapCap: “I Fought the Law” (4.1)

Welcome, Good Wifers, back to the offices of Lockhart Gardner. I’ll be taking over recapping duties from the righteous Linster for this season; hope you don’t mind, and that I can do her justice! Here’s a quick refresher of where we left off back in April:

Kalinda is up to all sorts of dangerous shenanigans. First FBI Agent Alana was all, “I want to have sex with you but am still going to endanger your life by talking about you with this supah scary drug dude, sorry girl.” Harsh. We then found out that Kalinda’s mysterious husband is looking for her, who is also supah scary and involved with the drugs somehow. The third season ended with her sitting on a chair facing a door, waiting for him with a loaded gun sitting beneath her fine ass.

In another area of town, Alicia was contemplating whether or not to be all chummy with the fam in a united Florrick household, as she watched Chris Noth sit down to a cozy dinner with the kids through a window. I mean, there was pizza involved, and pizza is a tough negotiator.

Meanwhile in the biz, the power team of Michael J. Fox and Martha Plimpton tornadoed their way through Lockhart Gardner, whisking away a huge settlement and snatching their biggest client, essentially saying, “We’re crushing y’all. Peace.”

So basically, everything is pretty calm.

And now down to business!

AFTERELLEN BAIT: KALINDA CONTINUES TO DO SEXY THINGS IN THE DARK

This episode starts off right where we wanted it, with Kalinda waiting in the dark at that door. A smarmy white dude enters, who we soon learn is not the husband, but one of the husband’s cronies, who Kalinda quickly proceeds to disarm and then, after learning that he was the one harassing Alicia at home, smacks him in the face with his own gun. As a lady does to defend another lady.

There is a short, hectic scramble on the floor after Smarmy Crony is able to flick Kalinda’s gun away as well, but Kalinda comes out on top after she grabs the sledgehammer that happens to be lying around and brings it down on Smarmy Crony’s arm. Kalinda: a girl who knows how to use a sledgehammer. Kalinda: the absolute best ever.

Smarmy Crony’s phone rings, and Kalinda picks it up to say, “Hi honey. It’s over. Move on. I’m staying.” So we know that 1) She isn’t returning to this sketchy husband dude, and 2) She’s not leaving Chicago, either. Because, you know, Alicia. And maybe some other stuff, as in not wanting to be running away from a man anymore, and sexy lady times, and other things. The only thing that matters is she’s staying. All things yay!

Except, of course, Sketchy Husband shows up anyway, sneakily reporting to Lockhart Gardner as a new client. Kalinda slips into the elevator with him when she notices him at the office, and a whole bunch of aggressive domestic abuse ensues.

All of this violence is sexy in a way because seeing Kalinda kick ass is always sexy, but I still want Sketchy Husband to just go away. But in the end, I can’t complain too much, because this obviously sexually heightened sparring leads to this scene, when they end up back at her apartment and the moonlight lands on the boobies just right.

If you’re worried that the beating-each-other-up sexytimes is swaying Kalinda back to the dark side, never fear. Thirty seconds later, she sits up and has a trusty gun in hand again. The fighting was fun and all, but seriously dude, leave.

In the only brief Kalicia heart to heart near the end of the episode, however, it becomes clear that Sketchy Husband is still going to be sticking around for this season as a real client at Lockhart Gardner, in some mission to be The Best Drug Dealer Ever, Legally, or something. I don’t know. I just hope it’s not too much of a drag on Kalinda’s “flexibility.” I don’t think we have to be too worried, as even in the midst of this drama, she’s still able to share a delightful little scene with a K-9 Cop Lady Expert, who she calls in to help Alicia with some legal matters at one point. (We’ll get to that in a moment.)

Not only is this lady 1) fine, and 2) in charge of an adorable German Shepherd, but she also shares some apparently saucy history with Kalinda. They exchange Lady Love Eyes and K-9 Lady tells Kalinda that her dogs miss her. (Heartstrings!) Yet this exchange is still all too brief as Kalinda is quickly distracted by Sketchy Husband walking in. Geesh, what a nuisance, that guy.

FEELINGS, FEELINGS, FEELINGS: COP RAGE

Alicia’s legal storyline this episode got real personal real fast, as her son gets pulled over by a cop in another county for doing nothing, getting harassed for all sorts of nonsense charges. Enough charges that it gets taken to court, with the prosecution then essentially admitting to Alicia that they’re using her son as a warning to Daddy Who’s Running For Governor to not fuck around with cops. Oh, men! Not only do you think you can mess with a lady who knows the law, but you think you can mess with a lady who knows the law when it comes to her SON? You are so stupid!

Of course, Alicia and her son, while enraged, decide to take the legal route of things to bring this cop down. They share some “let’s take on The Man” legal familial bonding, which is pretty much as warm-fuzzy as this show gets. But Daddy, who Alicia has unfortunately decided to tell this whole story to, immediately takes The Manly Route, which involves calling up the county’s state attorney and verbally threatening him, telling him that he better stop being a jackass and just clear this whole thing up. Oh, women and your silly let’s-use-the-law ways!

In the end, while the case does get cleared up, it might be Daddy who ends up being most screwed. You see, Alicia and her son have researched so well, they’ve discovered that this cop being a jerk to them might be more than a cop just being a jerk. They were pulled over on a “forfeiture corridor,” a scheme that police apparently use to be able to cash in on innocent people by impounding cars on scant evidence. Oh, the war on drugs! There is enough corruption within you for a million fascinating TV episodes!

This accusation is a big one, and it really pisses the prosecution off. That state attorney who Daddy just yelled at accordingly finds him and says, “Guess what? We’re not leaving your son, or you, alone, because you probably make more cash off of this practice than WE do, so there.” Daddy is left standing on his campaign tour bus, dumbfounded. Whoops.

GUEST STAR-PALOOZA: GAY FAVORITES!

The Good Wife guest star knockouts continued to not disappoint in this episode, with two gay favorites joining in. They are also two actors who are normally delightfully hilarious, but flawlessly switched into No-Nonsense roles for this episode. Kristin Chenoweth played a don’t-you-bullshit-me type of campaign reporter who grilled Alicia on her anti-feminist move of standing by a man who cheated on her, accusing her of taking women back to the ’50s. (Awkward!) She also excels in The Good Wife tradition of ladies wearing streamlined jackets with that tantalizingly slim line of an opening, and wearing them so damn well.

The firm’s dire financial troubles, meanwhile, are currently being handled by a court-ordered trustee who’s reviewing where they’ve gone wrong and how they can make it better. This trustee is the divine Nathan Lane, who, sadly, doesn’t burst into song ONCE.

In fact, he doesn’t even crack a smile the entire episode. He is so good at being deadly serious that he scares me a little. He also clearly scares Will and Diane, but there ain’t much they can do about it. They’re told they’ll have to cut staff 30%. Ouch. The partners do share a happy scotch at the end of the episode, though, as Will’s lawyering suspension is finally raised. As they clink glasses, Alicia shows up in the hallway with her own bottle of alcoholic delight in hand to celebrate, just a minute too late. She leaves it on a table and walks away, hopefully telling herself to stop caring about such boring men.

WRITERS BEIN’ AWESOME

My favorite part of The Good Wife isn’t just Kalinda kicking ass in amazing outfits–okay, just kidding, it is. But my second favorite thing about it is that it’s one of those shows that makes me feel smarter just by watching it. It’s full of fantastic, feminist, social commentary, smart writing, and there’s always one or two lines in particular each episode that make me yell out, “Oh snap!”

In this episode, my favorite bit of writing happened early on, as Alicia and her kids waited at the side of the road while Jerkface Cop searched their car. Her kids encouraged her to just use Daddy’s name to be done with this whole scene.

Alicia: We don’t use dad’s name. We use the law. [pause] You use dad’s name?

*beat*

Daughter: How do we use the law?

OH SNAP! How DO we use the law, Grace? That is the question, isn’t it?

What did you think of the Season 4 opener? What do you hope to see happen for these spectacular characters this go round?

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button