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“The Good Wife” recap: “And the Law Won” (4.2)

Well, here’s the good news about this week’s episode: there was a mini Dudes from Gilmore Girls reunion, and Maura Tierney came on board in what at first appeared to be a really, really gay guest starring role. Also, cops went down again. Now for the bad news: Kalinda continued to spend way too much time with Serious Anger Issues Husband, including more sexual relations. Sigh. Oh, and Maura Tierney isn’t actually gay. Double sigh. OR SO SHE SAYS. (There’s always hope.)

Let’s start with the first Kalinda scene, which involves her and Scary Husband sitting at a diner counter, licking two vanilla soft serve ice cream cones. Good thing about this scene: We get to watch Kalinda licking a soft serve ice cream cone. If you cut out Scary Husband, I could watch it all day.

Look, I just really like ice cream.

Bad parts: Pretty much everything else. He asks why she wasn’t waiting for him when he was released after two years in jail, why she took his money and burned his clothes instead. She asks if he cried. He says, I don’t remember you being this much of a bitch. She says, you have a bad memory, They lick their ice cream cones. It’s all smooth and flirty and I don’t like it.

Then he asks if she remembers “this,” and we can assume that some not-that-innocent hanky panky then proceeds sneakily under the table. Believe me, I am normally all about covert hanky panky under tables. But instead of being risky and all sorts of hot like it normally is, as with most things involving this dude, it seems to step outside of some boundary, seems too sudden and violent and unasked for. And it leaves me uncomfortable from the start.

Kalinda, not to be outdone, calmly replies, “I remember you being better at it.” This is a good line. I grinned. But mainly I didn’t want her to even be licking ice cream with him in the first place. Scary Husband, also not wanting to be outdone – clearly this is their dynamic – sticks his fingers which had moments earlier been otherwise engaged, into her ice cream cone. She stares at it for the briefest of moments, and then nonchalantly brings her mouth back to it.

This is the ickiness with this storyline: circumstances aside, this would be a pretty badass and sensual move. But it’s done clearly for his benefit, as part of their whole game, and their whole game is clearly a bad game and why is she playing I want her to stop the game!

Alicia, meanwhile, meets with Maddie Hayward, played by Maura Tierney, local Famous and Rich Female Person who has recently become Lockhart Gardner’s new landlord. As Diane is looking for some leniency due to their horrid financial situation, she actually tries to meet with Maddie first, in a whole, “Hey, you’re a smart lady, I’m a smart lady, let’s be chums!” vibe. Maddie says, eh. I want to talk to Alicia. For reasons.

After she does talk to Alicia for a mere five minutes or so, and after making sure she’s gotten Alicia’s cell number (for reasons), she’s somehow swayed enough to 1) go invest in Big’s campaign, and 2) track Alicia down again and ask her out for drinks. Girl is totally crushin’, right? Alicia obviously thinks so too and tries to let her down gently. To which Maddie says, “Oh, awkward. I wasn’t hitting on you. I just really, really need friends and you seem like a decent human being and I want to have a drink with a decent human being.” Fine. That’s how it starts, Maddie! That’s how it starts.

Regardless, Alicia would be “delighted” to have drinks with her, and Maura Tierney is awesome. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her this season.

The legal drama this episode, meanwhile, involves an anti-NATO protester dying at police hands, a seemingly simple case which somehow gets inexplicably complicated, with more twists and turns than Mitt Romney‘s campaign strategies. Here’s where we get the Gilmore Girls reunion. While Logan doesn’t play a huge role this episode, Grandpa comes back as the prosecutor of the case, and Headmaster Charles jumps in for a second as a witness, looking as old and sounding as wonderfully highfalutin as ever. I love you, old geezers! Although I’d really like some Lauren Graham now, please. Also Paris. Paris would fit right in at Lockhart Gardner, come on!

Back to Kalinda, though. She reveals to Alicia that their “new client” is in fact her husband, to which Alicia’s face goes through an amazing ten degrees of shock. She asks if he’s dangerous, to which Kalinda gives an ambivalent look and says, “He used to be.” She says he’s looking to put down roots in Chicago–and she doesn’t want him to. She asks Alicia to drop the case. As watching out for each other’s backs is what Kalicia does so well, Alicia does so. Scary Husband obviously doesn’t take it well, knocking over one of Lockhart Gardner’s fancy vases in a rage on his way out of the offices. That was unnecessary, Scary Husband.

When Kalinda opens the door to her always-so-dark apartment that night, that darn white chair is situated in the same place it was at the start of the season – but this time it’s Scary Husband, waiting for her with a gun. She looks dismayed for a second, and then breezes by him and his gun, clearly not that scared of him anymore – or at least, she isn’t going to let him see it. He responds by following her and smashing his fist into a mirror. Again, unnecessary, and bloody this time, Husband. You think he “used to be dangerous,” Kalinda?

Kalinda gets a towel to wrap around his hand, and kneels in the weak and concerned position on the floor as he sits on the bed. He asks why she hurts him. Says that he loves her. That he always will. She’s quiet. Then she tells him to lie back. She gets on top of him.

While I’m sure some fans will be nothing but disgusted and dismayed by all of this, and as you can tell I mostly am, my heart is not without the slightest sympathy for Kalinda. Or at least, it makes some sort of sense to me. They were married. At some point in time, she cared, and cared deeply, for this person. Their back and forth power dynamics aren’t really fun for me to watch but it’s clear they still have an energy, some type of spark, that while unhealthy, still burns somewhere inside of Kalinda. When he calls, she picks up, and when he says he’s going to pick her up, she doesn’t say no. We’ve all felt at least some of what Kalinda is feeling, mixed up and stupid but undeniable and deep. It can be thrilling and distracting, as is evidenced in a prior scene when Kalinda finally makes her way to the office after the whole ice cream thing. Will approaches her about the cop-protester case, and Kalinda doesn’t even know what case they’re working on. She’s flustered and off her game, and it’s unsettling.

She’s still Kalinda; she doesn’t let her heart completely overtake her head. We know, from her meeting with Alicia, that she doesn’t want him to stay in town. She doesn’t answer his questions and she doesn’t say “I love you” back to him. Per usual, she clamps down her heart and covers it with sex instead. And I know that eventually he will leave, that she will make him if he doesn’t go himself, that we’re still just waiting for the dominoes to fall on this storyline. What makes me upset is that either way, no matter what happens, her tough beautiful heart is waiting to be hurt.

WRITERS BEIN’ AWESOME LINE OF THE WEEK:

There were a lot of great lines this week, but I particularly loved the playful chiding Diane heaped on Will as he started his first case in six months. She hands him a book in court after making fun of his notes: “Here you go. Introduction to Trial Law. Just in case.” Oh, you two.

The episode ends on a seemingly optimistic note: Will has gotten a huge settlement from Grandpa about that protester killed by the cop, and Maddie has given lots of money to Peter’s campaign. He and Eli are accordingly flying high and feeling eternally grateful to Alicia for it, as Maddie decided to side with Peter after realizing that Alicia’s hair is super pretty and she talks real sweet – I mean, after realizing that Alicia is a good person. The episode fades out with Alicia and Peter giggling on the campaign tour bus after a series of appearances, drunk, and sharing tired but warm glances. Alas, in the previews for next episode, it becomes apparent that these good times won’t last for long, as that whole Sleeping With Will things makes its ugly way to light.

What were your thoughts on the episode? Your favorite line? Your Kalinda feelings and predictions?

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