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“The Good Wife” recap (5.10): The Decision Tree

This week marks The Good Wife‘s 100th episode, which they cheekily refer to in the first frame, a shot of a car’s speedometer flickering at 100 miles per hour. And who is our Speedy McGee? Kalinda, obviously. She’s following Damian, who apparently drives at ridiculous, manly speeds around town, just ’cause, and she’s wearing black shades and smirking while she does it, all while the heavenly holiday sounds of “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” play in the background. Oh, how we have missed you, speed chasing, black shades wearing Kalinda. Hallelujah, indeed.

Damian, it turns outs, ends his drive at the offices of Florrick Agos, where he’s delivering Alicia her exit contract from Lockhart Gardner. Her $150,000 partner contribution will be returned to her upon signing. But before she does so, she asks Nathan Lane to look it over, as other matters in the office, which is once again fully furnished and appears to be quite bustling, distract her. She hands Damian a toy to play with. Hayden Lane finds her a few minutes later to ask who Matthew Ashbaugh is, because it’s clear in this contract that Lockhart Gardner wants to separate her from everything about him.

Flashback to old Ashbaugh, played by John Noble, blaring his classical music while he quietly but surely professes his love for Alicia Florrick while negotiating legal matters. I miss that Ashbaugh. Alicia tells Hayden that he’s dead, so she doesn’t know what the big deal would about him would be. But it turns out it is big: unbeknownst to Alicia, Ashbaugh has left her $12 million in his will.

So into the courtroom we go, with Florrick Agos v. Lockhart Gardner once again, with LG representing Ashbaugh’s widow, who believes she should be the sole beneficiary of his fortune, which she in fact was in a prior will. The will that bequeathed Alicia to all the moneys was written later, 16 months before his death, scratched out in magic marker with a prostitute as a witness. As they battle in court about which will is the authentic one, Cary and Alicia decide to push Hayden to actually start lawyering, which is painful and amazing all at once.

In the end, Cary and Alicia’s arguments are stronger, and the judge, this week played by Kurt Fuller as Judge Dunaway, one of my faves, is about to rule in their favor when all of a sudden Will buts in to say that Alicia Florrick used her undue influence-her knowledge of Ashbaugh’s devotion to her-to make this magic marker will happen. Cary leans over and asks Alicia what Will’s got on her. She responds, “A whole lot of anger.”

Hence begins one of the most emotionally wrenching, well-played episodes of TV I’ve ever seen. That night, Will sits down at his desk to plan and rehearse for his questioning of Alicia the next day. Flashbacks abound in this episode, in both Will and Alicia’s minds, about “that time two years ago,” when they sat strategizing with Matthew Ashbaugh in his apartment in New York, and Will stroked Alicia’s thigh underneath the table, and later they had lots of sex and Alicia whispered in Will’s ear that at the moment, she was the happiest she’d ever been. I’ve never disliked Will more than I have during this season so far, but in this episode, his pain is raw, as he translates in his mind Alicia’s possible manipulation of Ashbaugh’s feelings into a lucrative will into what he believes is a very real manipulation of his own love for her, using him to steal his clients when she broke away from the firm. Because, you know, it’s obviously all about Will. The tears that well up behind both Alicia’s and Will’s eyes in these scenes, though, which are never fully released are gutting. And while I’m not as personally invested in their relationship as I am others, I would argue with anyone who believes theirs isn’t one of the most well-written and complicated stories of longing and woe on TV right now, if not the very best.

But back to the good stuff, meaning, Kalinda driving like a badass, which she continues to do, even though Damian is obviously onto her game. She pops her gum while she waits for him in one brief, glorious pink second, and he then challenges her to a race on the highway, while also asking her out. “Me mum likes Indians,” he says. Ugh. Gross.

Kalinda is smirking and asking what makes him think she’s an Indian when an unmarked cop car starts twirling its lights behind her. A tall drink of blonde water strolls up to Kalinda’s window, essentially informing her that Damian has bested her this time. She’s a cop that Damian knows, who he’s called to pull Kalinda over and put her in the slammer. Even if Kalinda’s an investigator, “harassing” a lawyer is illegal, and the cop has the right to arrest her.

This blonde cop is played by Jordana Spiro, and she later sits casually outside of the police station in her cruiser, reading a paperback by streetlight as Kalinda waits in the back seat. She’s stalling on taking Kalinda in, waiting for a whole busload of people who are currently being charged to get processed. Meaning that by the time Kalinda gets in, she’ll be forced to be locked up overnight, per Damian’s request. Kalinda pushes Spiro, whose name here is Jenna, on how it is that she knows Damian so well, and why she owes him this favor. Jenna doesn’t reveal anything, but indicates that if Kalinda wants to get out of this, she should get out of investigator mode and turn up the charm. Kalinda replies, “I don’t do charm.”

This, of course, depends on how you define the word “charm,” and clearly Kalinda has lots of it, some of which works on Detective Jenna. The next time we see them, it is in her bed, sheets pulled up to their dimly lit bare shoulders. Praise the baby lord Jesus, Kalinda Sharma is sharing a bed with a woman again.

They talk about bruises and guns for a little while, you know, post-coital girly stuff, until Jenna gets it out in the clear, why Kalinda is here: she wants to know about Damian. Kalinda nods. Jenna leans over in the bed and says, “It’s too bad I like Damian more than I like you.” Before leaning forward to meet her kiss, Kalinda volleys back, “I’ll wait until you get to know me better.”

Now, I am obviously a fan of this scene, but hold the phone, Detective Jenna. You have just had intimate relations with Kalinda Sharma. And you still say you like Damian O’Tool better? Puh-leeeeease. Clearly, this woman is not to be trusted.

In other matters of drama, there has been fussing all episode over the Florrick Agos Christmas party, which has been decided upon as a good investment to get their name out there in the Chicago business world. Only at first, not many people want to come. The rest of the firm pressures Alicia to use the Governor Big card, which Alicia is hesitant about, but which Cary pushes forward with anyway. This begins to set up some tension between Cary and Alicia, as their joint decision making power seems to be fraying. The Governor happily accepts the invitation, although he has to bring Jackie along with him. Jackie, being the cold-hearted snake she is, calls up Mama Channing to ask her when she’ll arrive at the party, a party which Mama Channing has not heard about. Eli is also having a conniption over it all, since Colin Sweeney is one of the clients that will be attending, and for once he actually wants to team up with Marilyn over the ethical/publicity issue Peter being at a party with an assumed murderer will cause. He thinks he’s finally got it under control, though, when he arranges a meeting with Donna Brazile to discuss possibilities for Peter in the 2016 presidential election. While this is a meeting that Peter can’t pass up, he also ends up just inviting Donna along to the party, much to Eli’s consternation.

Once news of Peter’s appearance makes the rounds, the party is now hopping. And it turns out Colin Sweeney hasn’t turned up anyway. Another big client has, though: Lemond Bishop, who swoops in on Peter as soon as he enters. Oopsies! Alicia and Will finish off their giant heartache of an episode by sharing a phone call that wraps up the Ashbaugh will issue, as more wills bequeathing all his money to more women have been found. It’s apparently a hobby he had or something, meaning that all of the wills will presumaby be thrown out. While I know Alicia doesn’t care about any of it, I find myself a little sad both that she won’t become a millionaire, and also that Ashbaugh’s love for her, which seemed so pure and somehow touching, is now slightly tarnished. Alicia and Will leave everything else unsaid, something they are talented at at this point, as they share a couple seconds of silence and sadness and then hang up.

Meanwhile, Mama Channing and Jackie are getting into it, with Jackie telling Veronica she should drink less and Veronica telling Jackie she should drink more. Which is awesome. Ah, family at the holidays! After the children help break up their grandmothers, Veronica then sidles up next to Eli and Marilyn for some baby talk. Marilyn has been wearing some crazy belt thing that sings to her unborn child all episode long, and Veronica is the only one who seems to approve of it. She asks if she knows the sex; Marilyn says it’s a boy. She asks if she has a name picked out; Marilyn says yes. She’s going to name it Peter.

Eli spits out his drink.

I personally think the Kings are just baiting us with this one, but seeing Eli spit out his drink is always worth it, and the finest way to end an episode there is.

The 100th episode, like most other episodes this season, was hands down a triumph. Sure, I could’ve used more Diane, more Robyn, more Cary-I feel like the development of Florrick Agos so far has been all Florrick and little Agos-but nothing in life is perfect. The emotions and characters that were focused on were done so flawlessly and originally. I hardly breathed during most of it. And with Kalinda sexytimes to boot! Well done, Good Wife. Well done.

It doesn’t seem like Detective Jenna will reappear much after this episode, but what are your thoughts on Kalinda and where her storyline is going with Damian? What are your hypotheses on Marilyn’s baby? And someone please tell me, why does Julianna Margulies always just look so damn good?

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