This week’s episode of The Good Wife opens with Cary, staring down the aisle of an empty courtroom like a dead man walking. For all the Alicia campaign drama, and Kalinda love triangle business, Cary’s fate is the real crux of this season.
Unfortunately for Cary, many things are acting against him. His Neil Diamond-obsessed judge is more concerned about snagging tickets to a concert, than courtroom niceties. After giving everyone a dose of shit, the judge pulls Cary, Diane, and Geneva Pine into his chambers. At first, Geneva offers Cary a plea deal of 10 years, which the judge encourages Cary to take since he’s about to allow the wire to be admissible, which will be quite damning for Cary. The judge pushes Geneva to sweeten the deal, so she offers six years, which after early release for good behavior, is about three years.
While discussing Cary’s options outside of chambers, Alicia gets a call from Jackie. She needs to come down to Grace’s school right away. Did Alicia threaten one of Grace’s teachers with a knife? Impossible, right? Not our Alicia. Well…
Alicia shows up at school to find a very agitated principal, and a slew of angry teachers. Yes, Alicia did write a note threatening disembowelment, but it was totally a joke, you guys! It’s a quote from Darkness at Noon, the popular Breaking Bad/Lost/Walking Dead type show that Alicia watches. Grace wasn’t supposed to actually show the note to anyone, but since Grace is sometimes too earnest for her own good, she showed it to her civics teacher during a lesson on free speech. Damnit, Grace.
While Diane and Geneva are busy fighting about potential jurors, Marissa (the Body Woman) and Alicia meet up with Eli and Johnny at their new campaign headquarters. I’m pretty sure the headquarters are the old Florrick Agos offices. Way to get the most use out of the sets, Good Wifers. Cary’s trial is the talk of the political media town, and Alicia is going to have to address it, sooner or later. As Alicia gets ready to leave, Eli and Johnny get a call from a reporter who heard that Alicia threatened a teacher with a knife. Har har har, they all get a good laugh…until Alicia confirms the story.
In addition to trying to nail Cary’s ass to the wall, Geneva Pine is busy having a hot and heavy affair with Det. Prima, who happens to be testifying for the prosecution. Prima was the late Trey Wagoner’s contact at the force. As Prima talks about Trey, another man walks into the courtroom. His presence is distracting to Geneva, and when he leaves a note saying, “We need to talk,” it’s pretty clear that he’s Geneva’s husband.
Eli is furious with Alicia, and Johnny can’t quite wrap his head around the whole knife threat. Eli demands that Grace get the note back, even suggesting that she should take the blame for it. Alicia won’t allow that and promises to get the note back somehow from the Civics teacher.
While Diane cross-examines Det. Prima, she gets him to admit that he spoke to Trey 48 hours before he was killed in a suspicious car accident. Prima tries to assert that he couldn’t be positive that it was Trey on the phone, even though Finn Polmar said it was. On this call, Trey admitted to turning the wire on and off to make Cary look bad.
Word of the knife incident begins spreading, and even Buzzfeed jumps on it. At least she’s getting the Grizzly Mama treatment. Grace calls to let her mother know that the civics teacher wants to meet with Alicia in person, before handing over the note. Eli and Johnny warn her one more time to “stop joking” because politicians don’t joke, OK? To add insult to injury, Frank Prady is asked in a televised interview about school violence. He says that he would prosecute anyone who would threaten a teacher with a knife. This causes Eli and Johnny to push Alicia about leaking that Prady is a closeted gay. She asks Eli to give her the evening to think it all through.
In Geneva’s office, Castro slithers in to tell her that that cannot lose Cary’s case, and she promises that they wont. She’s going to bring out the big guns. Prima comes in after Castro to ask if she’s breaking up with him, which she is. He feels used for his testimony, so perhaps this will come back to bite Geneva during the trial. The next day, she calls Kalinda to the stand.
When Finn sees Alicia at the office, he asks if they are avoiding each other now, since the whole sexual tension thing has become difficult to ignore. He says he likes Alicia “as a friend,” and they instate rules about hanging out together. No more bourbon shots in dark, sexy bars. From now on it’s IHOP, orange juice and florescent lighting. Prady shows up unannounced, as he is prone to doing lately, and accuses Alicia of leaking some gay (and untrue) affairs. She promises that she didn’t give the go ahead on that, and presses Prady about the whole “prosecuting written knife threats” incident of television. She will pull off her dogs, if Prady defends her honor. He’s not so willing to do that, now that they are neck and neck in the polls.
There is one juror who is solidly in Cary’s corner: Hipster Juror number 11. Perhaps he is lumbersexual, I’m not sure. Anyway, the juror keeps hearing people say weird things in court, and has to consult with a fellow juror. That juror sends the judge a note with his concerns, so His Honor pulls the Hipster juror into chambers.
Alicia meets with the civics teacher to try and get the note back, but the teacher has an ulterior motive. She wants Alicia to re-instate the School Crime Oversight Task Force and appoint some union teachers to it. In political circles, this is called patronage, and Alicia is not down with it. She promised not to fall prey to special interest groups trying to win her favor, so she refuses to entertain it.
The judge asks Hipster Juror, Mr. Fratti, if he is indeed partially deaf. He isn’t, but he does suffer from Auditory Processing Disorder, especially when stressed. It causes him to misunderstand things, and jumble the sequencing of worlds. The judge turns his chair around and asks the juror questions that he simply can’t sort out. He’s bounced, much to Cary’s chagrin because the juror thought he was innocent.
Cary, now desperate, asks Kalinda for help. She calls Alicia, to see if perhaps Finn has a lead on Dante, the only person alive who can vouch for Cary. The knifing note has now gone viral, but Alicia is still not agreeing to the patronage request, even though Eli and Johnny push her to do it. She meets with Finn in a diner, where he has ordered them both a heaping plate of pancakes. She comes right out and asks about Dante. Just then, the lights blow out and a candle is places on their table. Oh yeah, and a guy starts playing Italian music on guitar. Nope, not sexy-romantic or anything. Finn tells Alicia he can’t “say” anything to help Cary out, but he does slide over an envelope to her.
Kalinda now has the envelope and has shown up at Bishop’s house with it. Inside are pictures of known drug dealers leaving his home. He thinks she’s out of his league with a silly little threat like this. Kalinda has more up her three-quarter-length sleeves. The pictures are enough to get Child Protective Services to come and take Dylan away. Bishop seethes with rage, and lashes out at Kalinda for her threats. He orders her out, but the next day, Dante is there to take the stand.
When Dante does take the stand, he completely fucks Cary over and tells the judge and jury that Cary did tell them how to get away with criminal acts. Bishop appears behind Kalinda in court and warns her not to ever threaten him again. Cary is totally screwed. When they all get back to the office, Kalinda begs Cary not to take the plea and offers to talk to Bishop again. Geneva has come with a new offer. Cary will receive time served and probation if he testifies against Bishop. As much as Cary doesn’t want to go to jail, he likes breathing and living and whatnot, so he refuses. Geneva offers him four years, without testifying.
Diane calls Alicia to let her in on Cary’s state of mind, and Alicia says she’ll head over there right away. Before she leaves, she sees a video of all the teachers at Grace’s school, talking about what an awesome mom she is, and what a funny joke that whole “gut you like a pig” thing was. She instantly knows that something went on behind the scenes, but it was Peter that made this call. He offered seats on the Safety Commission to some of the teachers.
As Cary walks the streets of Chicago, looking up at the clear sky and big ol’ moon that he may not see again for four years, Bishop’s SUV pulls up beside him. He climbs in to talk to Bishop, who offers to scoot Cary out of the country so he can work for Bishop in Europe. While Barcelona is lovely this time of year, Cary says he can’t screw over the law firm by fleeing. When Cary comes back upstairs, Alicia is waiting for him. They have a heart to heart, and she cries as he tells her that he plans to take the deal. He asks if she will come and see him while he’s locked up, and she hugs him tightly. The next day, Cary enters a guilty verdict.
The Good Wife will be back in January, so we will have to wait and see if Cary gets a final reprieve or a miracle. In the meantime, we have to ask ourselves these questions: What will become of Alicia’s campaign, and her relationship with Finn? Will Kalinda continue to see Lana, and could Lana potentially help Cary? Will Marissa ever stop offering people milk? See you in the new year!
