Yesterday, Heather gave us a glimpse into the steamy scenes on The Good Wife season finale between Kalinda and a blond woman, leaving us all woozy and discombobulated. True, the scene in last night’s episode, “Closing Arguments,” was hot, but it went further than that – it developed Kalinda as a feeling, conscientious human being.
The episode was about timing: the inexplicably horrible timing for Alicia and Will, the limited time to prove an innocent man, and the time it takes for people to calibrate–or construct for the first time–their moral compasses. Lockhart Gardner is in the midst of a weighty judge-killer case, and when a crucial piece of evidence is delivered to the firm, Alicia and Kalinda are forced to work together. It’s painfully awkward because, oh right, Kalinda slept with Alicia’s husband. Kalinda, being the well-connected charmer she is, calls in favors with her bosom buddy Sophia Russo (Kelli Giddish; Chase, All My Children) who, now in the State’s Attorney’s office, is able to do rapid-fire DNA tests and fingerprints before the jury reaches a verdict.
Alicia snidely remarks to the fact that Kalinda has a “friend” who can help their case, suggesting that Kalinda will sleep with anyone important to keep in arms’ reach. And from the looks of it, it’s the usual Kalinda-gets-what-she-wants formula: she calls in favors to friends in high, opportune places, and later beds them, no real questions asked. But when that finally happens with Sophia, things are different, reflecting a change–at least for now–in Kalinda’s attitude toward casual, transactional affairs.
Kalinda is checking her work Crackberry, while a naked Sophia Russo teases her for not being as fun as she used to be. But then again, Sophia reasons, “Maybe I was the one that was more fun.” “No, no, no, it was me,” Kalinda whispers, making it clear that she was the fun one, but weirdly enough, Kalinda refers to the past. Something has changed about Kalinda and it’s bizarre to see her so doe-eyed and rather bashful in the bedroom, though we did catch a glimpse of her vulnerability with Donna in episodes past.
Kalinda nods that she’s missed Sophia, who chortles, “Now you gotta kiss me.” Kalinda obeys and just as things heat up, Sophia’s phone rings. The conversation sounds like a work call, but she hangs up with “love you.” Sophia is married. Not again. The look on Kalinda’s face is pained and genuine. The two already slept together, but Kalinda, who didn’t know that Sophia had a husband, will have no more of it. Sophia, incredulous, asks if Kalinda is “born-again,” which is not that far off.
Last week’s episode showed Kalinda reeling from the remorse of sleeping with a married man and betraying her best friend. Kalinda’s actions jeopardized her friendship with Alicia, and even though she’d slept with Peter before she knew Alicia, for the first time, Kalinda had to deal with the painful consequences, almost causing her to leave the firm (to work for Sophia, coincidentally). Though it took her some time and through the hard way, it appears that Kalinda, still true to her badass reputation, has ditched her old ways and traded them in for the new, compassionate Kalinda.
What did you think of the season finale and Kalinda’s “transformation,” if any?
