'The Good Wife': Tattoo You

For political junkies, especially those with a liberal streak, there’s probably not a better show on TV than "The Good Wife." The series was back with a vengeance last night, introducing the loathsome Duke Roscoe (Craig Bierko), host of a charming TV show called “Gimme Truth” and a commentator who combines the relentless bullying of Bill O'Reilly with the paranoid histrionics of Glenn Beck. It’s truly an inimitable combination, folks! As ridiculous as Duke is -- and as cheesy as his flag-waving, dangling noose graphics are -- he’s only slightly less so than his real-life counterparts. Don’t believe me? Just watch this. Or this.

Duke is being sued for the wrongful death of Cheryl Willens (Marina Squerciati), a women driven to suicide by his enthusiastic smear campaign. (He accused Cheryl of killing her daughter, who later turns up alive). Leading the charge against Duke is, naturally, the law firm of Stern, Lockhart & Gardner. (Side note: When are they going to get rid of "Stern" in the name?) 

This episode raised further questions about Will’s increasingly slippery character. He has what appears to be an ongoing flirtation with Emily Tartan (Kat Foster), the in-house counsel representing Duke. She’s a ruthless lawyer with the glasses, hair and ideological perspective of a young Sarah Palin -- though her use of the word “jeremiad” certainly helped distinguish her from the former Alaska governor. Despite her repellent politics, and an equally ugly back tattoo, Will can’t help having the hots for Emily, and they meet up for a round of late-night, wine-soaked negotiations that doubled as a bit of verbal foreplay. I know this interaction was supposed to make us question Will’s character -- is he a mercenary creep or just a hormonal playboy? -- and it most certainly did, but frankly, the sexy lawyer talk and promise of "hate sex" made my stomach churn a little bit. Especially the line about "my tattoo misses you." Ugh.Thankfully, their bipartisan tryst was interrupted before the hate sex came to fruition.

Not content with driving a woman to suicide, Duke decides to sic his team of "citizen journalists" on the team at Stern, Lockhart & Gardner. This subplot was a clever catalyst for several of the show’s simmering subplots; Basically, Duke got to accuse all the characters of the things we've been suspecting them of all along. For instance, he airs an incriminating surveillance photograph of Will and Alicia, taken when they were at a hotel investigating a case. The evidence is enough to embarrass Alicia, and to make everyone at the firm think that something might, in fact, be going on between the two. We know that nothing is going on, but it's sill unclear what Will and Alicia might feel for each other. For instance, Alicia can barely contain her disgust at Will's brazen flirtation with Emily, while Emily makes an intriguing comment about Will's apparently flagging libido: "Hannah says you've been on some kind of sexual sabbatical for the past six months." Of course, the mind reels: Who is Hannah? And why is she sharing this information with Emily? Are they involved in some kind of three-way sex timeshare? Anytime "The Good Wife" answers a question, it raises four more.  

Much to her -- and our -- surprise, Roscoe also accuses Diane of being a closeted lesbian. We didn't get any obvious reactions shots from Kalinda at this point in the episode, so it's hard to know what to make of the ongoing question of Kalinda's sexuality. Has it all just been a red herring? Or, more likely, did Duke's citizen journalists not do proper due diligence? Either way, Diane didn’t seem too worried, quite literally laughing off the charges. 

Lest we forget, Alicia was working overtime this week on another case that fell a bit closer to home. She was asked to represent Marie (Jessica Hecht), the wife of current state’s attorney (and Peter’s nemesis), Glenn Childs. Marie is shrewd and asks for Alicia precisely because she can be used as leverage against her abusive husband: Give me what I want, or I'll tell Alicia everything I know about Peter. The conceit worked to an extent, but it felt more than a little contrived to me. Plus, there was a serious conflict of interest: Alicia's goal as an attorney should be getting a fat settlement for her client, but the better the deal, the worse it is for Peter, who's now subject to Childs' vengeful whims. In retaliation, Glenn has already banished Peter to the prison’s general population, and the dirt that Marie does share before settling -- she mentions a development called Triton Fields, and says that Glenn wiretapped Alicia's phones -- hardly constitutes a smoking gun. 

For some reason, I’m not as interested in the possibility of Peter’s innocence as I am the other developing subplots. I’d rather find out more about Will and Kalinda than Peter; even if he's technically innocent, he's proven himself to be a cad. What do you think? Is Will shady, or just a little desperate for a roll in the hay? And what about that "closeted lesbian" allegation? Does Duke simply have the wrong person, or the wrong facts altogether? And was Duke closer to Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck?

-- Meredith Blake

Photo: Alicia (Julianna Margulies) represents Maria Browning (Jessica Hecht), the soon-to-be ex-wife of Glenn Childs. Credit: David M. Russel / CBS News

RELATED

Complete coverage of 'The Good Wife' on Show Tracker

'The Goof Wife': Archie Panjabi talks about the mystery of Kalinda's sexuality

Fox news commentator Glenn Beck throws frog in boiling water (maybe)

Comments

[Erica Stephens]

Wow! Are you way off in your depiction of the show host.I thought he was more in line with Nancy Grace or Jane Velez Mitchell.As for Alecia,3 more episodes and we will forget she was to be the star of the show.I for one did not get the tattoo distraction.As for Peter,yes I would like his story line to move a little faster.

[T J M]

Did you not pick up that Will and the network lawyer had a history together? I thought it was pretty evident, and had nothing to do with him being mercenary. He knew her from her rebellious younger days (thus the repeated references to her tattoos) and she didn't subscribe to "Sarah Palin ideology" so much as professional behavior and appearance for the career which had treated her quite well. She was a lawyer doing her job, which had little bearing on her personal life (thus their hanky-panky). It seemed to me that she was embarrassed to be representing (on behalf of the network) that d-bag.

[Sophie]

I love this show. Duke was half Bill half Beck, which is SCARY. I think Kalinda is the lesbian. We know Diane isin't from a previous episode where she has Kalinda spy on her sweetie. Also Kalinda always rejects Cary's advances.

As for Will, well, we'll jus have to see. He usually seems pretty sweet on Alicia, but this episode it was all her on him, and he didn't even seem to notice she existed at all.

I like that the new SA's wife was using Alicia as leverage. Alicia is too good for her own good..lol. She should have sucked information out of that woman.

General Population.....really. I so see Mr Floreck getting his butt kicked in future episodes, and ending up in the infrimary. PREDICTABLE MUCH!!!

Hands down it was really good. I swear each episode is a progression. LOVE IT!!!

[SS]

Will didn't seem that engaged with tattoo woman (and honestly, I found their interactions awkward not awkward-sexy...it all seemed very forced), but I did think it was interesting that, for the first time, we saw Alicia more invested in what he was doing than vice-versa. The writers chose to not have Alicia or Will interact at all following the Roscoe release of that photo from the hotel (and THAT was one of my favorite scenes - OF COURSE that blonde woman would take a pic of Peter Florrick's wife with another man at a hotel and use it at some point).I would have LOVED for a scene where Peter finds out about Roscoe's scoop on Alicia and Will...especially if Glenn Childs had been the one to deliver it.

I would have been OK with the writers just keeping Will and Alicia friends ( too many male-female relationships on shows go the romantic route as if there are no purely platonic male-female friendships out there), but too many hints have been dropped for me to believe that their relationship will stay purely platonic. My impression is that Kalinda, Diane and Cary (who is already suspicious of their relationship having been bumped from or playing a downgraded role in cases because of Will favoring Alicia) think there is tension and it was more teasing than anything else. Patty (that pregnant opposing counsel) had noticed that Will glances over at Alicia a lot...she can't be the only one (hell, Peter was jealous when he found out that they were working long hours). That said, I don't think any of them actually thinks Will is sleeping with Alicia. It'll be interesting to see what effect the photo reveal has (if any) on Will and Alicia's working relationship...Does Will begin to realize that Alicia is both a secret weapon and a liability and back off favoring her so much in cases? Does Alicia begin to see that Will has an agenda and is using her because of her effect on the state's attorney? Will gave her a job and he had that supportive (maybe?) moment when he sat next to her after she found out that her husband didn't make bail, but really how good of a friend is he? Everyone in this show is asking something of Alicia - Peter wants her to forgive him and testify for him (and maybe divulge info she gets from Childs' wife), the firm wants her to hand-hold plaintiffs and/or be their frontwoman in fights against the state, her mother-in-law wants her to go to church more (and forgive Peter) - even Childs' wife is using her (and from the previews, it seemed like Kalinda may be a lot more involved in the Childs-Peter battle than Alicia knows...)! When will somebody ask Alicia what SHE needs?

I know we were all supposed to be shocked that Glenn Childs was wiretapping Peter but could it be that he had reason to do so? I almost wonder if the show is setting US up to forgive Peter and at the end we'll find out that he is in fact guilty of at least some of the charges levied against him in terms of corruption and use of state funds.

[Lori]

Ah we may not have been able to see Kalinda's reaction but did you notice that just before the reveal, Alicia rolls her eyes towards Kalinda as though she was expecting Kalinda to be revealed as the closeted lesbian? I thought that was a very fun way of playing with the people who are thinking the exact same thing and reminding those who weren't of the "Donna" mystery woman who answered Kalinda's phone when Alicia called her back.

[Lanee]

I didn't think Will was into the tattoo lawyer at all, hence his I'll think about it response. I think he likes ALicia alot. Loved Alicia's backward glance at Will/tattoo girl ~ it was the first time she has shown outward interest. The Will/ALicia angle is one of the main reasons I watch!

[al chapman]

I have found this show to be one of the most outstanding shows I have ever seen!!! The twists and turns, the story lines the intrigue and betrayal is making me soooo excited. I had no idea this show was this good.

Forget the Losts, Heros, etc... This program makes you want to watch serial dramas and it beats that crap over at ABC with the Doc Dramas and Sunday shows.

I think the Florek story line, the practice stories are allowing for greater things as this show moves forward. Love Josh Charles, nice to see him get some work that meets what he can do. Branski is great as the elder lawyer and who could not love that cad....Chris Noth....awesome.

[Lane]

I love this show, too, one of the few shows I plan to watch. HOWEVER, I'm getting really tired of Alicia's kids hiding stuff from her and lying about it all. Too predictable, too boring.

[Ponselle Jones]

I thought Roscoe was a Grace-O'Reilly-Beck combo. Nancy Grace appears to have harrassed and hounded the Asian mother of a missing baby into suicide.

[Paul Greenberg]

If you saw Alecia's face when Duke made his on-air comment about a lesbian at the firm, you would have noticed she looked uncomfortably at Kalinda. Obviously Alecia suspects Kalinda is gay. Very interesting plot strategy.

[WhoDuhWhat]

You are so off base on this.
Duke’s reports are all innuendos like those of Keith Oberman.
The tattoo lady is questionable as to what sex she prefers.
Will and Alicia were only and always only college friends. They do not have a dating past. I have watched every show from last season so do not jump in here and there and think you know the characters.

[Randall H Smith]

I think that you failed to notice that Duke Roscoe got caught in the end with his facts fabricated. BO and GB have yet been called on screwing up facts and dragged into court for libel. This pretty much reduces your page long tirade to an invalid comparison and a waste of cellulose.

[Kat]

I am getting really tired of the non-resolved Will & Alicia tension: I don't care about Will, I can't keep up MY libido anymore...
And the kids shtick is also growing old.

[julia]

Gosh, this "villan" sounds more like pitbull Nancy Grace rather than Bill O or Beck. Casey Anthony anyone?

[tangee Miles]

If you like this show, may I refer you to DAMAGES with Glenn Close. The acting, writing and directing are superior! She is a liberal trial lawyer who is 'Cheney in a dress'. Their 3rd season begins this month on...are you ready for a surprise...the Fox channel. I know, who knew Fox could have any class?
Enjoy!

[Yvonne]

this is definitely a really good show. I like how they handle these issues with such subtlty (Will, Kalinda, etc). Kalinda is definitely bisexual, if not a lesbian. past episodes have hinted at that, and in this episode it seems so too. and Will and Alicia most definitely have something going on, even if neither has physically acted on it.