'The Good Wife': The Chinese wall

  

Next time your boss asks you to pick up a red-lined contract at a client's house, you might want to say no. That's the lesson from tonight's episode of "The Good Wife," in which a slightly tipsy Alicia is sent to pick up some important paperwork from possible wife-killer Colin Sweeney's apartment, only to find him chained to a half-naked dead woman lying in a pool of blood. Although you and I might describe this sort of experience as "nightmarish" or "harrowing," Alicia Florrick just calls it "Tuesday."  

Sweeney is in quite a pickle, since his company is also going through some sort of ill-defined yet lucrative merger and apparently it doesn't look good to have a sex killer as your CEO. The case appears to endanger the merger, or at least it does until the investors decided they'd be better off with Sweeney in jail and another CEO at the helm. This presents an interesting dilemma to Sweeney's legal team at Lockhart & Gardner, who represent both his person and his personal and financial interests. These interests are now directly at odds with one another: If Sweeney goes to jail, the merger will go through.  As a result, Diane declares a proverbial "Chinese wall" between Sweeney's criminal and financial representation, but the term is used almost ironically. Diane wants Julius and Alicia to consent to a plea bargain so Sweeney will go to jail and the firm will profit from his company's merger. She is most definitely not interested in fighting to keep Sweeney free; then again, can you blame her?

The Chinese wall is sort of the central metaphor on "The Good Wife," a show in which personal and professional lives are constantly overlapping -- and sometimes colliding. And of course, the folks at Lockhart & Gardner are bouncing over Chinese walls all day, every day. In fact, it's precisely Alicia's new-found ability to mix business and personal life and forget about so-called "conflicts of interest" that saved her from being fired. She's officially knocked down the Chinese wall separating her from Peter, and so far it's helping her at the office. The question remains whether it will hurt her in other ways.

Unlike Alicia, Cary wasn't able to leverage his personal connections into job security, and guess what -- he's not happy about getting laid off. He and Alicia have a tense encounter when Cary comes to clean out his office.  Alicia is gracious, but Cary's not having it. "I don't have a name, I don't have a fairy godmother, I don't have the whole Chicago political machine behind me," Cary says, and also accuses Alicia of sleeping with Will. Initially, I sort of sympathized with Cary -- it's no fun to get passed over for external factors like who you're married to or not -- but then I was reminded of something wise old Kalinda said this episode. "Cary would have done the same thing if he had the opportunity." And she's right. Plus, call me a terrible cynic but if Cary expected a fair career in which advancement was based entirely on merit, why did he get into law in the first place?  In any case, it looks like Cary is here to stay. Glenn Childs (whose name, by the way, sounds to me like it belongs to an adult contemporary singer and not a state's attorney) woos Cary into working for him with a few Malcolm Gladwell references and, more enticingly, promises of revenge against Alicia. Naturally, it makes for good TV, but I have to say, the lawyer friends I have who have been laid off in the past year have all but welcomed the event as a chance to take a few months off, fully-paid. Cary should lighten up.

Cary and Alicia's fleeting friendship is, to quote Kristin Cavallari, "dunzo," but her relationship with Kalinda is another story altogether: They are bosom buddies. Kalinda, ever the shrewd judge of character, accurately senses that Alicia is likely to wallow in her (possibly) Pyrrhic victory over Cary.  "You're gonna turn this into something morbid because that's who you are," Kalinda says, so she commandeers Alicia's keys and the two head to the bar for a few shots of tequila. Alicia fesses up to Kalinda about Will, though we don't get to hear what I'm assuming were the juiciest bits of their chat. All we get is Kalinda saying "I'm sure he feels the same way about you." I'm assuming (hoping?) it was something along the lines of, "I love him and want to leave my husband for him but I can't because of this damn job," but it's not entirely clear. Emboldened by liquor and their frank discussion, Alicia comes out with the question we've all had on our minds all season long: She asks Kalinda if she's gay.  In response, Kalinda says "I'm private," which is one of the most galling non-denials in the history of the world, yet she manages to rebuff Alicia's perfectly reasonable questions without seeming cagey or rude.

Alicia never gets the change to push Kalinda on the Big Question because their girls' night out is interrupted by a phone call from Will. A tipsy Alicia runs off to answer the call with a long, breathy "Hiiiiiiiii...." and is clearly hoping that Will is making some kind of booty call/confession. It was a pitch-perfect little acting moment for Margulies and it's too bad she was on a cell phone and not an old-fashioned land line, otherwise she could have twirled the cord in her fingers flirtatiously and the effect would have been complete -- the woman was as giddy as a teenager. This evident glee made something clear that we knew already: despite her sober resolve to work things out with Peter, Alicia still likes Will. (Be sure to check in later for my interview with Josh Charles on this very subject!) Later in the episode,  Alicia and Will have another one of their trademark conversations full of loaded questions and awkward pauses. Will asks Alicia how she's holding up; Alicia isn't sure whether he's talking about the Sweeney case or their "situation." Their awkward verbal fumbling is sweet and surely rings true to anyone who's had a crush in their lifetime -- that constant vacillation between reading too much into one gesture, then completely missing the most obvious sign of all. Oh, you two, get it together already!

So here we are, with only one episode left in the season. Any predictions about next week? Based on the preview, it looks like Alicia finds herself in the same position in which she began her journey this year: standing by her man while he tries to salvage his political career. Do you think Eli will be able to strong-arm her into compliance, or can Will get to her first? I can't wait to find out!

What we learned: Kozko isn't dead after all, and based on his videotaped testimony, he has some pretty damning evidence against Peter. Elsbeth is no good with computers, but she's something of an investigative genius. There's a Savannah in the Cayman Islands. Also, blogger Ben Smith of Politico appeared in this episode. Were any of you political nerds able to spot him?

New questions: No, really, is Kalinda gay? What did Alicia tell Kalinda about her feelings for Will? Will Kozko return from the Cayman Islands to testify against Peter?

--Meredith Blake

twitter.com/MeredithBlake

RELATED:

Complete Show Tracker coverage of 'The Good Wife'

Josh Charles talks about what's next for Will and Alicia

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

'The Good Wife': Everyone is that person

'The Good Wife': Fuzzy vengeance

'The Good Wife': Peter crosses the line

'The Good Wife': Alicia defends an (alleged) murderer

Photo: Alicia Florrick (Juliana Margulies) and Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranksi) talk to their least favorite client, Colin Sweeney (Dylan Baker).

Credit: David M. Russell / CBS

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Comments

[Jayne]

Will Alicia stay her marriage because it enriches (perhaps in the hard cold cash sense) her career with clients who want to befriend her husband? Will Peter and Alicia become the new Bill and Hillary? United by a common love of political power and its benefits? Hmmmm...I think she loves her kids and will stay for them. But if Peter runs, and is elected, and she's working crazy hours - who is going to raise the kids? Crazy Grandma? I assume there will be a showdown with Grandma about Alicia quitting her job if Peter is reelected.

I find it difficult to believe that such a young associate at the US Attorney's office would be heading up the investigation of the current and former State's Attorney for Cook County. This would be handled at a *much* higher level, and they would be more discrete about who they went to observe in court.

Gotta love the Eli Gold character, nice touch with the mousepad! What will Kalinda do with the information? Love this show, looks like it will be moved to Fridays or Sundays next season's schedule, I'm rooting for Sundays at 10.

Friday is TV's graveyard for CBS shows.

[Dorothy]

Thank you so much for bringing up the Will and Alicia storyline (with great emphasis in your recaps) because it is my favorite (if that is possible in the Good Wife world lol) storyline and I have been shipping hard Will and Alicia.

You are so right about Alicia being possibly ready for a booty call/confession. Alicia was wonderfully glee but you forgot to mention Will's cute smile and undeniable happiness in Alicia being the one who got the job. Its good to see Alicia let loose a bit and to see her confide in Kalinda. I do wonder what she meant by "You know he feels the same way about you" was refering to as well.

I also loved Kalina's "I can call Will and tell him that you are drunk and that you are staying at a hotel room. One night, no repercussions" I highly doubt that you can have a one night with Josh Charles/Will Gardner and not have the repercussion of being completely and insanely in love with the guy. He is getting hotter each week! I love Will and Alicia's double meaning/awkward pauses convos because it just shows how much they both like each other. What I love is that both of them know what they could feel about each other if things were different. There is too much angst and too much longing, which is killing me. Lol.

I am kinda surprised that the finale is forcing Alicia to pick between Will and Peter (and I dont think we will have an answer by the end) and Will's overt confession of "I dont want to go through life saying 'what if'" I'm excited and nervous! Also, cant wait for your interview with Josh Charles.

Btw, I am going to miss the Colin Sweeney storyline. He is going to jail for eight years (without any more chances of a reappearance?). Who is going to creep us out with manga and his irony?

[TheGoodFan]

I feel spoiled rotten by this darn show, and it's not going to be pretty come next Wednesday, when the awful truth of the looming hiatus comes crashing down.

Re: Alicia and the phone cord twirling. I thought it interesting that upon hanging up the "not quite a booty" call, Alicia tapped her phone against her forehead in frustration - something we've seen Will do quite hilariously before. Probably unintentional (there are only so many ways to make a cell phone call look interesting?), but still nifty. Second time through, I focused on Kalinda in the background, hoping they'd throw us a bone and see her interact with somebody on the sly while Alicia took her call. No go.

Ack, this show! I love it! It drives me crazy!

While in other shows I've resented closeting or dancing around a gay character's sexuality, I PREFER Kalinda's attitude. "Privacy" is in entirely in line with what we know about her. I did note that even though she's calling the cop both "Tony" and "Burton," he seems slightly cold toward her. "I'm doing my job. I don't interfere with your job."

Want to guess what happened there?

As far as Agent Delaney goes, I think Kalinda trusts her motives less than she trusts Det. Burton's. While I kinda wanted to see Kalinda in a another sexually charged dynamic, neither of those two characters seems very right for her. Thank goodness we'll have several more seasons to see the Kings unfold everything....

[TheGoodFan]

Jayne, the show's staying on Tuesdays at 10 (thank goodness).

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/05/19/cbs-announces-fall-2010-schedule/

[erica stephens]

This show is perfect for me,political intigue,great courtroom drama,office flirtations and jealousies.And everyone conducting themselves as proffessionals.As for the sexual preference of Kalinda,why does it matter?
So far they have managed to write stories that don,t include,gay sex,beastiality,infidelity,pornography or incest.Yet still entertain the audience, somehow I suspect next season will include some if not all of those proclivities mentioned.Hollywood cannot help itself,debasing all human interaction seems to be their M.O.As for Alecia ( The Zombie walking thru the mist of the Moores)I imagine her standing in front of a mirror,practising her expressions for the various scenes for lastnights show.Being accused of infedelity with her boss,finding a dead body in a pool of blood,getting a compliment from her motherin law and being summoned by her husband,then deciding to use the same expression for all of them.

[gman]

Glenn Childs "woo" Cary!!!???? where did you see that? there was no wooing going on. Cary never let him finish asking the questions. he jumped at the change on the first word out of Childs's mouth.

but, Spot on on the rest of the analysis.

[Charlotte]

Fantastic review as always! I look forward to your recap each week.

Alicia and Will are so cute. I absolutely love them.

An interview with Josh Charles? Have mercy...I cannot wait to read it!

[Jenna]

You had me. Then you quoted Kristin Cavallari. I am gone forever! LOL

[Elwyn]

In the first show, Cary mentions that his dad's best friend is Barry Scheck. If that was true and not just a way for Cary to psych Alicia out, then he has some connections that should net him a good job. I liked the Cary character -- I'm a third year law student and have a whole bunch of classmates just like him -- and am hoping that he is taking the job with Childs as a double and will let Alicia know what's going on.

Eli Gold has been my favorite character on the show since the moment he appeared. Hope we'll be seeing more of him.

[PR]

Say what you want about Alicia's facial expressions, I admire that she keeps her cool and doesn't start running off at the mouth - her silence has a great impact. Loved that Aliciacaught on quickly how to manipulate the SA's assistant that again asked, "how's Peter?"
I thought it was great the way things are mentioned like the book Outliers - glad Child's repeated it twice. Outliers also mentions being in the right place at the right time.
It is wonderful that women are intelligent in this show and appreciated by intelligent men (i.e. Elliot admiring the red headed lawyer (who is also great in True Blood) and Alicia.