'The Good Wife' recap: Kalinda comes out (sort of)

The suspense is over. After about 29 episodes, dozens of hints and countless sidelong glances, we finally have an answer about Kalinda's sexuality. Or do we?

In Tuesday night's episode, we finally met the mysterious Donna. The more fanatical "Good Wife" fans among us will recall that it was Donna who answered Kalinda's phone once last season, sending the "Is Kalinda a lesbian?" speculation into overdrive. After her brief appearance, Donna was never heard from again, and now we know why: Kalinda broke her heart.

Played by the wonderful Lili Taylor, Donna is a lawyer in the public defender's office who, we gather, has developed a slightly jaundiced view of her do-gooder vocation. She's smart, passionate, earnest and always seems to be just barely suppressing tears; in other words, she's a very "Lili Taylor" character. (Personally, any time I see Taylor onscreen, I instantly get "Joe lies when he cries" stuck in my head. If you don't know what I am talking about, rent "Say Anything" immediately.) Donna meets her client, a man accused of public masturbation, formulates his defense strategy (it was cold outside), and manages to get his sentence shortened to time served, all within the time it might take Kalinda to zip up her leather boots. It's an exaggeration, of course, but the all-too-expedient justice meted out in this plebeian courtroom is no more inspiring than the multimillion-dollar verdicts bought by Lockhart, Gardner & Bond. "The Good Wife" is cynical about all facets of the justice system, not just the white-shoe firms.

Donna and Kalinda are not, shall we say, on the best of terms. Donna has been wounded by Kalinda, and lets her know as much. Kalinda, in turn, is worried that her ex will tell Blake about their relationship, but Donna promises not to squeal. "I won’t tell him how heartless you can be, how insensitive, how self-preservation is your No. 1 concern," she says. Ouch. We don't know what, exactly, Kalinda did to Donna, but it doesn't sound like she was too nice. 

I do have to wonder just why Kalinda is so concerned about her "secret" being exposed. I am still going to resist labeling her a lesbian; this is Kalinda, after all. What we do know with certainty is that she's dated at least one woman and that, from the looks of it, there was genuine attraction involved. If anything, you'd think being gay would be an advantage in a place like Lockhart, Gardner & Bond, where the semblance of diversity is so important. She's got at least two legs up on Blake, a (presumably) straight white dude, should the firm have to downsize. So why the paranoia?

Maybe Kalinda is just fanatical about keeping her private life private, but I doubt that's the whole story. My guess is that Donna, like Blake, knows a few things about "Leela." There's also the possibility that Kalinda's interest in Donna had more to do with professional ambition than romantic inclinations. It's not that far-fetched. Kalinda has been known to wield her sexuality to get the job done; remember her dalliance with that cop last season? And who could forget her crotch-grabbing escapade a few weeks ago? (Not Blake, that's who.) Perhaps Kalinda doesn't want everyone at the firm to know that her secret weapon is, more often than not, sex? I haven't the slightest. Bottom line is that we may know more, quantitatively, about Kalinda than ever before, but we're not much closer to any definitive answers.  

Sex -- at least talk of it -- was all over this episode. Diane and Alicia are trying a class-action lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company whose drug may have led multiple patients to suicide. What starts as a tedious case based on boring things like "science" becomes a sordid probe into the sex life of a dead woman. Did jealousy drive her to suicide, or a lousy pill? Who knows. Sadly, the truth is beside the point. The episode's other notable guest star was Michael J. Fox, playing a lawyer named Louis Canning. (Replace one vowel in the last name and you have a pretty apt description of this character.) Louis, like the actor who plays him, has a neurological disorder that causes tremors. His condition makes him sympathetic to the jury, and, at first, to Alicia too. Bleeding heart that she is, Alicia falls for his helpless "Can you help me find my bus pass?" ploy, but quickly learns her lesson. Just because Louis is handicapped doesn't mean he's nice. It's an obvious point, perhaps, but it's oddly refreshing that "The Good Wife" is willing to make a character with a disability so venal.  

Manipulative litigators have become a trope on "The Good Wife." We've seen Nancy "Aw Shucks" Crozier (Mamie Gummer) twice now, but Louis takes Machiavellian to a whole new level, playing up his tics anytime the jury's attention begins to wander. An expert witness drones on about serotonin levels? Cue the shakes. Like Nancy's feigned naivete, Louis' gambit works like a charm, and he manages to make his giant pharmaceutical company the underdog. Diane's and Alicia's case is doomed, that is until they uncover videotape footage of rats, doped up on the drug in question, tearing each other apart. The symbolism was hard to miss.    

Was this the most cynical episode of "The Good Wife" to date?

What we learned: Kalinda dated Donna. Blake used to work for "Baltimore's biggest meth gang." Wendy Scott Carr can sing like an angel and is a breast cancer survivor. 

Further questions: Just what did Kalinda do to Donna? What else does Donna know about Kalinda? How did Derrick Bond get the charges against Blake dismissed?  

Real-life inspiration: Grace's misplaced political allegiance is reminiscent of Caroline Giuliani (daughter of Rudy), who joined Barack Obama's Facebook group back in 2007.  

-- Meredith Blake
twitter.com/MeredithBlake

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Upper photo: Kalinda (Archie Panjabi) gets upset when Donna (Lili Taylor) shows up unexpectedly at the firm's victory party. Credit: Craig Blankenhorn / CBS

Lower photo: Alicia (Julianna Margulies) clashes with defense counsel Louis Canning (Michael J. Fox). Credit: David M. Russell / CBS

Comments

[Kiki]

One great episode indeed!!! Can we please have Lili Taylor back!! Amazing! What the heck did Kalind do to her? lol
I just loved it!

[ellena roberts]

this was the worst episode of good Wife. We deplore the questionable story lines of all courtroom procedures. We dislike Fox to start with, as an actor,person, and any performance, dating back to Boston Legal.
We do not think he added anything to GW, rather detracted. As to Kalinda, this titilling episode was superfluous. The actress and her character are fine as she is, which has been judged by her rewards. However, GW is going downhill--and the curious stories about Alicia and 'her men" is not even being touched this season. We plan to not watch anymore-is this show is getting very "cheap shots"-all for supposedly sensationalism- why did this not post. I gave my name on bottom, but it said "name must not be blank"????

[eagledpm]

It's not necessary to bring in Gay/Lesbianism into the show to have a good show...shame on CBS!

[Roberta]

I really liked this show so not sure why the producers felt it necessary to add the Gay/Lesbianism story line. I also like Kalinda and wanted to know more about her but this is a cheap shot at her character. Probably will watch another episode and see if this story line continues, if so I will watch something else. Sorry that CBS went in this direction with a good show.

[anonymous]

"I do have to wonder just why Kalinda is so concerned about her "secret" being exposed. I am still going to resist labeling her a lesbian; this is Kalinda, after all. What we do know with certainty is that she's dated at least one woman and that, from the looks of it, there was genuine attraction involved"

I always got the impression that she was probably bi not gay or straight. Plus she was apparently described as bisexual in the leaked pilot script. But I doubt she'll ever say it explicitly.

I liked seeing Michael J. Fox again. I was so sad when he left Spin City. He did a great job.

[Chirkle]

I thought this was the worst episode since the incarnation of TGW. As you said, sex was ALL over the place. I've always liked that TGW was an intelligent show but last night it seems they were going for sensationalism & shock. To ask the audience to believe that a drug made people want to have "a" sex???? Come on, nobody's that stupid. I hope they don't destroy the endearing character that Kalinda was last year. I like to see more time with her and Alicia as we did last year, out working and solving cases and less of this Blake/Kalinda face-off. I feel the show is letting go of the things that made it good last year. A very disappointing episode.

[Carla]

Wow it looks like the bigots got out of the woodwork already. Well, "we" loved the episode and Kalinda's storyline. It's not "necessary" for her to be bisexual but it fits the character to a T. She's ambiguous and complex. The episode was fantastic on so many more levels than this one anyway so if the simple fact a woman can be attracted to another woman stops you from watching, I suggest you find yourself a time-traveling Delorean and fly back to the 1960ies.

Blake is an annoyance. Porter just doesn't do it for me. His acting is so flat, he can't manage to look dangerous and as a result, the writers have to invent ever more far fetched plot devices to make him appear so (trashing a victim's place, drug dealer connections, harming a witness). He was there to get under Kalinda's skin. Done. Now can he go back to whatever 80ies cop show he came out of?

Lili Taylor far outshone Michael J. Fox in that episode. She managed to bring such a complexity to her character in not more than a couple of scenes, she's just amazing.

Here's to more like this one. After the boring episode they delivered a couple of weeks ago, it's the least they can do.

[Joe]

Wow. Not much love for last night's show.

To continue my thought from last week's discussion, I still hope to see Lockhart, Gardner investigated for the improprieties (crimes really) of its investigator(s). Cary seems to hint at this in his warning to Kalinda.

Also, the reference by Michael J. Fox's character near the end of trial, when he says he wanted to recall his expert, but unfortunately the expert was injured during a break-in at the expert's office (no doubt another felony committed by Blake at he implicit behest of Will).

[Raeion]

Are you people serious? Kalinda is the main attraction to TGW as evident by her recent Emmy win. People have been fascinated by the mystery surrounding her since season one and CBS held off showing a lesbian kiss just for sensationalism in the season finale. But if Kalinda is bisexual or indeed a lesbian then there is no reason to leave out a kiss between her and a woman, especially when such a kiss gives a much desired insight into her past. Also I didn't hear as much complaining when CBS showed a scene in which Peter and Alicia got intimate in the bathroom. This was one of the finest episodes of TGW and the complaining I hear is all directed at the lesbian aspect of the show which seems to be more of a bigoted anger than actual critique.

[Liz]

This episode didn't do it at all for me. The case made me question how Lockhart/Gardner had managed to stay afloat all this while. What sort of a law firm can't figure out the approximate damages they can claim? And since when did giving the jury something interesting to chew on equal completely eschewing any legal rationale and going off on tangents about the soap opera in the lives of the plaintiffs and witnesses? And what kind of a person thinks putting someone in a hospital to win a case is fair game? And who hires a known criminal for their law firm especially when you know you share vicarious liability for their acts? And who actually encourages their violent behavior to further their interests in a case? The answer to all these questions happens to be Lockhart, Gardner and Bond. I hope TGW regains its mojo in the next episode because I love these characters a little bit too much to see them reduced to such unsympathetic levels. At least Eli got some of his old competence back. Heavy emphasis on 'some'. The only question that I have on my mind right now is whether the viper's nest planted at the law offices of Lockhart/Gardner and Bond going to end up biting the audience.

[AnaK]

Mixed feelings about this episode.
Blake is becoming less and less plausable (and more and more a liability), or a bomb that needs to go off soon and show us why it was planted. With more staff and case loads, the firm would need more investigators, and apart from no one's job being safe, the two of them fighting for same cases makes no sense the longer it goes on. As initial measuring up of each other - yes, but no more than that. If he is to catalyze some unravelling for Kalinda...okay, let's see what it is. Sexuality is just not an issue here, it can't be, and it certainly doesn't make a character interesting. Lesbian or bisexual - who cares.

Eli is fantastic as usual, and the show is great, but this episode created more confusion instead of development, and development it needs.

[CrunchyFrog]

This series is getting worse by the week. There is virtually nothing believable about it and little that is entertaining. It has too many cartoonish peripheral characters and too many undeveloped cringe-worthy storylines. The writers seem to think they are handling "big issues" in an intelligent way, but it all comes off as very high school to me.

[Pamela]

As to the blatantly bigoted comments, I think it is sad that people think it's o.k. to say that its not "necessary" to bring in a lesbianism storyline, or that its a "cheap shot" at her character to make her gay or bi. WHY?

1 our of every 10 people is gay. Why do gay/bi people not have a right to see themselves represented on television? This is exactly why all the suicides and bullying are allowed to continue. Because closed minded adults pass these views (intolerance) of anything that is not hetero on the t.v.

[Pamela]

I also wanted to say kudos for CBS for being brave and not allowing bigots to control the media.This is the 21st Century.

Panjabi is a great actress and very brave for taking ont the character. Her Emmy is a testament to the hard work she has put in with her portrayal of Kaliinda.

[kwhy8strm]

love the show! it is one of my favorites. Having said that
I too am a little bothered by the Kalinda lesbian innuendo?
I got tired of it, with Brothers and Sisters, and I no longer watch that show.

[rosie]

Why is it necessary to spoil a quality show by making a very strong character (Kalinda)into a lesbian and performing promiscuous actions. If this continues, like Brothers & Sisters, Nip/Tuck, I will no longer view this. CBS does not have to stoop this low. They have some of the best shows and can continue without these type of actions.

[Sydney]

Great episode. Only thing that bothered me (b/c it wasn't logical which is rare for the show) was Donna's behavior to Alicia. Donna works in the State Attorney's office! And from the way the Good Wife portrays Chicago, who doesn't know who Peter & Alicia Florrick? Donna's jealousy of Alicia is a little farfetch'd given the circumstances.

[Jacko]

I'm amused at how slow those bigoted commentators above are. Kalinda's lesbianism had been hinted at early on in Season 1. And now only they are complaining? You guys should just go back to watching American Idol or whatever.

Anyway, I thought this episode was lacklustre too. The "case-of-the-week" did not did not work for me; the plaintiff was unmemorable and the story convoluted and implausible. Thankfully, the Wendy Scott Carr storyline was much better. The writers really struck gold with Eli's character (pun intended)!

[Chelsea]

I didnt enjoy the show this week for a number of reasons. The case was underdeveloped and frankly boring. The question over what Kalinda is hiding is, in my opinion, not one about sexuality. She is clearly a lesbian or bi-sexual so for me thats not an issue (neither is it very interesting incidentally).

I actually think, and most will disagree, that its deeper than that. When Blake was talking about the number of gay people working at law firms he specifically mentioned Transgender along with gay and I thought maybe there might be a twist on Kalinda physicality not just sexuality. This is obviously very far fetched as Kalinda is a beautiful woman and doesnt look androgynous but I keep trying to figure out why her gay secret would be such a big deal and I thought maybe that might be something to do with it. That said, Neela, if that was her old name, is a womans name. I dont know... but the blake kalinda storyline is getting tired. And the woman who played Donna was a snooze. Everyone seems to be raving about her, i dont live in the U.S so maybe I missed something but I was pretty underwhelmed.

[Lilybop]

I don't understand why Kalinda would be so secretive about being gay, so maybe she's also transgender. I find the entire Blake/Kalinda storyline tiresome and annoying, and I'm a huge fan of the show. I wonder if JibJab actually made the cartoon in the last episode.