Last week's intense season premiere set a completely different tone for the beginning of season 6. In the middle of all the changes, possible mergers, and unlikely political nominees, everything came to a sudden halt in the wake of none other than Cary Agos getting caught in the middle of the struggle between F/A's Druglord client Lemond Bishop and Cook County Police. Cary suffered indignity, likely illegal (at least inefficient) means of detainment, physical abuse, and last but not least had his life threatened.
His reprieve from this hellish turn of events in the form of Diane and Alicia making his bail payment of $1.3 million fell through when A.S.A. Finn Polmar (at the behest of S.A. James Castro) questioned the source of the funds and requested a formal inquiry. Just like that, after an hour of bated breath and astonishing moments, Cary was still held while the court proceedings were scheduled and the screen went black. Never have I wanted a "case of the week" resolved so badly in all my years watching television.
6.02 - It's No Wonder these people have "Trust Issues"
This week picked up with Alicia visiting Cary, as ChumHum was once again at risk of leaving F/A in response to Cary's incarceration and a pending lawsuit that involved ChumHum's old rival Patric Edelstein. Through quick exposition ("5 minutes" in the world of The Good Wife usually means about 1-2 actual minutes) Cary catches Alicia up so that they don't end up delaying the deposition and possibly adding to the risk of ChumHum's business walking out the door.
A Tale of long-forgotten love, ignominy in the Social Networking World
In keeping with the case of the week, Neil Gross' wife Deena Lampard may or may not have tried to make a deal with competitor Patric Edelstein and his site/company Sleuthway to maintain lowered salary rates to reduce "poaching" application programmers (once again referred to as "coders" on TGW) in their shared industry environment--which is incredibly illegal. The trick to handling the case, according to Cary, was to allow the illusion of a man being in control of the situation... Apparently Mrs. Lampard (who refuses to go by the name Mrs. Gross, which I can totally understand!) needs to see a man take charge (cue Alicia's eye-rolling).
So, Carey Zepps sits in and occasionally whispers nonsense to Alicia in order to maintain the ridiculous expectations of the client. This was apparently one of the few things that opposing counsel, Lorraine Joy (you know, the woman who refused to hire Alicia before she found L/G?) took lightly and made fun of, outside of the firm's overstated and ill-timed remodeling. In the end, it turned out that Patric and Deena's past was a little more personal than expected, and his biases against Mrs. Lampard helped have the case thrown out (Deena Lampard has apparently been in a relationship with not 1, but 2 of the biggest Social Networking geeks in the industry?), thereby cementing that ChumHum will not, in fact, be leaving F/A... At least for one more week.
Now, onto the more important matters at hand:
Cary was still stuck in his cell, and after another courtroom jab from A.S.A. Finn Polmar in his apparent conquest for Lemond Bishop's empire, Bishop rescinded his loan for Cary's bail when the judge approved a subpoena for Bishop to show up for a court hearing. This put Cary and the firm back at square one. In keeping with TGW tradition, there were multiple false starts and possible red herrings for a new source of money for Cary's bail...from Alicia taking out a 2nd mortgage, to a random (and rich!) private citizen offering an unsolicited cashier's check.
Alicia's mortgage plan fell through because Peter's name was on the original mortgage, and herefused to sign a loan that could possibly link him to Lemond Bishop, who was a well-known and feared drug dealer after all! But for some reason, Alicia took this as a personal hit against her decision to effectively end their romantic relationship. It definitely seemed to me that he was just trying to be circumspect, and she was taking it the wrong way. Secondly, when Ernie Nolan, a random man who claimed to know of Alicia's pending State's Attorney announcement came forward with his money in hand, she promptly refuted and showed him the door, and then proceeded to lay it on thick with Eli for meddling in her affairs once more...
Speaking of Eli, he was completely back to his old ways of manipulation and deception...of course not for nefarious reasons per se, it's just how Mr. Gold works. His manipulation of Alicia in this episode was masterful... purposely leaking a poll document that looked as if it was from the opposing office of James Castro, so that Eli could redirect Alicia's vitriol at the State's Attorney instead of his office. He pulled it off too, as Alicia was unsuspecting, especially after his earlier botched attempts through having a White House official call her to endorse her decision to run... We're only 2 episodes in, and we've already seen a pensive Alicia stop and actually start to think about a future in politics.
"That's not a law firm...it's a frat house!'
As a partner from the closing New York branch of L/G has come to visit the Chicago office, we are finally introduced to Taye Diggs' character Dean-Levine Wilkins. After Diane's pitch for him to go with her to F/A, we get insight into this very well-mannered, yet previously unseen partner, and all his problems with dropping everything and running over to a start-up firm.
But Diane's pitch was a good one. She insisted that there must be something of worth to build something from the ground up, most importantly a firm run primarily by women and people of color. From one standpoint, I was incredibly happy to hear an issue like this formally brought up on this show. It's a promising prospect, and TGW has never been one to back down from stories involving racial issues. But I think before we give too many pats on the back for that mention, let's see how it pans out first. Things change quickly on this show, and we may never see the idealistic vision that
Diane described come to pass. However, Dean Wilkins was sold after he realized how exciting this change of pace could be. He was so enticed by the prospect that he even networked half a dozen of L/G's heads of departments to follow along to F/A.
"We are now Florrick, Agos, & Lockhart"
This brings us back to Cary. Even in jail he's still a name partner of F/A and he insisted on his vote being part of officially bringing Diane onboard to F/A... When the vote was cast, Cary voted "neigh" from a phone line, and was outvoted 10-5. Even in the middle of his predicament, it seemed he wasn't going to have anymore of a voice in matters at F/A... Excuse me F/A/L. I expect this tension will continue as power shifts in the new firm.
"Who did it?"
Kalinda continued to work Cary's case by vetting the 3 witnesses that the prosecution claimed Cary gave (il)legal advice concerning heroin shipment. Unfortunately, their best bet at a witness met an untimely end, as Bishop incorrectly pegged the wrong witness to be the one who wore the wire...and subsequently had him killed. This put a serious dent on Cary's (and by extension, Bishop's) case... Kalinda had to meet with Bishop in order to ask him (through subtle wording) to please stop killing people that could help his case.
"Goodbye."
On Diane's last day, she counted down to the second, promptly walked out of her office, and had a line of several employees follow her through the door to the elevator. She gave one last goodbye to what once was her firm.
In the end, Lorraine Joy settled her lawsuit and F/A (yes, even after the change, I will keep it F/A for short) netted $4 million which they then used immediately to post Cary's bail. Upon returning to the office, she sees Cary, in a finely pressed suit, waiting for her.
"This is the first time we've done this, isn't it?"
After a quick one-liner, Cary and Alicia hug.
After all the backbiting, the hard decisions, the arrest, the abuse, and the harsh situation they're in, they take a moment to really just be glad that they're still there through it all.
After all the backbiting, the hard decisions, the arrest, the abuse, and the harsh situation they're in, they take a moment to really just be glad that they're still there through it all.
So many big moments buried in the middle of all the craziness! Of course, even with Cary out of the slammer, Finn's case is still strong and he's still on the hook for something that will likely change Cary's life... Or even end it. I can't see this Bishop Heroin case ending well for anyone. But we will see, won't we?
Sidenotes:
- We had multiple elevator scenes in this episode. Good to see so many different uses of a Good Wife favorite...
- So who is Gunter? Why is he using F/A's hot water? Is he helping with renovations? Did I miss something? Or was he just comic fodder for Taye Diggs' character introduction?
- Kalinda asking Cary who hurt him in the early scene through a piece of paper was both heartwarming and a little bit worrying. I wonder if Kalinda will end up making herself a threat to Bishop before things are over this season?
- Robin is Alicia's MOST TRUSTED CONFIDANT... I adore Robin's character, and to hear Alicia say that, even if she was putting on for a shifty man in her office, meant a lot to me as a viewer.
- Next week's episode is titled "Dear God"... Does anyone else feel like they've overused that term on this show? There are other ways of expressing incredulity that don't dumb down the dialogue... (Also see: "are you friggin' kidding me")
- That hug...That was the most satisfying hug, wasn't it? It's like... after 5-6 years of turmoil, Alicia and Cary have finally hugged. Maybe things will work out for their firm after all!?
What did you think of this week's episode? Start a discussion below in the comments!
