The Good Wife - Red Zone - Review - "Thank You... And Go to Hell."

6.08 - "Red Zone"

Last week, Finn Polmar resigned from the S.A., Alicia flubbed an attempt to receive Frank Prady's endorsement and inadvertently pushed him to become her main opponent in the race of S.A., and Kalinda made moves to out Bishop in lieu of proving Cary's innocence.

This week, we delve into Cary's vulnerability and Alicia's public image in what is my favorite episode of the season thus far.

"It's hard to be the defendant... Don't ever do it."

In preparing for the upcoming trial, Diane hired her former rival Viola Walsh (welcome back Rita Wilson!) to pose as Cary's prosecutor in a mock trial once he decided that he wanted to be a witness in his own trial. As per usual, she knew precisely how to unnerve Cary and have him lash out--which made him look guilty instead of victimized. Cary clearly had the right to be so upset with his own prospective life's undoing (having his own success thrown in his face as his reason for guilt--Viola was very effective in her take down) but he was not taking anything seriously in his questioning, and Diane quietly took note of how unhinged Cary had become.

Over the course of the episode we see Cary finally openly reacting to the mess he has found himself in, and it paid off in a grand way, in my opinion. It was Matt Czuchry's finest hour since the premiere in his portrayal of someone with so much conflict becoming so desperate and indignant. This scattered and angry demeanor might end up costing him on the stand if he didn't get it together.

"The campus cop was composing his erection."

Owen brought Alicia a "quick" case for her to be present in a proceeding for one of his students, Jody Milam, after she was raped on campus by another student. Jody simply wanted her attacker expelled and nothing more, but he was contesting it, and it would mean a lot to Owen for Alicia to be there for his student, a measurably calm but still visibly shaken young woman.

To Eli's frustration, Alicia took the case as the not-so-silent advocate on the girl's case, and was able to be there for Jody when she needed someone to look to in the intimidating process where her attacker had the ability to verbally refute anything she would say. She worked around the guidelines to provide Jody what she needed to handle herself. When Owen was called on to be a witness, Alica's backseat lawyering caused a bit of a snafu via autocorrecting something she fed to Owen to say on the stand to the word "erection." Cue the 5 minutes of inordinate laughter from my apartment...

After several hours over the course of two days, Alicia found that the school wasn't properly handling the situation and was putting Jody in the position to sue the school for its failure to due process.

"I had an unfortunate bout of kidney failure."

In rare form, Louis Canning showed up to the courtroom in a wheelchair, aided by an oxygen mask, all while his disorder caused him to spasm just as freely as any given previous appearance. He argued on behalf of the school, putting him once again on the opposing side from Alicia, who rolled her eyes at his blatant use of his condition to play into his case against Jody.

His denatured state, brought on by a kidney failure in the middle of losing a battle for his life, did not afford him much in the case, (Hon. Parks remains one of the more level-headed and objective judges in the show) so he had strong arguments against Alicia's own involvement in the school proceedings to push back. That is, until Kalinda found a "rape wall" that apparently listed each name of a person who was accused of assaulting another student -- a wall that the school was painting over.

In reaction to Alicia threatening a class action lawsuit, Canning and the school found another reason to expel Jody's attacker, and having gotten what she wanted, Jody was satisfied with its conclusion, even though it was obvious Alicia wanted to pursue the case further. (This is another small hint to me that Alicia should be a lawyer and not a S.A.)

"She's not just selfish... She's paranoid!"

In the midst of all the chaos going on around her, Alicia found out about the focus group Eli and Johnny was questioning, and overheard something a person in the group said about her being "entitled" which really hit Alicia hard. Let's be honest here, folks. While Alicia has some fantastic instincts and has accomplished a lot in her life, she is still quite entitled. It's something that's followed her from the first season, and it's not just going away. She will have a problem with her entitlement as a well-off person who isn't 100% aware of how she comes across. It's part of why I worried about her throwing her name into the running for S.A., because the public loves her so much for how they perceive her to be, and she comes off as entitled pretty easily.

I appreciated that the show brought this up and gave more insight into Alicia's self-image. She once again visualizes how that 1 woman would react to little things she did throughout the episode, as if she were haunting Alicia and Alicia wanted to affect her opinion and change it specifically, losing perspective that it was a single comment she heard from 1 person in a focus group. It was quite refreshing to lose the opinion/bias of someone Alicia knows and go for a group of people picking her apart as a public figure.

In an attempt to look beyond herself, she went with Finn to work at a soup kitchen, where a tracker took an opportune moment to make her look like a fool with a false online article picking her apart as someone who does things for appearances, who can't take a moment to get off her phone, and who doesn't even wash dishes when she's trying to keep appearances that she's being a good member of the community.

Her outright selfless act is pushed out as joke online that sends Eli into a conniption fit. Between her taking more cases and being naive enough to attempt to be "selfless" in the middle of a calculated campaign, she was driving him crazy and hurting her own image.

In the end, after she saw the case through, she had a moment with Eli, where he reminded her to let him do his job. She said "tell me what to do." If she was going to alter the public's opinion of her for the better, it would only be done under Eli's supervision. She ended up at a soup kitchen event once more with Eli keeping a watchful eye to make sure she came off as sincere, and turned around the focus group's opinions of her.

"It comes off as entitlement..."

Cary, drowning in his resentment for Kalinda blatantly dating Agent Delaney and unable to keep his emotions in check, went way off the course in his continued mock trial, going so far as to verbally accost Diane and Viola. This damned him with perceived guilt. With his angry demeanor and the prejudicial partial recording they had in discovery, Diane warned him that he was days from a certain guilty verdict if he didn't get his head in the game.

Alicia, reeling from her confusing self-assessment, popped by to check on Cary, who deflected her question with a quick smirk and a one-liner. She hesitated, but then quite eloquently stated that while he was being unjustly persecuted in this case, he had to get around his incredulity in order for him to be able to have the jury see the injustice instead of seeing him reactively attack the lawyers in court. Watching him on the tapes, Alicia saw him come off as entitled, much like herself in her own situation. She leveled with him to say that he had to be smart in this.

The look on Cary's face was heartbreaking. Holding back tears, he thanked Alicia for her advice, and started to work towards getting a grip on his situation after being so removed from his own defense.

In the following mock proceeding, he was more circumspect, and cordial. He was thoughtful and didn't allow himself to be ruffled with softball questions like he was before. After more than one time being the one to calm Alicia down in season 5, she returned the favor and said the right thing to Cary at the right time.

Somehow, it still doesn't feel like it will be enough to keep Cary safe from prison. I have such a bad feeling about how this will all end for him. 

"Everything alright, Mr. Bishop?"

Kalinda moved around a lot this episode, but primarily she was spending time with Federal Agent Dana Delaney. First, out of seemingly just wanting to be with her (even going so far as to lie to Cary multiple times about where she is when she talks to him on the phone), but then later, she's prompted by Lemond Bishop to find out which case Delaney is working on and deliver the info to him personally.

Completely unable to focus on his own trial, Cary places himself in a position to catch Kalinda and Lana with each other, and he moves to confront Kalinda about their relationship. We get more emotional payoff in the scene in Kalinda's apartment than we've had for Cary and Kalinda in whole previous seasons given that usually they're just having a quick sex scene.

This time Cary openly confronts Kalinda about seeing Lana, and Kalinda being unable to state that she's really just trying to get info for Bishop concedes that she is not interested in monogamy, and she craves more than 1 relationship. Cary, who has blatantly disregarded his 30-ft rule, thanks Kalinda for her candor, and promptly leaves, telling her to go to hell.

Kalinda then spends more time with Lana, and overhears something regarding Bishop's case, confirming she is working it. When approached by Bishop, she outright lies to him, stating she's working on a white collar crime case, and he responds by mandating that Kalinda place a small white card in Lana's wallet.

In the last scene, we see Kalinda sneak into Lana's bag to place the item, only to at the last minute break it in half. (Phew!)

Sidenotes:

- So, Lana Delaney is working Bishop's case... This is not going to end well.

- Everyone killed it this episode, guys. Everyone was great in their roles. We need more episodes like this. Petition to keep silly moments to the unexpected occurrences that happen here and there, rather than string them along for whole episodes like 6.05 and 6.06...

- Alicia being there for Cary in this episode only makes me want her to fail in her campaign more because I need F/A/L to be the focus where everyone's supporting each other in law cases... AGH!

- F/A/L literally has 2 of its 3 name partners stepping away from cases for very inflammatory reasons, and we STILL haven't seen any real ramifications like clients leaving, or strain within the firm. Given the attention to financial and partner-based issues in the past, I find this to be a strange oversight that needs to be brought up soon in order to retain credibility!

- Alicia and Louis Canning really have a rapport at this point even when they both use blowhard tactics in the courtroom. Canning's illness has been played for laughs, but things got more serious when she asked him if he was dying. She made sure to ask him if there was something she could do for him. I really appreciate the dynamic between these two characters.

What did you think of this week's episode? Start a discussion below in the comments!

About the Author - Wilson Crawford

Wilson is an avid fan of television, music, and the occasional video game. He enjoys well-written, thought-provoking characters and series that get better with age. Current favorites include The Good Wife and Mad Men. Past favorites include Damages, Fringe, Breaking Bad, 30 Rock, and Veronica Mars.

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