The Good Wife - Sticky Content - Review - "Stop Banging The Help"

6.09 - "Sticky Content"

Last week, Cary was crumbling in his mock trial, Alicia was working on her entitlement, and Kalinda was working her way out of Lemond Bishop's grasp while still attempting to protect Cary.

"A festive courthouse shooting..."

This week opened up in the editing room, where Johnny Elfman was working with Josh Mariner (David Krumholtz in his first appearance) to pull together Alicia's first political commercial. It was outright crass, cheesy, and manipulative. It was also very exploitative of Will Gardner's death, as that served as a political platform for Alicia's whole campaign. Josh Mariner's approach to editing was brash and obnoxious (and not unlike Eli Gold's method of handling matters) which made his character feel slightly cheap as someone to be trusted with campaign decisions. Alicia immediately clashed with him, along with Marissa Gold, who thankfully kept speaking out against the corny commercial they were working on.

"One to the back of the head."

Cary is called into a meeting with the FBI, where they play a recorded wiretap of Lemond Bishop threatening to kill Cary. Lana Delaney attempts to push for Cary to flip on Bishop before the supposed hit takes place, but Cary rebuffs, and says next time try not to have the woman who is sleeping with his girlfriend work him. (Ouch! Cary: 1, Lana: 0)

Still, when Cary returns home, all he can think about is Bishop having him dealt with, and by the time he's at his apartment door, he hesitates to enter. Suddenly, Kalinda calls him, and says she's in the apartment...Even though the 30-foot rule still applies. (Sidebar: I really think that the 30-foot rule is totally going to bite these two in the ass somehow, but I can't figure out exactly how yet...) After hearing that Bishop threatened Cary's life, she immediately calls in for a bodyguard to stay with Cary until the week is over. She insists that she wants to see him alive, and that it's necessary.

Kalinda meets with Lana, and demands evidence that the tape recording is not faked. Lana insists it isn't, and then in the wake of Cary calling Lana out in front of her superior about her relationship with Kalinda, she demands Kalinda take her more seriously. To me, Lana is a mark for intel on Cary's investigation, and someone she intends to keep an eye on while Cary is on trial, and I think while she does have real feelings for both Cary and Lana, her role as an investigator will seemingly come first... So, it's unlikely she'll treat Lana the way she's asking to be treated.

The next morning, Cary has an awkward run-in with none other than Lemond Bishop, with Cary's bodyguard in tow. After an uncomfortable exchange of words, Cary practically bolts to his office, red-faced, and worried now that it's obvious that he looks suspicious to Bishop walking around with a bodyguard.

"I don't want to be remembered for a closeted dinosaur."

After originally dismissing the courthouse shooting promo, Alicia is shown an alternative smear commercial that depicts Frank Prady as a dinosaur terrorizing Chicago, and then ends with him taking off his dinosaur suit and going into a closet. She pushes for the courthouse shooting promo to air instead, and then films a very genuine-feeling interview for the promo.

In the midst of Alicia deciding about her campaign's promotional direction, she and Frank Prady discuss whether or not to go negative against each other. She initially suspects a ruse, but he seems frank about his angles and how his team is looking to attack Alicia, from a box of oppo research done by James Castro to strategies against her courthouse promo. She agrees to keep a private line between the two, and they keep things above the table about strategy.

However, the others in each others' teams make moves of their own volition as the dinosaur commercial is leaked to the press (presumably by Josh Mariner), and Prady's own promo shows his mother wearing the same dress as Alicia in her interview for the courthouse shooting. Still, after the antics start turning dirty, Alicia and Prady speak again and wonder how they can keep it a fair fight, especially with everyone pulling them into the mud together.

"Zip up your pants, shut your mouth, and stop banging the help."

When Alicia first received the box of oppo research from Frank Prady, she tried to put it out of her mind, but gave in and had to look in the box to see what Castro had on her and her family. She stumbles upon snapshots of Ramona Lytten, with Peter in a public restaurant. She takes it in stride, and calls Peter to schedule a joint interview to strengthen the public image of their marriage.

The interview goes exceptionally well, as Alicia and Peter play off each other's answers like a characteristically happy-yet-seasoned married couple. But in between takes, it is evident that Alicia's knowledge of the affair between Ramona and Peter really hurts her. She staves off tears after seeing the two working together on the set of the interview.


After the interview, Alicia confronts Peter. She expertly states that in the favor of their continued political careers, Peter needs to stop seeing Ramona immediately. He denies the affair blatantly. He states that they only had an affair previously and nothing was currently happening. Alicia argues for him to be truthful to her for once. He does not react, so she lays it out there that if he doesn't keep it in his pants, it's going to ruin their lives.

Later in the episode, Ramona is in the limo with Peter. He is in the middle of what seems like breaking off the affair he completely denied having when speaking with Alicia earlier. Ramona seems wounded, and starts tearing up. Peter kisses her, and then she says "you're bad people." He simply responds "I know." Cue my indifference to Peter growing by the millisecond. 

"...You?"

After confronting Peter about his affair with family friend Ramona Lytten, Alicia finds herself standing in Finn Polmar's office. He pops in on her, unexpectedly, with his hands full of documents and his mouth holding a cup of coffee. This scene feels incredibly familiar as something that happened between Will and Alicia all the time. She sits on his couch, and he sits next to her, practically waiting to hang onto her every word. But all she can say is "I..."

He prompts her to answer, and his hand sort of ends up on top of hers. They make suggestive eye contact, and just then, a couple of coworkers walk by, and Alicia bolts from the room completely embarrassed.

The next day, Finn makes his way to Alicia's office, and asks what was going on with her last night? She says that she was just in a weird mood. He clearly was picking up on their attraction, and stated that if things needed to be simple, then they could be simple. He left on that note, as more campaign calls came to distract Alicia.

I have thought that their relationship would work better if it remained platonic, so as to not fall into the same pit as when she and Will met, but at the very least, I don't mind their scenes like this. It feels like she's put herself in the same situation as before, but with a different kind of man, and in a different place in her life. I wonder if this will finally lead to her getting past a few things, like her marriage, in lieu of something significantly different.

"Are you betting your life on usually?"

After stewing in his fears and anxieties for the day, Cary decides to speak to Lemond Bishop in person. He expects that this will dispel any possible chances of Bishop thinking that Cary has flipped on him. However, he finds out while in Bishop's home that the call was in fact legitimate. Kalinda urges him to get out of there before Bishop tries something. Bishop presses Cary as to why he feels the need to leave so quickly, and then Cary gets real with Bishop, stating that he's been shown a tape that has audio evidence that Bishop intends to kill him. Bishop says that it is true, but that there is nothing to worry about.

Bishop claims its about posturing, and blowing off steam. He has to "talk" like that to others, but then he makes his actual decisions with more thought and less input from subordinates. Cary's fears are quelled, and he thanks Bishop. Bishop states "Don't hurt me, and I won't hurt you." Cary promises that would never happen, and leaves.

As a viewer, I didn't totally buy what Bishop was saying. He was likely pacifying Cary, so he would not make a scene in Bishop's own home, and it's even possible that he wasn't just posturing in the phone call. However, it seems as though for now Cary is safe from Bishop. I think he either did not intend to kill him actually, or if he did, knowing the tap was there, he couldn't and didn't want to alarm Cary any further.

In the final scene, Lana Delaney is called into her superior's office about the leaked Bishop wiretap tape. You know, the tape that she made a copy for Kalinda to analyze? This can't be good...

Sidenotes:

- The Gorilla boy "documentary" was shown as a rerun on tv, seems like Alicia really enjoys that special episode

- Not 1 but 2 moments that felt "meta" -- Alicia finally stating how her hushed conversations were hampered on by the walls being glass in the L/G offices, and Cary pointing out that most people use the term "call" instead of "phone" -- how interesting!

- Ramona Lytten, while being arguably sketchy in her moments with Peter, still somehow brings something to the show with her soft-spoken words of advice. Her dynamic with Peter continues to be reminiscent of how Alicia and Will worked together. 

- This is another episode where Julianna Margulies and Matt Czuchry completely killed it. Both of their characters had such strong (and understated) moments this week.

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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