The Good Wife - The Trial - Review - "One Nightmare After Another"

6.10 - "The Trial"

Cary Agos walks into an empty courtroom with a blank look pinned to his face. At this point, he looks practically defeated, ready for the finishing blows that will hit him once Geneva Pine and State's Attorney James Castro make their play against him. A lingering shot of him quietly contemplating cuts away suddenly.

Honorable Judge Richard Cuesta fumbles in the courthouse restroom for his phone, soap on his hands, unable to get any of the 3 faucets to work, as the music emanating from his phone cuts off finally after being on hold for so long. He pleads with the operator to let him place an order for 2 tickets to Neil Diamond's concert later that night for his wedding anniversary. He is placed on hold once more. He returns to his desk to find a banana nut muffin, which he can't stand, and then is reminded that he's needed in court imminently. He gives up on the concert tickets and grumpily pushes onward to the courtroom. 

He immediately calls for the prosecution and defense to meet in his office to expediently handle the trial without delaying any further, and attempts to coax a settlement out of the two parties first thing. When Diane or Cary interject in between the off-record conversation to reiterate Cary's innocence,  Cuesta is remiss in dismissing his innocence given that if he has made it to this court, he must have done something wrong, no matter what Cary insisted. 

Richard Cuesta's indifference towards the case is one of many forces in this episode that work inadvertently but powerfully against Cary's position in "The Trial." 

Cary and Diane still insist on the trial going forward, and outright refuse A.S.A Pine's offer, pushing them to go back to see the proceedings out in court. We see Geneva Pine on the phone with someone... someone she's clearly close with, but then adds to not make any obvious moves towards her while he is on the stand. Another little piece of the puzzle of this trial: Pine is boning one of the key witnesses against Cary. 

However, thankfully he still answers Diane's cross examination questions truthfully, which gives Diane and Cary the foothold they need to make their case that he was not aiding a group of drug dealers actually transport heroin. They take it, and run with it to provide reasonable doubt and we all get to take a breath for a moment.

"What's the joke?"

Alicia's ongoing campaign issues continue to starkly contrast with the severity of Cary's life-or-death ordeal. It's a very real, and important, fast-paced part of Alicia's current life, but it severs her connection with Cary and his plight because of the demanding and silly nature of campaigning. Her primary issue of the week? A several-month-old joke in the form of a fake note Alicia wrote to Grace's gym teacher became a public spectacle when she brought it up in class one day for an exercise in free speech. While it was a very nice comedic touch to the otherwise dour episode, I have limited bandwidth for the b-story this week, so I will summarize it as well as I can. Eli, Marissa, Grace, Jackie, and Johnny all were on point in their ways of handling the violent joke that Alicia made on a note that was between her and Grace. What was the joke? Alicia was quoting a character from her favorite tv show in stating that if Grace's teacher continued to force her to participate when she was ill with a cold, Alicia would meet the teacher in person and knife them. The punchline? That the idiotic school administration's inept principal and his cronies would do nothing in a timely fashion and he'd bleed out from his wound. (Damn, Alicia... That's not good!)

It also had implications intensify when Prady's people set him up to preemptively damn Alicia for threatening teachers in a public statement that would be on record before her note was even made public knowledge. After a quick word with Prady, they both continued to work on keeping things above the table in their race, even though it left Prady on the defensive when either Eli or Johnny seemed to have leak information about Prady's former male lovers.

When pressed by Johnny about dealing with patronage from the teachers at Grace's school, Alicia stated that she was not going to treat things as Peter would, because he was precisely an example of how not to handle things in a campaign or as a State's Attorney.

"You know what you have to do."

When Diane made headway in Cary's case, Castro in all his sliminess, quietly instructed Geneva Pine to do what must be done to put him away. First, she put Kalinda on the stand, but ended up screwing up the questioning. Cuesta completely dismissed the entire line of questioning and Pine had to hit them from another angle. After a juror anonymously reported that juror #11 was having difficulty with perceiving the proceedings, Cuesta removed him from the jury. Juror #11 was on Cary's side, which tilted things further away from a fortunate outcome.

Cary, at the point of tears once more given that juror #11 was the last small modicum of a chance he had with the jury, pleads with Kalinda to help him. She obliges, and heads out for a Hail Mary pass. She calls Alicia (because they're never going to see each other in person again, I am simply resigned to that fact) to get Finn to spill something that Kalinda can work with in order to have some form of a break in Cary's case.

"Accordian music kinda turns me on..."

Finn and Alicia meet up in a janky diner in the middle of a storm to eat pancakes in an environment that would otherwise... dissuade them from crossing a personal line in the middle of Alicia's campaign. In a quick, quite funny moment, the power goes out, a waitress brings by a candle for a light source, and a guitarist plays quietly in the background. Ta da! Instant candlelit dinner! Alicia pushes past the awkward circumstance and tries to get Finn to say something that could help Diane win Cary's case. He insists multiple times that he cannot say anything. Of course, at this point, a small envelope is exchanged between the two characters, but Finn still insists he cannot say anything.

"This is about Dylan."

In the scene that likely decided Cary's fate, Kalinda approached Lemond Bishop in his home to get him to have the last remaining witness to state on the stand that Cary was not complicit with the heroin transportation. Bishop turns her down and refuses to help, as it is too close for comfort for the druglord to go out on a limb for 1 lawyer, when the S.A. is clearly going out of his way for Cary.

Kalinda lays out the pictures procured from Finn on the counter. Bishop perceives it as a threat and reprimands Kalinda, reminding her that it isn't enough to put him in jail. She says it isn't about that...it's enough to have Bishop's son Dylan taken from him. At this point, Bishop asks Kalinda if anyone else knows that she is there. She says "yes" but it seems like she says that just so that Bishop wouldn't hurt her right then and there. He loses control and screams at her to never ever threaten him or his son again. She insists it isn't a threat, just a bid for his cooperation. He tells her to get out before he thinks too hard on it.

However, the next day, the witness was made available and appeared on the stand. It seemed as though finally Cary's case was going to be made and he could have what he needed to have the charges dropped. He and Kalinda speak briefly and hold hands before the court heard from the witness.

In the middle of the proceedings, Bishop makes an appearance in the courtroom. The witness changes his tune and pins the whole thing on Cary, and states for the record that he specifically gave them the legal advice for the heroin transportation. Kalinda pleads with Bishop to fix it, to have the witness tell the truth. Cary looks on, helpless and defeated. Bishop washes his hands of the situation and says to Kalinda "I wanted you to understand." Her actions have cost Cary's chance at freedom (even if they were slim in the first place).

Afterwards, Cary goes for a walk outside.

A formidable, familiar SUV pulls up next to him. Bishop beckons him over, and they talk. Bishop states simply that the trial is over. Cary doesn't have a chance. He'll either go to prison for 4 years, or they will drag it out, but he will still be convicted and sentenced to the 15 years. Bishop offers an alternative for Cary's expressed loyalty: he could disappear, and work for Bishop overseas, in Barcelona, Spain. Cary simply says "I can't do that." He gets out of the SUV and walks back to the F/A/L offices.

"It all comes crashing down."

Cary waits at the F/A/L offices... His final offer from Geneva Pine is 4 years. His final offer from Lemond Bishop is have him elope to Spain and be in Bishop's pocket for the rest of his life. Kalinda has no other moves left at her disposal. Alicia makes an appearance after stamping out her campaign crisis, and tries to prompt Cary to fight the charges. But Cary is done fighting. Even Bishop said there was no chance Cary was getting off. The court wants him too bad. The trial was never going to work in his favor. Aside from the effects of the disparate situations Geneva Pine, Richard Cuesta, the impaired jury member, and Bishop's exercise of control had on the case, Castro was getting him one way or another. 

Alicia and Cary hug each other as he makes his decision to plead guilty for a shorter sentence. Alicia is close to sobbing, but Cary seems past the point of numb at this point.

The next day in court, Cary stands and states he wishes to plead guilty to the charges. End scene.

"I think I'm angry."

We get so much of the posturing and the bravado candidates put on to "effect change" during their proposed term in office in the S.A. races. We have seen countless A.S.A.'s, A.U.S.A's, D.S.A's and everyone in between demonstrate their intentions through action in the Cook County courthouse:

We've seen Glenn Childs in his backhanded plays of power. We've seen Wendy Scott-Carr's teeth bared in her attempts to nail her targets to the wall. We've seen Peter's tone deaf, maladroit attempt at his second, less "compromised" stint in the S.A.'s office. And now we have seen James Castro's outright villainous final act in his position. The Cook County Courthouse is fraught with corruption, moreso than ever before. In the wake of real life violent and tumultuous incidents throughout the country between civilians and seemingly increasingly militant governing forces, The Good Wife has completely brought everything full circle.

Each season of the show has had some form of corruption nose its way into things, turning the law into a crutch for those in public seats of power against their opposition (which is mostly in the form of main characters, like Alicia, Peter, or Will...) and this time they really outdid themselves with this trial. Good job, Castro. I can't wait to see that the first scene of 6.11 is Alicia stabbing Castro in the guts and watching him bleed out. (Hey, a guy can dream, right?)

Sidenotes:

- ***If Alicia got the package of pictures from Finn, and Kalinda is the one who delivers them to Bishop... Why is there no 10-second meet-up between Alicia and Kalinda? Why is it so hard for these characters to actually have a real scene together!? I'm over this strange issue, they need to bridge the gap there before Archie Panjabi leaves.

- Another episode where simply everyone killed it! Everyone from Cary in his darkest hour yet, to Marissa, and Judge Cuesta all did a fantastic job. I am so happy with the people they have on hand for this show!

- After Cary worked so hard to work on his testimony in the mock trial, why didn't he act as his own witness? He looked incredibly sympathetic sitting at the defendant's table...

- Anyone else see that Lemond Bishop had not 1...not 2...but 3 containers of mayonnaise in his fridge? This man is terrifying, and also apparently enjoys a good sandwich.

- As a former fan of the recurring character Geneva Pine, did anyone else feel like her sleeping with a detective/witness was completely out of character for her? I am having flashbacks to her being involved in the Jeffrey Grant bogus arrest last season... My infallible Geneva Pine now seems to be worse than what she used to berate Cary for when he was in the S.A.'s office...

- Still, Renee Elise Goldsberry always brings her A-game to the small but vital role of Geneva Pine.

- Somehow it was so refreshing to see Jackie in her small appearance at Grace's school

- Johnny and Eli fighting over campaign decision-making was so fun to see, and Marissa is the perfect foil for her father's bluster

- Joke or no Joke, Alicia in the past has totally played the role of the mama grizzly bear. However, this season it seems like she's further removed from her children than ever before. It's possible we're just not seeing it in the show as it's out of the limited scope of the trial and the campaign... 

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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