7.07 - "Driven"
This week on The Good Wife, Alicia lets loose while on a convoluted 3-way case that involves a self-driving car, Louis Canning, and frozen mini tacos.
"Fuzzy Driving..."
In a bit of a strange alternate-reality situation, we find Louis Canning representing the victim of a strange car accident, suing a big-time tech company, represented by Lockhart, Agos, & Lee. When Diane and Cary present Canning with resistance with the smarmy CEO of the tech giant, Canning decides to create instability in their case by breaking case into two by getting the employee who was behind the wheel at the time of the accident to turn on his company and get his own representation...with Alicia Florrick. In a perfectly calculated move, he was able to completely destabilize Diane and Cary in the depositions. Alicia and Lucca representing the driver brought a new dimension to the case, as they didn't know exactly how to oppose her. At some point, Diane points out that they're mistakenly treating Alicia as if she was an enemy, when really she's just a freelancer.
Then, Diane and Cary pulled in the original developer of the technology behind the self-driving car, who was shoved out of the picture. His position was that it could only have been human error that led to the car not stopping correctly at the stop sign. This, along with the 2-part defense and Alicia thrown into the mix led to some fun moments on the case, as 2 of the 3 sides would gang up on the 3rd one.
In a very convenient twist, it turned out Jason recognized the subject matter expert from a TED talk he'd seen at some point. Alicia was able to muddy his credibility when she brought his opinions up on Artificial Intelligence. As it turns out, he was completely convinced at some point, A.I. would take over and have no use for humans in the future. Furthermore, in an effort to have the smart car "learn" how to properly drive, it was programmed to be "fuzzy" or mimic some of the actions a human driver would make, in order to not get stuck in a feedback loop at stop signs. This made the whole argument of the "logic" of the car being too smart to outright hit someone unlike a human fall a bit flat. Still, it wasn't enough to really undercut his testimony, so they went on a mock-up test ride to recreate the situation that caused the crash. Dr. Dudewitz (what a name) still held onto the position that the car couldn't have been responsible, because it just wasn't possible that the self-driving car would hit someone at a stop sign. He then had a really weird moment of clarity when he realized it was other employees at the company that probably hacked the car in an effort to mess with the driver. So, in the end, it was human error, and really really terrible human judgment that led to the woman being crippled in a car accident.
"Wanna get laid?"
In the midst of the case, Alicia and Jason find themselves alone in the office/Alicia's apartment (has there ever been more of a blur between business and personal on this show?). Alicia asks very awkwardly in the middle of some steamy eye-fucking (no but really, just stare at each other a little longer, geez) Alicia throws a waiver of liability at Jason, citing how small of a firm they are, and how it would go towards her insurance. He rebuffs her, quickly asking "and what if I don't?" and then states that he doesn't like signing things, which somewhat catches Alicia off guard. Before she can compose herself and give a better answer than "what if you fall on my stairs" (what stairs???) he signs it anyway.
They gaze at each other, practically about to set the background on fire when Alicia asks if he'd like to stay for dinner. She offers pizza, which she doesn't have...then mini tacos, when lo and behold, Peter Florrick with his entourage is at the door. Peter and Jason meet, and Jason scoots out the door. Alicia's left feeling hot and heavy, of course with her tequila-based drinks, which is a noteworthy step up from the wine of earlier seasons. Because of this, Alicia later decides to hit up Peter for a hookup, in a funny scene that intersects with Eli's story, when he walks in on them after the fun... Alicia assures Peter that he doesn't have to worry about courting her anymore, or making efforts to keep up with her. She claims sex is sexier when you don't care. The fun new side of Alicia at that moment, to me, became a slightly more desperate, cynical Alicia, who may not be acting in her own best interests after all. But, who can blame her for wanting to consolidate her feelings like that given the show's history of running all over her as she tries to do the objective right thing?
"The Birthday Party!"
Of course in the middle of the faux birthday party, Jackie and Howard Lyman crash the party, and spit out a very quick announcement: they're engaged to be wed. Peter calls his mother insane, and Alicia, with her new attitude, just heartily laughs in response. Even after the awkwardness of the party (I got the sense the whole time that Courtney either knew or suspected it was all put-on and it didn't bother her?) Courtney claimed that she found the Florricks boring. In this case, that's what she was looking for the whole time, and she had decided to back Peter. Now, of course this is a win for now, but just like Maddie Heyward in season 4, this could go a different direction at any point... So we'll see how that turns out.
"I would like you to speak for yourself!"
"Driven" started and ended with the same plot thread: Alicia's new position on the same committee that voted to have her removed from contention as a State's Attorney just a few months prior (yeah, that's totally realistic...and those people in that room are TOTALLY the same actors we saw in 6x19). In an effort to properly show Alicia in her latest 'form' for lack of a better term, we find her placed in a morally gray situation immediately. She's only on the committee to eventually make a fool out of Frank Landau, but before she can do that, she's forced to vote with him on an unspecified item that would be first on the docket. He asks her to vote against finding a new vendor for the voting machines, the same voting machines that have been compromised in probably all the elections this show has ever had. This is very personal to Alicia, as the tampering with the machines in her election just recently ruined her otherwise successful campaign. She votes with Landau, much to the chagrin of another member of the committee, Mr. Craig Hallman. After the vote takes place, he approaches her, calling her out as Landau's plant on the committee in an effort to continue his corrupted influence in elections.
Now, it's not much to call Frank Landau corrupt, as he is probably the most outright corrupt and gross politician in the history of this show, (Yeah, he's right up there with James Castro, Glen Childs, and Wendy Scott-Carr, but he's worse because he's survived the entirety of the show much like a cockroach) but Alicia still wanted to look into the situation herself, when Hallman told her he was bringing up the vote again. He stated that she should vote with him, and against Landau. He sweetened the pot by promising a vote to have her replace Landau as the leader of the committee after the vote.
She asks Jason, in addition to his 4 billable hours on the smart car case, to look into how Frank Landau could be tied to the vendor company. Of course, he comes up with a tie through his wife being a stakeholder in KLT. However, I was expecting that he'd stumble across what Schakowsky got on Peter and Landau, so for now, it seems that Peter's involvement has still not made its way to the light.
When Hallman told Landau there would be a second vote, Landau called Alicia out for being swayed by Hallman, when Hallman himself had a stake in the replacement firm... So it was literally a personal problem between two corrupt politicians trying to get their company in on the upcoming Presidential election and all the money that would come out of that. In the final scene, they both argue on behalf of her that she should speak up, and vote one way or another (even when it was established she wasn't really required to vote at all) while it's clear they're both pushing their own agendas. The scene cuts to black before Alicia decides, and we're all left with a cliffhanger.
The fun thing about this whole episode was how Alicia approached things. In seasons 1-6, Alicia would've been worrying herself half to death over the ethics or moral implications of her decisions, where in "Driven" she acts even more pragmatic than she's ever been, while also looking to not be so doom-and-gloom all the time. She's the "watch it" girl now that Canning mentioned in 7x01, and that may or may not go well for her. In the past, as soon as she's allowed herself to have fun, or she's become sure of herself, she's had almost everything taken away from her. Hopefully that won't exactly happen again this time?
Now, it's not much to call Frank Landau corrupt, as he is probably the most outright corrupt and gross politician in the history of this show, (Yeah, he's right up there with James Castro, Glen Childs, and Wendy Scott-Carr, but he's worse because he's survived the entirety of the show much like a cockroach) but Alicia still wanted to look into the situation herself, when Hallman told her he was bringing up the vote again. He stated that she should vote with him, and against Landau. He sweetened the pot by promising a vote to have her replace Landau as the leader of the committee after the vote.
She asks Jason, in addition to his 4 billable hours on the smart car case, to look into how Frank Landau could be tied to the vendor company. Of course, he comes up with a tie through his wife being a stakeholder in KLT. However, I was expecting that he'd stumble across what Schakowsky got on Peter and Landau, so for now, it seems that Peter's involvement has still not made its way to the light.
When Hallman told Landau there would be a second vote, Landau called Alicia out for being swayed by Hallman, when Hallman himself had a stake in the replacement firm... So it was literally a personal problem between two corrupt politicians trying to get their company in on the upcoming Presidential election and all the money that would come out of that. In the final scene, they both argue on behalf of her that she should speak up, and vote one way or another (even when it was established she wasn't really required to vote at all) while it's clear they're both pushing their own agendas. The scene cuts to black before Alicia decides, and we're all left with a cliffhanger.
The fun thing about this whole episode was how Alicia approached things. In seasons 1-6, Alicia would've been worrying herself half to death over the ethics or moral implications of her decisions, where in "Driven" she acts even more pragmatic than she's ever been, while also looking to not be so doom-and-gloom all the time. She's the "watch it" girl now that Canning mentioned in 7x01, and that may or may not go well for her. In the past, as soon as she's allowed herself to have fun, or she's become sure of herself, she's had almost everything taken away from her. Hopefully that won't exactly happen again this time?
Sidenotes:
- The light/comedic feel was back this episode.
- The light/comedic feel was back this episode.
- Poor Diane and Cary... At least they were kind of present for the case. They seem to lose more when Alicia isn't working with them. I guess somehow that firm can solely subsist on David Lee's cases in Family Law, because after all the back and forth regarding losing clients, etc. when they were still winning cases, I can't imagine they're very profitable now.
- Who the hell would hack a car to mess with a friend? Hey, let's take something that needs to work correctly in a dangerous situation and fuck around with our friend !? GREAT IDEA!
- When Jason thoughtfully picked up the jacket off the floor... Is he trying really hard, or is it just effortless to be that swoon-worthy? No wonder Alicia had to hit up Peter ASAP.
- "Would you like........." *eyes just shooting into each others' faces*
my God, Alicia...
- "I have mini tacos...?" This whole scene was ridiculous, I was blushing for them. Sheesh.
- So, did they just table the whole situation with that summer intern who was making noise last week? Was that a one-off thing, or will she be back?
- Sorry for the lack of decent images in my reviews the last couple of weeks. I typically like to pull screenshots from the promo material they have on the official youtube channel, but after episodes air they're immediately deleting or hiding videos and replacing them with sneak peeks from the next week's episodes... It's driving me crazy.
- Who the hell would hack a car to mess with a friend? Hey, let's take something that needs to work correctly in a dangerous situation and fuck around with our friend !? GREAT IDEA!
- When Jason thoughtfully picked up the jacket off the floor... Is he trying really hard, or is it just effortless to be that swoon-worthy? No wonder Alicia had to hit up Peter ASAP.
- "Would you like........." *eyes just shooting into each others' faces*
my God, Alicia...
- "I have mini tacos...?" This whole scene was ridiculous, I was blushing for them. Sheesh.
- So, did they just table the whole situation with that summer intern who was making noise last week? Was that a one-off thing, or will she be back?
- Sorry for the lack of decent images in my reviews the last couple of weeks. I typically like to pull screenshots from the promo material they have on the official youtube channel, but after episodes air they're immediately deleting or hiding videos and replacing them with sneak peeks from the next week's episodes... It's driving me crazy.
What did you think of this week's episode? Join in on the discussion below in the comments!
