I really hope this show can finally dispense with the love triangle subplot that has been going on with Will, Alicia, and Peter now. Last season’s cliffhanger (that really wasn’t a cliffhanger) ended not with Alicia meeting Will at her apartment, but meeting Cary to discuss their new work arrangement. And I think that’s the way to go forward with this series.

There is already too much going on with the cases Lockhart-Gardner takes on and the political stuff now at the governor’s mansion with Peter to devote much time to advancing a subplot that admittedly had been spinning its wheels since the third season. Instead, there’s great tension to be mined in how Alicia is going to navigate her continuing work with Lockhart-Gardner while starting her own firm with Cary under the noses of the senior partners. The rest of it is just gravy.

The intrigue within the firm is really what holds the episode together. That Cary and Alicia were able to accomplish all of the in-roads in starting up their fledgling firm without the senior partners noticing is amazing enough. There’s a sense now that any sort of leak could screw up their whole plan. In this increasingly digital age, it is difficult to keep any sort of sensitive information a secret for very long. So the worm David Lee is of course the first to suspect that something is up.

Alicia is able to keep a brave face (with an amusing drawing of a happy face in her hand no less) when facing the partners but it’s going to come out eventually. It’s going to hurt so she needs to let them know quickly. Her internal conflict arises because this episode’s case demonstrates just how well Will, Alicia, and Diane work together as a team. The initial outcome looked like they were going to lose the case, which I think would be welcome given the darkness that is slowly creeping into the office, but it turns around due to Will’s sharp intelligence and improvisational skills.

Why would Alicia break up something that works? The firm finally has all of its business in line. They aren’t being pursued by creditors or in danger of losing clients or office space for the first time in a long time. At the same time, Alicia does seem at a point in her career where branching out would be a good thing for her. Her husband is now the governor of Illinois. She would only be losing her friendships with Diane and Will in the process. She has to ask herself how much that is worth to her. I thought the quiet moment where Alicia begged for Will not to hate her for making the decision to leave was the best part of the episode. There’s pain behind that statement and the longer she drags the secret out, the more it’s going to put a wedge between them.

She at least has husband Peter to fall back on, though there is some shuffling of the deck on that front as well. Peter and Eli have to set up their staff now that Peter is governor. The first task seems like a prudent one: Hire an ethics lawyer to ensure that Peter’s transition to governor as well as his governing is not prone to attacks from his enemies. It’s unfortunate that the ethics lawyer is an attractive woman (Melissa George) since the episode implies that Peter can’t help himself but be instantly attracted to her. This has now moved into the realm of established patterns of behavior with him. Given his past transgressions with the prostitute (that kicked off the series) and Kalinda, both of which did large amounts of damage to his marriage, it would be understandable that Eli give Marilyn a “lateral promotion” within the staff.

I don’t think this is the last we’ve seen of her. She’ll likely pop up at the most inopportune time, probably to save Peter from some future ethical conundrum or a public relations disaster, which is right in line with how this show deploys its recurring guest stars. It’s never dull times with the Florrick family, and I haven’t even mentioned the subplot with Grace being put on a list of “hot politicians’ daughters.” It may end up being a silly diversion that the show comes back to from time to time, but it could also blow up into a firestorm of controversy the governor of Illinois can ill afford right now. We don’t know for now, but it’s something to look out for as things progress. This is a good start to the season.

John Keegan is Editor-in-Chief for Critical Myth, a partner site of SciFi Vision. Henry Tran is Critical Myth's reviewer for The Good Wife.