The Good Wife

I half expected Reese from Person of Interest to walk by the NSA analysts’ office as they were working. The show isn’t going to stop its obsession with electronics so I doubt this will be the last time we see the NSA. The other subplots make for suitable compensation when a less-than-compelling case comes up, and with a busy show like this, episodes are typically full of those things.

I should say that I personally found the case Lockhart-Gardner takes up here to be workmanlike. It’s not a particularly glamorous subject matter: The analysts monitor all calls to and from Alicia due to Lockhart-Gardner’s role in the Danny Marwat case from all the way back in the third season. Listening to her phone calls is routine for the Agency until it’s determined by Gross’ legal team that they should sue the Agency for some kind of gag order placed on user searches in Chumhum. Or something like that. The legalese escapes me. But the impression I got from how Alicia and company worked the case was that even they’re unsure of how it’s going to work out. The firm seems to delight in operating in these legal and moral gray areas that come with facing off against government bureaucracy.

There’s something very uncomfortable with how easily the NSA can access any and all of the phone calls going from Alicia or Diane or Will. They don’t care so much about personal content in the calls, which is mildly amusing because they are missing the context for say, why Alicia is so evasive when talking to her mother about her new firm with Cary for example, but their bosses make unilateral decisions on the level of surveillance without any input or permission from the parties involved. The Edward Snowden affair has put a scare into this level of government, so much so that even as Gross and his legal team score a small victory here (which was nicely played in an understated manner), they might regret taking them on in the long run.

I know it’s only the second episode of the season, but I’m worried about how long the writers are choosing to drag out Alicia and Cary’s split from Lockhart-Gardner. The suspicious looks from David Lee, the acknowledgement that the fourth-year associates are engaging in secretive behavior, and now Lee’s handling of Veronica’s assets that put him all too close to the finances of Florrick-Agos all but flash a warning signal aimed directly at Alicia. This is going to come out, sooner or later, and if it’s sooner, they can minimize the damage. Getting ChumHum to come along is a crucial roadblock to the firm getting started but I doubt it’s a huge obstacle. Cutting the cord with Diane and Will is that big one, and the longer Alicia stays away from this, the more hatred it is going to engender.

The cutting of the cord plays ironically in this episode when Diane is asked to basically trash Will in order to get her judgeship. She stands tall with Will at first because they started the firm together. She can’t bring herself to do it, even when the reporter keeps egging her on. This isn’t going to end well. Diane’s move forces Peter to strong-arm the State Supreme Court Chief Justice who objects to Diane’s judgeship in another classic backroom deal. Without the ethics lawyer to deal with, no one can stop Peter from doing this. Diane changes her mind at the end, though, probably because her career ambition came calling and it overrid her sense of loyalty to Will. Things are setting up for Will to take the brunt of all the bad news from the two women he’s closest with. I suspect he isn’t going to be as upset with Diane’s news (he had, in fact, encouraged the judgeship appointment last season) as he will be with Alicia’s bit. Those fireworks are much more interesting than going with this delayed gratification tactic.

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.