It Still Stings: When The Good Wife‘s Finn and Alicia’s “Will They?” Becomes a “Why Won’t They?”
Will they? They won't.
Photo Courtesy of CBS
Editor’s Note: TV moves on, but we haven’t. In our new feature series It Still Stings, we relive emotional TV moments that we just can’t get over. You know the ones, where months, years, or even decades later, it still provokes a reaction? We’re here for you. We rant because we love. Or, once loved. And watch out! There will be spoilers:
The Good Wife kept a lot of secrets. Whatever was going on between Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi that kept them from filming in-person scenes together will hopefully fill a book once the people involved can figure a way out of their NDAs. Another well-kept secret was Josh Charles’ departure and the shocking death of his character Will in Season 5. As Amy Amatangelo wrote in her “It Still Stings,” Will’s death was one of the last times I was truly surprised by an event on television—I didn’t know Charles was leaving the show and apparently neither did anyone else. I never imagined Will wouldn’t survive that shooting until he didn’t. But the secret that keeps me up at night even years later is wondering why Finn (Matthew Goode) and Alicia (Julianna Margulies)—who had oodles of sexual tension—never got it on.
Finn Polmar made his first appearance on The Good Wife in the same episode Will was killed. Early on, his charm holds up next to Will as they banter and battle in the courtroom, but only Finn leaves alive. Introducing Finn at the same time they kill Alicia’s biggest love interest on the show is a brutal way to introduce a new hot love interest for Alicia, but that’s what he becomes. Alicia first speaks to Finn while he’s in the hospital recovering from his gunshot wound, and she asks him to tell her about Will’s last moments. Their soft “hi” as they great each other is tender and sad, a hint of things to come. (Maybe it’s only in hindsight I see chemistry in these first moments as well, but I swear it’s there.)
Over the next season, Finn and Alicia dance closer and closer to each other without ever actually consummating anything. They don’t even kiss. Instead, they speak in codes and intense glances. Their sexual tension becomes a fully formed third character in every scene with them. In one episode in Season 6, Alicia was having a rough time with her husband Peter (Chris Noth) while she was running for state’s attorney. She goes to Finn’s office late at night. “Do you want to talk?,” he asks her. “No, I don’t,” she said. He places his hand on top of hers—and I screamed at the TV. And then they get interrupted, and Alicia flees the scene.
Are you kidding me with this? She goes into his office late at night, confused and sad and wanting him. Their attraction has been building and building. They finally touch, alone, in the dark. And then she walks away.
The next day he goes to see her, this time in her office in the daytime. She says she wishes things were simpler and she always hated that these office walls were glass—presumably because if they weren’t she’d sweep the papers off her desk and they’d bang right then and there. But they don’t. (I yelled at the TV again.)
At some point in a will-they-won’t-they romance, the couple in question needs to actually do it. And I don’t necessarily mean it—having sex is one way to resolve the tension and the storyline, but they could also commit to each other, go on an actual date, or have a world-ending drag-out argument. Something, anything, needs to happen to recognize their journey and make all that pining worth it.
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