What is happening?
It is as if my favorite show has bumped its head and is suffering from a temporary case of amnesia.
I know Alicia has been hanging out in the grey area and making morally questionable decisions, but would Alicia, who has just had to rebuild her career from an election scandal, really bury evidence just because Louis Canning told her to? I don’t think so. (And weren’t they trying to steal clients from Louis Canning just last week?)
And would Alicia, who had to endure being humiliated by her husband’s infidelities, so blatantly taunt Eli with the idea that she may sleep with Jason? And for that matter, shouldn’t Eli have given Alicia the speech about not touching another man in public a LONG time ago?
I’ll admit, I laughed out loud when Alicia said, “You’re telling me when I sleep with Jason you’d rather I keep it private?” But the line sacrificed character integrity for a giggle. I don’t think this was Alicia being angry that Eli would even speak to her about her private life. I think this was Alicia pouting like a petulant child because she can’t have what she wants. Again, I ask: what exactly did she think was going to happen when Peter ran for President?
And don’t even get me started on Cary flirting with Lucca. It seems like pure laziness on the show’s part, that Cary would go for the character who is so obviously Kalinda’s replacement. I am more hoping he would romance Monica Timmons, who he seems to have a lot more chemistry with.
The case brought back The Good Wife’s favorite client, ChumHum. But no Neil Gross. Now Piper’s brother from Orange is the New Black is in charge, which just seems wrong. ChumHum has an app that tells people the dangerous neighborhoods to avoid and hides the businesses in those neighborhoods. The neighborhoods the app tells people to avoid are primarily poor and African-American. The episode exposed the institutional racism that exists in corporate America, especially in tech companies. The primarily white, male workforce members of Chum Hum casually e-mail racists jokes back and forth to each other, and don’t code their software to recognize an African American woman. But still “Discovery” didn’t explore the topic as thoughtfully as I would have liked, or as thoughtfully as I would have expected from The Good Wife.
The big reveal of the episode is that Jason is investigating Alicia, which probably means someone hired him to? I think I’m supposed to be much more interested in this than I actually am. And isn’t Alicia’s past, for the most part, very out there? She ran for office. What is Jason finding that we don’t know? I know I’ve said this before, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s smoldering—while very sexy—doesn’t really count as character development.
All in all, a disappointing episode. But at least Diane still looked fabulous.
Stray observations:
What’s up with Eli’s revenge plan? Is he hoping Alicia can be the candidate to run against Peter? Because then he’s really playing the loooong game.
Is this the first time we’ve actually seen the “Lockhart, Agos & Lee” sign? I’m glad to have the name of the firm confirmed.
“What an honor. My parents would be so proud.” Cush Jumbo is great at delivering lines like this.
Amy Amatangelo is a Boston-based freelance writer, a member of the Television Critics Association and a regular contributor to Paste. She wasn’t allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter or her blog.