Finally.
I’ve been saying for months that it makes no sense that Peter thinks he can run for President and not live with Alicia. This is the social media age. It would be so easy for people to find out that they haven’t lived together—or shared a bed—for years. Obviously the press is starting to get suspicious and Vice is about to break a story, so Peter comes to Chicago and stays in Alicia’s apartment, which leads to a little afternoon delight. “Want to get laid?” Alicia asks Peter, who immediately starts taking off his clothes. When he is about to take a call from a potential donor, Alicia asks him, “Which do you want more?” Peter chooses sex over money. The Peter we know chooses sex over just about everything. The man is consistent.
We’ve seen this behavior in Alicia before. She used to use Peter when she was sexually frustrated by not being able to act on her feelings towards Will (as always, a moment of silence for Will). However Alicia feels about Peter emotionally, at a base level, she’s attracted to him and, as she said, it’s easier now that she truly doesn’t care about him. “It’s always sexier not to care,” she tells Peter. A flummoxed Eli (my favorite kind of Eli) who accidentally walks in on them, asks Alicia if she is being safe. Eli knows what Peter has been up to and Alicia does too. In general I don’t think Alicia and Peter can keep this charade going. They are going to have to move in together.
As the saying goes, the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s apathy. Alicia appears to be completely apathetic towards Peter. She actually seems not to care about a lot of things these days, which is more than a little concerning.
Vanessa Williams (always a welcome TV presence) began her guest star stint as Courtney Paige, a businesswoman with a lot of money and also a possible romantic interest for Eli. The best scene of the night came when Jackie and Howard arrived at Alicia’s apartment to announce their engagement, to a horrified Peter and a very amused Alicia. Then Jackie and Howard tossed out several blatantly racist comments (“I like Peter’s African American friends”) while Eli seethed.
Alicia has her seat on the Election Board and votes “no” on the first vote as she promised Frank Landau she would, only to have Craig Hallman, another board member, accuse her of being in Landau’s pocket (which she is). Turns out the vote is whether to renew the contract with the current voting machine company or go with a new company. Last week we learned that Peter had tampered with the voting machines to swing the vote Alicia’s way. (Peter is a corrupt politician, to the very end). Alicia still doesn’t know that, but she does know something is up with Frank. Jason discovers Frank’s wife has a stake in the voting machine company. Craig brings the vote up again at the next board meeting and the episode ends with both men looking to Alicia to vote the way they want her to.
Meanwhile, Jason and Alicia are flirting big time. She offers him a frozen taco dinner and the two look like they just might consummate their relationship when Peter arrives. Jason is all “It’s an honor to meet you sir. You’ve been a great Governor,” which makes you kind of wonder what he thinks the deal between Alicia and Peter is.
The case of the week involved a driverless car that crashed and paralyzed someone. But really, it was a way to have Cary, Diane, Louis Canning, Lucca and Alicia all in one room. These cases are starting to have that “of all the law firms in this town you walked into mine” feeling. Does it make sense that all these players would continually face each other in court? Although, I have to admit I did appreciate Lucca’s outsider perspective on the whole thing.
This drama series is known for leaving a lot of dangling plot points. This season, simmering in the background, we now have the NSA listening in on Alicia’s conversations (again), Lockart/Agos racist hiring practices revealed, and Peter’s ongoing corruption. But I’m still kind of waiting for the seventh season of The Good Wife to take off. How about you?
Stray Observations:
You don’t think the show is gearing up for an Alicia drinking problem story line do you? I’m so not up for that, but Alicia has been drinking A LOT.
You have to love network TV sex scenes, which found Alicia taking off all her clothes except for her her bra.
I cannot stand it when a TV show sacrifices character integrity for plot. I simply don’t believe that Eli wouldn’t know exactly when Grace’s birthday is.
Loved the call back to the “watch it” conversation between Alicia and Louis in the season premiere.
Robots are going to take over the world!
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.