This week’s episode took us to a place we’ve always wanted to go—inside the mind of Elsbeth Tascioni. So. Much. Epic. And clowns, and kittens, and penguins.
Carrie Preston as Elsbeth is always incredible and, if you’re like me, you make a special point to tune in to the show live when she’s making an appearance. I mentioned last week that The Good Wife is on a feminist mission, and we definitely saw more of that this week. Alicia’s client was suing, as she believed she was fired from her job as CEO for being a woman (a tough-as-nails woman). But this episode also offers an interesting commentary on learning differences. We see how someone like Elsbeth, under other circumstances, might be written off as crazy or, simply, as someone suffering from ADD. But on The Good Wife she’s brilliant, and a formidable opponent in the courtroom. This is important, and I love the message here.
The sexism lawsuit didn’t quite reel me in, although I did love watching Alicia and Elsbeth go at it in that very quiet way (nice move, bringing those distracting pamphlets, Alicia). The other issues of the episode were the malware ransom catastrophe, and Finn-gate. Here’s the problem with the ransom storyline—which was mostly fun. I think we all know Diane would never, ever, ever in the history of everdom have clicked on that questionable link. This woman is so smart and calculating and—most importantly—suspicious. That move was out of character for her, but clearly, she had to be the one to click it, so that the code could go to her old Lockhart/Gardner e-mail address. And that needed to happen so that we could have this new, interesting storyline where Diane refuses to hand over the lease, and maybe Florrick/Agos/Lockhart makes an epic move?!
This also needed to happen so we could see David Lee, and hear him say “when monkeys fly out of my butt.” #ThatWasCrass
I think we all loved watching Kalinda chase down the Russian hackers, but damn Kalinda! Your pimp game is so crazy right now, methinks Snoop Dogg and Too $hort will be calling you to find out how the game works. Also, please don’t break Cary’s heart, because we will probably have beef then. (I loved that post-coital scene where the agent tried to have “intimate chat time” with Kalinda. Girl, please. This is Kalinda. Kalinda don’t care about your coming out narrative.)
In the end, Kalinda saves the day by hacking the hacker, and putting Pussy Riot material onto his computer (this show is the greatest), forcing him to restore the hardware (I don’t know tech talk—the computers came back on, is what I mean). And, in terms of Finn-Gate, we saw things come to a head when Alicia realized that Finn was really on her side. Hell, he was more supportive than Peter was being. Seeing Alicia and Peter go at it was incredible. It felt so good to hear her say that, if she could stand by him and play Good Wife when he was in the midst of a prostitution scandal, he could stand by her for this. And he did. Because, as Alicia said, he needs her too. But I would also like to think that Peter knew that it was the right thing to do for Alicia, the person (not just Alicia, the State’s Attorney candidate). I love, though, how this didn’t work out perfectly in the end. The media still used that awful side-by-side shot—Alicia, the Good Wife scorned remains a legacy.
The biggest issue with this episode is that it comes after last week’s Greatest Television Episode Ever, and so, through no fault of its own, it pales in comparison. What are you gonna do? Solange is great, but she doesn’t want come on stage after Beyoncé. (I love Solange, BTW… prefer her, even, so this is a bad comparison.)
Either way, I can’t wait for next week, because The Good Wife (and the feminist movement therein) is killing the TV drama game right now. To be brilliant and entertaining, and political is no small feat. Plus I need to see if Cary will take his shirt off again (I know, I’m sexist).
Stray Observations:
“This is the beginning of a long line of disgraceful acts.” Gonna need more Jonathan Elfman.
That poor old guy, unknowingly laundering money. Every person over 65 watching this episode feels SO vindicated in their refusal to learn the interweb.
The other Cary is being such a d-bag to Cary Agos. Bringing up the bail money again? Me no likey.
“You are the new power couple from Obama’s home state.”—Eli (No pressure.)
That ransom customer service line was everything. I really wanted to hear Diane speaking with the supervisor.
“I don’t like that you’re corrupt.” Cannot wait to see where the storyline with Josh Perotti and Elsbeth is going. Elsbeth will, presumably be around, as it looks like she’ll be working with Alicia to resolve this case.
Favorite Quote of the Episode: “I don’t even like penguins! Penguins! They have nothing to do with this!” (Elsbeth, FTW.)
Shannon M. Houston is Assistant TV Editor at Paste, and a New York-based freelance writer with probably more babies than you. You can follow her on Twitter.