The Good Wife: “Trust Issues”

Do you remember the Lost episode where Nikki and Paulo were suddenly introduced, and we were supposed to believe they had been on the island the whole time?

That’s a little how I felt when suddenly Diane is confiding in Dean Levine-Wilkins (Taye Diggs). Who is this guy claiming to be an equity partner from the New York office, and why does Diane trust him? Once I got over my initial hesitation, Dean proved to be quite interesting. Not only is he willing to join Diane over at Florrick/Agos, but he’s convinced six department heads to join him. The offices of Florrick/Agos don’t have the space (despite the crazy renovations they’re undergoing), but as Diane puts it that’s a “high class problem.”

As Alicia works to get Cary out on bail, she also moves forward to bringing Diane into the firm, despite Cary’s objections. Cary votes “no” from jail but the motion passes 10 to 5. Ready for my fearless prediction? With Diane now over at Florrick/Agos (Florrick/Agos/Lockhart?), there’s no real great adversary left at Lockhart/Gardner (or whatever the firm will be called now). I love David Lee, but he’s not often a courtroom opponent (unless the show started strictly focusing on family law). Michael J. Fox isn’t a series regular, so I don’t know if we would see enough of Louis Canning to make him a consistently great foil for the firm. What if Cary jumps ship again and heads back over to his old stomping ground? Just a thought for your to ponder.

Kalinda tells Cary that she’s heard the tape of Cary advising Lemond Bishop’s men on how to move drugs and avoid arrest. Cary insists that he was only talking about hypothetical situations, and Bishop’s three men agree. They were discussing movie situations, not real life. But you have to wonder why Cary was discussing anything having to do with drugs with these men. Just so we never forget what a truly evil man Bishop is, he has one of his men killed. The only problem? The guy he has killed is not the criminal informant. Kalinda attempts to tell Bishop to stop killing the men who could help Cary, but Bishop wants Kalinda to tell him who the mole is first.

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Meanwhile Eli moves forward with his multi-faceted plan to get Alicia to run for State’s Attorney. Presidential advisor Valerie Jarrett appears as herself reaching out to Alicia encouraging her to run. Eli leaks a poll (that he totally denies orchestrating), which shows that 74% of the people polled would vote for Alicia. Alicia gets an offer for a loan of the bail money from real estate mogul Ernie Nolan. He’s not happy with the current State’s Attorney, and is looking for some quid pro quo once Alicia becomes the State’s Attorney. Alicia tells him she’s not running, and declines the bail money. But as Robin points out, the only reason she wouldn’t take the money is if she secretly wants to run. How many more episodes until Alicia agrees to run? Three? Four?

The bench of recurring characters on The Good Wife is so deep that three characters can return merely to serve as an interesting backdrop. Polly Draper is back as Lorraine Joy, the attorney who didn’t hire Alicia. And even though we don’t see John Benjamin Hickey, Neil Gross’ presence is strongly felt. His wife is in the midst of fending off a class action suit by the company’s coders. Which also leads to a reappearance of Patrick Edelstein (Jack Carpenter). The case is an entertaining diversion but mostly leads to the firm getting an advance of their Chum Hum money, and being able to spring Cary from jail.

I know it’s early in the season but I don’t know if it’s possible to have a better moment than Alicia hugging Cary when she finally sees him back at the office. “First time we’ve done this, isn’t it?” Cary says. “I think so,” Alicia replies, as I completely teared up. Alicia is a cutthroat business woman who will move forward on a merger while her partner is in jail. But it’s also clear that she deeply cares about Cary, and was worried about him.

So Cary is out of jail, but not out of trouble. I get the feeling his case could take up quite a bit of the season.

Other thoughts on “Trust Issues”:
•Does Kalinda work for Florrick/Agos now? That was one of Diane’s stipulations to joining the firm.
•Alicia’s grey suit with white check marks was a rare fashion misstep for the series.
•I love the juxtaposition of Lemond Bishop as a devoted soccer dad and cutthroat killer.
•Eli is such a good liar, it’s a little scary.
•Matt Czuchry has been phenomenal these past two episodes.
•Alicia really does need an office with a door.
•I’m waiting for the episode that entirely takes place in an elevator.

What did you think of this week’s episode of The Good Wife? Talk about it below.

Amy Amatangelo is a Boston-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to Paste. You can follow her on Twitter or her blog.

The Good Wife: “Trust Issues”

(Episode 6.02)