BWW Recap: 50 Shades of Dark on THE GOOD WIFE; Laura Benanti Guests

THE GOOD WIFE came back to us tonight - in more ways than one. After an interminably long break, season 6 finally returned, bringing with it a renewed focus on the original and best arc of the show - the evolution of Alicia Florrick. And the ethical slide she's been scrambling up and down since the day her husband's first scandal hit the news.

Dark Money was all about ethics, in fact. How you maintain them, how you conquer them. How you negotiate them, how you divide them - and with whom. The episode began with the ridiculous - a melodramatic re-enactment of Colin Sweeney murdering one of his wives, and ended with the sublime - a conflicted Alicia breaking down in her daughter's arms as she realised just what she's losing to win. It wasn't a great episode, nor was it a bad one. It was simply familiar - bringing back Dylan Baker as the almost-lovable Sweeney, and bringing back the inner conflict of our almost-Saint Alicia. The focus also shifted back to the courtroom, with an explicit acknowledgement of how much Alicia the lawyer is missed, now that the focus is on Alicia the politician. Sweeney wanted his favourite lawyer back - and there are a few viewers that may agree with his sentiments ...

The luckiest murderer on the planet

Sweeney came back with his delicious wife Renata (Laura Benanti clearly relishing her role) to sue for defamation after a TV show dramatized the first murder he was acquitted of (I think it was the first murder - Sweeney is kind of prolific). Cary and Diane take on the case, but Sweeney is pining for Alicia the whole time and rightly so, because she may be open in her dislike for him, but she also understands him, and tends to be the one to get him off (no pun intended, but we are talking about Sweeney here).

This Sweeney case is entertaining enough, giving us Dylan Baker in various incarnations of his emmy-nominated character, and providing another chance for a Sweeney woman to double-cross her man. In Sweeney-world, it would seem it's either kill or be killed - and nothing seems to please our happy murderer more than loving a woman as unethical as he is. When Renata is not coolly appraising her chances with Alicia's Body Woman (the cookie-loving, milk-pushing, army-trained Marissa) she's busy leaking evidence to the other side. This of course only makes Sweeney love her more, and the two end up back in each other's good books at the end of the day, after Alicia saves said day - a resolution we often see when Sweeney comes on the scene.

Bonus points to the case of the week for getting to see Diane back in action. It made me miss Will, though. I loved seeing him go into his lawyer dance.

Someone who doesn't look like a bodyguard

And here we come to the ongoing ethical dilemma of Kalinda Sharma, and her increasing closeness to Lemond Bishop. Bishop is as imposing as ever, and he's definitely ready to call in that favor Kalinda owes him. But the writers were playing with us a little tonight, don't you think? Every time the set-up led us to believe Kalinda was in danger - meeting Bishop on a dark, stormy night, or not giving him intel he had requested, we get a different side of Bishop than what we were expecting.

That favor he wants? It's playing minder to his son, Dylan. His one good thing. At first there is some relief in finding out how Bishop wants to use Kalinda, but looking after a drug lord's kid - looking after any kid - turns out to be as dangerous an assignment as ever. Dylan is being bullied at school, and he's also starting to wonder just how involved his dad was in the death of his mother. Kalinda might not like kids, but she instinctively protects Dylan, and his request to keep what they discuss a secret.

When Bishop discovers just how far the bullying of his son has gone, Kalinda is faced with protecting the young perpetrator's identity, too. She needn't have worried - in the end, Bishop calls the other kid's dad, not a hitman - but she's getting deeper and deeper into a world of nerve and consequence, and it's going to take a lot more than a shared whiskey for Kalinda to trust the motives of her new boss.

As we await the reveal on Archie Panjabi's exit from the show, we are right there with her.

But I know this.

In an episode full of caricature, I'll admit I still gasped at Ed Asner's Democratic Mega Donor, Guy Redmayne. I think he might be my worst villain in the six years of our show. The guy offering up a million bucks of dark money to the right candidate also freely offers his sexist, homophobic personality to both Alicia, and her opponent, the much-maligned Frank Prady.

Alicia has always reigned in her team when it comes to Prady - in particular when his sexuality is used as a campaign weapon. Confronted with evidence that her supporters initiated false flag robo-calls to conservative neighbourhoods, where Prady's support of gay rights was essentially lampooned, Alicia was furious. But something happens when Guy Redmayne unleashes his vile torrent of homophobic philosophies - after saying the dark money is hers for the taking. Alicia looks disgusted - but she doesn't say anything. She doesn't pull Redmayne up, and she didn't turn down his offer of support, either. Prady, on the other hand, stands up and walks away when Redmayne turns his attention to all of the awful things he'd like to do to Alicia Florrick. Prady says he will not denigrate his opponent. Alicia believes she has the same moral code, but tonight she lets someone else do the denigrating for her.

Both vilification scenes were horrible to watch and worse to listen to, but they stand as important landmarks in the journey of Alicia Florrick. There is a difference between owning it, and selling out your beliefs to get what you need. Grace comforts her mother at the end of the episode, telling Alicia she's the best person she knows. But Alicia knows. She knows what she's taking, and what she's giving up when she aligns herself with creeps like Guy Redmayne. She knows what she loses when she helps murderers like Sweeney win yet again, and she knows that her ethical compunctions are far from pronounced these days.

The evolution of Alicia Florrick continues - but now she knows exactly what she is sacrificing along the way.

What did you think of Dark Money? Can you believe we don't have to wait more than a week for the next instalment? THE GOOD WIFE doesn't always make it easy on us - but at least we get next week ...

Photo Credit: CBS

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