BWW Recap: The Law Gets Good Again on THE GOOD WIFE

How are we at the end again?

Surely we just started Season 6? And while we're on the topic of time doing funny things in THE GOOD WIFE universe, how is it even Season 6 in the first place? Have we really spent six whole years with Alicia Florrick? It feels like we're just getting to know her, still scratching at the surface of this complex, intriguing woman. In fact, six years on, Alicia Florrick is just as unfathomable - and just as interesting - as she was when we met her in Season 1.

Tonight's episode was something of an homage to that pilot season. By focusing the narrative on the re-trial of a case Cary and Alicia handled back in their first year with Stern, Lockhart and Gardner, the structure allowed for multiple flashbacks to that time (all bar one freshly filmed - but we'll get to that exception later), and in doing so, the episode honored the various relationship dynamics that THE GOOD WIFE foundations were built on.

We get to see Alicia and Cary subtly battling it out for that one ticket into the firm, we get to hear Kalinda setting up drinking dates with her new best friend, and we are reminded of Alicia's original position in the pecking order, when she defers to a very remote, curt Diane. This is a reminder of how Alicia started. At the bottom of the rung, long before there were mergers, and partnership offers, and new firms - and new mergers all over again. And this is when we fell in love with Alicia, when she was an underdog, albeit an unlikely one, given her status and access to power right from the start.

Which was the point really, wasn't it? Alicia's power and status were only ever by proxy at the start. Everyone was primarily interested in her as Peter Florrick's wife - whether people viewed her husband as a villain or a hero was secondary to whether they could get something from him.

And Alicia was their door on which to knock.

Flash forward to the penultimate episode of Season 6, and Alicia is basically back where she started. Peter is back on his throne, and she is once again lost and directionless in the aftermath of a public scandal. As she tells Finn Polmar over drinks, feeling sorry for herself is taking up a lot of her time - time that essentially involves waiting for the clock to hit wine hour, and avoiding the Will Gardner focused questions posed by her new memoirist.

Finn tells her to stop thinking about herself, because in the midst of her wallowing, Alicia has been asked by an old client to represent him in a murder trial - and Finn thinks she should get back on Finn Polmar the legal horse by taking the case. She eventually does get back on it (The horse. Not Finn) after being motivated by both Finn, and the ever-snide Matan Brody. Matan returns to us as the prosecutor on the case against Brett Tatro, Alicia's former client who was acquitted of attempted murder six years ago, and is now being charged with murder as an extension of that same crime.

There's a nice metaphor ahead, as Alicia creates a home office by turning an unhinged door into a desk. She's not going to be that vessel anymore. That door for other people to walk through and push past. She's learnt too much for that, so much like she did after her time out when Will died, Alicia comes back from the brink even stronger than before. Except for one really big change. She doesn't have her team anymore. This much is made explicit as she listens to old tape recordings of the case prep all those years ago. Back then she had Kalinda, and she had Cary, even in opposition. Now she's figuring it out on her own - and her isolation is acutely felt.

Alicia has no friends.

She'll say it herself next week. But it's obvious tonight, or at least it's obvious she has no old friends, those best kind of friends, the ones who know your history and your secrets. One by one these friends have fallen away - some more dramatically than others - and some at Alicia's stubborn instigation (cough, cough. Kalinda!). Finn is trying, and he's willing to put his neck out for Alicia yet again by feeding her key information to help her defend Tatro, but it's not the same. If the fans are left remembering the halcyon days of Season 1, it's only because that's where Alicia's head is at, too.

She even remembers drinking with Kalinda - although both #Kalicia flashbacks were, to put it bluntly: COP OUTS. One is an existing scene (albeit a good one), and the other is filmed in a way that makes it so obvious the two actresses shot their scenes separately - so obvious in fact, that I kept wondering if there would be a 'Gotcha!' pan out at the end showing Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi actually sitting side by side. As if. I can only hope it's because the Kings know how much fans are holding out for some kind of thawing - and they're saving a real scene for the finale.

Maybe.

There are some other neat flashbacks brought on by the tape recordings, including the return of Jackie and Zach. Hearing her son's voice prompts Alicia to reach out to him (do we even remember why she stopped talking to him?). This in turn prompts Zach to call his mom and tell her he's coming home for the weekend - right after she and Grace have turned his room into Alicia's new home office.

But that's after Alicia nearly gets held in contempt by Judge Dunaway - never Alicia's biggest fan - and wins the case for Brett Tatro, after more corruption amongst Chicago's various halls of power is revealed. I'll admit I wandered a bit when the case had its twists and turns. I was too busy noticing the absence of Kalinda on the case, and how stark that seems in an episode where the courtroom is once again our focus.

We end the episode with Alicia asking Finn to join her in a new law firm. One where she can believe in the law as something good again. One where she can take on cases that matter - a direction diametrically opposed to that of the newly named Agos, Lockhart and Lee firm, where pro bono cases are now a quaint relic of kinder times.

Finn, Alicia - and Kalinda. Wouldn't that have been something? Wouldn't that have been an interesting Season 7 to round out the best show on TV? Actually, Will, Alicia and Kalinda would have been EVERYTHING, but alas, I've given up that ghost - and I like Finn a lot. I would take that new trinity. It won't happen though, because Finn's probably going to leave, and Kalinda's already gone. And we'll likely never know the full truth about why. No-one ever tells it, right?

But it sure would have been good to hear what really happened there.

One more week to go. I think we all know who's behind that door in the finale. Don't we? THE GOOD WIFE has shocked us before, so I won't be placing any bets just yet ...

Image Credit: CBS

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