BWW Recap: Tonight THE GOOD WIFE Debates What It Means To Be Good Versus Effective

Tonight's episode of THE GOOD WIFE starts with a tone-setting caveat - a message telling viewers that "The Debate" was written and filmed prior to the grand jury decisions in Ferguson and Staten Island.

THE GOOD WIFE is a drama known for commentary ripped from the headlines - indeed, it was headline-worth behaviour that informed the entire premise of the show. This singular decision to clarify timing tonight not only acknowledges the seriousness of the topic at hand, it perhaps offers an implicit acknowledgement that there was never any intent to exploit the real life tragedies that have gripped - and ripped at - America in recent months.

Because this is THE GOOD WIFE, and nothing exists in isolation within the perfectly crafted world of Alicia and company, there are also other stories told. Indeed, the debate being had is not really centered on race relations, or those at the center of them. It looks more closely at players on the periphery, people looking on - and deciding what it means to be good, versus effective amidst the chaos.

In this way, tonight's episode carefully avoids any of the clichés of a "very special episode". This isn't going to be an hour focused on simplifying an incredibly complex issue. After a not-guilty verdict is returned against two police officers who shot an unarmed black man, Cole Willis, the increasing possibility of race riots does affect everyone - but the drama, and the debate being had, is fundamentally more personal than political for Alicia, for Peter, and for the team of people working with and against them ...

There is always a circle lower.

This week we get a case of the week, too (oh that old trick!), which is really just a chance to bring back David Lee and his delicious smarminess. The now ex-wife of Neil Gross has hired Lee to help up her pre-nup figure, and thanks to some salacious photographs of Gross, and an overly empathetic representative from Florrick, Agos and Lockhart, that figure has just shot up to $30 million.

Cary is just happy to be back amongst "all the usual disasters", but Gross is understandably not a happy client. Busy with her debate prep, Alicia can't help out, so Cary, Diane and Kalinda try to trade one set of salacious pictures for another, and none of it works out very well in the end because this was never about the case, it was about finding a way to bring David Lee back into the fold.

Which is exactly what happens when Gross fires his lawyers, and Cary and Diane go for effective over good, offering Lee a place at their new firm.

They had the best intentions to start over. But starting over clearly comes with a higher cost than they can now afford.

I'm not even sure what job that would be.

It's a decision that, by the end of "The Debate" explicitly isolates Alicia from her partners, but at the beginning of the hour, she has bigger opponents to tackle. It is time for her live debate with Frank Prady, as they go head to head over who will be the next State's Attorney.

Last week, Alicia was going head to head with her handler, Johnny Elfman (and launching a thousand fan-fics in the process, right?!). Tonight however, she's all business, as Elfman, Eli, Marissa the Body Woman, and the blah blah blah guy (David Krumholtz) fuss around her from all angles, getting her ready for her first live debate.

In a nice nod to the very first episode of THE GOOD WIFE, Alicia starts the debate fixated on a small, out of place piece of tape. She misses a few questions as a result, and her performance is generally underwhelming, until a reporter brings up photos - very recent photos - of Peter leaving her old friend Ramona's apartment. Evidently Peter didn't keep his pants zipped, despite Alicia's earlier request, and now Alicia's back on live television being faced with her husband's infidelity.

Except, she's come a long way, baby. The fierce, proud Alicia Florrick we have seen develop over these past six seasons comes out full force, and fighting. In total control, she takes down the question, and the man asking it. She is, in a word - terrific! And it changes the mood of the debate completely. Alicia is back!

Our handlers won't be happy

She's also clearly as impulse-driven as ever. When the debate is interrupted to cover the live response to the not-guilty verdict in the Cole Willis trial, Alicia heads to the kitchen to fix a snack or seven, and ultimately ends up in a private debate with an equally hungry Prady, and a group of racially diverse hotel employees.

Here we get as close to commentary on race relations as we're going to get this episode, with Alicia and Prady trading views on how to actually make Chicago safer, and really address the racial inequities within the justice system. The tone-deafness of two white people discussing how they alone would fix issues for the black community is verbalised, and we also learn some interesting things about Alicia as a politician. She believes in meritocracy over opportunity (which may have prompted a yelp of disapproval from me), and she's surprisingly calculated when it comes to how she'll address the prevalence of drug crime in her neighbourhoods - she does know some drug dealers, after-all.

In the end, Prady wants to cancel the official debate, but Alicia wants to keep talking. She has, in effect, finally become a politician.

I think we all want the same thing.

While Alicia is busy becoming political, Peter is showing how natural a politician he really is. Faced with an absent, ineffectual mayor, he takes control, and fronts up to the growing, restless post-verdict crowd gathering on the courthouse steps. With the help of Pastor Isaiah, the honest, earnest son of Pastor Jeremiah, Peter first dismisses Ramona - permanently, it would seem - and then brings Deidre Willis, the wife of Cole Willis, to stand next to him.

"This is not the time to break things", she says to the chanting crowd. This is not what her husband would have wanted.

We all want the same things. This is said elsewhere in "The Debate". But do we all really want the same things? Or are we each so tied up in our own dramas that everything and everyone around us is just background? Props in our own story, so that the timing of a murder trial verdict only exists to interrupt a political debate, or the revelation of infidelities between a husband and wife are offered like salutations, before people get down to work. Kisses and love affairs are traded on moods, and reputations are calculated off the back of tragedies.

The things being fixed are not always the things really broken.

People go about their lives, not even really thinking about the injustices suffered by others. This is a sentiment relegated to background TV, literally, when a distracted Alicia glances at a news update, and hears the commentator muse that this lack of awareness might in fact be the problem, the real thing that is broken.

There is another, more explicit moment, during Prady and Alicia's impromptu debate, where the former scoffs at the latter's rhetoric around why good people sometimes do nothing.

"It's easier to talk about doing good than to actually do it," says Frank Prady. It is the most honest moment of the night.

Okay, fans. Steel yourselves. After a brief return, THE GOOD WIFE now heads into yet another hiatus. No return date has been confirmed, but here's hoping the newly revived Alicia Florrick doesn't stay away too long. Especially when a week can seem too long with this show!

Photo Credit: CBS

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