The Good Wife 1x17
Hai guys, hai! It's been a while. You might remember me from such recaps as these.
Well, I'm still slowly getting through them. I don't want to skip any episodes, because then we'd miss so many delicious moments of boots and ass-kickery.
Before reading, let's recap the, erm, recaps:
1. I watched for Alicia, but stayed for Kalinda.
2. I don't ship Alicia/Peter or Alicia/Will. I wish the show would give her more options.
3. I do believe that Kalinda has a massive crush on Alicia
4. I don't believe that the show will have Alicia and Kalinda skipping off into the sunset together, but:
5. I do believe that Kalinda's weakness for Alicia is, and will become even more so, an important plot point.
So I actually wrote two recaps for this episode - one written straight after I originally viewed it, and one written months later when I sat down to rewatch. I've definitely softened on Will since then, ha. I'm trying really hard to like him, okay you guys? I've realised he's not going anywhere, so in order for me to keep enjoying this show I have to at least get along with him. Anyway, this final recap will be kind of a mash-up of the previous two. Kind of like Glee, but with less ANGELS. Also, I totes ignored all the Peter/Religion storylines. A girl only has so many hours in her day!
Confession: I love Martha Plimpton. LOVE. The woman doesn’t get nearly enough accolades. Patti Nyholm is the best recurring character this show has, hands down. How Martha wasn’t guest Emmy nominated I will never know. She’s fabulous.
Patti, Alicia & Will
So, this scene where Patti confronts Alicia in the carpark was so pretty, I may have gone overboard with screencaps. BUT THE PRETTY.
"Didn't work. Need you now!" Ha! Patti, ilu.
Julianna's immaculate eyebrows. Visible through a misty back window reflected in a rear-view mirror on a rainy day.
Lololol
More gratuitous eyebrow porn. Not that you're complaining.
Alicia is clearly not as amused by Patti Nyholm as I am.
I like my Will best served scruffy, if you must know. Also, all the lesbians want your watch, mate.
"This isn't really your baby is it? What's her name?"
"Bite me."
"Is that Dutch?"
OMGPATTI&WILL. I LOVE THEM. They have the best chemistry. But it's not necessarily sexual chemistry, more like sibling rivalry. How awesome would it be if we found out they were actually estranged brother and sister?! I'd be all over that storyline.
The Case
Can pretty much be summed up in this screencap.
A Diane interlude.
Fierce.
Kalinda
Is hardly in this episode, although she does get two important moments later on. For now she's just quietly BEING AWESOME, as usual.
Interesting to note Kalinda's the one in sharp focus, with the light trained on her to help focus our attention. I think the show is trying to say "hay guys, look it's Kalinda! Plz don't change the channel, kthxbai"
The Love Triangle
Let's break it down.
1. Will's being scruffy and sad in this episode.
2. That might just be Alicia's type, as they make out in his office.
3. Alicia realises it's wrong and leaves, but then has second thoughts (third thoughts?) and heads back, only to find Will has left.
4. So she goes home and sleeps with Peter instead.
I love and hate Alicia for the following scene. Hate, because I did not want her sleeping with Peter. I really thought the show would hold onto that card a little longer. It felt a little too meaningless here. But that’s why I gotta love Alicia because she got horny and booty called her own jerk husband. Love it. Also, Julianna hitching up her skirts so she could straddle Chris Noth? Frakking Hot.
Loved the awkward cuteness of the morning after.
Don’t you hate when your manstress shows up at your door and wants to talk to your husband?
I remember the first time I watched this episode, I was so in love with the Peter-Alicia-Will morning after scene that it made me forgive the night-before stuff (on both counts) because it lead to such squirming hilarity on Alicia’s part. Her husband and her toyboy become super BFFs and she’s just like "holy shit, croissant anyone?"
NONCHALANCE, UR DOIN IT WRONG.
Anyone else think Peter and Will had some serious chemistry in this episode? When Will first shows up at the door, his exhaustion makes him sound almost sultry in his greeting Peter. From my original notes:
Will?
Hey Peter. It’s been a long time...
Um, why did he say that so sexily? Oh gods, I think I just started shipping Will/Peter. Tell me it wouldn’t be aaamazing. I remember at the start of the series thinking I would have liked it so much better if Will had been Alicia’s old college friend who, Will-and-Grace-style, had turned out to be gay while they were dating, and now he could be her sparkly bff. The thing I enjoyed most about this show in the beginning was that she had no main love interest. I thought it was such a brave choice, and I fully applauded it. It allowed for her relationship with Kalinda and her kids to get more screen time, which they probably wouldn’t have had if they’d been pushing the Will/Peter/Alicia thing like they’re doing now. They must be planning on burning it out. The momentum came to a head in this episode, and this show’s going to lose steam really quickly if they continue down this route. I really thought Chris Noth would just be a special guest star every once in a while, I didn’t expect Peter to take over the show like he has. He’s a charismatic character, but let’s leave him to small doses only.
^ LOL that that's how I felt several months ago, and since then the show's only amped up the love triangle and Peter's storylines.
Kalinda, at the centre of it all?
This episode gives us two interesting Kalinda moments. When Peter and Will are having their love-in, the following exchange takes place:
"Oh, what do you know, Kalinda works at Stern&Lockhart. Small world."
"That’s right... she used to work for you?"
Then they stare at each other consideringly.
So what the what? What is this about? Is it just another pissing match over a woman (foreshadowing: Kalinda went from Peter to Will. Will Alicia do the same? Dun dun dunnn!), or something deeper? Then on my rewatch, I caught the fact that Peter refers to the firm as "Stern-Lockhart", no mention of Gardner; y'know, Will's name. So what's up with that? Or possibly it's just the show once again adding to the ~*MYSTERIOUS MYSTERY*~ of Kalinda's character. What do you guys think this little moment was about?
The scene where the assistant asks Will if Alicia got her laptop, I found it extremely interesting at the choice to have Kalinda be the one to first react. Look at her change in facial expressions, from excited snoop sharing her phone-hacking skills with Will; to learning that something odd may have occurred involving Alicia; to immediately zero-ing in on Will for information (but without saying anything).
Let’s examine this scene. Why is Kalinda there? Why have TPTB chosen to have Kalinda be the first at the firm to learn of a maybe late-night something between Will & Alicia? Plot-wise, Cary or Diane would have made more sense, as it’s information they can both use. And really, this scene should be all about Will, since it's the first he's learned that Alicia came back. But instead, we get lingering shots of Kalinda’s reaction. What are the two things the show continually tells us about Kalinda? That she might like women and that Alicia is her Achilles’ heel. So we get her reaction to news Alicia may have macked on Will, meaning TPTB thought this would be the more dramatic reveal. Look, alls I’m saying is there are times where I think the show wants us to make the connection between Kalinda liking women, and Kalinda liking Alicia. It’s math, baby.
And for good measure, Kalinda's boots:
THE END. YAY! It only took me two months. By my calculations, the next recap shall be done some time before Christmas. BUT KNOW THAT I LOVE YOU ALL.
PS - While finishing this recap, my country finally got a government again! The good news: we don't have to become radical separatist pansexual witch rioters anymore. Although, I was secretly looking forward to the weekly riots and knitting circle.
PPS - ARCHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥ She totally deserved a whole post of her own, but I've just been too damn busy thesising. WE LOVE YOU ARCHIE, AND YOUR CLASSY WAYS.
Addendum #1: I got myself a tumblr, and when my internet permits it (boy my internet hates tumblr with a passion), I'll be tumbling some of these screencaps, so feel free to reblog!
Addendum #2: I also is a twit, but it's mainly for RL, so I'm not very fangirly at all. But still, if you'd like to be updated about the weather in Melbourne every few days, feel free to follow ;)