The Good Wife Season 6 Premiere Recap: Welcome Back, Now Go to Jail

CBS' hit legal drama returned with a shocking turn of events on Sunday, Sept. 21

By Chris Harnick Sep 22, 2014 3:09 AMTags
Julianna Margulies, The Good WifeDavid Giesbrecht©2014 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

Remember when The Good Wife shocked you by killing your favorite character? Well, after tonight you'll be talking about another Good Wife watercooler shocker...

Warning spoilers...seriously...big warning...

Cary's (Matt Czuchry) arrest.

The season six premiere of The Good Wife started the show in another new direction. TV's best drama—yep, I said it—is back with a vengeance. Let's break it down, shall we?

We picked up right where we left off with Eli (Alan Cumming) asking Alicia (Julianna Margulies) to run for State's Attorney. She was not having it. Eli continued his quest to get Alicia to run for State's Attorney by polling and having banter with his daughter (Sarah Steele), who suddenly manifested and hung around her dad's office the entire episode. Peter's intern was still being suggestive—this episode she wasn't wearing panties—much to Eli's chagrin. After a little scheming, Eli got Peter (Chris Noth) to come around to Alicia for State's Attorney. Now he just needs to change Alicia's mind…even though she said she'll never run. Maybe what's happening with Cary will sway her?

While all this was going on, Cary was getting the run around in jail. His arrest was shocking and almost brutal. For a second I thought he was going to be mugged and injured, not killed, but taken out of the game a bit so the ladies (Alicia and Diane, BFFs) could run the show without interference. But nope, arrested and thrown in prison for supposedly helping Lemond Bishop (Mike Colter) do some illegal drug business. Through investigation (and a little hanky panky with Sophia, played by guest star Kelli Giddish on loan from Law & Order: SVU), Kalinda figured out there's a confidential informant working with the police…but that didn't help Cary out of jail. He had his hand slashed to prove he's not going to turn on Bishop and the drug lord came through with the $1.3 million in bail. But Finn (Matthew Goode) and the CI got that thrown out. Cary's still in jail!

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Meanwhile, Diane plotted her exit from Lockhart/Gardner and Canning. She told Louis Canning (Michael J. Fox) and David Lee (Zach Grenier) that she was just going to retire. Of course that would be too easy. Now David Lee and Louis are working to poison Diane's clients with Cary's arrest. So maybe she won't be joining with $38 million…

Alicia worked to clear Cary and enlisted Diane to help after Finn challenged it with a conflict of interest because she also reps Lemond Bishop. Needless to say, a campaign for State's Attorney was farthest from her mind…which means it's very likely to happen. Early in the episode Diane and Alicia had a meeting, one Cary was supposed to attend had he not been jailed, and they discussed musts for Diane to join the firm. They include: A say equal to Cary and Alicia and Kalinda. Yes, Kalinda. Alicia wasn't too thrilled with that one, it seemed. Alicia and Kalinda did interact—by telephone—after Cary's arrest. So now we're on 31 episodes with no scene together?

The Good Wife is a master class in drama, the season six premiere was a thrill ride from beginning to end. Six seasons in, it's still able to pull surprises—actual, true surprises—and not at the sake of story.

Gasp count: Two

Some other things:

Please let Kelli Giddish return for some more scenes with Kalinda. Please, NBC?

Do we think Peter is sleeping with that intern already?

Loved that they mentioned Cary's mushrooms incident because it's one of his best episodes. And I'm sure a lot of you enjoyed his strip down. Can he make it out unscathed? Will that cut be his only injury? My guess is no.

The Good Wife airs Sundays, 9 p.m. on CBS.