CBSTo quote Saturday Night Live's Stefon: This episode of The Good Wife had everything: lots of side eye, mini tacos, sex, an engagement and Vanessa Williams. Oh, there was a cliffhanger and probably the only cliffhanger in the history of television to be about an election board's vote on voting machines.
ALICIA
Our heroine was riding high this week. She took on a case brought to her by Louis Canning that saw her strutting back into the Lockhart/Agos and Lee boardroom. You better believe everybody was serving good face as they stared each other down. The case involved a self-driving car, which is a thing I've seen a segment about on the news, so I should've known The Good Wife would eventually tackle it. Basically this was the gist: Louis manipulated one of Diane and Cary's clients to jump ship and go to Alicia and Lucca in an effort to come out ahead. However, Alicia is nobody's fool and wasn't about to let him off the hook unscathed and she didn't back down with him or Diane. Lots of side eye, lots of smirks, lots of quality Alicia Florrick. In the end, they discovered it was hackers or something, but that's not really important.
While all the stuff was going on with her case, Peter moved back in with Alicia after a Vice story came out saying they hadn't lived together in three years. The story wasn't wrong. Eventually they had love-less sex and Eli caught them and was as surprised as you.
Alicia: "Want to get laid?"
Peter: "Do you?"
Alicia: [Checks watch.] "Sure I've got 20 minutes."
Bow down to Alicia Florrick getting laid because it suits her. "Sex is sexier without love," she said after they finished.
But before Peter moved in, Alicia got close with Jason. How close? Well, he agreed to sign her insurance waiver over some margaritas. Then those margaritas turned into dinner! Well, almost! Alicia didn't have any frozen pizza, but she had frozen mini tacos. Once those puppies made it into the oven there was going to be no stopping Alicia and Jason. But Peter came home.
Alicia also had her first election board meeting where she was supposed to vote no. The big vote? On who supplies the voting machines. Right now in The Good Wife world it's a company co-owned by Frank Landau's wife. Another guy on the election board wanted it to go to a company he co-owns. He also wanted to make Alicia the chair of the board. Remember, Frank Landau AND Peter were involved in the voting tampering that cost Alicia her state's attorney seat. She doesn't know of Peter's involvement. Frank does and he already threatened to hurt Alicia and Peter if she doesn't vote with him. What's The Good Wife going to do? To be continued…
Meanwhile, Peter had to wow Vanessa Williams' character with a fake birthday party for Grace. Normal. While their phony party was going on, Jackie and Howard stopped by to drop a bombshell: They're engaged. Hey, I guess when you're in your 80s then courtship is accelerated. Alicia was amused. Peter was baffled. Grace was happy. Viewers, I'm sure, were delighted.
EVERYBODY ELSE?
This episode of The Good Wife felt like a throwback to the way things were. All world converged upon Alicia, which is why it worked so well. No separate election story, no Diane dealing with silliness.
Gasp count: 1
Some other things:
Lucca saying she could see Alicia was the Queen B Bitch at Lockhart/Agos was great. As was this exchange: "I'm a much calmer person now," Alicia said. "Oh my god, that's a terrifying thought," Lucca replied. They're best friends.
Alicia and Jason's longing looks over their margaritas and talk of pizza: It's so good.
Alicia bumping into Louis and saying "Watch it" is such a great callback and a nice nod to the evolution of Alicia.
The Good Wife airs Sundays, 9 p.m. on CBS.