CBSGoodbye to you, Elsbeth Tascioni. The Good Wife's best recurring character had her final appearance and it involved yoga, purses and a tiny dog. In other words, it was the best.
In "Targets," Eli and Peter sought Elsbeth's help in finding out why the FBI is investigating Peter. They assumed it was the voter fraud Peter had a hand in when he tried to get Alicia the State's Attorney election. That was too obvious, so viewers were treated to Elsbeth's investigation into what they were really after. It was delightful. Through conversation with Marissa (really, I could have watched an entire episode of Elsbeth investigating and chatting with Marissa about purses), she discovered a potential conflict and skedaddled. She couldn't warn Eli and Peter because her client, the dairy man, could be called before the grand jury. However, she hooked them up with her ex-husband Mike Tascioni and he was quirky, but more reserved than her. In the end, he helped Eli and Peter get to the bottom of it all via some trickier.
Can we just take a moment and praise Carrie Preston's final performance as Elsbeth? Well, final until we get the Elsbeth spinoff the world needs. Unlike her last arc, this episode didn't have the character going super over the top. It was the perfect last helping of Elsbeth.
Meanwhile in Alicia Florrick land, she served on a secret panel that was tasked with determining whether an American citizen could be added to the kill list for recruiting other terrorists for ISIS. I loved how confused she looked at first because that was exactly my face. The Pentagon thought she had leaked about the proceedings, but then the NSA storyline came back. Does anybody like the NSA story? No? That's what I thought. Anyway, they hacked her phone so they had a hot mic on her at all times, so they were listening to everything. Yes, even her sex with Jason. Oh yeah, they had sex in her office.
I am all for Alicia Florrick being a sexual being, she's human, but the banter between the two of them after the encounter felt off to me.
"I remember high school. I remember my phone calls being ignored," Alicia said to Jason.
"I am not ignoring anything. I just don't like not knowing what the situation is…" Jason said about Peter and Alicia's relationship.
"If you don't come to me tonight, who knows, maybe I'll start drinking again," Alicia said.
"Way to make me feel guilty," he replied.
"You want things simple, I want things simple too. So here it is: I want you again," she told him. "Don't you want it?"
"I want it," he said.
Yeah.
The other story: David Lee and Cary thought Diane was going to turn the firm into an all-female led firm, so David hired Jason to look into it. It was pretty silly.
I am sad to say goodbye to Elsbeth, but more than happy to say goodbye to the NSA storyline, I hope. Overall, The Good Wife seems to be getting back on track for the final run of episodes.
Gasp count: 0, but I did laugh a lot thanks to Elsbeth.
Some other things:
Cary eats lunch at 12:30?
"Not intentionally."— Jason on his cowboy vibes.
"I'll be outside. Not outside, outside. Out…there." – Elsbeth. Having her in Eli's old office was a stroke of genius.
The Good Wife airs Sundays, 9 p.m. on CBS.