CBSWhat's The Good Wife without the good wife? We got a taste of that with this episode, "Hail Mary," and, well, I didn't hate it. Sure Alicia (Julianna Margulies) was around, but her plot was rather extraneous. The meat of the episode revolved around Diane (Christine Baranski) and Kalinda (Archie Panjabi) racing to find anything to save Cary (Matt Czuchry) from heading to prison while Alicia prepped for the State's Attorney debate.
Yes, the last new episode way back in November featured Cary pleading guilty to charges, but while securing protection for Cary in prison—with the help of Lemond Bishop (Mike Colter, who will soon play a Marvel superhero in AKA Jessica Jones)—Kalinda learned the drugs Cary was accused of being involved with were already in the states before he supposedly gave advice on them. With mere hours to spare, Diane and Kalinda did everything in their power to find any Brady violations to show that the prosecution or police purposefully hid evidence to set Cary up.
With nothing going their way, Kalinda made things go her way and changed metadata to show that the police actually did get an email from Canadian authorities about the drugs. She created the Hail Mary, but actually found the required evidence to get the charges thrown out—the police working under corrupt Castro. However, Diane had already presented the fabricated evidence. Kalinda broke the law to save Cary and get the charges thrown out the case dismissed. Kalinda had also secured Cary protection in jail, but at a price. Kalinda is in deep $#*!.
Meanwhile in election land, Marissa (Sarah Steele) offered Alicia milk while she prepped for her debate with the help of Finn (Matthew Goode), Peter (Chris Noth) and guest star Chris Elliott. She tried getting involved to save Cary, but Eli (Alan Cumming), kept her out of it. There have been some interesting and fun story lines coming out of the election, but at this point, especially this episode, it couldn't be clearer that it's taking away some of the dynamic that makes The Good Wife so good. Sure, we got Alicia taking Peter to task—more than once and the scene in this episode was wonderful—and we've gotten quality Eli moments, but Alicia belongs in the courtroom alongside Diane. I just didn't really care what Alicia was doing in this episode, for what I think is the first time in the history of the series.
And then there was the moment at the end. Alicia, in fit of delight, kissed Johnny (Steven Pasquale). Will there be ramifications? More than that surprise kiss? Will Kalinda make it out of this season alive? Share your theories in the comments!
Gasp count: 2
Some other things:
"You're going to want to uncomplicate that today." It wouldn't be Kalinda if it weren't complicated.
Whatever happened to Taye Diggs' character?
"No snark, come on." — Eli.
"I do your honor. It's very dramatic." — Diane.
The Good Wife airs Sundays, 9 p.m. on CBS.