BWW Recap: Saints, Heroes & Ghosts Entwine on CBS's THE GOOD WIFE

If last week's episode of The Good Wife felt like a throwback, tonight's episode felt positively vintage in parts. We had a he said/she said case of the week, a Batgirl Kalinda secretly on the case for Diane, and a recurrence of the every-season-someone-tries-to-usurp-the-named-partners-from-within plotline.

Except this time around, the someone (Canning) is both trying to screw Diane - and dying. And that other named partner is already dead.

Will. Will is dead. And even when The Good Wife goes retro, the game-changer that was his death looms large. Full credit to the writers here; like Diane, The Good Wife writers are channeling Will Gardner's ghost, and beautifully. As a viewer, I find myself missing him less than I did through good parts of seasons 3 and 4, when Josh Charles was still very much on screen.

I can't think of another series that has been so considered with grief. We're a good few episodes beyond that episode now, but the reverberations of Will's death are still being carefully explored. Over the course of these post-Will episodes we've gone from stoic Alicia, to sad Alicia, to steely Alicia - and now to spinning Alicia, in a trajectory that feels painfully real. As viewers, we've never been asked to forget what we know we wouldn't in our own lives.

This care is just another example of what makes The Good Wife so good. And why I always prefer the character to the case. Like tonight ...

Where can I get a digital wallet?

The case of this week features Bitcoin. And the website Silk Road. Both of these things exist in the digital realm, though I'd heard of neither before The Good Wife formally introduced us. Let's just say The Good Wife keeps me hip to technology. When I can follow what's going on.

This week I was too distracted. By Finn (his adorable floppy hair!), and Diane (I want that purple dress). See, Finn was interacting with Diane, and there was subtext. And I think she likes this would-be State's Attorney with his short ties, even when they're in opposition.

Which is why I only half-cared about whether some kid with a rich grandfather was running an illegal drug-trafficking website from a basement (he was). Later, I'll go research Silk Road. The way I did with Bitcoin a few years back. The Good Wife makes me want to do that. I just need Alicia-time first ...

A Day Off

Alicia took the day off. But she couldn't enjoy it. Aside from that time-out under the covers after Will's death, Saint Alicia doesn't opt out. Can't opt out. There are things she doesn't want to think about, can't think about. So she keeps busy. Jury duty would have been a good enough distraction. If she wasn't a lawyer. And the Governor's wife, and therefore immediately dismissed from duty.

She met a man there in the courtroom. A handsome man, who was interested in her, but his fingers reminded her of Will, so she went looking for her laptop and her scarf (Heart, anyone?!), and then she went looking for her mother, instead. But she ran away from Veronica too, almost as soon as she arrived.

And that's how it is when you re-cap Alicia. It's as much about what she rejects as what she embraces.

The ones who really love her have figured that out. Her mom has figured that out. So she turned up at Alicia's apartment that afternoon, and they drank wine, with Julianna Margulies and Stockard Channing acting the hell out of what is now one of my all-time favourite The Good Wife scenes. Ever.

Alicia Florrick is indeed always the good one. Only now she might have found someone who understands this part of her life ...

The Good(e) One

Finn Polmar is a Hero. Alicia is a Saint. So says Eli, and it is his job to make it so for both the would-be State's Attorney, and the Governor's wife. Eli wants Finn to Leverage his hero status, the same way he likes to exploit the Saint Alicia story.

What's great about this burgeoning relationship between Alicia and Finn is that they both know they're playing a role for the benefit of others. They're equal parts weary and wary - but not with each other. There's comfort on finding someone just like you, after-all ...

Will (she?)

That's the question. Will Alicia move on? From Peter? From Will? As viewers, do we want her to? Did we want her to walk toward, or away from that handsome man, and his 7 o'clock? It's too soon! Isn't it? Unless - perhaps - you can't ever lose what you never really had ...

It's romantic because it didn't happen.

She said that once. And now they will all have to compete with a ghost for her love. Maybe a hero could do it. Or maybe the saint would do better to keep walking. Alone. For a while at least.

Until she stops spinning that deep, deep web around her heart.

Photo courtesy of CBS