BWW Recap: The Good, Good return of THE GOOD WIFE

I'll admit that I didn't really miss THE GOOD WIFE during the winter hiatus. It seems almost sacrilegious to admit it now, but this past month, whenever I found myself thinking about my favorite show, I returned to the halcyon days of Season 2 and the first half of Season 5 - the Josh Charles years, if you will. During the Will Gardner years, when I sought out every spoiler, and followed every fan speculation thread, a hiatus from THE GOOD WIFE was some kind of television torture in fact (don't even get me started on the summer break between Season 2 and Season 3!).

So tonight, on my first night back from a very relaxing vacation, I was a little nonchalant about "Hail Mary", and the return of Alicia and company. Until about three minutes in, that is, when my viewing partner and I had to take the first of around seven time-outs to alternate between de-stressing and conferring on the utter brilliance of this show.

It's very dramatic!

This show! I need to sincerely apologize for my lack of faith. I did miss you! I missed your eye-rolling Alicia, and your haughty Eli. I missed your wry Marissa, and your crooked-smile Finn. I had forgotten about the come-into-their-own brilliance of your Season 6 Archie Panjabi and Matt Czuchry as doomed friends-or-lovers Kalinda and Cary. And I had forgotten that this show has always been so much more than its original triangle. It is instead a series of concentric circles, of characters that radiate out from the solid brilliance of Season 1, and continue to enthrall us, all these years on.

At this point, for the uninitiated, I need to affirm that THE GOOD WIFE possesses a kind of quiet brilliance, and this is what truly sets it apart. "Hail Mary" was not high action, or full of twists and turns, yet the clock ticked down the entire hour, bringing with it a level of urgency by focusing on the lives of characters we love, as they each made choices we can relate to, and raised questions we all care about. Will Cary run from the law? Will Kalinda sacrifice everything to save her last true friend? Will Alicia and Finn get it on? Will Lemond Bishop ever stop being so scary?

And, ultimately, is anyone ever truly good or bad on this show, or do the moral ambiguities run deep in every single character we've come to know and love?

6 Hours. We've had worse.

Tonight's episode focused on the race to save Cary from spending four years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. Using Cary's $5,000 Prison Consultant as a kind of Greek Chorus, we got some solid commentary on the woeful inadequacies of the justice system, and the illusion of a post-racial America, and we saw Cary battle between fight and flight as he considered the realities of doing time.

Then we got a classic THE GOOD WIFE countdown as Kalinda, Diane and Alicia battled a six-hour deadline to find a Brady violation that would nullify Cary's guilty plea. Cue frenetic boardroom scenes as everyone in the firm pulled together to find that piece of over-looked evidence. Of course it was Kalinda who found the first lead - an email from Canadian police to Chicago authorities confirming Cary was being accused of setting up a crime already committed. Only problem was, the email wasn't actually received. Well, not the only problem in the end, because just before genuine evidence of a cover-up was discovered by Carey with an E, Kalinda convinced her devoted tech guy sidekick to show her how to make it look like the email was received, thus setting her up for all sorts of future evidence-tampering and general law-breaking charges (I only took one semester of Criminal Justice, but you get the picture!).

The company that we keep matters.

In the end, Kalinda didn't need to lie to save Cary's proverbial, because crusty Judge Cuesta (I. Do. Not. Like. Him) dismissed the case based on real evidence presented to him.

Incidentally, THE GOOD WIFE, it is far too early in the year for tears, so now you owe me an apology. There were many, many tears in fact, as Cary realised he was free, and everything I've ever felt was brought to the surface by Matt Czuchry's beautiful, crumpling face, and the contained heartbreak visible in Archie Panjabi's performance.

Luckily, "Hail Mary" had a fair few moments of light relief, too. Tonight, they came in the form of a medically-high mock debate partner for Alicia - before Finn, and then Peter showed up to spar against her. And best of all, in the form of the recurring, scene-stealing Sarah Steele as Marissa Gold, Eli Gold's daughter - the milk-pushing Body Woman every Good Wife needs on her side.

Her father might think she's crass, but sometimes it seems like Marissa Gold is the only point of truth in this whole affair.

What did you think of tonight's series return? Are you worried about the fallout for Kalinda after all the lines she's crossed? Were you so happy to see the case against Cary dismissed? And what was THAT kiss? Alicia!! Do you ever like anything that is actually good for you?

Photo Credit: CBS