BWW Recap: One For The Road on THE GOOD WIFE Finale

For most of the hour, I just wanted this episode to end. I was nervous that certain characters were going to leave (Finn. Yeah, I was nervous about Finn), and I wanted to know who was behind that door (Finn. Yeah I wanted it to be Finn). In addition to my suspicions about losing yet another actor I adore, I also have lingering finale trauma when it comes to this show. With the exception of the halcyon hour that was the Season 2 finale, season-ending episodes of THE GOOD WIFE tend to leave me disappointed. Season 3? Ugh! Season 4? Ugh! Okay, not ugh, but I was very disappointed at the time.

And then this hour ended - and I wanted it to keep going. Not because I wanted more, but because I didn't want to write this recap, or do anything at all other than sit and stare at the wall. And sulk. This is not what I wanted. This is not the ellipsis I wanted to be left with over the summer. I can't imagine I'll even think about THE GOOD WIFE over the hiatus, and that never happens. I am the spoiler queen - #TheGoodWife is my one and only saved Twitter search, and I'm always on the lookout for news or hints that will, well, spoil, the next episode or story arc.

Not this time. I don't care that it was Canning behind the door, though as soon as his wife Simone was fired by Lockhart, Agos and Lee, I knew it would be. I'm not interested in Alicia pairing up with another mercenary lawyer and taking on yet another version of the firm she left behind. I had this little dream about Florrick/Polmar, instead. Alicia and Finn fighting the good fight together, and eventually getting it on, because hey, fighting the good fight is a turn on.

That would have been interesting to me. With all due respect to the talent and general wonderfulness of Michael J Fox as Louis Canning, unlike Alicia this time two years ago - I'm not in.

Okay, I'll be fair and admit we get a great episode right up until that ending. Alicia is all sorts of awesome tonight, whether she is channelling her inner-Kalinda to investigate why her new client has mysteriously disappeared, or she's standing up to the threats of Charles Lester, Lemond Bishop's creepy lawyer. She also stands up to Peter, after he puts on a show of asking the kids whether he should run for President - when, as Alicia points out, he already knows what he's going to do.

To continue with the fairness theme here, why wouldn't Peter Florrick want to run for President? Or Vice President at least, by way of the machinations of the Illinois Democratic Committee (those paragons of virtue from election to election). Sure, it would mean continuing to fake his marriage, as Grace so gracefully points out, but being married to Alicia is not so bad for Peter, now that they're on wine and speaking terms again.

Alicia doesn't want him to run because it means the Florrick closets will get riffled through once again. And now she has her own skeletons, too. She's also over the idea of writing her memoirs, especially after Ghost Writer man lets it slip that Eli is directing the tone of the book - or more precisely, the tone of Alicia. Poor Eli, he misses having his Saint Alicia to fall back on when Peter needs a boost. He wants to rehabilitate her, turn her back into the good wife. Alicia, of course, is having none of it.

It's been six seasons. She doesn't want to go back to living a lie.

She does want to work with Finn. He can be the good one, though she definitely likes it when he gets angry. Which he dutifully does when the State's Attorney's Office starts playing games with the liberties of Florrick/Polmar's first client, Jacob Rickter (who was also Alicia and Will's client back in ... arghhh, I can't even go there right now ...)

Jacob is being held by the state at a secret police facility after he was arrested but not arrested. Detained, but not detained. And here I'm learning something about the American justice system that I perhaps don't want to know. Secret facilities. Preventing citizens from getting legal advice. And what - holding them indefinitely? The Kings like to remind us of things that we may have missed amongst the noise.

And I see Lady Liberty shaking her head, yet again.

Through some Kalinda-like sleuthing and trickery, Alicia manages to get Jacob out of the facility and in front of the ever-fair Judge Morris (I bet she misses Will, too!). Because basically all of Jacobs legal rights were abused, the case against him (was there a case? The case but not case against him, perhaps) is dropped. That's two for two free clients in Alicia's new world.

And one more thing to worry about in real life.

For our fictional new partners, the victory should be cause for celebration. Except Finn is getting back with his ex-wife. He told Alicia earlier, when they were on their first stakeout. Thud. I felt it when he told her. Most of us have been there. Hearing the kind of news you can't come back from. How the finality of it sinks your heart, and you realise timing has always been the only thing. Because they were right there, a few months ago. They could have made it happen. Alicia is always right there - and maybe this time she's a little more calculated, because that's definitely flirting later, when she tells Finn he looks good when he's angry. She's definitely flirting, and he knows it, and he knows it's going to end badly.

Which it does. When he comes to her house and says he can't be her partner. "It's not always do or don't," he says, when Alicia wonders if they could work together anyway. Finn knows better than her, and that's what would have made them an interesting couple to watch. In my opinion. Not another bad guy for Alicia, but a good one. Just how would she have handled that?

I guess we'll never know.

This is not the only ending for Alicia tonight though. It's not the big one. That comes when Kalinda sits down at the bar next to her girl and says goodbye for real. Much will be made of this being the first scene two certain actors have shared in what feels like forever (or would, if I didn't go back to the first two seasons so often). And indeed, I'm one of those viewers who will forever be curious about how the ball was so badly dropped on the real love story of this show. But I won't dwell on that aspect tonight, except to say that there could have been such rich, honest story telling out of these two women finding their way back together after the devastating revelations of Season 2.

That would have been something. The most interesting couple to watch.

But we did get something tonight at least. A scene where two somewhat wary (or is that weary?) actors characters say more than they've said for years, and decide to leave the rest unspoken. Kalinda tells Alicia that those early years were the best she's ever had, and Alicia tells Kalinda that she's given up on anger, and feeling jealous. That it's nice to not care anymore. They share a shot of tequila, and then one more for the road. Their last one together.

Do-overs don't happen in real life, after-all. Whichever real life we're saying goodbye to, here.

Poignant, possible meta-moment aside, Kalinda's final episode also answers the question of what was in that note she left for Alicia. Turns out it was her confession regarding Lemond Bishop, intended as Alicia's insurance if Charles Lester came calling. In an act her old friend would be proud off, Alicia burns the note in front of Lester, and Kalinda goes on to further silence him when she confidently advises that she has as many goods on Bishop's lawyer as she did on Bishop himself. Cornered, Lester agrees to let Kalinda Sharma disappear - as long as she never comes back.

As long as she never comes back. With her boots and her jackets, and her little notebooks and her little smiles. With her fierce protection of her friends, and her way of solving the things that most needed solving. Leaving behind lovers and people she loved far beyond that. Alicia, most of all.

And now I'm not sulking so much as feeling sad at how much the show has changed. No Will and no Kalinda, anymore. Not even a Finn to let me forget for a moment that this show has become more like an old friend these days, someone I used to know so well.

And love more for what they were to me, than whatever they're going to be.

What did you think of the finale? 'Wanna' see Alicia and Canning partner up? Got a go-to season to re-watch over the break? No prizes for guessing mine!

Photo Credit: CBS (and yes, I did sneak that memory-lane one in there on purpose!)