BWW Recap: THE GOOD WIFE Goes Back To Where She Started

Oh, THE GOOD WIFE. You beautiful, shiny, xylophone-sounding sunflower of a television show. You are the Ann Perkins to my Lesley Knope tonight (and if you don't get the reference, get thee to PARKS & RECREATION right now!).

That last scene. That moment you so fully deserve to enjoy and revel in - because in your 6th year, you've revealed the plan - and my god, is it a good one. Alicia Florrick front and center at the podium, cameras flashing as they capture the good, good wife with her spouse by her side. Backing her. Supporting her. Sucking it up, if you will. Because he'd rather be anywhere but here - and yet here is exactly where Peter Florrick has to be.

Other things happened. I know this because I wrote notes about them. But if a central theme of "Shiny Objects" was distraction, THE GOOD WIFE more than worked its magic on me in the last few minutes.

Even Lana Delaney (Jill Flint) can't compete with Alicia Florrick coming full circle...

This isn't good.

When we start, Cary is busy having Kalinda for lunch. It's a scene reminiscent of the brief halcyon days of Willicia and sneaky-sex (nope - still not over it), made more so by dual interrupting phone calls that halt said lunch.

Diane has inadvertently exposed the firm to ransomware - yet another real-life tech-based oddity THE GOOD WIFE has introduced me to. Basically she unleashes malware that freezes all of the firm's computers, holding the files hostage until a $50,000 fee is paid. The countdown begins. If Florrick, Agos and Lockhart don't pay, every piece of IP they possess will be destroyed.

Yep. Don't EVER click on it, people. Let Diane Lockhart be a lesson to you.

On balance, you're probably going to ace just about everything in life if you take your lessons from Diane Lockhart. Just be sure to add this one to the list, because ransomware sounds really horrible, and as noted above, it's really - real.

Kalinda is despatched after the partners agree to pay the money, but the computers continue to count down anyway. To help track down the cyber-culprit, she turns to FBI Agent Lana Delaney, she of all good things, herself. Lana is wary of Kalinda's intentions, but she agrees to help, because Kalinda is essentially this self-possessed super-agent's personal kryptonite.

Lana and Kalinda eventually piece enough information together (together, together) to trace the activity to Russia. Here Carey-with-an-e steps in and speaks to the Russian culprit, translating for Kalinda that they'll essentially do to the Russian what he's doing to them if he doesn't give them back their files. The Russian doesn't give up easily, but when Kalinda and Carey-with-an-e threaten to cast him as a Pussy Riot-supporting, Putin-protesting dissident, the guy caves. There might not be honor among criminals, but there's still some common sense. Florrick, Agos and Lockhart get their files back, and the Russian lives to ransom another day.

I don't even like penguins!

There is a case. It brings back Rayna the rainmaker from Season 5 (Jill Hennessy), and her new partner Elsbeth Tascioni, who needs no introduction to fans of THE GOOD WIFE because Carrie Preston has so entrenched herself as a favourite, if not the favourite guest star of the series. We also get a dose of Josh Perotti, my second favourite Kyle MacLachlan agent of all time.

This time the wonderfully odd Tascioni is Alicia's opponent on a discrimination suit. Alicia is representing an executive who was fired because she's a woman of her "brash management style", and Tascioni advises her sexist client not to settle because those thoughts of hers are taking her in the direction of five fired assistants, and, well, brash management style.

But the one thing Tascioni didn't count on was just how much Alicia took in all those times they were working together, with all that paperwork between them. We begin the episode itself with a look into Tascioni's thought process - if we can connect her vaguely terrifying thoughts to a process. Her jumbled, distracted ... process ... is how those magical bursts of insight of hers come through, but a look inside her mind also reveals that the very same process can often distract Tascioni beyond the point of anything making sense.

Alicia gets it. She and Dean (Taye. Diggs. Stay. Please) deliberately set about to distract Tascioni in court, and it works. First they plant magazines, showcasing penguins, and cruise ships. And then they plant Perotti. Or do they? The plan to befuddle Tascioni works best when Perotti sits in on the court proceedings (right when she was close to making it China's fault, too). But the kicker comes later. Perotti is a Federal Agent after-all; he does have things to do. And one of those things is freezing the assets of the company Tascioni is defending, after they are accused of theft of intellectual property.

This halts the case for both teams. Nobody wins. Except Perotti. Round one of this case, at least. The unexpected loser? Kalinda. She figures that Lana got the information from her when she was ... uh ... working on the malware issue, and though she doesn't mind the intrusion, Lana very much minds the assumption and walks out on her right when they're about to go for their own round two.

I want a spin-off with Kalinda and Lana solving everything. Wouldn't that be something. At the very least, I hope this lack of resolution means we'll see Lana again before we lose Kalinda for good. She has to start talking about this stuff eventually ...

Cockroaches are not romantic!

Diane doesn't like cockroaches. And she doesn't like the leaking roof, or the neighbourhood, or anything at all about the start-up digs she's found herself in. Earlier in the episode, she visited her old offices - her old offices with Will - and though technically she was there to ask for a favor, she walked in like she owned the place.

And she kinda does. Or she holds the lease for the office space, at least. When the "fairly crass" David Lee tries to hold an email of Diane's to ransom (essentially ransoming a ransom note if you will), by offering the email in return for the lease, he makes a rookie mistake. You don't hold Diane Lockhart to ransom (unless you are malware and therefore impervious to her stare). You negotiate with Diane Lockhart - and even then, you'll probably lose.

Looks like we might get the 27th and 28th floors back, yet.

Seriously, Peter!

Which brings us right back to where we started from. The magnificent climax to what was essentially a much slower episode than we've had of late.

THE GOOD WIFE never forgets where it came from. There was something iconic in that pilot episode, a finger on the pulse of modern times. The image of a devastated Alicia standing by her philandering, but sorry man, and the beaming of that story across the country.

And now he's sorry for being late to stand by her. The next State's Attorney for Cook County. Alicia Florrick. His wife, who reminded him just hours earlier that he needs her now. That she hasn't forgotten what he did, and no, she will not let it go, and NO! she is not asking him for a favour - just his endorsement, because the truth is, they need each other now.

The scene in the hallway is a verbal slap that resounds as strongly as the pilot slap Alicia gave Peter. It has been said that the original slap was Alicia Florrick waking up. Well our girl is wide-awake now. Let the journey of The Good Politician begin ...

Sidebar: Finn! Tequila. The plummeting with you quote. Were it not for the delicious ending, I would have rhapsodized about this. Take this as distracted-rhapsodizing then. With that last look Alicia just gave her husband, Finn Polmar might not stand a chance. But hey Alicia, he's willing to plummet. That's got to count for something, right??!

Check out a sneak peek at next week's episode titled 'TBD":

Photo Credit: CBS

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