BWW Recap: When One Door Closes- THE GOOD WIFE Says Goodbye (and I Cried)

Goodbye ...

Okay, so I cried at the end. Not death-of-Will tears, or the sobs elicited when Alicia broke up with Mr Gardner way back in Season 3, and I felt like it was happening to me. No, these were poignant tears, the trickle down, uh-oh this is too moving kind of tears that THE GOOD WIFE has earned from its viewers, because after five years, Diane's goodbye felt like our goodbye, too. A goodbye to Lockhart/Gardner (alright, and Canning) - which is really a goodbye to THE GOOD WIFE we used to know. This was our moment as an audience to line up behind Diane and reflect on where we've been, before those scene-stealing elevator doors closed on the past - and opened up on the new world of Florrick, Agos and Lockhart.

But I'm starting at the end, with a scene that might be an obvious highlight, but certainly wasn't the only one of the hour. For Season 6's second episode, we also got classic TGW guest stars, more than a few in-jokes, and some serious developments in the Lemond-Bishop-is-a-ruthless-killer-and-a-really-nice-Dad stakes.

And Taye Diggs. We got Taye Diggs, entering THE GOOD WIFE universe to no less than the sound of applause, and looking every bit as ridiculously handsome as he always does. Yep, this was a good episode, people - in almost every way.

ChumHum? Ho Hum!

Truth is I find every case of the week involving ChumHum to be more like ho-hum. We only get 43 minutes of episode each week, and if there is going to be a case, it needs to own the screen time taken away from our character arcs. It is of course in my opinion that THE GOOD WIFE is better when the show moves away from its procedural beginnings, but I also know that many fans love this aspect, so here's a quick summary:

Mrs Gross Ms Lampard likes Cary more than Alicia. Which is unfortunate because Cary is still in jail, and there's a deposition regarding a class action lawsuit against Lampard's husband, Neil Gross. Apparently a bunch of coders believe ChumHum conspired with other tech companies to fix salaries, which helped stop employees jumping between firms.

Alicia has to pretend that Carey #2 is in charge - because basically Ms Lampard likes men in general more than she likes Alicia. But Alicia is going up against an old nemesis, a woman who once pretended to offer her a job just so she could gossip about Peter (Season 5. The one before Will dies). As a result, our good wife doesn't do too well at staying in the background. Which works out for the best, because Alicia loves an obvious enemy. She nails the case, after Lampard's pre-Gross boyfriend turns out to be another familiar face in THE GOOD WIFE tech family, Sleuthway's Patrick Edelstein. As exes, they're not exactly friends, and when Edelstein inadvertently admits he doesn't trust anything his old girlfriend says, he effectively renders their price-fixing agreement no agreement at all (despite the fact that some pretty incriminating emoticons were involved).

Alicia. Is. Not. Running!

Alicia is important enough to be bribed! This is big, exciting news to Eli. Slotting in around the case of the week, we get more of Eli's crusade to get St Alicia to run for State's Attorney. He recruits (real-life) Obama advisor, Valerie Jarrett, who is, as Eli so eloquently puts it, "into women running for office." Cue one very confused Alicia when she takes a call from Jarrett ("I'm ... good?"), and an adorably impressed Robin, who gives the most sweetly optimistic line of the night when another Alicia suitor comes calling: "Our life has become more interesting since Cary was arrested."

The suitor is a man with money, and he wants to use that money to pay for Cary's bail (Oh yeah - Peter refused to co-sign on Alicia's second mortgage, so at this point we're still missing the $1.3 million required to free Agos). Turns out the suitor-turned-benefactor is one Ernie Nolan, a wealthy realtor who doesn't like the current State's Attorney (does anyone actually like Castro?!) and sees this bail offer as a kind of down-payment on Alicia's support as State's Attorney.

Except. She's not running! She has no interest in running. There is no wrong she wants corrected. There is no mountain she wants to climb. At least that's what she yells at Eli. But he's too busy being delighted in Alicia's revelation that Nolan wanted to bribe her. This is proof - along with the poll he secretly commissions and blames on Castro (he gets yelled at too!) - that Alicia could win. It's a good sign.

Because you never trust when the good guys support you.

Or, as per this pearl of wisdom from Eli Gold: "When the bad guys come round, you know it's real."

Lemond Bishop makes it real

I'm not a fan if this storyline either. The "Chicago's biggest drug dealer" arc feels somewhat oppressive, and lacking the humour that so differentiates The Good Wife. Full kudos to Mike Colter for playing Bishop with such smooth, calculated menace, but to paraphrase Eli, things just got real for Alicia and Cary. By knowingly representing - coveting even - the business of a major drug dealer, they've really gotten themselves entwined with the bad guys.

Tonight Kalinda convinces Bishop to let her interview the three young crewmen present when Cary was supposedly recorded giving them advice on how to evade the law. Kalinda knows that one of the three was wearing a wire, and true to Batgirl form, she quickly figures out which of the three it was.

Only trouble is Bishop is a less dedicated sleuth, and has the wrong guy killed off before he can testify for Cary. Not that there's a right guy to kill off. Which puts Kalinda in a really difficult position. If she tells Bishop who it was, he'll have the guy killed just like that. If she doesn't, chances are she condemns both of the remaining crewmen to the fate of their young silver-toothed friend, and basically condemns Cary to a life in jail at the same time.

All those in favour!

The good news in the short term is that Cary does make bail by the end of the episode (because: ChumHum!). But not before he is out-voted on bringing Diane and her merry band of Department Heads to Florrick/Agos. We are now Florrick, Agos and Lockhart! It might be difficult to fit everyone in, and Gunter, the homeless guy using the sink might have to share, but this is a new era for everyone, and it is exciting.

Exciting enough for Dean Levine-Wilkins, aka the sartorially excellent Taye Diggs, to put aside his initial reservations and get on-board with starting something new. This made Diane happy, and it made me happy too, because Diggs is really nice to look at an awesome addition to the cast, even though I still love Josh Charles the most.

And so it begins fresh. THE GOOD WIFE 2.0. The seeds planted by Will's death have come to fruition. The future - the weird future - is now. Alicia, Cary, Diane and Kalinda are back together. And we get to keep Robin too, Alicia's new "most valued confidante."

Welcome to the offices of Florrick, Argos and Lockhart, people. It's a work in progress for sure, but god it's so, so good!

Did Diane's goodbye make you cry, too? Do you like the addition of Taye Diggs? And how long do you think it will be before Alicia changes her mind on the State's Attorney race? Even though she is never, ever running ...

Check out a sneak peek at next week's episode titled 'Dear God' below!

Photo Credit: CBS