What the Hell Happened on this Week's 'The Good Wife'?

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 13, 2015 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 13, 2015 |

I am not a fan of suggesting that any episode of television is game changing, but last night’s episode of The Good Wife was exactly that. The downside is that — after all the exciting twists and intense dramatic moments — we’ll probably be back to square one, with Alicia rejoining her old firm and returning to work as normal.

The upside is this: I think we’re very likely going to find out that Peter Florrick was behind everything, which will push Alicia to a breaking point with her husband, who will become a true villain next season (assuming The Good Wife is renewed).

Here’s what happened in last night’s episode: A voting irregularity that didn’t seem like a huge deal in the beginning of the episode ended up costing Alicia her position as State’s Attorney. How? A number of microchips were found in some voting machines, which prompted Frank Prady’s campaign manager to petition for a recount. Alicia denied any involvement, and she would eventually discover that the microchips were not placed in the voting machines on her behalf, but on the behalf of a representative in another Democratic race, whose win gave the Democrats the supermajority they needed.

Great, right? Alicia’s lawyer (Ron Rifkin) just had to implicate the Democrat in the other race, and Alicia escapes unscathed, right?

No. The Democratic Party in Illinois didn’t want to jeopardize their supermajority, so they asked Alicia to step down to avoid a recount that cost that other guy his position. Alicia refused, and then her lawyer — who had been hired by the Democratic machine — sold her down the river, lying to the election board and saying that Alicia’s campaign had rigged the election, leaving Alicia with no choice but to resign as State’s Attorney.

Daggers.

But consider this: Those microchips were placed in the voting machines during Peter’s election. Peter is the leader of the Democratic party in Illinois. She told Alicia to trust the lawyer hired by the Democrats. No one benefits more from the supermajority than Governor Florrick, and Peter had already tried to ruin Alicia’s chances to be elected once. Having Alicia in the State’s Attorney’s office has not been good for Peter politically, and I’m sure he was embarrassed when the emails about Alicia and Will came out. He was looking to get back at Alicia.

No one with the exception of Frank Prady benefitted more from the events last night than Peter, and yet, there he was at the end of the episode, consoling his wife. He probably should’ve taken the goddamn knife out of her back while he was hugging her.

Alicia is going to find out soon that Peter orchestrated her resignation, and there is going to be hell to pay. Peter last ran in 2012, which means he’s up for reelection in 2016, which in turns means that next season should be fun, although they should probably change the name of the show from The Good Wife to Fuck You, Husband. I’m Going to Murder You, and Then I’m Going to Bang Finn Polmer on Top Of Your Corpse.

Meanwhile, the endgame for Kalinda is coming into focus. The falsified metadata has bitten her and Diana in the ass, and the only way to spare Diana is for someone to turn on Lemond Bishop. Kalinda falsified the metadata, so the burden would seem to be on her to turn state’s evidence. However, she did it on behalf of Carey, so he’s attempting to turn on Bishop before Kalinda. It’s a race! Whoever turns first gets a bullet in the head!

I think we know how that plays out, even if it doesn’t play out as straightforward as we might expect. Carey may make the deal first, but Kalinda may end up getting herself killed trying to protect Carey. Either way, Mike Colter and Archie Panjabi are leaving the series by season’s end, so they’re both done for.