Note: Do not read on if you have not yet seen Season 4, Episode 4 of CBS' "The Good Wife," titled "Don't Haze Me, Bro."
The return of Jackie! That's right, Mrs. Florrick is out of the hospital and ready to tell voters about women throwing themselves at her son. It was a Nick-less, swishy-ness and drunk Alicia-filled episode.
Not the strongest episode, but there were some highlights, one of them being the return of Maura Tierney as rich (and friend-less) political big wig Maddie Hayward. We got to see Alicia and Maddie's friend date ... and it was marvelous. Do you think Kalinda is jealous of Malicia (Maddie and Alicia)? The two gabbed like old friends until Alicia had to go and open her mouth about Peter and the fact that he didn't sleep with that campaign aide. This made Maddie feel like Alicia is only there to help her estranged husband. Don't screw this up, Alicia -- I want Maddie to be around long enough to meet Elsbeth and then the two can go off and have a glorious spinoff together.
Speaking of the drinks, Alicia had quite a few good one-liners, one of them when she was with Maddie. "I'm not very interesting," she said when questioning why Maddie wanted to be her pal. It's true, Alicia's not super interesting, but she's dynamic when given the right person to play off of, which is why I'm really looking forward to Stockard Channing's guest turn as Alicia's mama.
On the Nick and Kalinda front ... there was no front! It sort of threw me for a loop to not have some weird sex scene in the episode. It felt like a Season 2 episode of the series with the case and the side political stuff at the center. It was refreshing, but I just want the story wrapped up at this point. Even the thought of him hanging around while Kalinda was out investigating made me nervous. "The Good Wife" has a tendency to to juggle a lot of storylines, often very well, but every once in a while, the show gets overwhelmed. Nick is overwhelming the series. However, Nick-free Kalinda ended up debunking the campaign volunteer's affair story thanks to the hotel elevator. This show and elevators ...
The case of the week saw John Glover's Jared Andrews juggle a bunch of defenses (hate crimes, swishy-ness, etc.) in a hazing case. In the end, it bit him in the ass and got Lockhart/Gardner a $6 million settlement.
This episode kind of felt like filler, just there to move some stories along. It gave Cary something to do -- he's officemates with Alicia once again and an ally for Clarke (still a wonderfully understated Nathan Lane), he brought Jackie back into the fold and he gave Alan Cumming some scenery to chew up. Jackie is a great villain for the series, especially for Alicia. I bet she'll end up messing something up for Peter's campaign and we'll get some good conflict out of it.
Some other stray thoughts:
- I'm really enjoying Miriam Shor as Eli's new enemy. Hope she sticks around.
