Well, the sh-- hit the fan on "The Good Wife" in "Hitting The Fan," the appropriately titled fifth episode of Season 5. Alica (Julianna Margulies) and Cary (Matt Czuchry) made their exit from Lockhart/Gardner and Florrick/Agos & Associates was born. What's next? It's not smooth sailing from here!
Archie Panjabi, Kalinda to "The Good Wife" fans, said she's excited for the "reboot quality" the shakeup brings to the show. "I feel like we're a bag of sweets and we've just been shaken all around now. Everybody loves watching the show and now you just don't know what you're going to get when you put your hand into the [bag], it'll be fun for us as actors to play, but really fun for the audience," Panjabi told The Huffington Post.
Josh Charles (Will Gardner) called the episode one of the best scripts he's ever read for an hour of TV. "The performances are all really solid and it's just an electric piece of television, as you've seen. It just doesn't stop for 42 minutes … how they managed to cram every beat, nothing was lost, everything's in there. It still manages to make you laugh a couple of times. It's pretty remarkable. I'm very proud of it," he said.
What's next? Here's what to know now that "The Good Wife" has shaken things up:
Peter's coming back to the forefront. Viewers saw Governor-Elect Peter Florrick (Chris Noth) have words with Will Gardner, make public statements to sway Chum Hum to Alicia's side and take his frustrations out on Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) by telling Eli (Alan Cumming) he wants to re-evaluate her selection as the next Illinois Supreme Court Justice. Unethical? Yes, but Margulies said Alicia loves it.
"It's bringing her back to him in a way where she's seeing he's taking care of her in a way that he never did," Margulies said. "But it's also completely unethical."
In Episode 10, look for Florrick/Agos & Associates to have a holiday party to attract clients, but the RSVPs aren't rolling in, which leads Cary to ask Alicia to invite Peter. She resists, but the theme will be an ongoing one.
"Was Diane the right choice for the judgeship? Absolutely. However, he doesn't want to be in bed with people who treated his wife that way. What would you do if you were her husband? That's the question that keeps coming up and I love that. I love that we're always divided -- what would you do? That's been the show since the beginning. When you see her standing on the podium behind him --what would you do if you were her? I think that's what makes it an adult show as opposed to a kiddie show. You walk away questioning your own moral obligations to this world," she said with a laugh. "I like that, I like that it leaves you questioning and doesn't hammer it home what's right and what's wrong."
"Good Wife" co-creator Robert King said expect Peter and Marilyn, Peter's ethics head played by Melissa George, to enter the fray even more.
"He's been really kind of isolated in the Governor's office. This is bringing everyone to the forefront," King said. Look for returning guest stars America Ferrera, Jeffrey Tambor, Kurt Fuller and possibly Carrie Preston to pop up again.
Jason O'Mara will be a force to be reckoned with. The former "Vegas" and "Terra Nova" star will play Damian Boyle, a lawyer known for his past representing mafia types. Look for him and Will to become pretty tight, Margulies said. "He goes after me when he finds out my firm took Chum Hum. He comes after me in such a way -- it's funny and painful and it's great. You'll see that in Episode 9 when his character is introduced. He sort of, I think, takes over the mystery in a way [that] people used to feel about Kalinda, in that you can't quite figure him out. He even stumps Kalinda. She can't figure him out," she said.
Diane puts Kalinda on his tail because nobody likes him except for Will. "Will has forced him into the firm because he wants different, he wants a winner, he wants someone who isn't ethical. You see the two of them go up against Alicia and Cary in court and it's hysterical. It's great," Margulies said.
Panjabi said scenes with her character and O'Mara's are "quite interesting."
"He's Irish and so we kind of have this English/Irish connection going on," she said. "Definitely, definitely -- did a couple of scenes with him and I thought, 'This could be very interesting.' Don't misinterpret that! [Laughs.] But it could be very interesting! I think they both have dark backgrounds, there's going to be a connection there, but don't panic, I don't think we're going down the husband route."
Just because there are two firms, doesn't mean they can't all be friends ... right?
"All the relationships change -- you look at Cary and Kalinda's relationship," Matt Czuchry told The Huffington Post. "We're going to be using each other for information, it kind of fundamentally changes the history of the whole show. That's the fun part about it ... Where do people's loyalties lie -- we're on different sides, that kind of changes the whole relationship of everything. I think that's the case with the whole cast. That's what's fun about it."
Panjabi said it's fun to see Czuchry's Cary get in on the action. "I think if Kalinda was watching what was going on, she'd be like, 'I'd have a piece of that.'
"Yeah, exactly, come on! Let's put it on screen! Kalinda and Cary, let's make it happen," Czuchry said.
Robyn and Kalinda are now on opposite teams, but that doesn't mean they'll be clashing ... at least not immediately.
"There is something about Robyn that Kalinda kind of respects. There's a really nice quality about her and I think Kalinda really likes her. There's a really lovely scene in Episode 7 where Kalinda gives her some really genuine advice. It was a beautiful scene to play, and also Jess [Weixler] as a person, I get on with very well. It's quite difficult to dislike her, but you never know in the future there could be some good storylines where there is a little bit of tension."
But for Will and Alica, well, things will be a bit frosty.
"Right now, it's just devastating for both of them, but what I love is how [the writers] wrote [Alicia and Will] of very similar mind," Margulies said. "You see them go at each other in court and have tremendous mutual respect for one another's minds. She watches what he's doing and he sees how she's one-upping him -- It's almost, I hate to say it, but sexier than a sex scene in watching them. It turns them both on ..."
And let's not forget about everybody's favorite snarky attorney, David Lee. Zach Grenier said it's business as usual for his character, but some twists are ahead.
"I don't think much changes for David Lee. I mean, he sees the minnow in the water, he swims over to the minnow, and he eats the minnow," he said, laughing. "I think there are times in the next few episodes after this where you do see him get wounded once or twice, and he tries to cover it, but for the most part it's David Lee as per usual."
There is hope for Alicia and Kalinda being friends again!
"There is hope there," Robert King told The Huffington Post about the friendship between Kalinda and Alicia. "And what's really good is trying to hold on to that delaying tactic of the hope. The difficulty is, they're structurally isolated from each other. In so many ways the narrative takes them in so many different directions -- you want to kind of keep playing that up because it delays the gratification. There is hope."
All roads lead to something big.
"I think what we have promised being that we're shooting Episode 9 right now and almost finished and about start Episode 10, is that there's means to the end. In other words, everything is building up to a specific point," Margulies said. "I haven't seen the actual written episodes yet, but I can tell you that the tension build up and the idea of this separation, come Episode 15 will come full circle."
"The Good Wife" airs Sundays, 9 p.m. ET on CBS.
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