If you haven't yet seen this episode, PLEASE DON'T READ PAST THIS POINT!
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Let's have a show of hands: Who didn't see that coming? Who was completely blown away by the face at the door? Who couldn't believe what they heard?
Never in my wildest dreams did I think Alicia Florrick, the good wife and the good newly minted LG partner, would agree to leave Lockhart Gardner to join Cary Agos (no, I still don't trust him) in his fledgling firm with the other maverick 4th year Associates who felt overworked, underpaid and unappreciated on the mothership. So here we have the stage set for Alicia and Cary (Matt Czuchry) to morph into Diane and Will 2.0.
The economy must be improving greatly for them to take such a giant leap of faith as a law practice start-up in such a highly competitive market as Chicago. Well, at least they're getting a rental discount on their office space from landlord-creepy serial killer, Colin Sweeney (the incomparable Dylan Baker) in exchange for 2 years of free legal services. He said he was paying LG $2m annually. He's killed before; he'll kill again. It's a win-win. Everyone gets his/her money's worth.
It looks as if greedy, manipulative Kalinda (Archie Panjabi), in playing both ends against the middle, may have $crewed herself out of jobs at both firms. Good! Perhaps she's not leather-tough like that jacket and those infernal boots ("These boots were made for walking..." Now please just walk out the door and don't let it hit ya...) ensemble that she hasn't changed in four years. (Gee, I hope it's not actually the same outfit every day of every week of every year. Surely she must have multiples of that fashion felony and affront to everyone's sense of style). I've never liked the character. I hope she gets replaced at LG permanently with the younger blonde private investigator, the "New Kalinda," Robyn Burdine (Jess Weixler).
Maxwell had his silver hammer and Zach Florrick (Graham Phillips) had his cellphone camera. As soon as Zach pulled out his camera phone, I knew that we were in for a show. Remember the arrogant cop with the bogus traffic stop? Zach doesn't take abuse from anyone. ("We've surely got trouble, right here in Windy City; With a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for Peter.") Just a good son doing what he can to protect the integrity of the electoral process and ensure his father's gubernatorial win.
Those late night emergency hearings on possible election fraud were so reminiscent of 2000, that will forever be known in America as "The Year of the Hanging/Dimpled Chad." In fact, was that a table full of chads in Judge Patrice Lessner's (Ana Gasteyer) office or a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle?
It's always good the see the return of favorite recurring characters such as Attorney Patti Nyholm (Martha Plimpton). She gives a whole new dimension to the definition of "working mother." Was it "Bring Your Babies To Night Court Night"? I love the way this legal eagle balances her briefcase and diaper bag. Then her talk of nursing - well, - I hoped this ultimate multi-tasker mom would ask for a short recess rather than plunging ahead, simultaneouly tackling fraud and feeding.
Peter's former Campaign Manager Jordan Karahalios (T.R. Knight), who was angling to replace Eli Gold (Alan Cumming) before getting fired and later masterminding the campaign of third party candidate, Albert Odell returned. That whole scene about the ballot misprint of "Odell," (without the apostrophe) confusing English and Irish spellings of the surname was hilarious. In actuality, O'Dell was neither; he was Jewish, formerly known as Albert Steinman. To think that they really waste time and money arguing trivialities/technicalities like this in court every day.
Didn't you love that befuddled poll worker, Nana Joe (Oscar winner Estelle Parsons)? I didn't know that she was still alive and still acting.
Totally love that unflappable Judge Charles Abernathy (Denis O'Hare) with his persistent back problems requiring periodic constitutionals around the courtroom every 20 minutes and never once interrupting/delaying proceedings to do so. When the hearing dragged on into the wee morning hours, his informality and considerate nature was hilarious: "We've sent out for bagels."
RL politics in this country has made some of us skeptical and some of us cynical. What do you think about the mysterious ballot box ploy orchestrated by Peter's team [or perhaps even by Peter (Chris Noth) himself] to ensure an election win? Think about it: the candidate's own son sees strange men carrying a second ballot box with a broken seal into a polling place and records what he's witnessed. Obviously this mess will end up in court. If the majority of the 30,000 votes, which previously everyone thought were for Mike Kresteva (Matthew Perry), are tossed out due to fraud, Peter wins. If the majority of the votes are for Peter and they're tossed, necessitating an election "do-over," making voters believe that Kresteva rigged the election, got caught in dirty tricks specifically designed to nullify the results, thereby giving Peter another chance at bat. It's no less than brilliant. Let's hope no candidate tries this IRL.
Who was that dark-haired man in the gray suit at Peter's Victory Party who caused that shocked look on Alicia's face? A former lover? A son given up for adoption long ago? Or what? She looked as if she'd seen a ghost. I thought perhaps her furtive phone call, "Hi. Just want to talk. Meet me at my apartment. I'll get away - right now." was for him. If not him, then most certainly Will, especially after that steamy kiss in the car. Did Diane see that? On second thought, how could she with the windows all fogged up?
Later at Alicia's apartment - there's a flushed face, classical music at full volume, an incredibly large glass of wine and nervous laundry-folding followed by a knock on the door and Alicia's, "Thanks for doing this here." Surprise - it's Cary. Cary? CARY! "No problem." CARY!!!
What about Jackie Florrick (Mary Beth Peil) and her "care-giver"/boy toy Cristian Romero (Yul Vazquez) that Peter was trying to get rid of with a $25K payoff? What about Jackie telling Peter, "It's my life. It's not yours. Don't mess with it - EVER!" WOW! That look on Peter's face after being told MYOB by his doting, strong-willed mom.
While not a classic cliffhanger, the ending certainly sets up some interesting possibilities and potential storylines for next season. Is it practical and how is it possible for the Governor's wife to be an active, practicing, named Senior Partner in a law firm in the same state? There could be lots of battles with the fledlging firm of Florrick & Agos going head-to-head with Lockhart Gardner, especially after Cary's cherry-picking and poaching clients. I just hope that with F&A spinning off from LG, it doesn't significantly diminish the roles of Diane (Christine Baranski) and Will (Josh Charles), because along with Julianna Margulies, they're the heart and soul of this show.
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