CBS' The Good Wife - Episode 5.20 "The Deep Web"
When Alicia has a chance encounter with a charming entrepreneur during jury duty, she begins to consider options outside her marriage and seeks the advice of her mother. Meanwhile, Diane's friends come to her for legal advice when their son is accused of selling drugs on the Internet.
The Good Wife has been having its strongest season ever. I preface this review with that statement because with a 22 episode season there's bound to be at least one week where the show just phones it in. It's just inherent of the show's structure. It has a very tight production window. It's cranking out these episodes. The fact that they have been so amazing for so long - especially this season - is astonishing. "The Deep Web" just never really came together. It's a place holder episode that I have absolutely no clue how to feel towards. We're just suppose to believe there's this website out there where you can easily buy drugs and hire mercenaries. Alicia unable to work the remote is forced comedy played for an easy laugh. Cary says Alicia hasn't had a day off for five years? What about that day a couple episodes ago where she was cooped up in her bed? I'm even uncertain of how to read that final scene.We get some more insight about Alicia's father and what Louis and David are up to. But it's largely stuff we could have inferred or just didn't really need. Louis and David are conspiring to take control of the firm from Diane. Throughout this episode, we get Kalinda telling Diane that she's different but a good kind of different and David saying she's been distracted from the clients and the firm. We are suppose to sympathize with Diane and Kalinda because Diane and Kalinda are just awesome while Louis and David are swarmy weasels. The moment where Louis says he's dying was the episode's high point simply because of the ambiguity as to whether it's the truth or not. But that ambiguity had to be addressed seconds after it was revealed. The show just got done killing a major character. And then, they replaced him with another character who's made a handful of appearances on the show only to have him be dying as well. That's just odd. I'm still heavily rooting for Diane and Kalinda. But my theory about the two of them just joining Alicia and Cary's firm is looking stronger and stronger with each episode.
Elsewhere, Alicia is on this really weird journey where she's floating in space after Will's death while also being proactive in life. She has no problem talking to Nestor Carbonell's entrepreneur when she's also dealing with jury duty. But outside of that and away from work, she's flustered. She's unsure about being a lawyer and yet she always wants to be at work to be distracted from all this emotional uncertainty and emptiness. That's because she doesn't know what else she could do. Her kids don't need her as a full time mom anymore. She's basically ended things with Peter. And yet, she's still clinging onto something. I'm guessing that's the idea of Will. She doesn't go back for drinks and I think that's for the better. In the post-Will era, I want to see Alicia flourish as an independent spirit. Her relationship with Will doesn't need to be replaced with another guy. Finn basically fits the same mold as Will and yet they are keeping things platonic - instead focusing on his run for State's Attorney. That puts Finn in more character's orbits and Alicia in a state of independence. She will need a first guy after Will and Peter. I guess Carbonell was that guy. It was just awkward and weird.
Some more thoughts:
- "The Deep Web" was written by Luke Schelhaas & Erica Shelton Kodish and directed by Brooke Kennedy.
- The Good Wife is basically saying cable dramas suck and streaming services are often unreliable. It's really not that subtle at all.
- The show is also much more interested in bitcoin than any person watching. That's about all I have to say about the case of the week.
- But what was going on with Matthew Goode's hair?
- Finn: "Kalinda, why do people let you in crime scenes?" Kalinda: "Cops like me."
- Alicia: "There are people who make the mess, and there are people that clean it up."
