CBS' The Good Wife - Episode 5.22 "A Weird Year"
An open feed from a camera mistakenly left on after a teleconferenced deposition between the lawyers of Florrick/Agos and Lockhart/Gardner reveals a threat to the firm that Alicia and Cary never saw coming. Meanwhile, the fate of Lockhart/Gardner hangs in the balance as Louis Canning vies for a larger role. Also, Alicia entrusts Zach's high school graduation party to Jackie and Veronica.
"A Weird Year" feels very chaotic. That's the energy the show is going for in the fifth season finale. It allows them to end the season with a scene where someone gets to say its been a very weird day but an even weirder year. It does that right before completely pulling the rug out from beneath us yet again. That's the tone this episode is going for and which I do think softened the emotional impact a bit.The show is simultaneous trying to tie up loose ends while also making sure its characters remain in complicated arguments with one another. It introduced the thread of the two firms merging an episode or so after Will's death - but it really hasn't been mentioned much since. So that idea has to come again here alongside all the issues brewing with Louis and David conspiring to take control of Lockhart/Gardner and trying to take down Florrick/Agos. Did we ever get any kind of resolution with how they were going to destroy Alicia and Cary? They introduced Neil Gross' wife. But then so much more plot started happening that that plot was left in the dust. And I didn't mind that at all because I was much more interested in the firm votes on each side than someone from Lockhart/Gardner just talking about destroying Florrick/Agos yet again.
Really so much of the great things that happen in this finale happen during the second half of the episode. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it when The Good Wife talks about technology misuses and seeing Carey and Clarke get physical was very entertaining. But all of the emotional beats came from the concluding half-hour. Seeing the up-and-down battle that Diane is on is just amazing to watch. The show has really stepped things up for that character this entire season. And they are ending just as strongly - maybe even more. She has built this business into what it is today through the help of Will. And now that he's gone, she's left facing the biggest threat to the firm - David Lee and Louis Canning. They are conspiring for control and she's left panicking. She gets the votes to win. But Peter and Eli also have an offer for her - the job of Cook County State's Attorney. That's an added complexity to her situation that nicely mirrors her arc from the beginning of the season. That bridge was severely burned the last time she dealt with those two. And yet, she still takes that meeting - with Kalinda by her side - to see what her options are. But she also has the votes to stay where she is and could possibly reunite with Alicia and her firm. Louis' final option of dissolution shakes her to her core. That is the nuclear option. The only card she has left to play is to head over to Florrick/Agos and ask if they will take her and her $38 million in billings.
But whether or not Diane joins Florrick/Agos is a question that we don't get an answer on. Because that firm has had its own fair share of issues in this chaotic day. It ultimately boils down to Alicia and Cary being at odds with one another. The finale simply sets up that conflict between the two. They've been great this entire season but here they are forcefully pushed apart. And I guess the show had been writing in that direction because of Alicia's mindset after Will's death. It was just so drastically blunt here in the way they were suddenly and violently divided. And an Alicia-Cary divided is not an Alicia-Cary that I'm really that interesting in. It will probably allow for her to run for State's Attorney like Eli suggests at hour's end without that much hesitation. Even though I'm probably more interested in the new balance that would be created with Alicia, Diane and Cary running a firm together. That's a major step down for Diane and I'm intrigued to see how she reacts. Does she have the same say as the other partners? Does she get her name on the door simply because she used to? Will we ever see the Lockhart/Gardner offices again? Those are the questions I desperately want answers to.
Some more thoughts:
- "A Weird Year" was written by Robert King & Michelle King and directed by Robert King.
- The Finn runs for State's Attorney plot never made a whole lot of sense. And here, it's easily just thrown away in order to set up an additional plot for both Diane and Alicia. It existed in order to give Matthew Goode something to do in these final few episodes of the season. The show really does love having him around and he did fill a male energy hole in the wake of Josh Charles' departure. I'm hoping he's back for Season 6 and maybe he could be better connected to everyone else's story. Perhaps he too could join Florrick/Agos.
- The home stuff with Zach, Jackie and Veronica was awkward. I'm not sure how we're suppose to feel about it. It's an added complexity to Alicia's life that's now about to get a little less busy. Zach is leaving the night of graduation for an internship (Showoff much?) and Alicia is sad? That's basically what that plot boils down to.
- But Grace's reaction to seeing Jackie drinking wine was pretty great.
- Also, the way Peter and Kalinda reacted to each other in that one second together had so much deep character history intricately woven into it.
- I love that Eli complains about the lack of walls in the Florrick/Agos offices every time he stops by there.
- I initially read the Cary and Kalinda have sex scene as a dream sequence because the episode immediately cut from Kalinda with Diane to that one. But it wasn't. And it was cut short before the question would have started popping up if the sexual act was consensual or not.
- The show wouldn't pose that question to Alicia if it wasn't going to have her run at the beginning of the next season. It's yet another way to shake up the premise of the show. She's the good wife but now she's gonna try to get into politics herself. But the State's Attorney's race has already covered a lot of time. So not a whole lot would be left until the vote, right? So the show could test the waters early next season and if it's not working just cut ties as soon as possible.
- With Diane joining Florrick/Agos, that means Kalinda will too, right? Also, I've waited until now to saw I've been predicting this twist for a couple of weeks now.
- This season has just been so great. The show was able to take the momentum it got from "Hitting the Fan" and ran with it throughout the season. It underwent another major shakeup with Will's death which honest was probably one too many changes this season. But I applaud the show for not sticking to the status quo. I can't wait to see what happens in the fall.
