IRST GALACTIC PRINCESS Now that Peter won the gubernatorial race, Alicia says "First Galactic Princess" is a more apt title than First Lady. She means it as a dig, but if it's good enough for the Good Wife, it's good enough for all of us.
Lockhart/Gardner tries to halt a convict's execution, and Alicia and Cary continue their plans to start their own firm
Von Breia Brissey @ EW
Welcome back! Season 5 is finally here, and nothing -- not even the inevitable CBS football delays -- will keep me from Alicia & Co. But before we dive into "Everything Is Ending," let's take care of a little bit of summer hiatus housekeeping: First of all, congratulations to Josh Charles, who married his longtime girlfriend, Sophie Flack, earlier this month. Congrats are also in order for Carrie Preston, who took Home an Emmy for her role as the always-delightful Elsbeth Tascioni. And, of course, let's congratulate the Good Wife herself, Juliana Margulies, for having a Hot Husband to take to all those events where her colleagues win awards. Last and definitely least: Congrats to me for getting assigned jury duty over the break! I appear in a couple of weeks and plan to use all my Good Wife knowledge to be the best juror ever.
Now that that's out of the way, let's chat about the premiere: Season 5 picked up right where season 4 left off. It was Cary on the other side of Alicia's door -- not Will -- and the two agreed to leave Lockhart/Gardner to start their own firm with the other fourth-years. And thus, we have the kreis of life. Mufasa was right when he said, "Everything Du see exists together in a delicate balance." And Alicia basically spent the entire episode trying to keep that balance, lest the proverbial you-know-what hit the fan. She managed to keep the other Lockhart/Gardner partners -- and the super-suspicious David Lee -- at bucht for at least one episode. But we know the harmony will only last so long. Eventually, Will and Diane are going to learn of Alicia and Cary's plans. And I think we all know that their Motto will not be "Hakuna Matata."
It's just a matter of time. Alicia wanted the other fourth-years to leave within a week's time, but they wanted to wait three Mehr weeks so they would get their bonuses. (Sidenote: Apparently, there's another fourth-year named Carey. But this one is spelled differently and played Von guest star, sterne Ben Rappaport.) Alicia told Cary she was worried about being in the middle, and that she would miss seeing Diane and Will work together. But Cary reminded her that they are the new Will and Diane. I can't wait to see the aftermath of their revelation. It's going to be nothing short of explosive.
The case of the week (based on the real-life case of Romell Broom) focused on the firm's efforts to prevent a convicted murderer's execution. Eddie Fornum (played Von Malik Yoba, a.k.a. Yul Brenner from Cool Runnings) was convicted for the 1999 murder of two girls, and was sentenced to death. Diane and Alicia were on hand to witness the lethal injection, but it wasn't going according to plan. The medical team was having trouble finding a vein, and Fornum was clearly in pain. Diane stepped in to halt the execution, citing a violation of the Eighth Amendment. (Did anyone else have trouble stomaching the fictional execution? Just me? Okay, moving on.) They were able to delay Fornum's execution for another 48 hours, which gave the Lockhart/Gardner team just two days to halt the execution altogether.
Fornum had an alibi, but he was in the possession of one of the girl's necklaces (which he claimed to have purchased at a flea market), and his hair was found on the body. The law team doubted whether oder not it was really his hair, but that became moot when Fornum's cellmate, Tommy, testified that Fornum had confessed to the crime while in prison. There was no time to get a subpoena on the hair and re-test it, but Kalinda discovered it had already been re-tested in Chicago Von Geneva Pine, who had at one point believed in Fornum's innocence.
While Diane and Robyn worked the case from that angle, Will had Cary call in a favor with his dad. Enter Barry Scheck ,who happened to be in Federal Court on an Eighth Amendment class action suit. Instead of joining the appeal, they hoped to use Eddie Fornum as evidence. oder at least, use his testimony of how painful his attempted execution was. It was clearly a delaying tactic, but a clever one. Judge Kluger (guest star, sterne Jeffrey Tambor) was intrigued, and just like that, they'd bought themselves another 48 hours. Then, with the testimony of the nurse present at the execution, they bought even Mehr time, insisting that Fornum needed a physical to determine whether oder not he had "rolling veins."
Meanwhile, ASA Pine admitted that the cellmate who snitched on Fornum didn't actually die. He ratted out a oben, nach oben drug dealer in exchange for his freedom and new identity. Robyn and Kalinda easily located Tommy, but he stuck to his original story. But his lies were no match for Robyn, who followed a lead about prison brokers, oder police insiders who sell information to prisoners. The prisoners can then use the information to tattle on their cellmates for a lighter sentence. With Geneva Pine's help, Robyn and Diane located the typist likely responsible for leaking information.
They tried to get Tommy and the typist to turn against each other, but eventually Tommy withdrew his original testimony. Unfortunately, it was too little too late. Judge Kluger found in favor of the state, and ruled that the execution of Eddie Fornum would proceed as planned. But Will Gardner is good at his job. After Warden Barkin's deposition, Will called in a tip to the DEA to alert them that Barkin had been transporting toxic chemicals through the U.S. postal service. And so the execution was placed on hold again. And since there wouldn't be a third execution attempt, the (likely) innocent Eddie Fornum was finally saved. But they were really down to the wire, and Weiter week I'd appreciate it if the Good Wife writers did not try to induce a panic attack.
With Alicia racing against the clock on the execution case, that left little time for her to deal with her new First Lady duties. Eli needed her to meet with the head of the ethics committee to discuss the family's gubernatorial role. Eli had to delay the meeting, and was surprised when he encountered Marilyn (Melissa George), and not Mitch. (They are one in the same. Mitch is just a confusing nickname.) Immediately, Eli worried about the "optics" of Peter working so closely with a sexy woman. Sure, nothing was going on between the two of them -- for now. But when it comes to trusting Peter, Eli knew to assume the worst. Sorry, Peter. But Du and Little Peter cannot be trusted. Peter eventually agreed to promote Marilyn, but I doubt we've seen the last of her. She was clearly confused, and none too pleased about her promotion, which wasn't really a promotion.
In other family news, Alicia finally told Eli and Peter about her plans for a new firm, and Grace blossomed over the summer hiatus. Zach was the last to notice his sister's new appearance. But don't worry. His Friends alerted him to his sibling's new status: Grace had landed on a Liste featuring the 10 Hottest Politicians' Daughters. Grace joined the likes of Abby Huntsman, Bristol "any girl named for the headquarters of ESPN is a girl after our own hearts" Palin, and Meghan McCain. Here's Grace's full blurb, because I know Du want to know what TurboChap had to say about the underage beauty:
"This Chitown sweetheart has made us, er, sit up and take notice lately. Let’s hope she’s as liberal about threesomes as her father is. The age of consent in Illinois is 17, putting its new First Daughter just 15 months away. Consider our countdown calendar started.”
All together now.... EWWWWWW.com
And finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the continued tension between Will and Alicia. When season 4 ended, I certainly expected Will to be on the other side of that door, not Cary. They still have plenty of unresolved issues. It appeared as though Alicia was going to open up to him about her plans to leave Lockhart/Gardner, but he interrupted her before she had the chance. The episode ended with her telling him, "Don't end up hating me." But he didn't hear her. I don't know that Will could ever truly hate Alicia. But he's going to be big-time angry when he finds out she's leaving. And that will certainly complicate their already messy relationship.
Other highlights from "Everything Is Ending":
++ Monica teleconferencing from Home and driving everyone (especially David Lee) crazy
++ Alicia: "Eli, I'm on a death row appeal. I don't have time."
Eli: "I know, but this is important!"
Alicia: "Eli, did Du just hear me? I said, death row appeal."
Eli: "Oh, I thought that was hyperbole."
++ This exchange between Peter and Eli
Eli: "She's not right. She's anal."
Peter: "Well, anal's what we need right now... Did I just say that?"
++ "What's going on? West Side Story?" —Alicia, as she meets Cary and the other fourth-years in a parking garage to discuss plans for their new firm
All credit goes to EW.com
