The Good Wife: Secrets and Smokescreens

The Good Wife is proving itself to be… some kind of fabulous, if I do say so myself. This I kind of did, I guess, in the previous statement. But it’s true. And this week’s episode, a fast-paced murder mystery, a legal drama Who-done-it, just continues this show’s long reign in great drama.

We start with a home interview. A police officer is questioning Alicia on her home, in preparation for Peter’s possible return. In the middle of the interview Alicia gets an urgent call from Diane who tells Alicia to come prepared with two days worth of clothing and toiletries. It’s a rally of the troops as Will rushes to the office and calls Cary, startled and on a date, into the office as well.

The case: At the home of the Ruckers, the babysitter, Lisa Pruitt, is found murdered in the shower. The last person to see her alive was Jason Rucker, the father. The team now has 48 hours to prove him innocent before the police charge him with her murder. And while that challenge seems difficult, it becomes even more daunting because everyone it seems has a secret and a motive for wanting her dead.

Jason Rucker, the obvious choice. Mr. Rucker is a stay-at-home dad, recently laid-off from his job. Every Wednesday, he and his wife hire a sitter so that he can get some time off from daddy duty. He spends this time, or so he says, at the movie theatre in Chinatown where they play these martial arts movies that he loves. The problem here, Wednesday’s movie didn’t have subtitles. Jason didn’t know that. Alibi, bye-bye. So where was he? At this studio apartment he has in town, uh oh. Because apparently he’s working on a graphic novel with the babysitter’s help. So this of course explains why the sitter’s bra and hairbrush were found in his bathroom at said secret apartment. Yeah, that’s good, but of course they can’t let the police know this. Now, personally I was hoping that he was on the up and up, if only for the fact that upon hearing the word “babysitter” I immediately thought he was involved. Call me jaded, but in tv world every babysitter is either shacking up with somebody, or doing drugs. And there are just so many times you can hear the same song on repeat before you start to anticipate it. So, I was hoping this guy would be… not screwing the nanny.

Mrs. Rucker, I totally want to say her name is Sheila, but I’m not sure. Now, Mrs. Rucker was not a suspect… until it seemed likely that hubby was in fact sleeping with the nanny. Add to that the fact that she was not at work on Wednesday night (like she said she was) but was in fact at home to sign for a delivery. Uh-oh again. Turns out she was suspicious of Jason and the babysitter for a while. So she came home early to surprise them and ended up getting surprised when… absolutely nothing was going on. In fact the sitter was just reading to the kids. Okay, she’s out.

Security guard, this guy is totally creepy. This is not a personal opinion, but rather a statement from a neighbor whom Kalinda interviewed while looking for other potential suspects. And this guy, made it too easy. Familiarity with the victim, a history of maybe breaking into residents’ houses, all lead up to him being defense’s number one smokescreen; because after the secret apartment that’s what the firm is looking for, a smokescreen to get the cops away from their potentially guilty client.

And now Lisa, though she’s already dead when the show starts, Lisa drops a bombshell with the things she left behind in Jason’s apartment. Namely, the business card with an attorney who specializes in putting babies up for adoption. My mouth hit the floor with this one. An irritated Alicia confronts Jason, “you got her pregnant,” who deems this an impossibility because he has had a vasectomy. (Not impossible because he didn’t sleep with her mind you, take that as you will.)

So, who is the father and murderer…? Someone I didn’t see until the very end. Kudos, by the way, on a job well done. This fast-paced episode kept me on the very edge, a smokescreen never revealing what was going on underneath. Masterfully done. But darn it, I didn’t even get to Peter’s appeal, and that was kind of important too.

Peter rejected the offer from Childs. Because forget getting back home with his family, he wants his options. Childs cross-examined Peter and questioned whether he had ever slept with Madison in his home, while his wife was not there. Peter answered no, Alicia looked relieved, and Glenn asked this again. Just to be sure everyone knew that Peter is under oath and still said no. Peter understood that he was being set up for possible perjury charges and his answer was still no.

Childs’ witness: Kalinda. Turns out Kalinda was a double agent for Childs as she worked under Peter, she was part of an investigation quaintly titled “Barbie eruptions.” Her job was to track how prostitutes were used to influence men of power. And this is where things get absolutely magnificent.

While Childs tries to get Kalinda to contradict Peter, Kalinda with great subtlety explains how her job was to uncover the sexual peccadilloes of let’s say, client #12. While describing client #12’s preferences Childs gets upset, the judge becomes very uncomfortable, and Peter just sits back and smiles. Kalinda’s subtle blackmail works and the judge (client #12) ends the questioning and immediately grants Peter his appeal. Peter then is free to return home to an uncertain family.

Season 1, Episode 14: Hi (originally aired February 9, 2010)

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Tuesday at 10/9c on CBS

Photos courtesy of CBS, David M. Russell, and Jeffrey Neira.