The Good Wife: The Way Things Are

Okay, so I’m really starting to like this Alicia-as-lawyer thing. This week’s episode of The Good Wife gives new dilemmas on both the home and work front to Alicia who, admirably, handles it all.

On the work front, due to Stern’s dismissal from Locke, Stern, and Gardner, the firm, now Locke and Gardner, has lost a third of their clients. With Will and Diane in make up mode to get new clients to fill the gap, Will takes on the civil case of Colin Sweeny. This move comes to the dismay of both Diane and Alicia. While Diane worries that taking on the case of Sweeny will send other clients heading for the hills, Alicia opposes on such moral grounds as she just doesn’t like the guy. Okay, I kid, I kid… she thinks he killed his wife. But then again, so does the rest of the world. I’m not going to make the obvious comparison here.

Although acquitted in a criminal trial Sweeny is now being sued by his late wife’s daughter over her estate, because of a law saying if you kill someone, you can’t have their money. So Charlotte, the stepdaughter, needs to prove Sweeny is guilty. Meeting Colin Sweeny is hard to describe. I want to call him a jerk but he’s not really. I mean, he’s irreverent, has a twisted sense of humor, uncaring if his actions make others uncomfortable; but these are not sins. In fact they could all be considered to be admirable traits at some point, but just not in Colin Sweeny.

Colin is not an easy client to defend. Aside from his general lack of charm, (that’s the word I was looking for) Sweeny was openly unfaithful to his wife with whom he admittedly had a volatile relationship. This, along with his involvement in BDSM and choking fantasies, makes him fodder for the press and the opposing attorney, Nancy Krosher. Nancy is the anti-Alicia, not that there’s anything wrong with either of them; she’s just the complete opposite. She’s younger, playing up on her “cute perky, twenty-six” with this small town innocent act designed to make Sweeny seem even more, well, smarmy.

On the home front, Peter is in the process of his appeal. Alicia can’t bring herself to go into the courtroom so she stands outside the door for all of the time that she is there. In a private meeting while Peter prepares to come home, Alicia lays out the new ground rules. When he comes home he will be sleeping in the maid’s room and his mother Jackie will continue to watch the kids under his house arrest. Peter looks shocked and upset and asks her if she still loves him. Alicia says that she does but is still hurt, and until things are better between them, they need a plan.

At the appeals, Amber, the call girl, is back. Turns out the mobster that Peter threatened her with was murdered, so Amber is now free to tell her tale instead of selling it. I’m sorry I shouldn’t have gone there, but couldn’t resist. She’s just so easy to dislike, which she proves by lying on the stand about Peter while knowing that she was sent in exchange for political favors. Don’t worry, she was caught as Peter’s lawyer provided proof that Peter paid her, so she was either paid twice, in which case why was Peter paying her. Or she was lying.

Anyway, so both of the witnesses brought forth from the prosecution’s side fell through, making Peter’s appeal look stronger. Glenn Childs, Peter’s nemesis and the new district attorney, comes to offer Peter a deal. A get out of jail free card, provided of course that Peter never enter into politics again and never runs against Childs. This would give Peter the return home that he always said he wanted but bar him from politics which his every action seems to point back too. Interesting.

Back to the Sweeny case: the skull of the former Mrs. Sweeny is found on Colin’s property. But just when you think that this guy’s gotten caught, the rest of her body is found on Charlotte’s farm. This, of course, paints Charlotte as the culprit and gets Colin off again and Charlotte is arrested. As she is placed into the squad car, Charlotte proclaims her innocence and says that Sweeny set her up. So, either Charlotte framed Colin, or Colin framed Charlotte, I don’t really know, but I’m inclined toward the latter; as is Alicia, who questions Colin about killing his wife. He doesn’t deny it, but that would be far too straightforward. Instead he gifts Alicia with a painting that was formerly in his home; an anima-esque picture of a woman choking. He says he found it “strangely fitting” for her. Colin leaves telling Alicia she needs to be more trusting; personally I’d just burn the picture.

Season 1, Episode 13: Bad (originally aired February 2, 2010)

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Tuesday at 10/9c on CBS

Photos courtesy of imdbpro and JOHN P. FILO