Sunday, March 11, 2012

'The Good Wife' Review - 3.17 Long Way Home

        In the newest episode of CBS' The Good Wife, Alicia must once again aid Colin Sweeney when a sexual misconduct claim derails his attempt to win back control of his company. Meanwhile, Cary is faced with a moral dilemma when Peter tasks him with enforcing office policies.

        This week's episode of The Good Wife had some marvelous guest actors performing in the case of the week. Dylan Baker returned as Alicia's creepy client, Colin Sweeney, trying to regain control of his former company. Morena Baccarin (Homeland) starred as a woman claiming Sweeney sexual assaulted her and that her daughter was his. Kate Burton returned as attorney Victoria Adler to Baccarin's Isobel. Rounding out the guest stars was Bebe Neuwirth (Cheers) as the presided judge over the case. The case itself was very entertaining and goes to show that Colin Sweeney is a well-rounded character and is always used well in his appearances. Neuwirth wasn't given much to do but I would enjoy seeing her again on the program. The same goes for Baccarin. I love her on Homeland and her character here was more subdued but she absolutely has to reprise this role for the next Colin Sweeney-centric episode of this series.
        Unlike before, Sweeney wasn't the only thing troubling Alicia in this episode. She was growing increasingly paranoid with Caitlin trying to undermine her on the case as well as trying to find and finance new housing for her family. Caitlin's arc over this season has been a unique one and it concluded in a refreshing way as she chose to become a stay at home mom after getting engaged and pregnant. It did feel a little weird to cut her out just one episode after promoting her but it just felt so natural. While Alicia was being paranoid with Caitlin, she also learned that she could lose her apartment and contemplated moving back into her old house. At first she shoved that idea aside but later reconsidered after seeing her kids so enthralled by the idea and went to the home's open house at the end of the hour. The scene were Alicia went back to her old house was excellent as she just took everything about it in.
        Over at the State's Attorney's office, Peter learned of a rumor that two employees had sex on his office couch and tasked Cary with discovering who violated his no inter-work relationship policy. This of course caused a moral crisis in Cary since he had a relationship with Dana. In the end, Cary comes clean about it and Peter wants to ignore it because of his honesty. However, Cary insisted on there being consequences especially after hearing that Peter may be implementing some kind of racial bias. That idea is very complex and intriguing and I'm hoping that issue will come up again in the future.

Side Notes:
  • I hope this was the last episode where someone says, "Oh, Will can offer advice since he started work on this case before his suspension." Two episodes of that and it's already old.
  • It also seems evident that Alicia's money woes will continue on into the next episode with return guest star Michael J. Fox.