Alicia's political future is on the line when Peter gives an interview that could influence voter turnout on Election Day. Meanwhile, a weekend getaway with Kurt and his affluent hunting buddies could lead Diane to a prosperous new client for the firm.
"Red Meat" is the episode this season has been building towards. It is finally election day and the people of Chicago will decide if Alicia Florrick or Frank Prady will be the next State's Attorney of Cook County. Over the last few years, The Good Wife has full-heartedly embraced change. They've been able to maintain relevancy by never growing too comfortable with the status quo. It's an ambitious way to tell stories. It could very easy led to upheaval burnout, with the audience being aware that the latest twist to the narrative foundation will only last a few episodes before the next one starts. Between Alicia and Cary leaving the firm, Will dying, Diane joining the new firm, Cary's legal troubles and this State's Attorney's race, a lot of change has been happening recently with these characters. That is the nature of life. You don't fully know how long something will be until it is over. And yet, for a serialized narrative, the twists may slowly becoming one too many for The Good Wife.Because now, Alicia Florrick has been elected as the new State's Attorney. It's an exciting moment for the character but largely just a moment of relief for the audience. This election storyline has dragged on several episodes too long. This show has done this kind of story twice already. And yet, both of those times were centered on Peter - who isn't as regular a character as Alicia, Diane, Cary, etc. This time it was Alicia running for office. Because she is the lead of the show, more time of this season had to be spent on the election. There were still many great stories about the election process throughout this narrative. Alicia's campaign handlers worrying about how Peter's actions are effecting voter turnout is interesting stuff. Sure, they are largely just flailing around trying to find answers to the problems without ever really coming up with a solution. But they are details that likely do occur behind-the-scenes of this whole operation.
And yet, the basic setup of this episode was largely too pointed in one direction - Alicia losing because people aren't going out to vote for her - that I expected early on that she would emerge victorious. That is simply the nature of the beast once you spend so much time watching and learning the tricks of television. It was still a lot of fun watching Alicia dealing with all the stress of the day by playing Halo. Alicia and the world of Halo are such polar opposites that it just becomes so fun when they are paired together. We have Finn to thank for the gift too. I'm still holding out hope for that Alicia-Finn hook up. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she finally got to release some tension with Elfman. I just prefer the Alicia-Finn dynamic more. The show may be heading in that direction as well considering Elfman left the party likely to accept a new job out in Los Angeles. Alicia did ask Finn out to dinner when she was certain that she was going to loss. The new problem though is that he has started seeing someone new. I didn't expect him to wait for her to become emotionally available and ready for a relationship. But this also presents as some new complication that they'll have to deal with in the immediate future.
Alicia's new position presents a much more interesting dynamic shakeup in comparison to the other characters as well. Over the rest of the season, the firm will be going up against Alicia as the State's Attorney. The show tried this story once when Cary left for the SA's office back in Season 2. It rarely worked all that well. He became a much better character once he joined the firm again. But with Alicia making the switch, it will become much more personal to the show simply because she's the lead. She is friends with Diane, Cary and Finn. And now, she'll have to face the legality of standing opposed to all of them in court. That presents a lot of juicy upcoming stories for the future. And yet, I'm still pondering how long this twist will last before the next one comes calling? Six episodes are left this season. A lot can and will change between now and then. Will this be a permanent job for Alicia? Even she came to the realization that Frank would be a much more better person for the job. They were opponents throughout this race. And yet, she respected the way he handled himself throughout the experience. It was that admirability that led to her offering him a job as her Deputy. He doesn't always want to be second fiddle to her. That's understandable. And yet, Alicia entered into this race because she wanted to make sure James Castro wasn't in the position for that much longer after the amount of conviction he wrongly showed in Cary's case. It was only later that she started believing that she could bring change to the office. That wasn't a solid way to get the campaign started - especially when she ran against someone so morally good and intentioned.
But now, Alicia officially has the job. The firm will be able to survive this massive shift. They are already focusing on getting a massive new client. But the changing personal dynamics of this shift are the things I'm most interesting in seeing in the next few episodes. Alicia chose to run before really discussing it with Cary and Diane. Now that she has the job, they officially have to deal with the logistics of her exit and those possibilities are really thrilling to think about right now.
Some more thoughts:
- "Red Meat" was written by Nichelle Tramble Spellman and directed by Michael Zinberg.
- Diane's story was completely fantastic from the beginning of her looking at herself in the mirror in a camouflage outfit and holding a gun to her debating abortions with her hunting companion to her enjoying the feeling of killing a deer. It was all wonderful and helped show a new side of her that was fun while still sticking to her roots as a smart and informed character.
- Kalinda is still driving Dylan to and from school for Lemond Bishop. But more importantly, he wants her to be the liaison between him and Alicia as he works on retiring from the drug business. Yeah, I don't see that going well - largely because it would mean Alicia and Kalinda being in the same room.
- It is just so weird seeing Cary and David Lee together on the other end of the phone call with Diane.
- Peter and Alicia's dynamic is at its best right now when they are simply calling each other out on their passive aggressive behavior. Peter obviously meant every action he did throughout this episode because he was hurt by what she said last week about him being a racist while holding the office she is currently running for.
- Marissa wants to come work for Alicia. More Alicia-Marissa interactions will always be a good thing. Marissa telling Alicia she can have a donut and teaching her how to play Halo were both great.
