Season 6, Episode 6, “Old Spice”
Shades of “Constantine” or “Supernatural,” an exorcism of sorts took place at the end of Sunday night’s episode of “The Good Wife,” titled “Old Spice.” After a low-wattage hour focused on the Elsbeth Tascioni-Josh Perotti rom-com, we were blindsided — in a good way — by what might have been the most emotional scene of the season so far: Diane and Alicia walking back into the old Lockhart Gardner offices, which they had finally wrested from David Lee and Louis Canning.
Diane offered her old office to Alicia, but Alicia wouldn’t hear of it (of course she wouldn’t) and after some pensive hesitation and a few deep breaths she walked into Will’s former office, scene of so much sexual and professional tension, and slowly sat in his chair. (Actually it was probably Louis Canning’s chair, but who’s counting.) Getting comfortable, in every sense. Then she and Diane locked eyes across the foyer and the ghost of Will Gardner, not to mention Josh Charles, had been banished. Or not — Alicia’s smile had that hard, cryptic, Julianna Margulies edge. We’ll see.
Otherwise, Plot A continued the case from last week, in which the wrongful-dismissal suit brought by a female tech executive (Jan Maxwell) had morphed into a criminal case against her and her former company, with Alicia and Elsbeth allied against the federal prosecutor Josh (Kyle MacLachlan). Elsbeth carried the day, forcing Josh to drop the charges after a series of entirely fantastical twists that we’ll get to in a moment.
(Though let’s pause to say that the shtick about saying “in my opinion” every time you address the recurring character Judge Patrice Lessner, played by Ana Gasteyer, wasn’t funny the first time back in 2010 and it was even less funny the fifth time.)
In Plot B, Linda Lavin returned as the bail compliance officer Joy Grubick, in a plot that seemed cooked up primarily as an excuse to get Linda Lavin back on screen as Joy Grubick. Accidentally discovering that Cary had committed a small violation of his bail conditions, she had him hauled back into court. (His offense: leaving the state of Illinois for a few minutes while coming home from a Harvard mixer. I don’t think that made any geographic sense whatsoever — residents of Chicago or northwestern Indiana, any thoughts?) The story followed the now familiar (it’s happened twice) Grubick pattern: she started something based on her narrow-minded attention to the rules and then in the end, because she’s a good person, more or less came around to Cary’s side, though she specified to the judge that Cary needed an ankle monitor, a curfew and a prohibition from associating with the “dangerous” Kalinda Sharma. The judge, by the way, was played by the New York actor John Procaccino — seen on Broadway in recent years in “Nikolai and the Others” and “A Time to Kill” — who was terrific in his few seconds on screen.
Finally there was Plot C, which was the least flashy but probably the most credible. Alicia was ordered by her campaign manager to go on a local talk show hosted by a popular Chicago minister and “walk back” her public avowal of atheism. All of the scenes associated with this were good, in the best “Good Wife” way, which is to say thoughtful, serious and authentic — Alicia consulting with her daughter, Grace; the interview, with Alicia artfully dodging a flat-out statement while not quite hiding her irritation at the questioning; and the ride home after, when Alicia said, “I don’t like pretending to be someone I’m not when I’m being interviewed,” and Eli Gold’s happily pragmatic daughter, Marissa, replied: “Really? You’re good at it.”
The back and forth over real estate was amusing, in a superficial way — after thrusts and counter-thrusts involving violations of Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules, Kalinda figured out that Diane could win by recruiting the show’s resident laughing stock, Howard Lyman, to Florrick Agos. It was a funny idea that played out anti-climactically, though Jerry Adler as Howard got to exit with style: “My physical presence and I will be in my office, should you need me.”
The episode’s most noticeable feature, though, was the madcap Elsbeth-Josh romance, which progressed in its entirely implausible fashion from mutual discombobulation in court (spurred by some heavy finger-touching at the defense table), to bodice-ripping, clear-the-desk sex in her office, to morning-after betrayal, to a classic will-they-or-won’t-they handshake goodbye, after which both covertly sniffed their hands for a last hit of the other’s musk. (Old Spice for her, baby lotion for him.) There was bad and good to be had here. Bad in that the show’s over-the-top theatrical ideas work best when they’re tightly contained, and this one was both less believable than most and spread over two episodes. Good in that Kyle MacLachlan was a complete hoot as Josh, playing him as a brilliant, vulnerable, buttoned-down romantic nerd — in other words, playing him as Agent Dale Cooper from “Twin Peaks,” now obsessed with baby lotion rather than cherry pie.
Let us know what you thought of “Old Spice” in the comments. Do you want to see more of Elsbeth and Josh? Are you, like me, more than a little tired of Cary as the constant victim? And my real question: I know it’s her cellphone, but would Alicia really be answering her own calls? During a strategy meeting with her campaign manager?