I’m curious about the thinking leading up to “Message Discipline,” Sunday’s episode of “The Good Wife,” which introduced a third candidate into the race for Cook County state’s attorney. Did the producers just want some added complication to get us through the long broadcast-network season? Were they afraid that the incumbent, James Castro (Michael Cerveris), had become too unlikable and one-note and that they needed to provide Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) with a more sympathetic opponent to keep viewers interested? Or was it just that David Hyde Pierce was available and they really wanted to figure out a way to get him on the show?
Whatever the case, it was great to see Mr. Hyde Pierce in action, in his first prime-time appearance (outside of voice roles) since “Frasier” ended in 2004. He played Frank Prady, a Chicago television commentator and host. When Eli and Johnny suspected that Frank was preparing to enter the race, they went into panic mode — his TV fame would trump Alicia’s governor’s-wife fame.
Their strategy: send Alicia to ask Frank for an endorsement, which will reveal his true plans. She flubs the meeting though, not only emerging with no intelligence but also agreeing to appear on his interview show. Presumably we’re supposed to think that Alicia’s awkwardness in this and in the subsequent interview stem from her inexperience with and distaste for the political process — as Eli says, “You’ve just got to get over your feeling that you’re above all this.” But it still felt artificial to me, to see her fumbling answers and taking notes during her interview prep like the good schoolgirl. (Though Ms. Margulies made the latter funny.)
In any case, it all set up the last scene. Eli and Johnny, against Alicia’s wishes, leaked to the Castro campaign a damaging law-review article (about Israeli settlements) that Frank had written decades before, thinking it would keep him out of the race. But then Frank came to Florrick Agos to tell Alicia that he couldn’t endorse her — the dirty trick that had pre-emptively been played on him had made him decide to run. Best-laid plans, and all that.
But “The Good Wife” wasn’t going to take the easy irony — Alicia, now a hardened politico, turned on Frank, calling him a hypocrite and asserting, despite his denials, that he had planned to run all along and had just been making her jump through hoops. Cue the episode-ending shot of the latest version of Alicia, just that much tougher.
In that final scene, she wasn’t just overcoming her lack of political instincts but her distress over the latest twist in the drug case against Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry). Backing up a bit: The pretty prosecutor Finn Polmar (Matthew Goode), being bested in court by Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), looked at a bunch of pictures on a white board and had an inspiration: talk to someone at the state’s attorney’s office about why Cary left three seasons ago. (Excuse me, three years ago.) Seems as if he could have thought of that before. Anyway, he was soon talking to Cary’s former colleague Geneva Pine (Renée Elise Goldsberry, last seen midway through Season 5).
The show engaged in a little revisionist history here, or perhaps historical augmentation. Cary’s departure from the state’s attorney’s office in Season 3 was sufficiently explained by his demotion — after he admitted having a relationship with a co-worker, Dana Lodge — and the opportunity to return to Lockhart Gardner. Now we discover that two kilos of cocaine connected to Lemond Bishop had gone missing from an evidence locker, signed out by Cary, and Geneva suspected Cary had stolen it, or was willing to say so, anyway.
This latest strategy by the writers to stretch out the case against Cary seemed a little far-fetched, but at least it got Kalinda involved — while maintaining her court-mandated 50-foot distance from Cary, she worked her investigative magic. She traced the missing cocaine to Trey Wagner (Samuel Smith), the Bishop associate who wore the wire that got Cary charged in the first place. She then found Trey’s hiding place and got his cousin to talk him into testifying against Bishop. That seemed about as likely as Peter Florrick taking a vow of chastity.
The writers eked two benefits from this situation. First, Finn went to his boss, Castro, to tell him about Trey and to make the case for Cary’s innocence. Castro wasn’t having it — they would continue to use Cary in their pursuit of Bishop. Like the sun rising after an arctic winter, the light of understanding filled Finn’s face as he said: “You don’t care about Bishop. You care about Alicia Florrick.” Well, duh. And the next thing you knew, Finn had resigned, resolving one of the show’s most awkward situations (his seemingly antagonistic prosecution of Cary at the same time that he was Alicia’s drinking buddy, at least).
Second, they derived a cliffhanger by killing Trey and his cousin off screen (done in by Lemond?) before Trey could testify, keeping Cary in limbo. The last we saw Cary and Diane, they were heading to court to meet with Finn’s replacement. All I can say is: Poor Samuel Smith. Didn’t even get a death scene.
There was one other subsidiary story line this week: Peter, needing a personal lawyer, strong-armed Eli into hiring Ramona Lytton (Connie Nielsen), the attractive mother of the attractive intern Eli had only recently managed to get out of the office. Her appearances in the episode seemed to be setting her up as Alicia’s mini-me — a talented lawyer who had been away raising a family and needed to prove herself, a process that will probably make her that much more attractive to Peter.
Let us know what you thought of “Message Discipline” in the comments. Do we know who is going to play the new assistant state’s attorney? (Have I missed the memo?) Have the writers forgotten about Lemond financing Alicia’s political action committee, or will that come back to haunt her? And while we still have the chance, please speculate about how Kalinda will be written off the show. I’ll keep track of the best guesses.