"This was Never Meant Personally"-The Good Wife 5X05

If there was an award for most apt title, "Hitting the Fan" would win in a landslide. Because shit. hit. the. fan.

The writers and creators have been building to this moment for awhile. No, not just from last season, but from the beginning of the show really. They took these characters and showed us their reasons and motivations for just about anything, allowing the viewer to understand and sympathize with them at different points. With this episode, they stuffed each character in their own cannons and just started shooting them at each other. And it is damn entertaining.

The episode starts off with more of the conversation between Will and the publicist than we heard last week, where they are ironically discussing how stable the firm is. Diane comes in, and the firm falls apart. Will unleashes rage onto Alicia, trapping her in her office and getting the other partners together to fire her. Then, they go about firing everyone else. Diane traps Cary and he angrily gives up important info, like they're going after ChumHum, to her before she fires him. Again. David Lee gleefully walks from office to office firing every fourth-year in site. Alicia is removed from the building. Everyone has been kicked out of L&G, so they set up shop in the coffee place downstairs.

Alicia cries, you cry. That's how this show works right?

They scramble to figure out what clients are coming with them because they desperately need money and have no files. Then there's that dude who remarks that they didn't get their bonuses. Can we fire that guy? Like now? Kalinda comes down to offer her services and Cary, once again, gives too much away. This will end well. Alicia decides to distract Will with actual work, which no one is doing at the moment, so he has to go work a deposition about a nurse that was fired for being too pretty. I kind of love that they are doing a ripped-from-the-headline thing without actually going into a case? It's like their mocking people that criticize the show for its on-pointness. Will also has Alicia's phone, which makes for some interesting conversation when Grace and Peter call. Grace just needs a permission slip, and Peter just yells at him. Dude, you haven't even spoken to your wife. Please stop threatening on behalf of her, and if you haven't noticed, she can take care of herself. 

Alicia's client calls her because she doesn't think Will is handling the case right. Will take the phone and argues with Alicia, resulting in the most hilarious conversation of the night:

Alicia: OH, GO TO HELL!
Will: NO, YOU GO!...Oh, you're daughter called. She needs you to call her school to let her go on a field trip
Alicia: Oh, when was this?
Will: About forty minutes ago
Alicia: Oh, okay. Thanks
Will: You're welcome.

Because really, The Good Wife is a comedy.

Alicia "Sassmaster" Florrick

If I wasn't convinced that Breaking Bad is going to sweep at the Emmy's next year, I would say Josh Charles has a shot (and maybe the show as a whole) for next year. Because this may be his best episode yet.

Kalinda also reveals her true intentions, leaking information about F,A&A for Will to use. She gives up where their offices are, which David Lee promptly shuts down. 

The tensions escalate as Alicia and the the other try to wrangle clients. L&G serves them a restraining order to stop them from going after ChumHum, so after a snarky court session causes Alicia to get a restraining order against L&G. How fun. F,A&A sets up camp in Alicia's house, and then Carey wierdly hits on Grace while Grace pours him wine. What?

All of the awkward

Then Peter comes over, mainly to check up on Alicia, but also for some gross sexytimes.

The way that this show uses sex-specifically with Alicia and Peter-is really fascinating. The show is very specific in showing us when and why the two of them have sex as their relationship become increasingly complicated. For Alicia, she initiates sex with Peter in order to reaffirm her status as "The Good Wife". I talk a bit about it here, but her choice of Peter is reactionary. In the first season, she feels guilty about her feelings for Will, so she has sex with Peter. Last season, her mother said that Alicia should choose Will. To choose Will means being her mother, means being not "The Good Wife", so she pulls Peter into the bathroom. Peter is there to reassure her that she is not a bad person. Peter, on the other hand, fetishizes his wife's power. One of the reasons I love Will so much is that he truly respects Alicia, even if she's not with him. Peter, on the other hand, seems to respect Alicia because she's his wife.

 In this article, they discuss that Alicia and Will have a clear mutual, professional respect for each other even though they may be at odds personally. In scenes where Peter initiates sex, it is often done after Alicia shows some enormous amount of power. In season 2, it was after watching her kick ass in court (and was questionable in the consent department). Now? He's watching her kick ass in starting a new firm. He doesn't routinely see Alicia's BAMF-ness as much as we or Will does, but whenever he does he has sex with her.

The hilarious part of this whole scene is how much emphasis everyone puts on their relationship. Florrick, Agos and Associates does play up that they have the governor's wife as a partner, but Lockhart and Gardner put an even larger emphasis upon it. But in this episode, Alicia is fired, goes to court, gets a restraining order, and has half a dozen meetings with her new firm in various places without ever telling her husband. Then, when he shows up, her response? "Oh good, you've heard!". Then she has sex with him and nonchalantly says they can't renew their vows, and goes back to kicking ass. This is the relationship everyone puts so much emphasis on?!

Implications and, let's be honest about this scene, grossness aside, that was definitely the most creative "Lean In" reference I've ever heard.

Cheers!

F,A&A and L&G go head to head to fight for ChumHum. Originally, L&G win, but with some meddling by Peter ChumHum decides F,A&A is in their best interests. So much for Peter running the most ethical governorship ever (because I really thought that was going to work out *sarcasm*). Then Peter decides Diane should not get the judgeship because of this whole Alicia business. Peter, if you actually talked to your wife, you would know that Diane tried to take herself out of it. She didn't want any part of it because of the judgeship. You really just did a 180 on the whole ethical thing in the matter of days. That must be a new record.

Sundays were always my favorite night for this show, but it really became my favorite night after this episode. This season is shaping up to be magnificent, and I am so excited to see the rest. 

Now please excuse me, I'm going to go convince everyone I have ever met to watch this show.