The Good Wife - Don't Fail - Review: "A Crisis of Confidence"

6.21 - "Don't Fail"

In the penultimate episode of the 6th season of The Good Wife, Alicia became swept up in memories as she came in contact with one of the first clients she represented from her time at Stern, Lockhart & Gardner. While in the middle of dealing with a lot of personal and professional loss, she used her memories of that time to help keep her former client out of jail on a second attempt to frame him for murder.

"Just like Peter..."

In a completely unlikely scenario, Alicia mistakenly calls one of her old clients in the middle of thanking those who donated to her campaign by phone. Still reeling from her recent losses, and feeling quite sorry for herself, she takes a moment to understand the situation and realizes that she's somehow called Brett Tatro instead of one of her donors, who has been trying to contact her through her work phone number for days. (How could that possibly happen?!) She insists on handing the case over to Cary's firm, but they apparently don't accept cases like that anymore. (Which is really strange to me, because Diane was always the bleeding heart when it came to people in peril...I wonder if they had to change their clientele to get after more money after hemorrhaging it all season-long?)


After originally only intending to attend Brett Tatro's hearing, Alicia is called over by Matan Brody, who pokes at her by telling her that after a while people will get over it...just like Peter's scandal. Of course, Matan Brody was the first agent of the State's Attorney's office that she went up against in court. Back then, he immediately hit her with the same type of passive aggressive bullshit about how if he had gone through what she had with Peter, he'd be 'curled up in a ball' or something to that effect. It was one of the first of many callbacks to season 1, and it pushed Alicia to decide to represent Tatro again. Of course, he teases her with promise of exploting a hole in her old case in order to get her client this time for the death of the man that was originally hurt in the 2009 case. 

Without her own office to go to, Alicia fashions herself a desk from a door and some side tables, complete with books to bolster its height. Setting up shop in the dining room, she dives into the old tapes, and relives some of her early memories of working with Cary and Kalinda at SLG.

"That's something I miss..."

As this show has become more and more about Alicia, and less of an ensemble, there is very little Diane in this episode, (mostly out of frame flashbacks or recorded moments from tape) and while Matt Czuchry made his scenes count (showing up in person to help Alicia with the files, subtlly tearing up about Kalinda's disappearance, being present for the flashbacks as well) Cary continues to float around in the periphery of Alicia's world. As Kalinda seemingly made her exit in 6x20, we only see her in flashbacks, where Alicia fondly recalls Kalinda's advice and the time they spent together as friends. It dawned on me that this was likely the first time she's even mentally referenced their friendship in years. Of course they almost literally have no interaction in the show currently (occasional phone calls are all we get), and the only time she outright thought about Kalinda was during 6x14 when Alicia thought about how she had slept with Peter.

Throughout this episode, Kalinda and Alicia are shown either in small shots from season 1 episodes or in patched together scenes to add to those flashbacks, akin to the slightly off memory Kalinda had of Alicia in 6x20 (that posing for the picture was really odd and didn't seem genuine at all). In what I'd refer to as a flat out minorly offensive handling of a well-known situation (that we're 2 years in since Alicia has physically laid eyes on Kalinda), they had Alicia recall a memory of Kalinda at the bar, and it was painfully obvious that the two were not even in the same room together. If I am wrong and they really were, they didn't play well off each other at all, or the camera angles did the scene no favors... Either way, I have totally had it with their handling of Kalinda and I am almost thankful that this contrived nonsense where they have her flailing around looking for decent content to take on is over.


However, in a quietly stirring scene between Alicia and Cary, they talk briefly about Kalinda. In 6x20, we saw Alicia retch and fall into a hard cry after reading the mysterious note Kalinda had left her, shortly after being permanently removed from her old firm. This episode, she was more stoic while Cary immediately teared up after mentioning Kalinda's departure. It was one of their best shared scenes in a while.

"I think it's... Neutral. "

I want my reviews to be a bit more critical and less of a recap, so I'll be more concise in describing things this time. The case of the week was admittedly a breath of fresh air, even if it felt a bit like retread. We got to see Alicia and Cary back in season 1 again, along with comparisons to how they have changed over the course of the show. We got to see a bit of that initial spark we first saw in Alicia come back out again, as you'll remember that season 1 Alicia was not exactly the numb and cynical Alicia we have in season 6 (building her own desk out of a door is pretty awesome!). The many season 1/season 6 parallels continued with Alicia once again using illegally-obtained evidence to build her case.

This time, it was Finn Polmar who let slip classified information about an Internal Affairs investigation into Matan's best witness, as opposed to in season 1, when Peter mentioned the pitted evidence that would help her client. There is a difference between these two situations, though: In season 1, Peter brought it up without Alicia prompting him. He broke the privilege to share information with her, she didn't ask for it. This time, she went out of her way to get the information from Finn. That information, in both cases left her in hot water with the judge, as she asked questions that made it obvious that someone had leaked information to her. (You'd think by now she'd have more tact in dealing with illegally obtained insight, but I digress...) Let's compare/contrast the two scenarios:  In season 1, she sheepishly responded to Judge Cuesta's reprimands about suddenly seeming to know exactly what to ask the individual on the stand, but in this episode, she let Matan Brody point his finger at her and basically "tattle" on her over and over again. Alicia kept her cool, while asserting to Judge Dunaway (who, if you'll remember, doesn't like Alicia, because she does shady stuff like this all the time) that the only reason someone would leak information like that is for justice to be served.

In the end, of course with help from her young counterpart lawyer (who was essentially a younger Alicia, at least as far as the naive tendencies and courtroom nerves go), Alicia gets her client off the hook for a murder charge, and in the process comes to the conclusion that she'd love to try to start it all up again in a new firm -- but this time be more specific about which cases she would take, and take the lifelessness and the insane competitive world of large firms out of the equation.


Personally, if they really do go in this direction, it would be what we've (or maybe just I've?) waited for since 4x22, when Alicia jumped ship from L/G and said she was in with F/A. We all really wanted her and Cary to work out, but where Diane and Will's differences seemed to make them stronger as a team, Alicia's self-absorbed managing tendencies and Cary's more detached way of handling things made F/A a constant struggle to keep afloat. On top of that was their feud with Diane and Will at the time. When they managed to overcome that obstacle, they were still left with a lot of the same greedy and argumentative partners that L/G originally had, and so they had the same mindset essentially as the firm they left. As F/A became F/A/L and then later L/A/L after Alicia got deep into her campaign, it was all too obvious that it was the same boat Alicia had tried to escape more than once. With clients like ChumHum and Colin Sweeney, Lemond Bishop, and "R.D," Alicia was only ever seemingly finding loopholes in the law for people or entities she didn't feel any connection with, and after Will's death it started to seem like that life of the shady lawyer was not matching what she wanted from life anymore. She had reached a bit of a peak, and quite quickly she was pulled down from it by the random and meaningless violence that took Will Gardner away.

The root of that violence was the systematic corruption in the Cook County courthouse, where justice should have been served, but hardly ever was, given the way it was run since the beginning of the series. The Cook County prosecutors have been a steady source for antagonizing Alicia, and having them be responsible for driving an innocent man to such violence could have definitely been the spark that had Alicia go for the State's Attorney race. While I think they actually handled it in a more awkward way -- Alicia has never been able to speak explicitly about why she wants to run -- the campaign opened up her eyes to another side of things that she'd likely heard about, but was never personally involved with (you know Peter kept her out of the mess as much as he could back then, for those who think she should have known better throughout the race) but as things kept going, I still felt like Alicia belonged in the courtroom in a different capacity, a lawyer. The politicking, the party antics, all of the circlejerking in that type of position that a State's Attorney would have to face would not only alienate Alicia from what she enjoys in life, but it would possibly make for an uncomfortable or less interesting storyline. And no offense to the writers/producers, but season 6 has already alienated its characters enough. Season 6 is the new season 4, as far as I'm concerned. There's been moments of expected greatness, but I don't think the show's ever felt more strung together in its entire run. Plot holes and odd story diversions have been all over the place, and no amount of pretty speeches or guest stars can hide that problem at this point. On the other hand, I really like that they have pretty much broken her down back to square one again. This time she seems to have her wits about her, and a better idea of what she can do when she's working towards something she wants, and maybe this (final?) arc of hers will take the show to a better place next season. Let's all hope that this change also means more attention to the other characters around her, so as to not make everything feel cheap and useless to the narrative?

Sidenotes:

- The way they handled the tell-all book writer was hilarious. Didn't even show her awkwardly asking him to leave, just hitting the fast forward on her closing the door after she makes a troubled look. I wonder if she will ever go through with that? It is unlikely that she'll have time to stop and reflect on her life while she's found a renewed sense of purpose. (Which might be the point?)

- Why did they even place that strange shot of Alicia and Kalinda in this episode? It was so plainly obvious they weren't even acting in the same room. It damages the legitimacy of this show, I swear.

- She's asked Finn to be something for her now multiple times, but there was always something that deterred him from pairing with her. She no longer has ties to the bloated L/A/L, and she's not going to be S.A., so perhaps their partnership might be more viable for him this time?

- Has anyone actually noticed that Johnny is gone? I actually liked that character a bit, but I'm ok with his sudden disappearance.

- If they don't ever bring back Robyn I will be so very disappointed. I am happy for Alicia's shift in storyline, but I need more of these other characters to see the light of day... Even some more Cary Zepps would be nice at this point?

What did you think of this week's episode? Start a discussion below in the comments!

About the Author - Wilson Crawford

Wilson is an avid fan of television, music, and the occasional video game. He enjoys well-written, thought-provoking characters and series that get better with age. Current favorites include The Good Wife and Mad Men. Past favorites include Damages, Fringe, Breaking Bad, 30 Rock, and Veronica Mars.

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