‘The Good Wife’ recap: Sex, guns and new life paths

Based on the cold open, I was afraid this would be a solemn, tearful episode of “The Good Wife,” but it’s not too bad. Alicia and Grace both decide on new paths in life, Lucca gets a promotion, and Cary and Diane defend a father sued for defamation by a gun shop owner.

It’s certainly a very sad story: Harry Dargis’s (Blair Underwood) bright, hopeful young daughter is accidentally killed, in her home, by a stray bullet. The shooter is put away, but Dargis takes out a billboard blaming Gloria’s, a gun shop in his neighborhood, for the slaying. Crime in the area has gone up, and the shop owner has a reputation for selling guns to “straw buyers”: third-party sellers who purchase guns and resell them to people who would otherwise not be allowed to buy one.

Cary and Diane are fortunate to have the liberal, anti-gun Judge Abernathy (the great Denis O’Hare) presiding, but he of course has to remain impartial. As often happens on “The Good Wife,” they lose the suit at first—in this case because Cary decides in court to try a different strategy, without telling Diane. But they strike back with a completely new approach: They countersue for loss in business, because the hotel Dargis owns loses guests whenever there’s an increase in gun violence.

That approach doesn’t work either—despite handy-dandy Jason finding some 15 other businesses also affected by the violence—because the direct correlation can’t be drawn. Judge Abernathy, forced to abide by the law, tells Dargis to take down the billboard. But, to assert his obvious distaste for the gun owner and her business practices, not to mention gun laws in general, the judge assigns damages in the measly amount of 10 cents per day for every day that the billboard stays up. He allows Dargis to pay the court in cash, so Dargis hands over $40, good for 400 more days to keep up the billboard. I can’t help but wonder a) how much it costs to put up a billboard in the first place, and for how long, and b) is it really legal for the judge to rule that way? But it’s pretty awesome, even if there’s a good amount of fantasy at work here.

I applaud the subtle character choices the writers made, by having a white woman (Zuzanna Szadkowski) as the gun shop owner going up against a kind and loving African American father. These choices fight typical gender and race roles, as well as the myth of the absent black father, as we interestingly never see the girl’s mother. Dargis refers to her, but we don’t ever see her.

As Cary and Diane fight the gun industry, Alicia has her own fight, this time with Grace’s prospective college. (Where has Grace been? I guess Alicia hasn’t needed her help since she’s been back with Lockhart, Agos & Lee.) The school refuses to accept Grace because they claim, based on software, that she plagiarized her entrance essay, but their oh-so-convenient policy won’t let them disclose which were the offending passages.

Alicia runs Grace’s essay through the software on her own, and finds that the “plagiarized” phrase was actually a quote from the Bible. (Did she put it in quotes? Or are you allowed to quote the Bible without putting it in quotation marks?) Alicia threatens to bring a huge class action lawsuit against the school for violating the intellectual property and IP addresses of tons of other unhappy prospective students, unless the admissions office accepts Grace. They agree, and Alicia’s actions help Grace decide to pursue law for her career. Had she really not made that choice before? I also want to know why the school was so intent on keeping Grace out, and why she’d still want to go there after that.

Alicia is also still dealing with the grand jury testimony against Peter, and is put on the stand. At first they agree Alicia would plead the 5th the whole time, until Eli goes back into the accessible bathroom and learns that there’s a juror who doesn’t trust the witness’ spotless memory. Instead, Alicia answers her questions fully, dropping plenty of hints that the witness’ memory may not be as ironclad as implied. So far, so good, but it looks like the hammer will really come down next week, as we get closer to the end of the season.

Question is, will Jason and Alicia—Jalicia, if you will—survive the season? There’s some trouble in paradise already, as Alicia spies Jason kissing an old friend. But Lucca helps Alicia realize that Jason made no promises, and she’s in a difficult place to insist on anything given that she’s still married. Although, her “committing a lewd act” with him in a public bar—while waiting for Lucca to return with chips, ew—may be her indication that she’s planning to make her separation from Peter more official, and more public. We shall have to see next week. Meanwhile, Alicia also helps Lucca get a deserved promotion and her own office.

So what do you think, “Good Wife”-ers? Will Alicia leave Peter once and for all? Will Peter be in big trouble with the grand jury? Will Diane succeed in making a women-partnered firm? What are your theories for the end of the series?