We open with a delightfully tentative tete-a-tete between the OTP of this show: Alicia and Kalinda. Things may not be "tequila shots and heart-to-hearts" just yet, but the episode confirms that they're back together, and when things get better, they'll be better that ever. Both have a firmer understanding of what they mean to each other this time.
So when Lana Delaney attempts to assert some sort of alpha relationship with Kalinda, witness Alicia's claws:
(credit to itberice.tumblr.com)
Please feel free to offer captions for that gif. But why invent shipper-y things when we have canon: "You got a little hot in there." But I digress...
Every time Alicia interrogates Kalinda, we know she's not just checking into K's finances. She's testing whether this relationship can work in any way that doesn't equate total entropy. Diane is placed at the center of this right at the start, just as she's placed at the center of Alicia's other big fight this episode: against the white patriarchy.
"I'm the woman." "I'm the black!"
It's so easy to be lost in admiration for our beloved Diane Lockhart that one can be forgiven for failing to notice how much she's changed. Alicia's not much younger than her, but she's still got some level of optimism about the law.
It has to be said, however, how quickly Alicia's bent her moral code. It's taken 30 years for Diane to become hardened, and Alicia's nearly there after just 3. It's fair to say that Diane's life has never been thrown as helter-skelter as Alicia's, but no one would say she isn't smart (except for the bizarre vaudeville threesome of Julius/David/Eli, obviously).
As a result, it's great to see Alicia (very nearly almost) stand up for something. But you can see the wheels turning in her head; she's almost ready to throw Peter to the wolves. Figuring out what's holding her back is more interesting than figuring out why she didn't lay down justice on Matthew Perry's head.
I figure that whatever stubborn thread prevents her from screwing Peter is also making her myopically insane about that old house. Even the flashbacks demonstrate that the happy moments buckle under the weight of the trauma...the good things live in memory, while the bad live on in every movement, every day. She may have forgiven Peter, but she can't change the past.
I'd like to think her obsession with the house is some last-ditch attempt to figure out who she was. We know (and Kalinda knows) that her new self is better. That said, I'm happy to see a good Jackie smack-down or three before Alicia realizes that.
Other:
-An officer named Zimmerman unlawfully kills a man for no reason other than the fact that he's black. The Good Wife oracle strikes again, this time far too close for comfort.
-Seriously guys, a lot of other stuff happened, and it was mostly amazing. I can only reiterate that I don't do recaps.
