The Good Wife: “A Precious Commodity” - The Beauty of Betrayal

Season 5, Episode 3 | Original Air Date: Sunday, October 13, 2013
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“A Precious Commodity” made me want to put my heels together and click with glee – this is the rhythm I had hoped season five would have.  In fact, episodes like this remind me why I love The Good Wife so much.  Eli is busy manipulating, Peter is trying to be good, Alicia is sticking to her guns, Grace is doing everything she can to frustrate me (oh, and be pretty), Will is rallying the partners and Diane is making payout demands and looking fabulous in the process.  It’s pure Good Wife bliss!

Let’s Get Packing

Our worst suspicions – that Diane threw Will under the bus in her Mandy Post interview (not that David Lee secretly has a fashion consultant who purposely finds him the worst ties possible) – has come true.  We don’t know exactly what the article says, but it involves Will, the missing $45,000 and some sundry details about Lockhart Gardner.  While I give Diane credit for coming clean with Will when she really didn’t have to, I will confess to being disappointed that she sold him out at all, especially after all the time she put into defending him.  That’s politics though. It’s the thrill of the chase and the thought that opportunities like becoming a Supreme Court justice don’t come around every day.  And the truth is, they don’t. 

Wasn’t it Diane who told Alicia last season to walk through the doors that are opened for you, even if the circumstances aren't ideal?  Indeed it was – in “The Seven Day Rule” – where we learned Diane made partner because Stern was accused of sexual harassment.  While Diane isn’t sitting around pouting about the latest turn of events (rather, she’s looking statelier than ever while keeping her fingers crossed the judgeship will pan out), she is quickly losing the friends and colleagues who have helped build her career.  She’s nothing if not stoic though, and why not?  If she becomes a judge, those at Lockhart Gardner won’t want to have mistreated her.  Despite the whole “betrayal” situation, things for Diane stand a reasonable chance of working out.

Meanwhile, with Diane getting ousted by the partners, Will is now making a pitch to bump Alicia into a named partner role.  With her recent ‘wife of the Governor’ status upgrade, he thinks people will be suitably impressed and not question the fact she’s a fourth year. 

But let’s think about that for a second…

A fourth year… a fourth year.  No, there’s absolutely no flaw with this plan.  I’m sure David Lee will be happy to have Alicia on the letterhead while he sits around makes the firm a kazillion potentially money-laundered dollars.  Or not.  Still, it’s an interesting proposition, though not one that should really even be entertained for fans of Team Gardner… or good business. That said, we are apparently supposed to have forgotten entirely that the car kiss of last season ever happened and ‘good business’ isn’t really a thing Lockhart Gardner has hung its hat on in the past, so I’ll happily comply with the allure they are creating.  At least until next week.

Two Firms, One Font

While Alicia is juggling how to be fair and impartial in the great oust of 2013 – aka, the upheaval of Diane – she’s also balancing her new ‘staff’ of fourth years who have taken to drinking diet Coke, Red Bull and beer during team meetings in her well-furnished living room.  This new firm is something Alicia seems ready for – Cary, too – but I’m mildly concerned about the rest of those on board, aren’t you?  Maybe it’s because of the handful of people coming with them we only know Robyn, or maybe it’s because they are trying to push Alicia to betray her ties to the equity partnership at Lockhart Gardner in one breath and decide on business card fonts in another.  I can’t help but feel as though Florrick Agos needs to find some more senior talent before things turn into a playground rumble. 

The truth is, Alicia is torn between two firms, and despite knowing the toxicity of Lockhart Gardner is only going to increase with time, the doors being opened for her there are seriously impressive.  Named partnership at an established firm as a fourth year?  Why didn’t I become a lawyer?  This career progression seems like no big deal.

I Feel Pretty

The ‘Grace is suddenly hot’ storyline continues this episode and I can’t help but wonder where all of this is going.  Apparently Grace just wants to be pretty (which makes me want to start singing ‘I feel pretty’ and therefore completely forget why we’re talking about Grace in the first place.  Oh, right – family drama.  We love it).  Grace growing up means Eli is growing grey and Alicia is growing increasingly more territorial over her young.  It’s mildly entertaining to watch the reactions of those around but at the same time I’m having flashback visions of Grace getting napped by Internet Jesus and wondering if she’s going to run off with her new youth pastor only to have Kalinda or Robyn find her making out behind a dumpster.  All I know is they are setting us up for trouble.  And by ‘us’ I mean Grace.  And by Grace I mean the entire fate of the show, because in the end, doesn’t everything seem to tie back to this junior Florrick?

Too Pretty vs. The State

As it turns out, Eli and Peter have decided to restructure the Ethics Commission and bring Marilyn back from the Transit Authority.  In the case of ‘too pretty vs. the state,’ too pretty has won handily.  Peter can’t look unfairly biased one way or another (especially when it comes to lovely blondes who are sure to cause him political misfortune down the road).  Eli is playing his cards close to the chest while Peter is busy trying to keep his eyes at, well, eye-level.  To be fair, it’s an unenviable position.  It’s a shame that’s where my sympathy for Peter begins and ends.

Other Notables

If you like it then you Better put a Ring on it:

Has anyone else noticed the size of Alicia’s rings this season?  Once again, where did Peter get money for that size of diamond?  Eli – pull the accounting on this!  I think we’ve got ourselves a Gerald Kozko situation on our hands.  It’s like the tennis bracelet debacle of 2009 all over again.

Best Lines of the Episode:

David Lee: “Ah – here’s our quorum.  Did you travel by bicycle?” 

Will to Diane: “We work together until it’s not fun or profitable anymore.  Are you having fun?”

Worst Line of the Episode:

Peter: “I love you.”  Alicia: “I love you, too.”  Me: “What. Just. Happened?”

Up Next: "Outside the Bubble" 
Elsbeth Tasioni returns to represent Lockhart Gardner, which can only mean one thing: Magic! Also returning: Diane's (maybe?) finance, Kurt McVeigh.  Oh, this is going to be good.