FlyingDuchess

I didn't see the segment with Kathie Lee (a person that I don't have much tolerance for under most circumstances), but adultery IS a form of sexual assault against your spouse (assuming that the adulterer and his/her spouse continue to be sexually active during/after the affair). My consent to sexual activity with my husband is predicated on the implicit assumption that we are sexually monogamous. If he is sleeping with someone else without my knowledge, he no longer has my full consent for sex. I'm just not going to be able to know I should decline sex with him if he is having a secret affair. ETA: I'm not saying that adultery meets the legal definition of assault (although I think the argument could be made that it does and as a lawyer I'd be interested to see if there is any case law to support that interpretation of "consent" in rape/sexual assault cases. But regardless of the legality of the conduct, ethically/morally I don't think we should making a distinction between sexual assault and adultery (again, so long as the adulterer continues to have sexual relationship with his/her spouse without revealing the affair).

Thanks for sharing that article, Noreaster. It was a really good read. I was particularly interested to see them mention that the upswell of music toward the end was a David Buckley original. One of the things that has really driven my love of this show has been its musical scoring. LOST is the only other show I can think of whose score has moved me in the same way. I really like the overlay with Better at the end, and I also thought it was familiar. Does anyone know if the same theme was used previously on the show? Or what it's inspiration piece might have been?

Yep! She's worn a wig throughout the series (except maybe in the pilot?). It was to protect her curly hair from having to be straightened everyday.

I think it's hilarious that so many people think the lumpy wig just went completely unnoticed by the cast and crew. It was obviously a stylistic choice made to underline Alicia's "devil may care" attitude this season.

Has anyone seen the video of the Kings discussing the finale in detail? They talk about Peter representing weight and Jason representing light and Will representing whatever Alicia wants him to be, because he isn't real. They didn't mention it by name, but that seems inspired by Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I also see a lot of Neitzche's theory of eternal return in, well, the whole freakin' series, but especially in the symmetry between the pilot and the finale. (And I'm pretty sure Kundera references eternal return in Unbearable Lightness.) i get being disappointed by hanging plot threads, a lack of clear resolution, or things not being resolved in a satisfactory way. But no one will ever be able to convince me that this show was not a philosophical and psychological work of art.

It certainly looked like Sutton Foster to me. After all the scenes with Will, and the scary warnings on the office staircase, I began to suspect they were foreshadowing Alicia's death. Honest question: other than using prostitutes (which is a crime), do we (as the audience) have confirmed knowledge of Peter engaging in any illegal activity? I've always been under the impression that was left intentionally ambiguous, and I've always kind of rooted for him as a result.

That was honestly one of the more satisfying series finales I've seen in a long time. Everything about how it ended just confirmed what I've thought all along: we weren't particularly supposed to LIKE Alicia. She got exactly what she earned. Love the symmetry in how the show began/ended. As soon as I saw Diane in the hallway I knew Alicia was gonna get slapped.

My legal nitpick: Fox is an AUSA (i.e., a federal prosecutor). Last time I checked, Cuesta was a state court judge. Unless Cuesta has been nominated to the federal bench, or Fox is acting as a special prosector for the state, this seems amiss to me.

Exactly! I don't see this accusation as a retcon, or the writers forgetting about the characters' previous interactions. If anything, I think the writers are assuming we're smart enough to recognize that it's clearly a false accusation without having to confirm that within the narrative of this episode. Ditto with Marilyn Garbanza. I also think that Alicia's reaction to the accusation was unusual (for her), in that she DIDN'T react from a place of emotion. If we think back to prior revelations -- the prostitutes, Kalinda, even Ramona -- Alicia was clearly rattled emotionally by them. (By the time she confronted Peter about Ramona she'd decided to make it all about her campaign, but watch the scene where she opens the box with the photos of Peter and Ramona together -- she's clearly upset, and I think it's about more than optics at a gut level.) But the accusation regarding Geneva is coming at a completely different time -- Alicia's convinced herself she's done with the marriage, and she has Jason, so of course she doesn't care. That or, like me, she knows that it is bullshit anyway.

I saw a blooper in Ballrooms and Biscotti this morning that I'd never noticed, and don't think I've ever seen mentioned before. In the scene where Sookie takes Lorelai to the shed to show her the baby's things, you can see a crew member's hand grab one of the doors and hold onto it after Sookie flings them open. His hand is clearly visible in the lower right corner of the shot.

Nope! Definitely some heavy-handed foreshadowing in this episode, in the Peter/Alicia scenes at the beginning and end of the party and in the conversation with the kids. Also, Alicia's realization that she doesn't know Jason and how HARD it would be to get to know him (given that he's hardly an open book). The inertia of familiarity is going to be a hard thing to escape, I think. If there is an "I choose me," I think it will come in the wake of things dissolving with Jason and Alicia realizing that even without him, she still doesn't want Peter back. But I'm skeptical.

It doesn't seem all that odd to me that she might have some of his clothes there either. I've been separated from my husband for years and I still have a few of his odds and ends in my house, including jackets and ties. Did anyone find it curious in that scene that Alicia asked whether Grace was home before she answered the door for AUSA Fox? That, plus the way she opened the door and just let him and his entourage in, made me think that she knew he was coming but had decided not to tell Peter. Which paints her subsequent actions in a potentially interesting light -- was she reacting out of guilt when she grabbed the jacket and tie, or is her "good wife" persona perhaps merely a ruse at this point? Is she trying to screw Peter over by communicating with Fox behind his back, while having Peter believe that she is on his side so that he won't see it coming? That would be quite the twist.

So many call-backs to earlier scenes/themes in this episode. In addition to the ones already mentioned-- 1. The condescending attitude that the Canadian JOP had toward "American interruptions" reminded me of the French judge from the doping episode, who kept comparing Will to Rambo and making snide comments about American stereotypes. 2. Alicia grabbing Peter's coat and tie while he was being arrested brought me back to the episode in Season 1 where she left the apartment to have dinner with Will and Peter followed her, triggering the alarm on his electronic monitoring. She dropped everything in that moment to get him back into the apartment and notify his lawyer of his impending arrest (which didn't materialize thanks to the story the kids made up). Interestingly, back in S1 that led to a decision to work on reconciling her marriage -- but this time Alicia seems to be compartmentalizing more and letting herself move toward Jason in spite of her last showing of loyalty to Peter. That said, I still think it's likely that Peter and Alicia will end up together at the end, brought together by the scandal. 3. The ambiguity of the charges against Peter, as well as the ambiguity of his guilty or innocence, reminds of numerous previous plot lines in the show, especially those involving Peter. He always claimed that he was innocent of the abuse of office charges that led to his pre-S1 arrest, but was he really? Did Peter fix the SA race for Alicia, or is that just a theory that some characters in the show have? Did Peter sleep with Marilyn as Eli stated in the season premiere, or was he just speculating? They've done it with Alicia too -- for example, the rider that David Lee may or may not have tricked her into signing in S3. While I think we all have a natural tendency to want to know the objective truth, the reality of most real-life situations is that we can't ever know what the objective truth is. From an artistic standpoint, I appreciate that the show's narrative has been to show perspectives without confirming objectivity in every storyline.

It certainly sounds like Alicia will say yes to Peter's request, and I have a feeling that their increased entanglement in the final episodes will lead to a reconciliation of sorts. I've always thought they were end game.

I'm a non-believer, and I struggle to understand how other people believe. I don't think I'm judging them, and I'm not convinced Alicia is either. But it does feel like a disconnect, like they're telling me that 2+2=5 but it isn't adding up in my head. It makes me curious about how their mind works, and leads me to ask all sorts of questions about their beliefs and experiences in order to try to understand it. I also happen to be a lawyer, and I think that sort of intellectual (not emotional) curiosity is very common for lawyers to have. In that sense, I think the Kings have really nailed Alicia's personality.