S06.E11: Hail Mary

[Almost 3000]

If Cary had a quarter of a million $$$ in his bank account I would have expected him to contribute it to his bail bond.  It's not five million, but they were looking for far smaller amounts from the other members of the firm when they were trying to dredge up the bond. 

 

Yes, how did techo-feeble Diane manage to get into Kalinda's computer, let alone find that particular mess of code?

My first thought was that he was thinking of fleeing and then I wondered too why he didn't contribute.

[IamBob]

I've worked/volunteered in several campaigns over the years.  I've been in Johnny's shoes before -- when the campaign consultant that brought me in has to try to protect another client's best interests against my candidate's best interests.  It's difficult enough, without the added twist that the two candidates are married.

 

Oh, and I would love to hire Eli's daughter to work on one of my campaigns.  Sees through the politics BS while also standing up for the personal interests of the candidate.  It's exactly what you need in a bodyperson.  

 

Overall, I find the campaign scenes a little too real.

[Kromm]

I'm not a fan of that option.  It's too close to what she did to escape from her husband.  While I understand her necessity to do it then, to do it again but for a different reason seems as overkill to me as killing her would be.

"Too close" also can mean "consistent with her character" though.  As a writing choice picking what seems natural for a situation and a character is in my opinion good writing. Running when she gets in hot water is part of her character.  It's not even a bad trait, when someone's in THIS deep and it's just prudence to run (or die).

Edited January 7, 2015 by Kromm

[dr pepper]

I'd like to see Kalinda kill Bishop in his own home, then clean out his safe. She leaves behind evidence that suggests it was some former associate of his, maybe takes one of his suits and leaves it crucified to the wall of one of his work sites. Then she uses the money to disappear and reinvent herself. The last thing she does before erasing her current identity is to send Alicia an "i'm fine, just had to go, don't look for me" message.

[Ohmo]

"Too close" also can mean "consistent with her character" though.  As a writing choice picking what seems natural for a situation and a character is in my opinion good writing. Running when she gets in hot water is part of her character.

 

Still don't like it because I consider it a lack of growth of the character and Kalinda's far too complex for that, in my opinion.  It suggests to me that the events of Kalinda's life don't matter, that she just goes through life "reinventing" herself until her next disaster.  Then she just pulls up stakes, takes off, and repeats the pattern again somewhere else.  I understand why Kalinda took off in the specific case of her husband, but I would like to think she is more complex and savvy enough to not be a person who just bides time (in this case for six years) until she's forced to move on and then wipes the slate clean all over again.  That smacks of "shady con artist" type behavior to me, and Kalinda is not that at all.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Ohmo

[Pike Ludwell]

I'd like to see Kalinda kill Bishop in his own home, then clean out his safe. She leaves behind evidence that suggests it was some former associate of his, maybe takes one of his suits and leaves it crucified to the wall of one of his work sites. Then she uses the money to disappear and reinvent herself. The last thing she does before erasing her current identity is to send Alicia an "i'm fine, just had to go, don't look for me" message.

That would be fine with me, but I'd be surprised if broadcast TV went that route with a popular character (Kalinda). Too many people are absolutely mortified by the very idea of someone killing an absolutely hideous, murderous person. So if he's killed it won't be by a main character, and more than likely his comeuppance would be through a fair trial. I'd love to see more of Kalinda standing up to him like she did when she threatened to sic child services on him. Instead she's reverted back to respectfully as possible calling him sir and seeming totally subservient to him.

[lynny]

In my opinion, one of the worst unbelievable things they showed was Cary looking at $250K in his bank account. As if the dude doesn't have the vast majority of that tied up in investments. Which leads me to my next big annoyance which is that there is no way that Cary has $250K liquid in his bank account. Even if I try to fanwank that he got it out of investments into liquid form so that he could run if he needs to, that doesn't work because the Prosecutor would be monitoring for that kind of thing and if a suspect is on trial that is going against him and he suddenly liquidates a bunch of assets, the Prosecutor would be in getting bail revoked within 5 seconds.

 

I hated that shot. It was nonsense and stupid.

[CleoCaesar]

In my opinion, one of the worst unbelievable things they showed was Cary looking at $250K in his bank account. As if the dude doesn't have the vast majority of that tied up in investments.

 

Cary's from a wealthy family. Is it really that unbelievable that he would have a fat checking account? Some people are risk-averse and don't invest.

[Kel Varnsen]

Cary's from a wealthy family. Is it really that unbelievable that he would have a fat checking account? Some people are risk-averse and don't invest.

Except didn't Cary's family basically cut him off after he finished law school? For that matter if he had that much money in his bank account, why was Florick/Agos struggling so much? I get that you don't want to invest your own money, but if Cary had the money why not invest more, have more control which in turn means you don't have to take on as many partners.

[Sandman]

It's not unbelievable, but if he has a quarter of a million in his bank account, wouldn't it have been relevant to the bail bond plot? I don't think we knew about his bank balance before, and, arguably, we should have. (ETA: And equally relevant to the partnership storyline, as Kel points out, above.)

Edited January 7, 2015 by Sandman

[LadyMustang65]

Cleo - that was my thought.  Also, if memory serves (and it doesn't always), wasn't it hinted at earlier on when Cary wanted to leave Lockhart/Gardner immediately, and most of the others objected because they needed their bonus money.  I remember thinking at the time that that was supposed to be a tip-off that although Cary was somewhat estranged from his father, he still had some of the family money and would be okay for a while without the bonus money.

[TV Diva Queen]

Cary's dad is broke.  Didn't he come to Cary and ask him for a much needed referral on something?  Just throwing it out there.....did Bishop give Cary some cashola?  

[kwnyc]

Or, and this would be beyond what I thought Cary was capable of, planning-wise, maybe he had a slush fund set up just in case. (In which case it would have been in a Swiss bank account or another offshore bank).

[KaveDweller]

Cary's dad is broke.  Didn't he come to Cary and ask him for a much needed referral on something?  Just throwing it out there.....did Bishop give Cary some cashola?

 

I think it was for a job opportunity, but I don't think it was because the guy was broke and it was his only hope at bringing in any cash.

[orza]

Cary did kick in startup capital for FA, but that was at least a year ago. The bail money was put up 6 months ago after his arrest.The law firm is doing well now, thanks to the Chum-Hum revenue and all the clients Diane brought with her. As a founding partner of the firm it's entirely possible that Cary's share of the profits for the last 6 months was well over 250K and he just let it pile up in his bank account, minus living expenses, instead of investing it because he was consumed by the legal fight.

[needschocolate]

Alicia threw Peter under the bus in that mock debate. I think that was her elation as much as Cary getting freed. I honestly never bought her concern for Cary. She of course didn't want him sent to jail, but she's been pretty indifferent to him outside of that, in general, and I think she's basically always and only looking out for herself.

 

I thought Alicia's hugging Cary seemed very stiff - almost like she was thinking, "oh, it would probably look good if I hugged you now" - which is in line with her being only concerned with herself and not Cary - or anyone else, unless it reflects on her.

 

Is Cary really finally through with the legal problems? I understand that the dismissal "with prejudice" means he cannot be prosecuted again, but does that hold true even if the evidence which led directly to the dismissal is proven to be a total fraud arising from defense misconduct?

 

The way I saw it (and it is the way I want to see it because it lessens the chance of us ever having to deal with this again) - Not reading the email was argues to be grounds that they should let him take back his guilty plea and go ahead with the trial, and the charges were dismissed with prejudice because the prosecution said that they had been given evidence that there was entrapment (I presume this evidence was the testimony of the other officer).  I think the fact that the SA's office basically forged the transcript by leaving the other officer out of it would be enough to get Cary off anyway.   

 

I'd like to see Kalinda kill Bishop in his own home, then clean out his safe. She leaves behind evidence that suggests it was some former associate of his, maybe takes one of his suits and leaves it crucified to the wall of one of his work sites. Then she uses the money to disappear and reinvent herself. The last thing she does before erasing her current identity is to send Alicia an "i'm fine, just had to go, don't look for me" message.

 

I would like this too - except, I think Kalinda would send the message to Cary and possibly Diane.  

 

Cary did offer all he had when trying to raise bail. Didn't they, eventually, get all of the money for the bail from the dry cleaner/friend of Bishop?

I don't think they were allowed to use that money.  But didn't they win some case and decide to use that windfall as bail?

 

I thought another client, like Chumhum, put up the money.  Or maybe it was left under a desk by leprechauns.  Or there is a third Cary - a woman named Kerry that is independently wealthy? That is one of the problems with this show - they keep following a pattern of "we only have a short amount of time to solve this - hey this may work - no, it won't work - oh, I just found about this thing that will save the day - nope, that won't work either - I think we are going to lose - then someone walks into the courtroom or the office at the very last second and all is well again."  Every problem goes through 3 or more possible solutions that after a few episodes, no one can remember how things ended up getting resolved.  

 

A few months from now, we will all be discussing how Cary got his get out of jail free card - was it because the SA tampered with the transcript, or was it because Kalinda tampered with the email, or was it because the SA lawyer was having an affair, or maybe Bishop got him off, or did Peter grant him a pardon, hmm, maybe was it leprechauns?  

[Inquisitionist]

Kalinda messing with the server records notwithstanding, that cop should be reprimanded for having emails from other law enforcement agencies sent to his spam folder.

 

With all due respect, my private sector email account very occasionally puts email messages from CLIENTS in my SPAM folder.  I can see how someone whose time is stretched would not necessarily check his SPAM folder regularly for such slippaes.

Loved seeing Herc from The Wire!

 

 

Ah, that's where I'd seen him before. Thanks!

 

Why do they need so much prep? Are Chicago states attorney debates televised or something?  

 

 

Apparently, yes, but they're nowhere near as slickly produced as on TGW.

[Maherjunkie]

I would like to see Bishop go out in the least likely way possible.  Like, say, Grace is learning to drive, she hits and kills him by mistake and for once in her life is not annoying.

[kwnyc]

 

Or there is a third Cary - a woman named Kerry that is independently wealthy?

 

I thought Kerry Weaver moved out of Chicago...and while she was a good doctor, I don't think she had THAT much money ;-)

[LadyMustang65]

The way I saw it (and it is the way I want to see it because it lessens the chance of us ever having to deal with this again) - Not reading the email was argues to be grounds that they should let him take back his guilty plea and go ahead with the trial, and the charges were dismissed with prejudice because the prosecution said that they had been given evidence that there was entrapment (I presume this evidence was the testimony of the other officer).  I think the fact that the SA's office basically forged the transcript by leaving the other officer out of it would be enough to get Cary off anyway.   

 

Not reading the e-mail would have been grounds for the judge to refuse to allow Cary to change his plea.  That was why Kalinda had to change it to make it look as though the detective had seen the e-mail and was hiding evidence.  The possible entrapment was shown by the altered transcript and the testimony of the other detective.  Theoretically, the SA's office could have re-tried Cary on a different charge commensurate with the evidence, but I think a jury would have had a hard time convicting him given the police department's tampering with evidence.   I agree that it would most likely have been an exercise in futility, but I think Geneva was just trying to forestall the inevitable backlash from Castro when Cary walked. 

[Broderbits]

 

With all due respect, my private sector email account very occasionally puts email messages from CLIENTS in my SPAM folder.  I can see how someone whose time is stretched would not necessarily check his SPAM folder regularly for such slippaes.

 

It seemed like the cop's former partner knew about the email too; there had to be a good reason why he didn't want to go along with Cary's railroading.

 

I wonder what would happen if Cary decided to sue the State's Attorney's office, Alicia won the election, the 2 of them had to face each other (again) in court.

[mbutterfly]

The third option is "in the wind" and it seems most consistent with what we know of her history (as well as giving the viewers a hope she's moved on to a better circumstance).

I would prefer in the wind as the most consistent too. Kalinda gets murdered is just too Will Gardner. If Kalinda went to prison, she would either be out immediately or she would (in storybook land) be doing stuff more interesting than what we would be seeing. Best she is just gone with little explanation leaving us always to wonder. 

Edited January 9, 2015 by mbutterfly

[Litnit]

After Alicia's self control with NotWill I'm not sure why she's kissing the campaign dude.  It seemed strange for a woman of her position / age / situation.  Very strange.

 

The money shot of Carey bugged me too.  Even people of significant means probably don't keep a quarter million dollars in a chequing account.  Those are for daily business, right?  

 

I agree with a lot of what others have said; this campaign story line is starting to make the show feel like there are two separate plot lines with people who never interact taking part in them.  Phone calls back and forth aren't cutting it as a binding force.  Has anybody had a conversation with Alicia about what will happen to her clients when she is serving as SA?  I assume it's a full time job.

[John Potts]

Nice to see that this week they actually make it look like Alicia actually cares about Cary's fate. Though weird that Eli would schedule debate prep on a day she was clearly going to be distracted - even if I accept the show's implied premise that this is the most watched TV event since the Superbowl, you'd think they'd know at least a few days in advance when Cary was likely to be sentenced (especially if he takes a plea) and so NOT pick a day when Alicia's mind was going to be elsewhere. But I'm not a genius political operative, so what do I know? That said, I loved the "I'm her body woman, not her fluffer!" line, too.

 

And can I just say, I love the judge in Cary's case - he might love the dramatic, but even when pissed off with FAA, he still judged their case on its merits.

 

ElectricBoogaloo My interpretation was that he was debating whether that was enough money to leave the country and become a fugitive

 

 

Maybe, but if so I can answer him easily: No way! If he leaves the country, he can't come back, EVER and he has to go somewhere with no extradition treaty with the US. Now, he could run to (say) Russia*, but he wouldn't be eligible to practice law there. I somehow doubt he has the patience to become a fisherman in Cambodia.* Even Ronnie Biggs ("The Great Train Robber") ran out of cash and had to return home - and he probably had more cash to start with.

 

HappyDancesx2 When he yelled he was going to call 5 hookers he knew I was going to spit my water out

 

 

Nice to know he values committed relationships, though - he didn't ask if Cary might have preferred the 5 hookers!

 

TV Diva Queen Cary's dad is broke.

 

 

Cary's dad isn't broke (or at least, didn't say he was broke), just that he was a little cash light when they asked him to help out.

 

* I have no idea which countries the US does have an extradition treaty with, so please don't correct me if I'm wrong.