S06.E19: Winning Ugly

[Aethera]

So confused.  The voting machine guy said he rigged the machines for Prady, (though they didn't let the recording get that far which made no sense) and then the party says they rigged them for that state congressman. I really don't see Prady as having stolen an election, but I think the voting machine guy implied his *people* took the money, not him. Oh wait, I get it - the reason they hacked it for Prady and Prady lost anyway is that the democrats hacked it BETTER.  Lovely.

 

Who gets to be SA now, exactly?  A special election because she withdrew? An appointment?  Or do we get to have DHP back?  I'm guessing DHP is not coming back, sadly.

 

Peter is a smart politician, and understands Illinois. Yet he didn't think Randolph wouldn't be on her side anymore?  And Eli didn't call that play either?  Either Peter is a giant idiot, or he let her go down on purpose while pretending to support her, with or without Eli's support. With the writing on this show, I'm not even sure which scenario is more likely.  Probably he's somehow an idiot.

 

Eli knows the 2012 election was rigged, but didn't make any faces like he remembered that.  Did he ever tell Peter?  Why was he not more freaked out by all of this?

 

Andrew Wiley is my least favorite recurring character. Yes yes, the children being there somehow makes him more menacing because you get disarmed a bit, blah blah don't care. Geneva, probably my 2nd least favorite. Bleh.

 

When Grace was being weird with her hand in her pocket I was totally thinking "Grace sniffs glue!  There's Elmers in her pocket!"

 

I like when David Lee shows up and isn't a giant douchebag.  Where's Michael Boatman though, I was so glad he was back for a second there!

[dcalley]

I noticed a couple of times that Ron Rifkin's eyes traveled to Alicia's body while he was talking to her, rather than staying on her face. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but I found it creepy.

[merylinkid]

Grace was all mopy because she was 100% in on the St. Alicia image.   Her mom is the most honest person she knows.   Other people lie, not St. Alicia.   Having your image of your perfect mother shattered can be devastating, no matter how old you are when the revelation comes.  

 

But yeah, the Florrick women are repressed.   Hmmm I wonder why?   Oh right, because you must be The Good Wife at all times.   Otherwise you are a whore whose kids sniff glue, are homeless and the election you won gets taken away by others.   

[Fredward]

Anyone else get the vibe that Kalinda isn't gearing up to testify against Bishop but to off him instead? If ANY of them testify against him he'd be willing to use everyone they were close to as leverage. Carey? Alicia? Diane? Would she risk that? The SA's office has already made it clear that it's only interested in Bishop, if he's out of the picture wouldn't everything be tied up neat and clean? As clean as this situation is gonna get anyway. Dunno if she'd turn herself in or whether she'd vanish after making it clear who killed him though. Cuz she HAS to make it clear who killed him otherwise the SA would probably go after her buds again. Which one seems more Kalinda?

 

I feel bad for Alicia, that was brutal. Anyone know if what happened in that not-court is allowed to go public? Because if it is St Alicia is officially dead. Which is funny because she really isn't all that bad all things considered. I've always found Alicia to be at her most engaging when she was going after something/someone [yes, even during the race but less so since she consistently seemed to be going against the stream which, don't misunderstand, is also interesting to watch but you can't quite get as 'go get 'em tiger' that way] so unless she finds some way to wiggle out of this, or possibly even if she does, it would be interesting to see her go after those asshats. 'Nothing personal.' It might not have been fluffy, but it is now.

 

Last thing - not sure I buy into Peter being so very innocent in all this. He loses face with this ofc, but would he not have lost more if he defied the party? He is a democrat right? If it turns out he did play a role I hope it's the final straw between him and Alicia. Saint Alicia is dead, Grace is almost out of the house, she is no longer involved with politics [hopefully] there's no reason to stay behind him anymore.

[izabella]

I'd better not be seeing Diane in jail now.  I just about bailed while Cary was being framed, and now Diane's license is in jeopardy?

 

Jailbird Cary, future jailbird Diane, corrupt Alicia....how does this firm have ANY clients?

[TTTTorrance]

This episode was absolutely ridiculous. As a poster up thread pointed out, the party chairman had absolutely no justification or right to take Alicia's phone. And both Alicia and Eli know this very well - they are both intelligent and sophisticated (Alicia is ostensibly a lawyer) and have both been known to engage in hardball tactics themselves. Yet when a state political hack instructs his goons to take her personal property from her, both she and Eli both stand there with this "derp!" look on their faces as if they are in Nazi Germany or 1980s USSR, instead of laughing in his face and telling him to buzz off or they will call the cops to report theft of personal property. Such a stupid plot point.

Equally stupid is everyone acting as if Diane is in criminal jeopardy here for unknowingly turning over manufactured evidence. A person can't be convicted of a crime unless the government can prove mens rea, or criminal intent. Diane didn't knowingly submit false evidence because she didn't know it was false. The SA has no evidence to rebut Kalinda's story that it was Kalinda who manufactured the metadata, and that Diane had no reason to believe it wasn't legit. For Diane, Cary and Kalinda to mope around acting as if Diane was facing some Hobson's choice of either cooperating against Bishop or going to jail is totally out of character and makes no logical sense. The Diane of the past five seasons would laugh in Geneva's face and dare her to bring charges. It is doubtful a grand jury would even indict that case and no way would a petit jury would ever convict. The Kings need to spring for a consultant on criminal law because this of point insults the audience's intelligence.

[Boundary]

Why does Diane, a named partner at her law firm, allow some guy who doesn't even work there to leave his kids and their noisy toys in her office whilst she's working? Grrrr.

 

  When a minor character like Eli's daughter ends up looking like the most decent character on the show, I think you've gone wrong somewhere along the line.  

 

Hear. Hear.

 

Decent episode amongst a lot of bad ones of late but still I can't deal with some of this idiocy on even the good episodes.

 

"We will take your phone and get it back to you in 12 hours."

Um, hi, I'm a lawyer so uhhh. the hell you will.

 

Alicia has just been hacked and publicly embarrassed, why would she even allow anyone except Eli's kid near her phone or laptop now?

 

The major stories have all gone down the gutter, it's the idiocy that gets to me now. 

Edited April 13, 2015 by Boundary

[Ms Blue Jay]

Although I never wanted Alicia to be SA, and it seems I'm getting my wish now, it also seems that the reason is so over the top - like the writers read these boards and noticed that NO ONE wanted her to be SA so they changed up the plot at the last minute or something.

 

Gee, when have the TGW writers done this before?  *couchcoughKALINDA'SHUSBANDcough*  This seems to be the totally professional way they create and scrap plot points....  

[Readalot]

Decent episode amongst a lot of bad ones of late but still I can't deal with some of this idiocy on even the good episodes.

"We will take your phone and get it back to you in 12 hours."

Um, hi, I'm a lawyer so uhhh. the hell you will.

right? Is the Chicago DNC like the Mafia or something?

[riverheightsnancy]

I would feel sorry for Alicia, IF she had appeared to want the SA job to begin with. Half of the past season was spent trying convince and coach her for the job (which was a stupid story line to begin with). As an attorney at a good law firm, the story lines about needing to coach her about answering basic questions were absurd. Plus, Peter being in politics, she has a working knowledge, come on! Geez.  On top of it all, her comment to Finn when playing the video game said it all. She never really wanted to win and was relieved that she "lost". She just doesn't like not being in control. Everything MUST be perfect, or there is upset for Alicia. Alicia is a study of not being able to make up her damn mind. Decide and then go for it. While I wanted to feel empathy for her at the end, I just couldn't. Her tears meant nothing because she NEVER really wanted it  I felt like she wanted her own law firm with Cary more than this. If they had made the race believable from the beginning, then her disappointment now would be realistic. 

[HyacinthBucket]

Grace was all mopy because she was 100% in on the St. Alicia image.   Her mom is the most honest person she knows.   Other people lie, not St. Alicia.   Having your image of your perfect mother shattered can be devastating, no matter how old you are when the revelation comes.  

 

 

I agree.  At the end of an episode last month, Grace found Alicia on the couch, obviously miserable.  Grace reassured her that she would never do a bad thing, and Alicia burst into tears, knowing she had taken Redmayne's financial support away from Prady.  (Which she quickly got over in the next episode.)  She didn't tell Grace what she had done that was "bad," but Grace comforted her, obviously not believing that her saintly mother could do anything wrong.  No wonder she was disappointed to read all those personal and very intimate emails between Alicia and Will! 

[Dowel Jones]

Part of me thinks Peter may have had some hand in this, but that's just because I find him unbearably slimy.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking when she met Peter at the end.  I could just see him in his office, head to head with party honchos, maybe even suggesting it himself.  I'll have to hand it to the Kings; they managed to make Alicia look gold again, if only for a moment.  And not from her own actions but from everyone else around her managing to corner the sleaze market. 

 

So, If Alicia does in fact pack it in, she should bury everyone else in the process.  The state congressman, the party officials, the party lawyer.  Everyone.  As they might say a bit farther south, "Fuck all y'all."  And then place a call to Harvey Spector and Louis Litt.

[Aethera]

I think what would stop Kalinda from killing Bishop is knowing so much about Dylan.  Perhaps she instead intends to make him disappear into a new life, the way she started a new identity for herself. However they handle her departure, it needs to be clean.  I don't want to watch the DA's office hounding Cary and Diane about Kalinda next season.

 

Alicia said again this episode, let's do the recount, and if I lose, I lose, which Eli waved off, but she seemed prepared to lose if that's what was right. I think what had her so upset was the lies being told by the voting machine guy, the injustice of the parties both cheating, and Randolph taking her apart at the end. This on top of the emails getting out and her daughter having her 'oh my mother is human' moment. I get why she was upset.

[Driad]

 

What will the public be told about what happened?

[CMH1981]

I'm not convinced that Prady was corrupt in the end, or even aware of the the voting machine fraud.  I think that his handlers accepted the "bribe" by saying he would come around eventually.  

 

I don't understand exactly how Alicia has nowhere to go now.  She still is involved in her law firm, yes there is plenty of animosity there and she needs to mend fences but the buyout never happened so, just like when Diane was going to leave the firm when she was going to be appointed to the State Supreme Court during Alicia and Cary's break away from Lockhart/Gardner, things were said fences were mended.  

 

I had really hoped that during the election day episode we had a scene where we saw Diane, Cary, and Kalinda all comment how they didn't vote for Alicia.  It would have been justified with the way she cut them out of her life during the campaign, which once again she will be coming back into the firm w/ no knowledge of what hell Kalinda/Diane/Cary have been going through in regards to the faked metadata.

 

 

No wonder she (Grace) was disappointed to read all those personal and very intimate emails between Alicia and Will!

 

I forget, but didn't Grace have an idea that her mother and Will were having an affair during said affair.  I know Zach figured it out when Will was trying to be all friendly and get to know him at the office, but I could have sworn that Grace asked her mom, in a veiled way, not to see Will.  She can't be that stupid.

Edited April 14, 2015 by CMH1981

[Whimsy]

 Not to mention, why did the attorney to in question need a debriefing from her right before selling her down river (I know, dramatic tension, but he would have already been brought up to date by the party chairman). This is ever bit as unbelievable as Alicia, the years she spent as a political wife notwithstanding, somehow not realizing that state officials should exhibit basic politeness and social finesse during tete-a-tetes with campaign backers.

 

I took that bit to be because he wanted to know what Alicia was going to say.  He wanted to know if she wanted to fight or if she was going to step down.  Depending on her answer would determine his next move.  Either he was going to announce her resignation or he was going to do what he did- destroy her.  At that point it really could've gone either way.

[marny]

Honestly, I wanted her to lose the election in the first place, so I'm fine with these developments. What I do like about this storyline is that hopefully it will lead to Angry Alicia in the courtroom who will just consistently kick the ass of the new SA and his staff, including stupid Geneva. I look forward to getting back to the business of practicing law.

[readster]

Honestly, I wanted her to lose the election in the first place, so I'm fine with these developments. What I do like about this storyline is that hopefully it will lead to Angry Alicia in the courtroom who will just consistently kick the ass of the new SA and his staff, including stupid Geneva. I look forward to getting back to the business of practicing law.

 

 You know my problem with shows like Good Wife and other shows back in the days of Boston Legal and especially The Practice. How they had SA and Assistant DAs doing so many unethical and illegal things yet they were still practicing law. I can't count the amount of times I have seen people like Geneva doing things that any other judge would have thrown out of court in real life or had been reported to the bar association in a heartbeat. Yet on  TV shows it isn't about suspending belief it is basically telling the audience, we are idiots who don't understand how doing something both illegal or unethical will have you still touting around large salary jobs. You can even take a person out back and shoot them in front of everyone and people will still go: "Ho hum... how was your day?" and nothing happens. It was like the death of Will and how the lawyer was trying to get him off when A) that gun would have never made it past a Chicago Courtroom and B) There were so many witnesses and other things that any other lawyer would have said: "Umm... yeah I can't help you. Good luck!"

[Tetraneutron]

That's exactly what I was thinking when she met Peter at the end.  I could just see him in his office, head to head with party honchos, maybe even suggesting it himself.  I'll have to hand it to the Kings; they managed to make Alicia look gold again, if only for a moment.  And not from her own actions but from everyone else around her managing to corner the sleaze market. 

Oh absolutely. No one would want a Democratic supermajority more than the Governor and his Chief of Staff. And frankly, it's kind of dumb Alicia wouldn't twig to that, realize the Party machine is shady as hell, and hire Elspeth to defend her. Or even Zach to find some dirt. Or if Kalinda didn't have her own shit this week, this would be exactly the kind of situation where she does her computer magic and find a way to solve everyone's problems.

 

And for anyone keeping score, by doing this Peter is officially way sleazier than Alicia, justifying a lot more extramarital sex on her part.

[Artsda]

 

Alicia wouldn't twig to that, realize the Party machine is shady as hell, and hire Elspeth to defend her. Or even Zach to find some dirt.

 

Isn't Zach's still disowned from her and they're not speaking? If she asks Zach for anything, he should tell her to go to hell. He's better off away from all the corript drama of his parents. Alicia's no "good" wife anymore. She's as dirty as Peter. Although Peter didn't disown him, so it's possible there's still a relationship there. 

Edited April 14, 2015 by Artsda

[readster]

Isn't Zach's still disowned from her and they're not speaking? If she asks Zach for anything, he should tell her to go to hell. He's better off away from all the corript drama of his parents. Alicia's no "good" wife anymore. She's as dirty as Peter. Although Peter didn't disown him, so it's possible there's still a relationship there. 

 

  No, Alicia sees Zach as a homeless person who can tell the truth and has no home to go to. In other words, Alicia doesn't care anymore because you know, couldn't tell her but could tell his girlfriend's parents about the abortion. Peter wasn't happy about that either but he understood where Zach was coming  from. Keep in mind, Alicia is: "Do as a I say, don't do as I do." 

[Dowel Jones]

Keep in mind, Alicia is: "Do as a I say, don't do as I do."

 

Or, on occasion, "Do as I say, don't do who I do."

[AudienceofOne]

It's funny. I never wanted Alicia to win. I hate what she became in the process of running. In fact I haven't watched the last 2-3 eps because I was so bored with the election storyline and yet they really made me feel a white hot hatred for taking this win away from her.

 

 

I always thought the idea of her running for SA was a dumb idea. She's a defence attorney with no prosecution experience and they never once mentioned the impact this would have on her nascent firm. I've found the plotline frustrating from the moment it was floated.

 

But if they had to do this plotline, then I don't understand why they wouldn't devote the back half to her challenges of being SA . That could have actually made a really interesting storyline of her in this hostile office trying to deal with the consequences of years of corruption. With Finn as her deputy and her attraction to him and dealing with the issues already raised about racism and politically-motivated prosecutions and Bishop wanting to go straight... that could have worked.

 

But now it seems we're back to flogging the same defence law firm horse with the same characters and frankly it's getting a bit stale.

 

As for this episode - as an exploration of Chicago corruption, it sure as hell wasn't a Ham Sandwich or Another Ham Sandwich for that matter.

[beeble]

My perspective on Grace is that she is more of an idealist than Zach, and she was probably more hurt by her parents' initial separation and her father's acknowledged infidelity. Right there you have a kid's formative years being twisted by lies. This was probably a big motivation for her to find a church where there are no sneaky sub-motives: everything you are supposed to be and do is said up front. Grace is unfortunately a dysfunctional product of her parents' screwed up marriage. She recoils from the urbane political sophisticate life-style because it hurt her family. However she still idolizes her parents a lot so their continued lies still smart.

 

My family was very political, and also very dysfunctional. The lies and duplicity never get easy. And at 17 when you are on the cusp of leaving home, subconsciously you really want to know that you are leaving a strong foundation. Grace is seeing how much she does not have that and it is eating her up.

 

Now Alicia, as I've said many times before, cannot be so wholesome and wide-eyed as to not realize that once you step into big city politics and get pushed around by the machine, you are never out. Her naiveté is driving me nuts because she has been married to it for almost 20 years.

Edited April 15, 2015 by beeble

[TigerLynx]

If Eli and Peter didn't see this coming, or didn't have a part in setting Alicia up, then they are the biggest idiots ever.  If they did help set Alicia up, they are sleazier than ever.  If Alicia doesn't realize Peter and Eli should have seen this coming or that they might have set her up, she is the biggest idiot ever.  Unless Kalinda tries to kill Biship and fails, in which case, she is the biggest idiot ever.  Or my personal favorite for the win - the writers are the biggest idiots ever, and clearly can't be bothered to learn anything about the law or politics.

[beeble]

Would a lawyer who was forced to testify against his/her client be disbarred? How are the attorneys not protected by attorney/client privilege?

[Hanahope]

Diane could testify against Bishop as to criminal activities because those aren't protected by attorney-client privilege.

 

There are some crimes that one can commit even without a specific intent to do that specific crime, such as the felony-murder rule - anyone involved in a felony can be convicted of murder even if they didn't pull the trigger.  An example is the getaway driver in a bank robbery where one of the robbers shoots and kills someone during the robbery, the driver could also be charged with murder regardless of his knowledge, intent or lack thereof.  I don't know if Diane's putting on the faked evidence without the intent/knowledge it was faked is a crime or not.  But something like that could get her disbarred at least.

 

I don't think Peter/Eli knew what would happen to Alicia, but they realized they were powerless to stop it.  The devices were clearly put in place to help Peter, and then to help that other elected representative.  Maybe it helped Alicia too, but that was a bonus.  The Dems didn't need her to win, but it was nice.  So when there was a possibility of a voter recount, they were afraid it would eventually open for question the other guy's win, the one they really needed.  It could also keep the suggestion that Peter's election was rigged too and create even more scandal for him.

 

I always love how these episodes show court hearings, depositions and such as if they really have these huge breaks where 'new evidence' is discovered, other witnesses are found and questioned, or other events occur that directly affect the next "session" of the hearing, then the hearing breaks again for even more new evidence/witnesses, etc.  The hearing in this episode, for example, would have taken one day, two tops.  Instead, it appeared to last over a week.

 

I don't think Kalinda is going to kill Bishop, since she knows there's no one else for his son and that Bishop really does care about his son.  I think she'll find a way to testify against him and go into witness protection.  Or, she'll otherwise provide conclusive evidence to the police and then disappear on her own.  Or perhaps she'll convince him to take his son and go to a non-extraditable country.

[izabella]

I don't see how Diane can testify against Bishop.  What can she say that would hurt him?  "Yes, we provided corporate and litigation services to x, y, and z Bishop businesses, all of which are legitimate tax paying businesses." 

 

How does that hurt Bishop?  It's not like Diane has evidence of Bishop committing crimes. 

[Kel Varnsen]

This might be a dumb question (although I have never participated in an election that wasn't a paper ballot), but if the voting machines were touch screen, and they were hacked to make it so that a vote for Prady counted as a vote for Alicia or whatever, how do you do a recount?

 

Also am I imagining things, because I thought Ron Rifkin already guest starred on the show as a completely different character? I think it was around season 3 as a government agent. I remember because there was a scene where Alicia met with him at an outdoor cafe and you could see Radio City Music Hall in the background. But there was no mention of them being in NYC.

 

And the whole thing with Geneva going around again seems annoying. I also don't get why Diane is freaking out about having to testify against Bishop. I get that breaking attorney-client privilege is bad and could get her in trouble with the lawyer association, but can't presenting false evidence (which she already admitted to) get her in the exact same kind of trouble?

[doodlebug]

I don't see how Diane can testify against Bishop.  What can she say that would hurt him?  "Yes, we provided corporate and litigation services to x, y, and z Bishop businesses, all of which are legitimate tax paying businesse

 

Exactly.  Has Diane even had more than passing contact with him?  What could she possibly know that would aid in prosecuting him? Even with Cary and Alicia, his primary attorneys, he repeatedly emphasized that he kept his legit business completely separate.  What crimes have any of them seen him commit?  They might have their suspicions, they might have met a thug or two at his home; but none of that is actual knowledge of his criminal activity.  Cary or Alicia might be able to name names when it comes to legit business associates who may be laundering money for him or providing fronts for illegal activities; but that stuff doesn't add up to anything and can easily be obtained through other means.  Even if Bishop himself confessed to a string of murders to Diane, its only hearsay and not admissible without evidence.

 

It is not just Diane who really doesn't have anything to offer in prosecuting Bishop; Cary really doesn't know anything terribly useful, either. Even the lawyers handling his dirty work are probably extremely careful to cut off any line of conversation that might be too revealing. Bishop is a smart guy whose been in business a long time; he is undoubtedly very careful to keep his dirty business private and make sure that non-criminal types like his lawyers aren't given the opportunity to learn incriminating details.

Edited April 16, 2015 by doodlebug

[Noreaster]

All the plot twists made this episode entertaining.  But so much ridiculousness!

 

The abrupt reversal of the SA storyline is weird.  Seems highly unbelievable that the Ron Rifkin character can get away with selling his client out in front of the election board. And assuming Alicia steps down, the show is basically rendering the whole campaign/SA storyline meaningless.  So they executed poorly and they're going to take a big step back with character/story growth.  

 

The metadata storyline is just all sorts of stupid.  Starting with the idea that Diane would even take evidence off of someone else's computer and present it in court without confirming it.  Diane should get disbarred!  But she's also in danger of going to prison? Whatever.

 

The Cary/Kalinda stuff is cringeworthy to me.  Sorry to say that I think Matt Czuchry is really not a good actor.  He plays brooding well, but that's about it.  He was given one of the meatiest storylines this season and I found it to be the weakest part.   And now this episode, he plays a lovesick fool.  Granted the writing is not great, but he really is not up to the level of the rest of the cast.  I have had doubts about Archie Panjabi's acting for awhile too.  She plays one note particularly well but I feel like we haven't seen much else from her.  I'm really bored of her character.  

Edited April 16, 2015 by Noreaster

[Hanahope]

Also am I imagining things, because I thought Ron Rifkin already guest starred on the show as a completely different character? I think it was around season 3 as a government agent. I remember because there was a scene where Alicia met with him at an outdoor cafe and you could see Radio City Music Hall in the background. But there was no mention of them being in NYC.

 

You might be thinking of Bob Balaban, who played a US Treasury officer in 2 episodes during season 3.

[MakeMeLaugh]

Every time a character said "the metadata," it made me laugh.

[needschocolate]

Many shows have their gimmick - some plot device that gets recycled over an over again.  

 

Three's Company - there was a misunderstanding an characters over-react

 

Gilligan's Island - They may be rescued, but Gilligan ruins it

 

I Love Lucy - Lucy comes up with a crazy scheme

 

The Good Wife - a boring, unbelievable story line goes on much too long and then, bam!, some "surprise" happens that ends it in 5 minutes.  Like the time that they spent half a season on the firm going bankrupt then "oh, look, we got a check in the mail!"

 

The bs with Geneva Pine going after this person no that person no some other person is getting beyond tired, and that's not even counting the absurdity that such prosecutorial misconduct could just continue. And Kalinda is headed out to kill Bishop blah blah blah

 

I don't get why the out-going SA is still trying underhanded tactics to get rid of Bishop.  I suppose he wants that to be his swan song, the thing the is remembered for, but how much longer does he have in office?  Even if Cary/Kalinda/Diane give him something on Bishop, there isn't time to have the trial to convict Bishop of anything.  They can't convict him because someone at his former lawyers office said he had done something wrong.  They would have to get the information from Cary/Kalinda/Diane and then use that info to gather evidence.  This all takes time.  If Bishop gets brought down, it will be after the old SA is gone.  

 

I love this episode and am glad Alicia is forced to step down.   People need to look at the big picture.  The election was a snooze but the AFTERMATH, especially with Alicia resigning is a great direction for the show to go into next season.   The election was not a waste because not only was the whole season building up for her fall, it also sets up the rift between Alicia and the other characters.  She was hardly at the firm, her relationship with Cary and Diane definitely suffered (like when they negotiated her exit package).  Now that she lost as SA, what's next for her?  Her professional image has definitely been tarnished, with the email scandal and the voter fraud.  She has always been Saint Alicia and now that she is the one being targeted, it will definitely be interesting to see how she will cope and build her way back up again.   I really think if the election storyline was tighter and less filler, this could have been just as good as last season. 

 

I think her coping will involve copious amounts of wine.  She may have to switch from he big goblet to a Big Gulp cup from 7-11.  

[Eugenie]

The Cary/Kalinda stuff is cringeworthy to me.  Sorry to say that I think Matt Czuchry is really not a good actor.

 

Totally agree! The Cary/Kalinda stuff is like a bad, cheesy soap opera. Matt Czuchry's acting is so forced. I cringe every time those two have a scene together.

 

I don't get why the out-going SA is still trying underhanded tactics to get rid of Bishop.  I suppose he wants that to be his swan song, the thing the is remembered for, but how much longer does he have in office?  Even if Cary/Kalinda/Diane give him something on Bishop, there isn't time to have the trial to convict Bishop of anything.  They can't convict him because someone at his former lawyers office said he had done something wrong.  They would have to get the information from Cary/Kalinda/Diane and then use that info to gather evidence.  This all takes time.  If Bishop gets brought down, it will be after the old SA is gone.

I don't think it will even go as far as any trial. Bishop wants to retire from the drug business because of Dylan, who seems to be his number one priority right now. I think he will make a deal with the SA somehow. His back is against the wall. Any notion of him killing people at this point, especially someone like Kalinda, is just silly. If anything, he seems to like and respect Kalinda.

[lucindabelle]

I did find the Ron Rifkin reversal shocking.

 

When I reflected, though, it didn't make much sense. Surely the election board knew what they'd done before they sent him in? I mean, huh?

[Klapaucius]

I'm still there for Cary and Kalinda scenes.  Also Cary and Diane scenes. So  bad Matt Czuchry and Christine Baranski signed for season 7 because it means I'll be forced to stick with the show even if that second half of the season was a let down and made me losing faith in those writers again. And the "future" doesn't look better.

[Guest]

I'm glad that they seem to be wrapping up the election storyline by making Alicia withdraw from the race. The show works best when the foreground is the law firm and their various court cases, not campaigning and elections. I just hope that it's all over sooner rather than later. It feels like we've been in this arc forever. The situtation with Alicia being made to withdraw was well-written and sadly believable but we JUST had a voting fraud scandal when Peter became Governor. If the writers are trying to draw a parallel I think they succeeded a bit too well because it's coming off as a tired re-hash.

Also, I can't remember which episode it was in, but when Peter was doing one of his campaigns didn't Eli tell him to stop trying to be ethical as long as he's winning? It was something along the lines of "winning ugly, winning pretty, it's still winning". If I'm remembering the dialogue correctly, this episode's title could have been a reference to it. 

And why didn't Diane fire Kalinda after this whole evidence thing? You would think that they place greater value on accountability given all the backstabbings and firm-jumping everyone has been doing?

Edited April 18, 2015 by Trichromatic

[fauntleroy]

Just catching up on the replies here. This:

 

I don't see how Diane can testify against Bishop.  What can she say that would hurt him?

 

...occurred to me too. What can she say? And if she agreed to testify so that they would drop the (absurd) charge, then said on the stand excuse me, are you asking me to break lawyer-client confidentiality? How would that go?

 

The round-and-round, everyone taking turns at each other's throats, is the same problem afflicting Suits. It's so tedious. I don't know what the whole point of the election was. And I don't get the 'St Alicia' jibe at all. She's an imperfect person, trying to make her way. It's a great depiction of how a relatively good person is corrupted by the system. No pristine character can get elected to anything. Your ideals are inexorably ground to dust.

 

As for 'Lemon' Bishop, Kalinda helping him get away to a non-extradition country seems to be the best bet. Then the whole plot goes moot which it should have done ages ago.

 

I wondered if the reference to Tilden's election being at risk was a reference to the Democrat Samuel B Tilden, who won the popular vote in the presidential election of 1896 but still lost to the eventual winner, Rutherford B Hayes. Tilden lost thanks to some complex back-room machinations similar to what happened here. Don't know if anyone has mentioned this above.

Edited April 20, 2015 by fauntleroy

[Bobcatkitten]

Can we just get back to good courtroom scenes with personal stuff on the side instead of all the personal stuff being the main focus? Ugh.

[KaveDweller]

And the whole thing with Geneva going around again seems annoying. I also don't get why Diane is freaking out about having to testify against Bishop. I get that breaking attorney-client privilege is bad and could get her in trouble with the lawyer association, but can't presenting false evidence (which she already admitted to) get her in the exact same kind of trouble?

 

I was assuming she was worried about Bishop killing her and/or her husband if she testified against him.  Or to keep her from testifying.

[Winston Wolfe]

 

I was assuming she was worried about Bishop killing her and/or her husband if she testified against him.  Or to keep her from testifying.

At this point, "Lemon" Bishop is about as frightening as a can of Lemon Pledge.

[John Potts]

How can a lawyer (and supposedly a good one) not notice that she wasn't the client of Arvin Sloane (sorry, completely missed his real name!)? It should be no surprise to her that he protected the Democratic party machine because they were the ones employing him! Obviously it's more important to them to keep the Governorship/their supermajority in the State Senate than one State's Attorney. It's probably just as well she didn't get the SA's job (well, probably not - I don't think she actually resigned) as she'd get eaten alive in the job.

 

aethera Alicia said again this episode, let's do the recount, and if I lose, I lose, which Eli waved off, but she seemed prepared to lose if that's what was right.

 

 

Yeah, I really don't get this American aversion to recounts. Isn't it more important to get the right result than get a quick one? Even more bizarre when in the US it seems there's far more of a lead time between getting elected and taking up the post than here in the UK (like the two month gap between the Presidential election and Inauguration). For example in the recent (May 2015) General Election Derby North went to 3 recounts to win by a margin of 34 votes (16402 to 16368)  - but Amanda Solloway but was sworn in along with every other MP the following week.

 

pinetastic I find Grace's disappointment in her mother farfetched, but I think it serves as a way for Alicia to let it go.

 

I was thinking "Weren't you the one that found out about her mother's cheating in the first place?" but realised I was confusing her with another annoying daughter, Dana Brody (Homeland). Still, I can't believe she was that naïve as she's been shown here - she has seen her parents move in political circles for years. I wanted Alicia to echo Gandalf's statement to Pippin before meeting Denethor: "If you have walked all these days with eyes closed and mind asleep, wake up now!"

 

Eugenie Are we seriously supposed to be scared of Mr. Bishop?

 

 

He did (probably) murder his ex wife!
 

Edited June 5, 2015 by John Potts

[TVSallyS]

Not only are they going in circles, Lemond Bishop is no longer scary, remember? He makes threats and nothing happens. Then he talks about retiring from the drug business and wants to make a deal. But here they are, talking about scary Mr. Bishop if they testify against him.

Kalinda is supposed to be smart. Bishop told her he wants to retire. Ding, ding, ding…Kalinda! Think! He is not going to murder people if he wants his son to have a normal life!

It drives me crazy that the writers keeps throwing out empty threats, then everyone is all scared. Then the bad guy wants to be nice. Then we are back to being scared again. And will they ever mention the white card again? Remember they did a big deal episode with Bishop/Kalinda/Lana, ending with Kalinda breaking the white card in a cliffhanger? And what happened to Lana?

Its Boy Who Cried Wolf story with Bishop over and over again. Are we seriously supposed to be scared of Mr. Bishop? The storyline has turned into a comedy.

Right..... But he only wants to retire so his kid can have a normal life with a normal dad, not because he had a crisis of conscience otherwise. If someone turns him in first and he goes to prison what's the point of retiring? He's had many many people killed. I don't see why it's remotely unreasonable to fear retribution if she sends him to prison. Again, what's the point of retiring so he can give his kid a life with an absent dad in prison. I think it's reasonable to think he'd sink back into retribution to avoid prison, because being in prison kind of defeats the whole point of retiring.

I guess they've all learned one thing. Remember way back when they didn't want to be a firm representing a drug dealer? Then they caved because they needed the cash? How many lives has becoming involved with Bishop nearly entirely destroyed? Yeah. Not worth it.

[TVSallyS]

I do have a question that maybe I missed originally. I don't understand how it came to be that Diane got this evidence from Kalinda's computer without talking to Kalinda first? In Hail Mary, I remember everyone running around on their cells constantly asking each other "do you have anything yet? Anything yet?" It was going down to the wire. They all understood the urgency. Kalinda, last I saw, was in cell phone contact. And she understood the time sensitivity of passing anything on she had found. So what made Diane think she should hack into Kalinda's computer to look for life saving evidence, because it might be there, but Kalinda just had not bothered to call to tell her about it yet?? Maybe Kalinda had temporarily gone out of cell touch frantically working on her other last minute angle because she literally had no time to talk before getting it to the courthouse, but why did Diane decide that meant she had to hack into her computer! If all they needed to save Cary was already on her computer, she wouldn't have gone out of cell touch to keep working on something! She just would have been calling Diane telling her to get it off her computer and bring it to the courthouse. Diane should have had to know that anything she would find on Kalinda's computer, if Kalinda had left the office and gone missing instead of just giving it to her, was still not solid in some way. So I am not clear what Diane was thinking when she went looking for something to use that Kalinda herself had not deemed ready to turn over. This actually does make her complicit in some way. This was shady of her. In light of that, a scene of her saying she had suspicions it wasn't solid when she grabbed it without consulting with Kalinda or asking Kalinda what it was would seem realistic. Her total shock that anything about it wasn't solid (which CB played as sincere shock) was a little implausible to me. If it was totally solid, Diane, why hadn't Kalinda called you about it or brought it herself!!!!