S07.E22: End

[FlyingDuchess]

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.

[Catznip]

7 minutes ago, Sarah D. Bunting said:

You have to wonder about Julianna Margulies's relationships on the show/set when 1) this is the ending for the so-called protagonist, alienated from everyone by her own doing; 2) there are many many ways to stage a slap but it looked at least to me like Baranski actually cracked her one (and that particularly blotchy contact mark is distinctive); 

I did not see that coming... but damn. Wonder if that was a slap for JM or Alicia. I could just see ArchieP/Khalider (sp?) LHAO. 

[Kromm]

14 minutes ago, Sarah D. Bunting said:

You have to wonder about Julianna Margulies's relationships on the show/set when 1) this is the ending for the so-called protagonist, alienated from everyone by her own doing; 2) there are many many ways to stage a slap but it looked at least to me like Baranski actually cracked her one (and that particularly blotchy contact mark is distinctive); and 3) The Wig, which had looked aggressively budge all season (and I simply do not understand how executive producer JM was not able to address that sitch), was literally not even combed out for the final scene at the press conference. Like, she turns to the side and it is lumped up and flyawayed like it came out of the bottom of someone's backpack. (I guess 3b) is the repeated close-ups on JM's ass of late, which...were not advised IMO.)

I'm fine with her not ending up with Jason, not least because it's really not realistic that he would be into it with The Wig, because come on, but also because that whole relationship was so adolescent and annoying. But I do wonder how much of the finale was about punishing the character, and JM via the character, because it just seemed kind of extreme.

You mean maybe this was revenge by the Kings on Marguiles for putting them through hell (and making them lie about a lot of things over the years)?  They wind up on the last episode, where Marguiles can no longer threaten to not renew a contract, or hide in her trailer, or have a mysterious sick day, or whatever other diva shit she could have pulled, and make her not only her character, but the actress herself look awful? 

[Noreaster]

Oh good grief, talk about conflating fact and fiction.  isn't there a gossip thread for this type of stuff?

[MamaMax]

10 hours ago, vb68 said:

This way makes any or all of it easily revived in the future, especially I  guess if JM  needs/wants work down the line.

Anyone else  semi-halfway expecting a Clooney cameo at the end  with her saying something like Oh God, get me out of here?  Just me?  Ok, then. :)  But it did cross my mind.

JM wakes up in an-on call room, with glorious curly hair, wearing scrubs...and turns to Clooney and says, "I had the strangest dream, I was a lawyer...."

[lovinbob]

My sister was hoping for a Rosalind Shays elevator shaft moment, but I was hoping for a Kimberly tears off the wig Melrose moment.

9 hours ago, SuzE said:

After Alicia imagines coming home to Jason, Will, and Peter, I wanted one more scene of her imagining coming home to a bottle of wine and a pet cat.

I do wish they had wrapped things up a little more neatly. It made sense that Jason left, it wasn't fair to ask him to wait. I wanted Diane and Kurt to get their happy ending but I guess that's over. So Alicia is out at Diane's firm and divorcing Peter, so that means starting over I guess. Meh is right.

And that wig in the final scenes...I swear they were teasing us with how awful it looked.

I wished that she might come home to find Grace. Just once. Not because I think she should be defined by her children but so that she remembers that she built herself a life, and it's a good one. And even though the show made Grace dopey in a number of ways, she's essentially good kid who cares about her parents and Alicia should feel good about that. And she'll be off to college soon enough and Alicia can be by herself and date or do whatever it is she hasn't been doing because she's been Peter's good wife.

26 minutes ago, FlyingDuchess said:

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.

If that's what they were going for, they did it poorly. If they wanted devil may care they could have used her real hair. The wig deployment has been bad, very unflattering. The last several episodes, the wavier wigs have looked better, but this episode it was back to awful.

43 minutes ago, renatae said:

Although I've always liked Cary, I never forgot how he gloated over Alicia in the beginning when it first appeared that he was the one to "win" the position at the firm. He had acted like he was her best friend and they were in it all together. Then it came down to the wire, and he figured he got the position and started gloating, and then when it turned out Alicia had gotten the position, he got all nasty as if she had done him wrong. So I'm not thinking of him as a victim in all this. He had his moments of dastardliness, also with Kalinda before the storyline became that he was hopelessly in love with her.

That may be true about early Cary (I barely remember) but Cary has been a decent, solid citizen for most of the show, and he has been a far better friend to Alicia than she has been to him. She has been duplicitous, selfish, and disloyal, while he has been the opposite.

The Diane slap was heavy handed and out of character but I can't say I hated it.

However, for God's sake, why is Kurt the only ballistics expert they could find? I would think that Diane would have had to keep him out of it in the first place, if not definitely in the follow-up testimony! "Highly improper" conflict of interest or some such. I'm not a lawyer but that was bizarre to me. Same goes for Diane (and Alicia?!) representing Peter.

So ... sloppy plot device it is!

[Lee4U]

Ever since Will was killed, Alicia has acted like she was almost on auto pilot. MAYBE (and, it's a big maybe because this really was just a convoluted bunch of whatever) the point of the imagining of coming home to the three different men  - was to remind her that only one of them was the person who she was truly in love with, etc and working through that fantasy dialogue with him was a way of her accepting that no one (not her husband, not Jason) are people she needs to be with or settle for.  It is hard to lose someone you really love and move on - that person kind of freezes in your mind as they were.  Who knows - had Will lived and they got married or lived together, they may have ended up splitting up but she will never know. 

Maybe it's best for her to just take the time on her own - husband is in jail, not there to be demanding time from her for yet another campaign or photo opp, her son is out of the house, the daughter is old enough to do whatever stupid thing she is going to do - and, this is now truly her time to be herself, for herself.  Who the hell knows.

The whole Diane/hubby thing was just ridiculous to me - as was much of the other stuff.  I will miss Eli and his daughter most.  I wish they could get a show.  That, I would watch.

[Catznip]

46 minutes ago, FlyingDuchess said:

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.

Wait...why was she wearing a wig, JM has beautiful hair?  I thought that was her hair now I have to go back a look at the reruns. 

[rur]

6 hours ago, renatae said:

Well, I already was not that happy that she was once again standing by the Gov's side, especially as the writers seem to have conveniently forgotten that she was going to divorce him, and I also seem to remember she said she wasn't going to be doing any more handholding after he tried to  sabotage her relationship with Jason.

I saw her by his side as proof that Peter had not yet stopped finagling and manipulating. Eli had revealed his plan to Peter, but we didn't see a response that would indicate that Peter liked it. When Peter asked her to stand with him, my suspicion was that he was trying to sabotage any political aspirations she might have by having her photographed with him. 

[FlyingDuchess]

9 minutes ago, Catznip said:

Wait...why was she wearing a wig, JM has beautiful hair?  I thought that was her hair now I have to go back a look at the reruns. 

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.

[Athena]

2 hours ago, FlyingDuchess said:

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 really like Kundera's writing and that novel. He does reference eternal return, but Kundera does not really believe in it or its associate Nietzcshe heaviness. So yeah, Alicia and most of this series is heavy and she never can escape her obligations or her need. She can't let go. At the same time, she's not as as empathetic or emotional as some of the heavy characters in that novel were.

As anticlimactic and meandering (there were tons of twists and unnecessary movement that goes no where) as I thought it would be. The only good thing for me is that 1) It's over 2) Cary is teaching and thus, a Hot Professor now 3) Josh Charles came back. I was never heavily invested in Will and Alicia primarily because I stopped caring about Alicia sometime around S2 or S3. While I never loved Will, seeing him here reminded me about how good the show was when he was on and how he actually had good chemistry with some of the other cast. I am glad Alicia is alone.

[whydoievencare]

19 minutes ago, rur said:

I saw her by his side as proof that Peter had not yet stopped finagling and manipulating. Eli had revealed his plan to Peter, but we didn't see a response that would indicate that Peter liked it. When Peter asked her to stand with him, my suspicion was that he was trying to sabotage any political aspirations she might have by having her photographed with him. 

I thought this too.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Sarah D. Bunting said:

You have to wonder about Julianna Margulies's relationships on the show/set when 1) this is the ending for the so-called protagonist, alienated from everyone by her own doing; 2) there are many many ways to stage a slap but it looked at least to me like Baranski actually cracked her one (and that particularly blotchy contact mark is distinctive); and 3) The Wig, which had looked aggressively budge all season (and I simply do not understand how executive producer JM was not able to address that sitch), was literally not even combed out for the final scene at the press conference. Like, she turns to the side and it is lumped up and flyawayed like it came out of the bottom of someone's backpack. (I guess 3b) is the repeated close-ups on JM's ass of late, which...were not advised IMO.)

I'm fine with her not ending up with Jason, not least because it's really not realistic that he would be into it with The Wig, because come on, but also because that whole relationship was so adolescent and annoying. But I do wonder how much of the finale was about punishing the character, and JM via the character, because it just seemed kind of extreme.

This makes me wonder if JM's relationship with the Kings was always mirrored by Alicia's relationship with Peter.
 

Quote

 

Wait...why was she wearing a wig, JM has beautiful hair?  I thought that was her hair now I have to go back a look at the reruns.

 

My hair looked like her so-called wigs when I was in my 40s. Everytime I read the wig comments here I wonder if people thought it was a wig.

Edited May 9, 2016 by shapeshifter

[renatae]

9 hours ago, LotusFlower said:

Even though I called the slap a symmetrical bookend to the pilot, I can still defend it as it fit into the story/court case - Alicia went behind Diane's back (via Lucca) and forced Kurt to admit to an affair with the student, which I'm sure humiliated her, and will maybe even hurt and damage their marriage.  That was a pretty crappy thing to do to a friend and law partner.

Did this actually happen on screen? If it did, I missed it, so for me, it wasn't a given. I wasn't sure that Lucca didn't just do this on her own, except Alicia showed no reaction at the questioning. Thanks for clarification!

[Sarah D. Bunting]

@renatae After Diane and Alicia argued about it, Diane was like, "Then make Peter fire me," and slammed out of the room. Then Alicia told Lucca, "I need you to help me," or something similar, IIRC. 

Leaving aside that it's a dick move -- for the sake of being a dick move; it wasn't necessary, although it's possible I don't understand the particulars, because it got so baroquely complicated -- I'm a little sad that that's how Lucca had to go out as well, participating in that.

[meisje]

Quote

That may be true about early Cary (I barely remember) but Cary has been a decent, solid citizen for most of the show, and he has been a far better friend to Alicia than she has been to him. She has been duplicitous, selfish, and disloyal, while he has been the opposite.

I chalk up early Cary to simply being a template for the opposite of the former stay-at-home mom/Alicia, as he was a young, Ivy-educated guy with current work experience and right out of school. And I don't expect maturity from a mid-20s guy in almost any scenario, and certainly not when you're both vying for 1 job and your boss wants to sex up your competition all day, every day -- you'd be in the right to resent it and bluster a little. One of the Smirker's only useful moments was pointing out that Alicia was mistaken to think Cary wouldn't be interested in the truth of what had happened to the case because it might help Alicia. Cary was always there for her professionally and emotionally, always polite, went to jail for her/the firm tangentially, and transparent. Because Alicia would fold him up to use as a jack if she got a flat tire or worse, she assumes she's as disposable to other people as they are to her. And, sorry Kings (according to your behind-the-scenes' interview), she's been like that for a very, very, very long time. 

Quote

If that's what they were going for, they did it poorly. If they wanted devil may care they could have used her real hair. The wig deployment has been bad, very unflattering. The last several episodes, the wavier wigs have looked better, but this episode it was back to awful.

The wigs were definitely a let down in this last episode, where I expected hair and makeup to really pull it together. It's hard to believe it's not intentional since Wig Masters take their work very seriously and she's likely getting the benefit of award-winning people from Broadway. She wore several different wigs in the episode and they were all bad, which can't be a coincidence. I have to say though, I was most distracted by the scenes where she was working/daydreaming in her bedroom because, without the benefit of a structured suit, her collarbone area was giving me container-garden vibes, or a place for Peter to store his bribes in, just too much space there for a living, breathing human. If only her acting overpowered whatever look she's going for in life.

Quote

Of all TGW's many sins of the past season, turning the incredibly promising Lucca character into Alicia and Jason's personal "magic black person" is one of the worst.  Lucca could have had her own storylines, romances, etc.  But, nope.   These days, she's mostly there apparently to help Alicia and Jason figure out their love life.  I'm surprised she didn't have a scene tonight helping Alicia lace up the tight stays on her corset.

I've been more patient with the Kings than some, but they've really turned into Shonda Rimes, haven't they?  'cause this is some Scandal-level sloppiness.

Oh boy do I agree with everything you said and pointing out the "magic black person" demotion of Cush Jumbo is much needed. She literally was relegated to a human paper fortune teller game, with each scene just a different triangle opened to give another prediction of the great love story of our time (Jason & Alicia of course!). I've not seen much of Cush's work, but she's compelling in everything I have seen and she has a real presence unlike, say, JDM. All I can really recall of the final episodes with respect to Lucca is Alicia brushing past her or calling her ask/demand/whine about where Jason is, is he available by phone, what does all of the nothing between them mean, etc. Lucca made some comment about just having called him for progress on whatever genius sleuthing he was busy with, and that he hadn't picked up, and Alicia turned away and dialed him like obviously he would pick up for her. Their relationship just reads as Lucca is her peon assistant (if we hadn't been given all the backstory and you just tuned in in the last month). And what else have we been given about Lucca? Oh yes, that she hates people (oops, that's Alicia), has no friends (oops again, that's Alicia), can't love anyone (hey, wait a second, that sounds like Alicia...), etc., followed with the statement that all she really wanted in life was for Alicia to be her friend. God, that was a terrible episode and scene, I need a palate cleanser. 

Every writers room should have a button to be pushed in case of a Shondaland-Level Sloppiness Emergency where sprinklers come on or pages ignite themselves as a manual reset for when things get that far off track.

[MoreCoffeePlease]

Usually it is my husband who picks up on these things, but I noticed it right away ... watch the last few minutes.  When Alicia is walking in with Peter, hand-in-hand, her wedding ring is on her right hand.  Then after he speaks at the podium, it is on her left hand, which is where most people wear their wedding rings.

Add me to the list of people who thought Alicia would fall through the floor, although it was a little too early in the episode.

Alicia should have been slapped so long ago, it isn't even funny. 

And NO, I am not going to watch the Kings' new series, Brain Dead.  I've learned my lesson.

[Dowel Jones]

One other question.  Who in the world uses the sound of a ratchet for their ringtone?

[pinetastic]

I'm in the minority here, but I thought the finale was great, for many reasons.  

For one thing, it more explicitly explained the alienation between Kalinda and Alicia.  Kalinda always made Alicia more human, more likeable.   And if you are telling the story of someone going from victim to perpetrator, it makes no sense for Alicia to forgive Kalinda. 

I also loved that Will comes back to tell Alicia what her feelings are because she has no self awareness. Or seems incapable of articulating anything introspective.

[Day2Day]

9 hours ago, renatae said:

Seriously? This is the scummiest ending to a series that I have had the misfortune to view! It's a Shondaland ending. I seriously hated it. Especially when Diane slapped Alicia. Cary is mad at her. And all for the sake of her unfaithful husband. Phhtt. The Josh parts were silly. I suppose I'm supposed to be able to reasonably assume that at some point, Jason reappears. 

 

 

So help me......I think the Kings deserve a major smackdown for that dreadful final episode.  "Jason reappear(ing)".... !!!!!!   Alicia, there's a book you outta read... "He's Really Not That Into You".  A romp in the sack, but....I think he's got her pegged.  Yesssssss, run Jason, RUN !!!!!!

[ktwo]

Quote

Maybe it's best for her to just take the time on her own - husband is in jail, not there to be demanding time from her for yet another campaign or photo opp, her son is out of the house, the daughter is old enough to do whatever stupid thing she is going to do - and, this is now truly her time to be herself, for herself.  Who the hell knows.

I agree. I was hoping for a Kelly Taylor "I choose me" moment with regard to Peter and Jason, but I've grown to hate Alicia over the last two seasons so the "nobody chooses me" moment was even better for me. Without Diane she has no mentor/almost friend and no job, without now-disgraced-again Peter she has no husband and no social standing, and without Jason she has no what-the-fuck-ever that was that the show was trying to sell us and I wasn't buying. She spent all these years building all these relationships after starting over in the pilot, and yet she still has nothing.

[candle96]

12 hours ago, Wouldofshouldof said:

Did I miss some bit of exposition?  How on earth would they have dug up the owner of that ringtone?

No, you didn't miss anything. Jason magically found her with no explanation. I wasn't aware my ringtone was equivalent to my fingerprint.

Don't get me started on how no one followed up with her in terms of what she saw.

[Primetimer]

As Peter's trial comes to an end, we get to find out whether Alicia's learned anything in the past seven years.

View the full article

[cardigirl]

Gotta say, I don't see Diane as the the true hero. At. All.  She messed up her own marriage when she wanted to force Kurt to not sell to his lady friend. 

[sacrebleu]

I never noticed until the screen shot on the home page here, but Damn! JM's got some man hands!

[pbutler111]

I was pretty "meh" about Will coming back. I never actually thought Will and Alicia had any chemistry. I also thought that Josh Charles was too young for the role. But it was an effective device in the end, I suppose.

I don't Alicia was throwing Kurt under the bus to try to save her marriage, but rather to win the case. Diane would've done the same thing if the husband were on the other foot.

By the way, the hotel where Peter met with Dwight the Donor, was the Palmer House, on South Michigan Avenue, which is way, way across town from the courthouse, not across the street.

[preeya]

Was the "ringtone witness" the actress from Bunheads?

[Tara Ariano]

Yes.

[Ms Blue Jay]

2 hours ago, meisje said:

Every writers room should have a button to be pushed in case of a Shondaland-Level Sloppiness Emergency where sprinklers come on or pages ignite themselves as a manual reset for when things get that far off track.

Just quoted a part of your post to say that meisje I will really miss all your TGW posts.  Please start watching another show that I already watch religiously.

I will miss all of the posts here -- the posters that watch this show are so intelligent, much moreso than the writers.  I've always loved reading other people's thoughts about this show, since Jacob Clifton of TWOP....

I touched on this a bit earlier, and Sarah D. Bunting added to it, but just to conclude:

Alicia DID alienate:
Kalinda, Cary, Diane, Zach, 

Alicia "Lost":
Jason, Will, David Lee, Jackie, Lemond Bishop (?), Peter to jail

Alicia did NOT alienate:
Lucca (newbie), Eli, Marissa, Grace, Canning (slimeball?), Colin Sweeney (serial killer), her mother and brother, Elsbeth (?)

It's just a point of interest, that's all.

Sutton Foster is also the star of a current show, named "Younger".

Edited May 9, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[TigerLynx]

There was no reason to have a test completed on the bullets.  Peter was charged with accepting a bribe to tamper with evidence to cause a mistrial.  Once the bullets were discovered still in the evidence room, but in the wrong case box, the questions should have been - Who signed the evidence back in?  Peter checked them out, gave them to Kurt who did a preliminary test, but did not get to finish the other tests because the bullets went missing.  In order for the bullets to be in the evidence room, but in the wrong place, someone had to sign them back in.  Also, since the chain of evidence was not preserved, the tests would not be admissible.  This entire SL was written just to provide drama for Diane/Kurt, and so Diane could slap Alicia at the end.

In the end, Cary is the smart one.  He's doing something he enjoys, and he's no longer on the musical chairs law firm treadmill of corrupt backstabbing attorneys.

[tom87]

So in the end was she  The Good Wife?

[MakeMeLaugh]

SLAP! My reactions not necessarily in this order:

• That's going to leave a mark. And the media is going to think Peter smacked her up after the plea announcement.
• Catfight in the corridor over whose man is more important! (This episode totally fails the Bechdel test--all about the men, about the men, about the men. How's that all-woman law firm working out for you now, Diane? That's what you wanted?)
• Alicia is going to own you, Diane, after she calls the police on your for assault with intent to cause bodily harm.

I teared up for Grace, and only Grace. I want her and Marissa now to have their own show with some innocence and sweetness, and nobody else from this stupid show, not even Eli.

I don't really like Will. I always saw Cary, from the very beginning, as not a megafirm corporate lawyer--a less dynamic state's attorney, law professor, etc., profession imo was a better fit for the way his character was written. I can't see the exwife of a disgraced former politician getting big donors to go into a major election given her own history of running for SA.

I love Gary Cole but when did Kurt have this affair with his student? He hasn't been married that long to Diane, and for the student now to be an equivalent ballistics expert, she has be be pretty well established in her career. Maybe it wasn't extramarital.

I bet there was a story line, later abandoned, that Ring Tone Visitor was the person who actually shot Locke's gun, not Locke.

Only a trained PI could recognize a ring tone as being a ring tone? Please.

I wanted one of the kitchen door scenes to open up to a giant dancing glass of red wine. Perhaps animated. Like the Koolaid Pitcher character. Maybe the Koolaid Pitcher full of red wine.

I must confess I think Juliana Margolies is an amazing actress. She engaged me one way or another to the very end. I would absolutely watch her in another show but not with this one's show runners. 

I knew Peter would take the deal for a wrist-slap and we wouldn't hear the jury verdict. I wouldn't think Chris Noth would want to go out on a low note on this particular show, but there would have been no drama if he had been found not guilty. 

Cush was soooo good as Bethany in Vera. Not so much in the role she ended up with in TGW.

This show should have ended two seasons or so ago. It turned into a book that the authors had already finished writing and then just kept getting extended and extended after the fact, and they couldn't get back into it to change history (for example, Kalinda and Lemond took up soooo much time, for nothing, by the end of the show. Bet the writers would have given anything to have rewritten them).

Edited May 9, 2016 by MakeMeLaugh

[Lee4U]

One more thing (of many) I didn't like - and, never do - is when they stick in real life people, in this case David Boies.  I actually felt embarrassed for him, choosing to do this thing.  

Nice not to see Channing - we didn't see him, did we?  I kind of fast forwarded through a few scenes as I was bored.  

Given how long they knew this was the last of it, I'm a bit startled this the best they could cough up.  

[vixenbynight]

4 hours ago, rur said:

I saw her by his side as proof that Peter had not yet stopped finagling and manipulating. Eli had revealed his plan to Peter, but we didn't see a response that would indicate that Peter liked it. When Peter asked her to stand with him, my suspicion was that he was trying to sabotage any political aspirations she might have by having her photographed with him.

Bingo!!

Peter wasn't happy at all with Eli's new plans for Alicia's political future. As much as Peter has agreed to cope with the possibility of Alicia finally getting a divorce from him, the idea that she would have the opportunity to maybe become the next Governor of the state and have more influence, power, prestige and likability over his term is just too much for him to take.

When he kept whining about how 8 months in jail was too much, I wanted Alicia to give him a huge side-eye and say, "just stop it!"

[Cynna]

16 hours ago, ichbin said:

Was anyone else wondering if Alicia was going to fall through the floor at the office?  

Oh god, I was sure hoping!
 

13 hours ago, jjj said:

 Kurt and Diane ...  I don't really get the point of whether or not he had an affair with the blonde -- they both agreed about the ballistics test.

Given that Diane was the lead Defense attorney, there's no way it would be allowed to have Kurt do the bullet analysis. As or the whole 'affair' thing, I don't think it happened. I believe it was only asked as a way to discredit Kurt and distract the jury, which is what Alicia wanted to do. It was pointless.

I don't think the pause was meant to indicate he had cheated, so much as shock. I feel Diane left to a)show that she was not part of this BS circus and b)show that she wasn't interested in hearing the answer. It was a disgusting move to ask him that.

[TimWil]

I don't get why the firm finally being named Lockhart Florrick was so totally downplayed. The only way you'd know it was because we saw the new name on a box. We never got to see the nameplate at reception.

[jjj]

1 hour ago, MakeMeLaugh said:

Only a trained PI could recognize a ring tone as being a ring tone? Please.

How cool would it have been if the ring tone had been the quacking duck ring tone that comes on the iPhone?  All this time, they assumed there were ducks at the murder scene, but the investigator realizes, no, it's a ring tone! 

[tennisgurl]

I guess that was it I guess. Bit of an anti-climax, to be honest. With the exception of the return of Will, it really just felt like another episode to me. And way to much time spent with Smirky and his boring relationship with Alicia. I cannot believe they tried to compare the couple of months they spent screwing with her relationships with Peter (her husband she has two kids with) and Will (the guy she had feelings for for years and was the One that Got Away)? Come on, show. No one buys this. At all. 

Sucks they screwed with Curt and Dianne. I am amused by the fact that the last thing Dianne ever did on this show is smack Alicia in the face, soap opera style. 

Grace means well, but she is kind of an idiot. I can sometimes see why Alicia has such disdain for her kids. They both make awful, stupid life choices for weird reasons. I have always liked her plot way more than Zachs at least. I am a sucker for the "Atheist parent has religious kid" story line (it also pops up on the superior in every way show, The Americans, but with A LOT more complications). 

Hi there Sutton Foster! Nice and random to see you here for this random tiny part.

At least Carey seems to be heading into teaching, which seems like something he would be really happy doing. I binged this show over the summer, so early, shady Carey is still in my head, and it just makes me like more recent Carey even more. He started as the Ivy league, young, dickhead two faced blond guy, but he eventually showed he had a lot more depth than that, and he matured into a decent, empathetic, and intelligent person, who become jaded by all the backstabbing and politicking that he originally wanted to get into. I think, of all the characters, he was the one who changed the most, and for the best. Granted, a lot of that change came because crappy things kept happening to him, but he ended the series as my favorite character. I hope Matt finds a new project soon (after he stops by Gilmore Girls), I would love to watch him on the series or a movie that uses him better.

[jjj]

I was so sure the ceiling was going to fall on Alicia, right after she discovered the solution to Peter's case. 

Better, to have the ceiling fall on the entire firm, leaving only the human equivalent of the cockroaches that will survive nuclear annihilation:  David Lee, in charge at last. 

[wendyg]

You know what? It had Will. and that's good enough. The Diane slap felt like, "Someone has to slap Alicia. Who, do you think?", but...you know what would have made *no* sense at all but would have been really great? If it had been *Kalinda* who came down that hallway and slapped her. Would anyone have cared then about logic?

[HughOS]

I thought it was a fitting end. Alicia richly deserved the slap and it was a great moment. Diane is no angel either. She's used, double crossed and fought with nearly every character on the show. In the last few episodes she completely threw Cary under the bus! I don't feel too sorry for her  and I'm not entirely mad at Alicia for doing what needed to be done, although I have loved Diane and Christine Baranski over the years.

The Will scenes were great. Well shot and cleverly done without being saccharine or eye rolling. Willicia were really OTP and I'm glad they showed that and didn't have her end up with Jason.

Grace had become one of my favourites on the show in more recent seasons. Yes she does silly and irrational things sometimes but she is only 17? 18? and apart from that has shown a low of maturity and mettle in other areas. The Alicia/Grace relationship was always really interesting to me. It was sweet but refreshing and I always enjoyed seeing Alicia deal with Grace's religion, her ambition and her growing up.

Mostly I am going to really miss this show. It might have been a little patchy over the last year but honestly it's been one of my "Unmissables" every week for so long. Full of unique plots, really clever writing and perspectives on current topics. The cast has been fantastic and I will really miss them all together. Thanks to the Kings and TGW crew, it's been a really great 7 years. Hard to see anything on network tv coming along soon that will be as enjoyable.

[pbutler111]

Why do people think that Alicia doesn't end up with Jason just because he wasn't standing backstage waiting for her? It would seem like the most natural thing in the world for him to NOT show up there when she's trying to present somewhat of a united front with her husband, in front of an ocean of media. I think it was nice to leave things a bit open-ended for Alicia. In many ways, she was right back where we found her in the beginning, only then it felt like she was facing the end of something; now it feels like she's facing a whole new beginning. Jason may still be a part of that.

[merylinkid]

I could watch that GIF of Diane slapping Alicia all damn day.

[beeble]

That slap was fun but really out of character for Diane. Kurt is the one who hurt her, not Alicia. Diane would have done the exact same thing had the shoe been on the other foot. But damn, it was fun to watch. Can we have a spin-off about Diane seeking revenge on everyone who has ever hurt her?

Jason will show up again, just not as a permanent fixture. 

So is Grace now stuck in Chicago for a year? If I were the child of a self-centered politician who'd hurt my family over and over, I would pull a Zach and high-tail it out of there right after high school graduation. And yes, I'd take the memoir class.

[milkyaqua]

Meh is right.  Frankly, if the Kings have to explain their ending, they failed at writing it.  Too much time spent on stuff (Peter's trial) and having to cram and contort that ending.  I was fine with the slap but really, what a silly way to handle it.

Frankly, I was only up for Alicia ending up alone (that's been my feeling for the past several seasons) so I'm dumbfounded that there are a lot of people who are pissed she didn't get to ride off into the sunset.  Why on earth should she have?  She needs to think about her choices and figure out what she wants to do with her life going forward and she needs to do that without hitching her star to a man.

At one point I walked into the kitchen and looked at the clock and saw there were 20 minutes left.  Why did they spend so much time with this Peter nonsense?  They should have wrapped the case last week.  As for Diane and Kurt, I liked them as a couple.  But it was Diane's fault for even having Kurt for the defense in the first place.  Then her telling Alicia to get another lawyer at the last minute.  That was so not happening.  However, I don't understand Lucca's cross of Kurt and the affair thing.  Did she and Alicia just make that up or did super detective Jason figure that out before he got the heck out of Dodge?  Either way, the whole thing was pointless since it had nothing to do in the end with what Peter was accused of doing.  Also, there goes Diane's dream agency and Lucca is probably looking for another job as well (maybe she can go work for Canning).  Another character who could have been interesting but she wound up as Alicia and Jason's cheerleader, what nonsense.

Glad Cary seems to be doing something he likes.

And yes, agree Peter was probably trying to sabotage Alicia's future career.  Also, Grace is as dumb as a box of rocks.  Has she never heard of Winter and Spring Break and Summer?  She was going to camp out at the jail the whole year her Dad was there?  Ugh.

It was nice seeing Will again even if I was annoyed when he told Alicia to go chase after Jason.  I never cared for Will and Alicia as a couple either but I found their scenes funny and telling for Alicia.

Edited May 9, 2016 by milkyaqua

[wonderwoman]

This is the kind of insightful writing that won Emily Nussbaum a Pulitzer this year:

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/goodbye-to-the-good-wife

[apgold]

Quote

 I will miss Eli and his daughter most. 

Me, too.  I love the father/daughter chemistry between Sarah Steele and Alan Cumming.  I hope they do a play together soon.

[photo fox]

1 hour ago, pbutler111 said:

Why do people think that Alicia doesn't end up with Jason just because he wasn't standing backstage waiting for her? It would seem like the most natural thing in the world for him to NOT show up there when she's trying to present somewhat of a united front with her husband, in front of an ocean of media. I think it was nice to leave things a bit open-ended for Alicia. In many ways, she was right back where we found her in the beginning, only then it felt like she was facing the end of something; now it feels like she's facing a whole new beginning. Jason may still be a part of that.

Speaking only for myself, it's pure wishful thinking.  I thought it was a lackluster pairing, and unworthy of Alicia/JM.

Since the show didn't specifically tell us otherwise... Jason took off for parts unknown, Kurt didn't cheat, Alicia won't go into politics, and at the end of the semester, Cary is heading to the beach to join Kalinda.

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, TigerLynx said:

There was no reason to have a test completed on the bullets.  Peter was charged with accepting a bribe to tamper with evidence to cause a mistrial.  Once the bullets were discovered still in the evidence room, but in the wrong case box, the questions should have been - Who signed the evidence back in?  Peter checked them out, gave them to Kurt who did a preliminary test, but did not get to finish the other tests because the bullets went missing.  In order for the bullets to be in the evidence room, but in the wrong place, someone had to sign them back in.  Also, since the chain of evidence was not preserved, the tests would not be admissible.  This entire SL was written just to provide drama for Diane/Kurt, and so Diane could slap Alicia at the end.

Thank you for posting this. No wonder so many of us were left WTF?ing over the case.

 

14 minutes ago, wonderwoman said:

This is the kind of insightful writing that won Emily Nussbaum a Pulitzer this year:

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/goodbye-to-the-good-wife

Quote

not her hunky boyfriend, Jason (a contrived character who I had come to think of as Sex Wolf, Private Eye)

Hee. Much better moniker than Smirky.

[BkWurm1]

16 hours ago, Tetraneutron said:

Well, yes, but it was the right thing to do as a lawyer. And it's not like Diane's ever pit her career above her friends. And it wasn't only Alicia calling the shots. And the marriage would have been damaged anyway. If Kurt was cheating then Kurt was cheating. Law partners and friends have disagreements, but adults who don't live Real Housewives franchises don't go around slapping their colleagues. 

The whole thing was just so unnecessary. None of the stuff with the bullets or Kurt or Holly or the cell phone had anything to do with the court case - whether Peter covered up evidence. AUSA Fox was absolutely right when he wasn't being a sexist straw man. 

 

3 hours ago, MakeMeLaugh said:

SLAP! My reactions not necessarily in this order:

• That's going to leave a mark. And the media is going to think Peter smacked her up after the plea announcement.
• Catfight in the corridor over whose man is more important! (This episode totally fails the Bechdel test--all about the men, about the men, about the men. How's that all-woman law firm working out for you now, Diane? That's what you wanted?)
• Alicia is going to own you, Diane, after she calls the police on your for assault with intent to cause bodily harm.I

 

2 hours ago, Cynna said:

Oh god, I was sure hoping!
 

Given that Diane was the lead Defense attorney, there's no way it would be allowed to have Kurt do the bullet analysis. As or the whole 'affair' thing, I don't think it happened. I believe it was only asked as a way to discredit Kurt and distract the jury, which is what Alicia wanted to do. It was pointless.

I don't think the pause was meant to indicate he had cheated, so much as shock. I feel Diane left to a)show that she was not part of this BS circus and b)show that she wasn't interested in hearing the answer. It was a disgusting move to ask him that.

I agree that the silence on the witness stand was the shock of Diane leaving the courtroom not a definitive admission of guilt.  BUT if he did have the affair, did it even matter since just a little while back Diane and he rebooted their marriage, finally moving in together full time and him retiring?  They agreed to move forward so I don't think this is the end of Kurt and Diane.  But all that is beside the point. 

I hated the slap and the question of Kurt's infidelity because it turned Diane and her female firm into a joke, a stereotype of backstabbing and catfights.  The writing of the whole episode came off as misogynistic.  Every female on screen was undermined and shown as either weak, stupid, foolish, or cold and calculating.  

Sutton Foster's two second appearance either painted her as the true killer or the worst friend in the world.  Grace is being too emotional and foolish about college (and now her dad's not even spending time in jail so that was pointless) Diane is humiliated both professionally and personally and both are intensified by the catty notion she'd show up for the press conference so she can slap Alicia?  The law is her weapon.  Words are her weapon.  Way to neuter her power.  Lucca is weirdly obsessed with fixing Alicia's relationship with  Jason but also coldly wielded weapon against Diane, so both too caring and completely cold and disloyal?  Oh then there's the blond ballistic's expert that apparently trades her sexuality for a discount on buying the biz.  Not to mention how any expertise she has is dismissed because she MIGHT have slept with another expert at some time.  Even the woman on the jury was slapped down for wanting to know stuff the judge deems irrelevant.   

Note that Marissa didn't even get to show up.

The final just felt like a slap against all women with anything positive associated with the sex subverted and undermined.  

Plus a non ending is just a cop out disguised artistic.  When you leave it to the viewer to fill in all the important answers, it just means the writers didn't have any.  Weak.  Very weak.   

Edited May 9, 2016 by BkWurm1