'The Good Wife' explores marriage (and the death of one) in the latest episode
One of my biggest complaints about this season has been that The Good Wife's storytelling has lacked some clear focus. However, the show has improved on this point as the season has gone on, and that's definitely the case in Sunday's episode.
Set almost entirely in Alicia's apartment, "Party" is focused, sharp, and create hilarious, interesting and tension filled moments by having its characters bounce off of each other in such a confined location.
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This week, Alicia has relationships on her mind and it's all because of that conversation she was having with Jason at the end of last week's episode. Picking where we left off, Alicia explains to him that she's getting a divorce from Peter and that she's decided that she wants Jason because she's tired of delaying things and waiting for the "right moment." Because there's never a right moment.
This decision is informed by her finding out about Will's voicemail and how their relationship didn't just work because of "bad timing." Unfortunately, their conversation has to wait because Alicia has to start getting ready for Jackie and Howard's ketubah signing, which is like a party to celebrate the signing of wedding contract.
Before he leaves, he gives her a deed to land on Mars as a gift. It's supposed to be funny, but it throws Alicia off and she spends the entire episode wondering what it means.
"I don't understand. Is that a metaphor?" Lucca hilariously asks when she finds out about it. You could argue that Alicia will never actually make it to that land in the same way that her relationship with Jason will never be anything more. However, that ends up not being the case. After confessing he wants to be with her too, Jason explains that he just gave her the deed because he likes space stuff and thought it was cool.
Now, we'll move onto the meat of the episode: Howard and Jackie's party.
The party quickly spirals out of Alicia's hands, and Rosemary Rodriguez's direction and Tim Guinness' cinematography perfectly situate Alicia amidst the chaos in her apartment. First, the florist sends the wrong flower arrangement -- funeral flowers instead of wedding themed ones, which is an example of the show's typical twisted humor. Then, Jackie, Howard and all of their friend arrive early and before Alicia is done getting everything ready. Thankfully, Jackie loves the flowers, which is just great.
Actually, the juxtaposition of death and marriage pervades throughout the episode. When Peter arrives at the party, he and Alicia head into her room, which looks a bit like a funeral parlor because that's where they're hiding the flowers, to discuss their divorce. It's amicable and while they both accept that it's time, they're still kind of sad because this is the end of an important union that has meant a lot to both of them.
Their conversation is interrupted by some disturbing news: Zack, who came home with his 23-year-old girlfriend Hannah, is getting married, dropping out of school and moving to France with her, where he'll work on his memoir -- he took a memoir class -- while she works. It's quite frankly an absurd plot development and really only works because of Alicia's very New Alicia reaction to it, which is laughter.
Any headway Alicia makes in convincing Zack to postpone his plans at least until after the trial fail when he and Grace find out about their parents' divorce and that she's sleeping with Jason. Zack, being young and naive, views the divorce as more of a mistake than him getting married.
The episode forces Alicia to consider how she feels about marriage and whether it means anything. Part of Alicia does feel like she's kind of failing because she is getting a divorced, especially when confronted with the sight of Diane and Kurt sharing a cute and tender moment in the kitchen. "Maybe one day you can teach me how to be happy," she says to Diane and Kurt at one point. At the same time, her experience and her mother's experience has convinced her that marriage might not work and that's her worry about Zack having go through all of that mess.
Alicia expresses her concerns to Hannah, who has a very pragmatic and naive view of marriage. She doesn't view marriage as being permanent. "Marriage should be fun. It shouldn't be a death knell," she says. If it's not permanent, then what's the point wonders Alicia. "Taxes," says Hannah. Alicia responds with a smirk.
We're supposed to take what she says just as seriously as Darkness at Noon -- The Good Wife's parody of self-serious prestige dramas like True Detective -- which is playing in the background. As we've seen on the show countless of times, a union like marriage is far from that simple, which is drilled home when Louis Canning -- who is representing Cary because he's worried Peter might try to blame him for the Garber case -- calls Alicia and lets her know she is also in trouble since she gave up spousal privilege during the grand jury.
There's actually a lot going on in the episode. In addition to all of this Florrick family drama, there's also the fact that Jason finds out that Peter actually didn't do anything wrong in the Lloyd Garber case and was so involved because the lab tech working the case had a history of screwing up. Also, Michael Tascioni says he can't work on Peter's case anymore because his dog gets sick, so Diane has to represent Peter. However, the episode never falls apart or feels stuffed because it doesn't spend more time than necessary on any point.
The camera smoothly moves through the cramped apartment, seamlessly jumping from hilarious pairing to important conversation, in a way that keeps the episode moving.
Case Notes:
"I loved that you stood by your husband. A lot of people my age think it's a throwback to an old kind of domesticity, but I think it's a harbinger of a new feminism like you Huma Abedin," Hannah, when she meets Alicia for the first time.
"You seem frazzled. It's a good thing. It's more real," Zack, to his stressed out mother.
"Face it, this is the stupidest thing I've heard you say in awhile, and there have been some pretty stupid thing," Alicia, after hearing about Zack's plan.
The firm has officially changed its name to Lockhart, Florrick & Associates.
It's kind of disappointing that Cary wasn't at the party either, but it kind of makes sense given everything that happened.
The final shot of Alicia and Peter sitting on the bed and toasting to their divorce as they watch what appears to be the series finale Darkness at Noon is great. They both get this look on their face like they're wondering what comes next.
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Sandra Gonzalez was a Senior Television Reporter at Mashable. A Texas native, she spent almost four years in New York City before leaving the land of superstorms for Los Angeles, where she was introduced to these terrifying things called "rolling earthquakes."Previously, she was with Entertainment Weekly, where she wrote about every show that could fit into her perfectly crafted TV schedule and anything ever touched by Shonda Rhimes.You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @theSandraG
