“Is there any way to turn the smaller ones into the bigger ones?”
Oh, the sweet innocence of Makenzie Vega’s Grace Florrick. Frustrated with the ever-decreasing amount of money her mother, Alicia (Julianna Margulies), is pulling in via her new firm (is it a firm yet?) with Luca Quinn (Cush Jumbo), the elder Florrick listens as her daughter asks a simple yet pointed question. Is there any way to make something out of nothing? Could she turn those piddly little-money cases into big paydays? Might it be possible to make a mountain out of the proverbial mole hill in the name of earning more money and gaining more clients?
This comes after Maggie visits Florrick/Jumbo (or Jumbo/Florrick) as, presumably, the partnership’s first official case. Maggie has been harassed for not paying back her student loans (gosh, who hasn’t received that call once or six times?). She thought she paid it. Turns out, she hasn’t. Instead, she’s merely been the victim of a scam and all those thousands of dollars she sent away went to some creepy dude with a post office box in the Middle Of Nowhere.
It sounds ordinary, but, inspired by Grace’s question, Alicia sees contingency-fee dollar signs in her future, if she plays her cards right.
But this is The Good Wife, remember. Nobody’s ever truly playing with a full deck.
So it goes on the seventh season’s fifth episode, “Payback”. The title itself turns out to be just a little more apt than its predecessors this year. In addition to the student loan case-of-the-week, there’s the chance Eli Gold (Alan Cumming) could land another job, essentially getting paid back (in the form of more money) for all his hard work on the Florrick campaign … somewhere else. And then, of course, there’s Howard Lyman (Jerry Adler), who’s attempting to receive his figurative payback by making everyone walk around the office with weird glasses over their eyes and popcorn kernels in their shoes.
But back to where we started. Turning the smaller ones into the bigger ones is what this series tends to be about. That’s how it’s been since the beginning — Alicia began as a junior associate, remember, and in seven seasons, she has started her own firm, become a name partner in her old firm, and then started a new firm again — all the way to this week when Peter Florrick’s (Chris Noth) small gaffe turned into a viral video that, at the time, appeared could significantly swerve his campaign one way or another.
Actually, speaking of that campaign … holy cow, watching Eli get fired twice in the first five episodes of this season has been brutal. Is it just me, or were both of those scenes — in episode one with Peter and now in this episode with Alicia — some of the strongest this series has ever produced? Cumming deserves an Emmy nod (if not a win) for his efforts in both circumstances. The looks on his face have amounted to a master class in character acting. You can feel the shock. You can feel the sadness. You can feel the helplessness.
Maybe that’s why the turnaround on the sequence, later in the episode, felt so cathartic. All Eli had to do was show up and tell Alicia he’s not going anywhere. Thankfully (and to the credit of both Robert and Michelle King, as well as this week’s writer, Stephanie Sengupta) there was no real drama attached to him coming back. “OK,” Alicia responds flippantly. “Sounds good.”
Yet even with all that behind us, the Eli developments proved to be the most intriguing of the week. When he declared war (and revenge) on Peter earlier in the season, it was hard to decipher if he meant that as a die-hard adversary who wanted to ruin his opponent, or if he meant it as a spurned lover who would do anything to get a lost romance back. After this week, it appears the latter is more likely, especially after how puppy-dog-ish he looked when he busted into to Peter’s office as a result of Ruth’s (Margo Martindale) supposed mistake, offering to help rather than looking to capitalize.
Which is strange, considering how ruthless the Eli Gold character has been through the years. In so many ways, this season’s use of him has contradicted what makes the guy great TV — the scheming, the fast-talking, the selfishness, the strength — all the while adding a layer of hopeless romanticism that, it turns out, he wears well. He’s a True Believer when it comes to Peter Florrick. There’s something to be said for that.
Especially when you consider how he’s the living, breathing epitome of something that started small in The Good Wife universe and has since been turned into something big. Something very big, actually. A big piece on the chess board that is Peter and Alicia Florrick, and a big influence on what happens to the trajectory of Illinois’ First Lady’s career (the debt strike strategy this week was only the latest in a long line of examples; don’t forget that Frank Landau [Mike Pniewski] is still out there somewhere).
So, Grace. Are there ways to turn the small ones into the bigger ones? Indeed, there are, my friend. Just take a look around.
Approaching The Bench
All right. I’m officially lost with this Howard Lyman/Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry) stuff. In fact, I’m so lost, and I’ve hated it so much, that after this week, I can feel myself turning around on it. What I thought might be a two- or three-episode throwaway arc has now not only extended itself through episode five, but it’s also clear that it probably won’t end anytime soon. And because I would trust the Kings with all of my assets, money, and children (if I had any) … well, it seems like there has to be a consequential payoff at some point now, right? I just can’t believe it’s as cut and dry as ageism at this point. There’s gotta be something more.
And speaking of turning around on something … I’m all in on Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jason Crouse. Dude is no-nonsense, this much we knew. But God knows what the hell happened between him, that tire iron and that scammer. And because he does it all with that smile in tow, I’m kind of beginning to think that he’s got a little Dexter in him. I said it last week and I’ll say it again: each time he’s not on the screen, I’m weirdly longing for him to be on it.
But, with that said, can we hold off on him and Alicia gettin’ it on for at least a few more weeks, please?
I’m still a little confused when it comes to why Peter should be thanking Ruth. So, he’s polling well for now, but how do we know how much or if that viral video will hurt him in the long run? The guy is mad as hell, stomping through his offices, screaming for the campaign manager’s head, and within, what, 30 seconds, he’s hugging and thanking her? I get it that the sequence was probably designed to set Eli up as someone who genuinely cares for Peter (as noted above), but wasn’t there a better way they could have done that?
Here’s a question, and think about it: if you’re Eli, at this point, do you just take the money and a fresh start?
Come back, Peter Gallagher!
I’ll tell you what — the student debt story was an awfully good idea. People wonder what makes The Good Wife work as well as it goes, and part of that reasoning absolutely must deal with its transcendent nature when it comes to generations. This show was first on a lot of tech issues, and this week’s case hit so close to home for an entire age group. Again: if you’re of a certain age, who hasn’t received a threatening phone call like the one that kicked off this week’s episode?
That back-and-forth between mediation and arbitration was brilliant. And, yes, “brilliant” is the right word. It is not used lightly.
Be honest: the first thought you had when you saw those diapers was, “Howard planted those diapers.”
Crazy Prediction of the Week: Howard Lyman sues the firm, wins, and owns Lockhart, Agos & Lee. He then buys up Florrick/Jumbo and everyone works together again under the name Lyman & Associates.