The Good Wife Goes "Bad"—Alicia's Breakdown, Flithy Ed Asner and More!

Dylan Baker returns as Colin Sweeney, plus Kalinda takes on a surprising new role

By Chris Harnick Mar 02, 2015 3:01 AMTags
The Good WifeCBS

The Good Wife is back and suddenly everything feels right. Sunday nights are complete once again!

In "Dark Money" Colin Sweeney (Dylan Baker) helped usher the CBS drama back to the airwaves with a defamation suit against a TV show. The Good Wife really let Baker go to town and gave him a dual role—he also played the actor playing the Colin Sweeney-esque character—which was absurd and delightful at the same time. Julie White of Go On played the opposing counsel. When Diane (Christine Baranski) and Cary (Matt Czuchry) basically destroyed her case, White's character sought to prove Sweeney killed his first wife. Can't be defamatory if it's true.

Things weren't really going Colin Sweeney's way thanks to his current wife, the equally kooky Renata (Laura Benanti), but ultimately they settled after Alicia (Julianna Margulies) noticed the Chum Hum logo appeared in the episode without clearing it with the proper channels, and thus associating it with murder. Settling with Sweeney was cheaper than dealing with Chum Hum.

Colin Sweeney tried to get Alicia to help him—and she did—but not directly in court. "Mrs. Florrick, whatever will I do without you?" he asked her. That's a question I ask myself almost daily. 

Nobody really gets Colin Sweeney except Alicia—"I don't like you either."—and it was a bit disappointing they didn't have any court scenes together. Obviously it's because of her campaign, he's not exactly a favorable person to be seen with, but Colin got her to help him with a little blackmail: He knows Lemond Bishop started her PAC. During the scenes they were together, Margulies gave such good face as Alicia in response to Baker's Sweeney, who is wonderful absurdity in human form.

CBS

When Alicia wasn't busy coaching Sweeney and helping out on the case behind the scenes, she was having secret meetings with Frank Prady (David Hyde Pierce) and Guy Redmayne (Ed Asner). Let's just come out and say it: Asner as Guy Redmayne was great. He was crass and unapologetic, hitting on Alicia, talking about Frank being gay…it was pure entertainment. "I love mankind, but I hate people…especially when they eat," Asner's character perfectly stated. And then there was this interaction with Alicia:

"I've got the testicles of a 20 year old."

"Where? In your briefcase?"

Alicia got money from him, but at what cost? Guy Redmayne only decided to back her after he received robo-calls from her PAC designed to rile conservatives and emphasize gay rumors about Frank. You can clearly see her struggle with the decision…but she did it anyway. Again, she gave great disgusted face. "I was bad today," Alicia told Grace, breaking down. Alicia can win…but does she want to? She's starting to see how trying to be good and bring change can really tarnish her soul.

Meanwhile, Lemond Bishop (Mike Colter) called in his favor with Kalinda (Archie Panjabi): She had to act as his son's bodyguard. She picked him up and dropped him off. They were followed and he was bullied at one point, but do we think Bishop had the car follow her? What's his game here? We got to see Kalinda take down a bully, which was probably unintentionally humorous. Since Panjabi's exit was announced, there's been an added weight to her scenes with Bishop as she gets further and further in. I'm caring more about the character and what's going on here more than I would've if her exit wasn't public knowledge.

A solid hour of The Good Wife, not its best, but far from its worst.

Gasp count: 2, mostly at things Ed Asner said.

Some other things:

"Do you want anything, Alicia? There are cookies…" and "I'll get the cookies."

Marisa is obsessed with getting Alicia milk and cookies and that's great.

"Use your little decoder ring and West Wing tweets…" Alicia taking down her campaign people for their secretive tweets with the PAC.

"I'd split that little missy in half."—Ed Asner's character was so bad.

The Good Wife airs Sundays, 9 p.m. on CBS.