It is the final curtain call for Will Gardner (Josh Charles) on The Good Wife as the female lead role of Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) is freed from the chains that bind her between two men over the past few seasons. Florrick, moving on to her own legal entity with Cary Argos (Matt Czuchry), was continuously caught in between continued feelings for her former lover and partner, Will Gardner, and her role as the first lady in her renewed relationship with husband, Governor Peter Florrick (Chris North). Now, as the call is received from Kalinda telling her of the fateful courthouse shooting that has taken the life of Gardner, she finds herself searching for answers as those chains that bound so tightly in the love triangle are broken.
In the latest episode of The Good Wife, Eli Gold pulls Alicia away from an important conference for the Chicago Correspondence Club where she was to introduce Peter, the guest speaker, to take the final call about Will from Kalinda informing her of his passing. Eli tries to fill in and fumbles the introduction on the teleprompter written for Alicia as Alicia makes her way to the hospital overcome by memories and emotions. At the offices of Lockhart-Gardner, Diane (Christine Baranski) must find a way to break the news to a room full of partners who will attempt to find a way to move on.
David (Zach Grenier) quietly breaks down in an empty conference room as Alicia enters the L/G offices. At the courthouse, Kalinda begins gathering information starting with the courthouse security guard whose gun was used to kill Gardner after receiving a text from his pregnant girlfriend as he is grilled by police. Jeffrey Grant, the shooter and client of Florrick-Argos, is detained.
Cary calls about the deposition to be informed about the shooting as David gets permission from Diane to call Will’s clients to maintain order as the word spreads about the murder and to stave off poaching competitors. Alicia listens to the last call from Will before his shooting. What did he want to say?
Through the years, there have been series of harsh words as well as tender between Alicia Florrick and Will Gardner in the struggle to maintain the leading role in this series but the antagonism made for great television. Many times, Kalinda as been at the heart of these tensions, playing both sides of the courthouse battle.
Kalinda has something on her mind as she listens to the sobbing Grant and his attorney state there would be the presentation of an insanity plea placed on the table as she swiftly exits the courthouse. Does this have to do with the testimony Will was to give against Peter?
Peter calls Alicia who is at the scene; the call is declined and Alicia seeks out the judge sitting on the bench at the time. The judge explains the sequence of events as being the defendant, Jeffrey Grant, shot the witness and then Gardner who tried to get the gun with the prosecutor Palmar throwing himself on Gardner and dragging him out of the shooting before being shot himself in the process.
Meanwhile, Cary decides to proceed with the deposition despite Alicia asking for a continuance due to pressure from the opposing attorney. Peter gets a hold of Alicia using Eli’s phone and she refusing his comfort as to not be bombarded by reporters and his entourage.
This is clearly indicating the strength the show is going to place in the character of Julianna Margulies going forward from this point. Although Alicia Florrick has always presented a strong character, she has had Will hanging in the background when things got really tough. She will now have to wade these waters of transition alone.
Making the waters more difficult to tread is the fact Will was calling someone about stealing clients as informed by the assistant to Finn Palmar; was that person was Alicia? The call was interrupted. While Alicia deals with this news, Cary is taking out his frustration at the deposition and about to win his client a huge settlement for wrongful termination as Kalinda heads to the morgue with Jenna.
Alicia finds out Will needed to fire someone at the firm…was it David stealing clients? Alicia is confronted at home by Peter and as he hugs her, she remembers the phone call from Will where he tells her he only wants to be with her.
A heartbreaking end but a new beginning for the women on this show as Diane is now in sole charge of the firm and Alicia finds her feet of independence. Diane will need to stand her ground against David who will ultimately try to bring her to her knees and Alicia will need to assert herself from being manipulated by Peter now that Will is gone. His presence lingers giving strength to these two formidable women.
Image courtesy of CBS
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