The Good Wife
Episode 18: Death of a
Client
By: Carlos Uribe
The
Good Wife is a show about Alicia Florrick and her career and
scandalous personal life.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
I
loved just about every single moment of Death of a Client. It was
simply a fantastic episode. There was a weekly case but then there
really wasn't. There was no legal case. There was no-one that Alicia
had to beat in any legal system. For one episode, this show stopped
being a legal drama. What this episode is about is right there in the
title. One of Alicia's clients is killed. She's taken from the
black-tie party she was attending to support her husband so that she
could help the police solve the murder. He was involved in eighteen
lawsuits so it could have easily been one of them. The solution turns
out to be the first case that was mentioned: a barking dog one. He
was suing a dog owner over his dog and the owner killed him over it.
This twist works because it was planted early in the episode. For
most of the time, the police seem to suspect that it had something to
do with a mobster and a corrupt cop. If this episode had a flaw is
that the mystery never really came together like it should have. The
threads linking them were pretty weak and the writers seem to have
realized this. That's probably why they shifted the blame to the dog
owner rather than actually putting together the plot pieces. It's a
weakness and it's technically a pretty big one but I don't really
find myself caring because it did just about everything else right.
The way the case was solved, the way the police tried to navigate the
attorney-client privilege, and the flashbacks were all pretty amazing
that it excuses how the weekly case was actually pretty flimsy.
When
Alicia is brought into the case, she feels free to share any
information she feels could help them catch the killer. The only
problem is that the client had a lot of enemies. This is revealed in
a clever moment where the writers have Alicia write down all of the
names that might have wanted him dead. The detective realizes that
they're going to have to narrow down the search so he asks her a
bunch of questions to try and see which names would have actually
gone after him. The writers get the point across that almost every
single person on the list could have done it through clever use of
flashbacks and having her add an asterisk to almost every person's
name. It's that kind of clever plotting that elevates this episode.
What's even better is how the flashbacks are more than just a gimmick
because of how they're employed. They're used in cuts and pieces that
aren't necessarily in chronological order. This allows the viewers to
really get a sense of who the client is through snippets. John Noble
is able to make the most out of the role and really makes you feel
sad that he died. The flashbacks do more than provide these snippets
but it goes back to the affair. This is because during some of his
court cases, she was still sleeping with Will. The way that the
affair permeated through the flashbacks and into her mind was really
clever. It makes sense that Alicia would do more than just encourage
Laura to ask Will out but to basically break up with him all over
again. The flashbacks are one of the strongest elements of the
episode simply because they felt less like a gimmick and more because
they were completely crucial to the plot.
The
way that case was solved was pretty strong. It was solved through
flashbacks and through Alicia's help. It was solved because Kalinda
eventually got involved. It was also solved because the police lied
to Alicia. They led her to believe her family might be in danger
because they claim the killer's GPS listed Alicia's neighborhood.
Alicia broke her attorney-client privilege because her life was
reasonably in danger. They had actually lied to her to get the
information that they needed. Kalinda managed to figure it out. This
whole case did lead to Alicia's mom taking Zach and Grace to an Irish
pub to keep them safe. Since this is St. Patrick's Day, there's a
whole bunch of drunk people at the bar. Grandma has a little too much
to drink and she accidentally spills some secrets. Secrets like
Alicia got married after she was pregnant with Zach and that Grace
might have been an accident. Alicia is able to make her daughter feel
better by pretending that she did want a second child. It's a pretty
great way to work Zach and Grace into the episode without feeling
forced. They might have never been in any believable danger but the
episode didn't really pretend that they were. It merely used the
“danger” as a plot device to get the grandmother drunk enough to
cause problems.
What
was also great with this episode is the politics sub-plot. We get an
appearance by Krescheva at the black-tie party. This might be the
only appearance that Mathew Perry gets to make this season and the
writers take advantage of that. When Alicia goes with the police to
help solve a murder, Krescheva tries to poison a cardinal's mind by
claiming that it was related to drug charges and Zach. This cardinal
tends to shake the hands of one candidate and hug the other. The
person he hugs basically wins the catholic vote. Peter is upset with
this lie but his solution to the problem is epic. He punches
Krescheva when they're alone in the bathroom. When Krescheva is
shocked that Peter would punch him when they're political opponents,
Peter replies that it doesn't make any sense so he mustn't have done
it. Peter makes it look like Krescheva had been drinking a little bit
too much so that he had fallen and given himself a bloody nose. It's
simply a grand solution. The cardinal doesn't hug either of the
candidates, which leaves the Catholic vote wide open. In a dangling
plot thread, Diane is offered the spot of Supreme Court Justice by
Peter. She only has two hours and a half to decide and she seems to
want to take it. Will she? How will she fit into the show if she
does? Will she be forced to stick with the firm for the sake of her continued
appearance?
Death
of a Client is simply a fantastic episode of the Good Wife and it's
one of my new favorite episodes. The weekly case might not have been
perfect but the way it was solved, the flashbacks, and the way the
police manipulated Alicia was top-notch work. The family plot fit
into the episode well and it didn't feel forced in. The black-tie
party politics and Diane's decision were well executed as well.
Overall, I've got state that this is so far one of the best episodes
of the season-only “Red Team, Blue Team” or “Runnin' with the
Devil” might better.
Other News:
The
Good Wife is getting another season! I'm so happy!
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