By 
In the first 10 minutes of last night’s episode of The Good Wife, I almost grabbed my own cell phone and chucked it out of the nearest window in solidarity with Alicia over the insane amount of phone calls she was receiving, back. to. back. In the final 10 minutes, my heart was overflowing with sibling feels thanks to the adorable scene with Alicia and her brother, Owen. Only this show has the ability to make me feel every emotion over the course of one of its brilliant episodes.
Last night’s episode, “Tying the Knot”, gave new meaning to “artistic brilliance” and “creepy love match”. The artistic brilliance belongs not only to the team of writers this time around, but also to Josh Charles, who directed this episode. Charles took what I found to be a very unique approach with the direction of this episode. His approach was visually attention grabbing, but not overwhelming like another show that shall remain nameless. I did see him tweet a fan that he is supposed to direct again next season. Hope it is true and looking forward to it! As for the creepy love match? We will get to that later. That one is a doozy.
Sweeney and his new bride
The episode centered around Colin Sweeney and his latest convenient occurrence of crime in his home while his lawyer, Alicia, is present. Before I go into his story, can we talk about Dylan Baker’s fabulous portrayal of the sinister Colin Sweeney? The fact that Baker can make me love a character so incredibly flawed and ominous says a lot about his talent. As I have said before, my love for Sweeney is unhealthy. I am fully aware of this, yet I cannot help it. My love for him is overshadowed only by my love for him…with Alicia. Go ahead. Judge me. But, not one of you can deny that Julianna Margulies and Baker are magnificent together and have such a dynamic that you cannot help but let yourself get pulled in (Oh come on! We all know he would love a chance at Alicia! And she knows it. We all saw how she positioned herself in front of his “special” glasses).
Anyway, while Alicia was in Sweeney’s home trying to get him to sign some financial disclosure documents, a dead body was discovered in one of his bathrooms by his fiancée, Renata Ellard, seemingly the victim of suicide. Of course this happens while Alicia is there, making her a witness. Not like she doesn’t have countless other problems to deal with at the moment. Icing on the cake is that it turns out that it wasn’t a suicide, but a murder covered up to look like one.
Seeing as she will not be able to continue representing Sweeney in this particular case because she is now a witness, Cary takes over. Alicia’s numerous memory flashes while being questioned and after? I felt like she drank some bad wine, siphoned all of her thoughts and went skinny dipping in Dumbledore’s Pensieve. However, it was true to form in depicting how our memory tends to deceive us. When Renata is arrested for said murder, Alicia recommends Diane to represent her, who succeeds in getting her exonerated. Did Sweeney do it? Did his bride-to-be that seems to have the hots for Alicia (I mean, really. Who can blame her?) do it? Seems to me that Mr. Sweeney may have finally met his match. Yet, poor Alicia Florrick is once again duped by Colin Sweeney, who seems to enjoy it a little bit too much. The glint in his eyes when he looked at her in that last scene…
Before I move on to the latest cause of Eli Gold’s hysteria, I want to acknowledge the looks exchanged between Alicia and Diane as the latter questioned her while on the stand. While I cannot help but feel that their mutual admiration for their ability to be shrewd when necessary and just overall kickass awesomeness is the reason why they would make the greatest legal team the world (Yes. The WORLD) has ever seen, those looks worried me. What was that? Admiration? Disdain? Weird. However, even Sweeney said they’d make a good team. Here’s hoping…
Zach Florrick and The Bong
With the Florricks, where scandal seems to seek them out, I have always wondered when the kids would lash out. I always thought it would be Grace, not Zach. Then Eli has a conniption because there is a photo on the internet of Zach holding a bong. Pretty hilarious, in my opinion. As was Owen’s response in a video that was flying around the internet as well.
“Pot’s no worse than alcohol. You should see Alicia drink.”
Oh, Owen Cavanaugh, how I love thee, let me count the ways. Much to my disappointment, the bong did not belong to Zach. He was stopping a friend from smoking. Darn. Is a little Florrick kid rebellion too much to ask for? While I am not quite sure why she chose to do this with Owen, I am happy Alicia had him sit in with her when she spoke to Zach about “the pot”.
“This…is an intervention. We are intervening.”
Owen! You and your “intervention voice” are making it incredibly hard for me to take this scene seriously. However, while he brought the comedy, Zach brought the truth to this scene. Calling his mother out on her charade of a marriage and how they always need to “protect the family image and the façade of perfection”. You go, Zach Florrick!
Zach: “You and dad are playing Bill and Hillary. Why don’t we talk about that?”
Owen: “Yeah, why don’t we talk about that?”
See, Alicia? Explain to me why you took Owen in there with you? Other than to make us viewers laugh ourselves silly.
Alicia and Owen
AKA the best adult sibling relationship I have ever encountered on television in my entire viewing life. All I have asked for since Will died were scenes of Alicia with Owen and with her mother. One down, one to go (NEXT WEEK!!). Owen is the only person Alicia is ever really herself with. He is also the only person that she’s ever really expressed her feelings for Will to. The apprehension was so evident on Owen’s face before he asked Alicia if she was OK. The heartfelt, sincere apology for her loss and the way he tried to talk about Will with her. Oh how I loved how he gently placed his hand on her leg in reassurance when she stopped him with one pleading statement.
“I don’t wanna cry anymore Owen, so let’s not.”
In true Owen fashion, he swiftly changes the subject to that of Alicia’s marriage, asking for an explanation for Zach’s earlier comment. After making sure her children were safely out of earshot, she explained to him what it meant and how she had made a decision. As always, Owen tells her that he’s happy if she’s happy and then takes the conversation into un-charted territory for Alicia, who immediately decides that their talk is over.
“I care about ya, sis.”
“I know.”
“You’re my favorite person in the world.”
Oh Alicia and Owen. Why are you guys so freaking adorable? When after that she smiles and kisses his forehead before retreating to her bedroom, my heart bursts with love. And then breaks when I see her close her door and slowly begin to cry. Margulies’ ability to make viewers cry right along with her for that seconds long scene is proof that her talent is limitless (Seriously though? Can she stop? My heart can’t take anymore and I’m running out of words to describe her).
Honorable mentions:
Alicia in that purple dress. BAZINGA.
Finn’s face when he found out Peter was endorsing him in his run for State’s Attorney.
Not so honorable mentions:
Alicia telling Finn he should run for State’s Attorney [insert minion “Whaaaaattt?” here].
The flashbacks or “memory pops” or whatever we are going to call what Finn was having in the courtroom. They were uncalled for, cruel and brutally hard to sit through. I jumped with every gunshot.
Another superb episode complete with breathtaking directing, writing and acting. I am so saddened to realize that we only have three episodes left of the season. What will we do for three months while it’s on hiatus? Get our lives back, maybe. I think they own us, though.
What were your favorite moments from the episode? Hit the comment box and let me know!
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