The Good Wife's Howard Asks Why No One Can Take A Compliment

The brand-new law firm Florrick Agos has a lot of deficits: a client list primarily composed of those the partners poached from their last job (and who, therefore, could potentially bolt back to Lockhart Gardner at any moment); a "rustic" office space; an investigator who, though she's getting better, is no Kalinda. But this season's episodes have almost all reminded us that Lockhart Gardner has its own problems — or, rather, one big problem, and his name is Howard Lyman.

The superannuated Howard leapt to relevance last year, when Will had his whole suspension-from-the-bar interlude, and he and Diane schemed to replace Will with Howard, someone they thought they could easily use as a puppet to advance their own agenda. And while I am as contemptuous of the elderly as any middle-aged person who thinks she's still young even though she really, really isn't (how not young am I? Last Wednesday I was dead asleep at 9 PM), Howard has spent every second he's spent in the office since his elevation to partner showing that older people aren't just cuddly, innocuous, wrinkly cherubs. Earlier this season, we saw Howard implicated in a harassment lawsuit brought by a former staffer who happened upon him in his office when he was taking his daily bottomless nap. And in the latest episode, Howard loses Lockhart Gardner a potential $90 million client just by GIVING THOUGHTFUL COMPLIMENTS.

What happens is: Natalie Flores comes back to Lockhart Gardner looking for pro bono help for an undocumented friend of hers, who is facing deportation if he doesn't put his actual life at risk by testifying against a gangster. Except, when Natalie arrives, she's identified only as a girl who used to intern at Lockhart Gardner, so Howard volunteers to talk to her. And Natalie has barely laid out the particulars of her friend's situation before Howard goes off on a tangent, sharing his memories of a visit to Mexico in the '60s: "The women! And those dresses, whoo! Those short dresses." And guys, look, he thinks that Natalie is Mexican, okay? He is trying to connect with her by sharing what he likes about her people!

Only belatedly do the actually engaged partners of Lockhart Gardner grok that Natalie now works for a powerful lobbyist who could bring in millions in billing, so when they learn that immediately after meeting with Howard, she fled in search of Alicia, poor Howard gets called to the carpet to report on their discussion, which he does, quite accurately: "I told her how great Mexicans are! How sexy they are!" David Lee delivers a world-class eye-roll/"Oh LORD" combo, to which Howard reacts with what MAY be his best moment on the show to date (or, at least, his best moment while wearing pants).

Howard, non-verbally: "THIS fucking guy." Howard: for real! (Just kidding. Howard, you don't understand racism, and you prove it later in the episode when you meet Natalie's African-American boss and give him some cringey kind of jive handshake. But I will always love you for this GIF, which I plan on using a lot in the years to come.)

Bonus That Moment: Like all right-thinking people, I am no fan of Will's new bint Isabel, of the underwear yoga and the being all smurfy about tattoos. But she won me over a tiny bit by asking Will about Alicia and telling him she'd heard about her from someone named David, who "looks like a jack-o'-lantern." BECAUSE HE TOTALLY DOES.