Kick In The Rebuttal

Even Mentioning This Awkwardness Is Awkward?

Situation: The headlines this episode was ripped from are, in a word, Ferguson.

What makes it awkward? The episode was written between the protests that followed the shooting death of Michael Brown last summer and the grand jury decisions later in 2014 (and the grand jury decision in the Eric Garner case). But there are so many references to the real case in this episode that it wouldn't have been possible to excise them and still have an episode.

How is order restored? The Good Wife is going to give you some disclaimers and hopes you'll be cool about it?

The trial in the case of Cole Willis, a black man killed by white cops, is winding up just in time for Alicia's first debate with Frank Prady! Josh Mariner is back to warn Alicia that she'd better have an answer about that, and when she says she won't need to comment on an ongoing trial, Eli tells her that the jury's actually about to go out to deliberate! It's all chaos between Josh's anxiety, Marissa's offers of food, and the stylist's intervention with Alicia's jacket, and Alicia doesn't seem reassured when she asks where Johnny is and Eli dodges the question! Really all we learn here is that Alicia is, according to Eli, six points down, but that just means she can take Prady off-guard with her aggressiveness!

According to Prady's guy, Alicia's actually eight points down, but that's good for Prady! "Give off the air of a frontrunner, she'll look desperate!"

Meanwhile, Neil Gross decides now is the right time to phone Alicia and bitch about how his divorce is being mishandled! His guy, Evan, has just offered $30 million to Neil's ex, Deena, when Neil was pretty clear about not wanting to go higher than $15 million! "I have a prenup! I don't know why I'm paying an arm and a leg! I'M UNHAPPY!" But how does his money feel?

Even though Josh is in her ear yammering that she shouldn't get rattled by a change to the countdown clock, Alicia has to call Diane and interrupt the celebration over super-skinny Cary and his super-skinny return to the firm to relay Neil's disgruntlement! Alicia thinks there's a chance that Evan could be "freelancing"!

When Diane and Cary go in to see where things are, we see that David Lee is representing Deena, and that he has photos of Neil with his ski instructor that will look very bad on TMZ! Hi David!

Outside, Diane and Cary huddle with Kalinda, who thinks Evan's rolling over because David Lee offered him a job and Evan doesn't want to bite the hand etc.! Cary: "I missed this! All the usual disasters!"

Back at the debate, no sooner has Chris Matthews introduced himself than Johnny has a new crisis: Patrick Mancini, a reporter that's present tonight has let Johnny know that he has photos of Peter with Ramona, leaving her apartment two nights ago.

OOOOOOOH.

Sure enough, here's Peter calling to do damage control, but he gets Alicia's voicemail! Eli calls Peter to say he's on his way, and that Peter is not to talk to anyone about the Ramona photos! He immediately gets a call from another reporter asking about this very matter, and Eli spins: "We're on the verge of a race riot, and you're asking me about the governor's sex life?...No, I will not dignify that -- just call me again when you get serious!" Nora's like, "'Race riot'?" and some very awkward discussion ends with her noting that he's brought her along tonight, when she normally never gets to leave the office, so that she can serve as his "black shield"! POINT NORA!

More chaos in the wings in the seconds before Alicia takes the stage, including what she should say about the Willis verdict, which is incoming given that the jury's already done deliberating! Alicia ordering them to shut up does not, in fact, shut them up! All that's left is for her to go greet Prady, and that won't be weird, right?

Hmmmmmm. But that couldn't possibly be enough to throw her off her game later, right? Nah, she's a pro. ...right?

Uneven Evan

Kalinda's looked into Evan's weird offer strategy and apparently gotten to the bottom of it: Evan's son is having surgery to remove a tumour on this very day. Diane: "He's become nice." They can't remove Evan from the Gross case without opening themselves up to charges of malpractice by Neil, so all Cary and Diane can do is insert themselves in the proceedings now.

However...they also learn that Kalinda freelanced for David Lee and that there are photos of Deena that they can now use against her. Just get out of the way, Evan; the heartless adults got this.

It's An Apology, Or Pistols At Dawn In Defense Of The Lady

When Patrick Mancini unwisely decides the way to follow up Alicia's fiery defense of her privacy is to...finish the question everyone could tell he was about to ask (and get booed), a disgusted Chris Matthews gives Prady, in keeping with the rules of the debate, a chance to rebut. Prady says he has no rebuttal: "I think Mrs. Florrick deserves an apology from the press." Frank Prady: maybe actually the decent person he's been trying to prove to Alicia he is? And does Alicia deserve this defense given that she was behind the leak of his supposed closetedness? Discuss!

Alienation Of Online Platform Affection

Alert Type: Bitter Divorce Alert.

Issue: A whole fuckload of lawyers are trying to facilitate the divorce of Neil Gross and Deena Lampard, both of whom were apparently cheating on each other constantly and within view of various professional investigators' cameras.

Complicating Factors: The incriminating photos of Deena with the SleuthWay guy are still leak-able by David Lee, since they could damage ChumHum's business by showing that even Mrs. ChumHum prefers SleuthWay (in her pants); but then Diane and Cary produce a non-compete from her employment as ChumHum's in-house counsel to show that when she was carrying on with the other guy, she was in violation of the agreement (in her pants? I don't really get this part, but it doesn't matter).

Resolution: Deena uses her knowledge of the business to go to the ChumHum board and threaten to expose the company for not having done enough to stem the spread of hacked celebrity noodz. Neil ends up having to settle for $75 million, and fires Florrick Agos Lockhart, which is bad because I don't know if you've heard this two or three or 500 times but ChumHum is FAL's biggest client.

Spoiler: There's probably a distasteful measure that Diane and Cary could take in order to avoid this sort of issue in the future.

Peter is in the middle of a post-Willis verdict strategy meeting with Eli; Pastor Jeremiah; the Pastor's son (and Peter's former spiritual advisor) Isaiah; and Franny Zissis, the (absent) mayor's Chief Of Staff when the verdict comes in. Surprise! It's terrible.

Prady and Alicia are in the middle of talking about drug sentencing when Chris Matthews gets an update on his earpiece: in light of the verdict, their live TV feed has been cut, and everyone's supposed to hang out for a few hours in the hopes that they'll get back on TV tonight! UNLIKELY!

As Nora complains about the characterization of the late Willis -- a suburban father of two -- as a "suspected gang member," Eli hisses at Peter that this is his "Giuliani moment!" Is that supposed to be...good?

It's A Secret Debate, You Probably Haven't Heard About It

Freed from the debate for a moment (or the rest of the night), Alicia goes to the hotel kitchen to make herself a plate, and runs into Prady doing the same thing, both of them starving since they were both told by their advisors not to eat before the debate for fear that these two professional adults might actually barf all over the stage. Left alone, Alicia and Prady are back in a collegial mood, comparing notes on how they think it's going. Prady remarks that the whole thing's artificial, since they agree on more than they don't, and suggests that they debate right now to determine exactly where they actually differ. Alicia mischievously agrees, and before long they're getting walked in on by a (black) waiter who points out how absurd it is for these two white people to be discussing how to make the system more inclusive for minorities; as the down time ticks on, more and more hotel staff and finally Johnny and Martin (Prady's Johnny) show up to cut it off. Long story short: Johnny's proud of Alicia; Martin is concerned to see Alicia winning over the ad hoc audience, telling Prady, "You're eight points up. Don't squander it"; and we learn once again that the main point of differentiation between the candidates is that Prady feels he's less cynical because he's never practised law, while Alicia feels she has better ideas to reform the system from within because she's not so idealistic about it. TWO GREAT CHOICES, PRETEND COOK COUNTY.

A Good Man Is Hard To Find. Okay Ones Are Just...Hard, Apparently.

In the quiet as they drive to the scene of the protest, Pastor Isaiah takes the opportunity to offer some counsel to one of the most wayward sheep in his flock.

Dear Johnny

Once she's been sprung from the secret debate and returned to the green room, Alicia dismisses Josh and Marissa (the latter of whom congratulates Alicia on having won her over: "I'm thinking of voting for you now -- that's how good you were!") so that she can tell Johnny that their parking-garage kiss didn't mean anything. Johnny seems slightly disappointed as she describes it as "a mood," but he recovers long enough to call it "a form of transference" that candidates sometimes form for their campaign advisors. Alicia, tightly: "You don't need to instruct me about my feelings." Johnny explains that it's just how he deals with things, but he still can't look at her, and when she forces him to as she insists YET AGAIN that she doesn't have feelings for him, shit gets kind of weird.

Fortunately, the spell is broken with the announcement that Prady is suspending his campaign with some McCainian mealy-mouthing about this being "a night for action" and urging Alicia to join him to "listen" or something, and then Alicia and Johnny can't discuss whatever may or may not be between them because she needs to go be in a photo op alone at her podium, showing how ready she is for a debate. Cool?

We Tease Him A Lot 'Cause We've Got Him On The Spot

Who called the meeting? Diane and Cary.

What's it about? They've stopped a triumphantly whistling David Lee on his way to his car in order to find out what it would take to get him to ditch Louis and come head up Florrick Agos Lockhart's Family Law practice.

How'd it go? Well. Weird, but well.

Lytton Out

Goodbye forever, Ramona.

As Peter prepares to address the protesters, Franny tries to make Eli make him wait until the mayor gets there from the airport (having rushed back from his sketchy trip to New Hampshire)! It doesn't work!

Isaiah, Peter, and Willis's widow Deidre urge peace! "This is not the time to break things," says Deidre! "This is the time to fix things!" Hmmmm, maybe it's actually the time to do both!

Alicia walks into her office to see David Lee sitting in it! Asked what he's doing there, he tells her, "I've come home, Alicia. We're partners again! Isn't that great?" I mean, I think it is? Alicia might feel differently!

Alicia vs. Diane & Cary

Alicia rages into Diane's office to ask what the hell happened with David and why she wasn't involved in the decision. Diane and Cary tell her that they tried to call her but that she was busy. Alicia yells that this was a decision for all of them, which is a bad move because it opens the door for Diane to be like, bitch, actually, you deciding to run for State's Attorney was a decision for all of us but you didn't involve us in that one, now did you? Furthermore, if your run was about corrupt Castro going after Cary, and now Castro's out and Cary's fine, why are you even still running? Incensed, Alicia claims that Diane would never ask that of a man, and Diane is NOT HAVING any questioning of her feminist credentials (nor should she, frankly), but she lets Alicia speech about how a man's ambition wouldn't even earn a blink from Diane: "Why am I still in? Because I think I would make a better State's Attorney. There. You have a problem with that?" And then she stomps back to her office to get the latest campaign updates from Johnny, but as she stares down the hall at Diane and Cary through slitted eyes, it's pretty clear that THIS IS NOT OVER.

Winner: For now it's a draw, but never bet against a furious Alicia.