Peter And Alicia's Marriage Of Convenience Is Not So Convenient For The Third Person In It

Now that it seems clear that the state's attorney's race is going to be an actual race, and that Finn's candidacy is more than a tactic or a stunt or a protest, it's time to see precisely how big a scumbag Castro is. Turns out: pretty big! In the moments before Peter is supposed to have his first appearance with Finn since endorsing him, Castro pops by just to say hi and also no big deal hand off a photo from a CC camera showing Finn leaving Alicia's building two weeks ago: "How do you think it will look if you endorse your wife's lover?" Though Peter's immediate reaction is to pour two glasses of water and throw each of them into Castro's face (Castro: "Seriously?"), Peter's only human and of course the photo has its intended effect: he starts stalling on the speech and questioning Eli about how Finn came to their notice in the first place. Peter's antsiness about the possibility that Alicia might be getting some off Finn leads him to flirt with an intern, and as Eli manages that situation, Peter finally almost lets him in on the truth about his new arrangement with Alicia -- tiptoeing up to the announcement and then stopping short in a way that lets Eli know something is definitely up. And Eli's response shows how far things have come for his friendship with Alicia.

Of course, "friendship" is not quite the right word for the three-way marriage Eli and the Florricks have been in since he first took over Peter's political team. At some points, Eli and Peter have been closer than Peter and Alicia -- certainly back in Season 1, as Alicia was considering some kind of reconciliation but also setting firm boundaries about what their relationship was going to be like, while Eli became Peter's closest confidant and his literal partner in crime (allegedly). Through that period, Eli's main concern with regard to Alicia was that she live up to her titular designation and be a political asset to him in public; in response, Alicia had to set boundaries with Eli in the same way she did with Peter, rejecting his attempts to boss her around and strategically agreeing to select press requests. Doing so on her own terms taught Eli not to take Alicia or her assistance in Peter's political career for granted, and a grudging respect developed between them.

Since then, Eli and Alicia's relationship has grown closer as all three of them have gotten better at keeping Alicia's status as Peter's sometime attorney separate from her duties as his wife, and Eli has figured out the best ways to deploy her in the press without exhausting her goodwill. The end of Alicia's affair with Will made that somewhat easier -- it's easier for Peter and Alicia to play a couple in public when they actually like each other -- but it wasn't until this latest episode that I realized what their reunion as husband and wife meant to Eli beyond how it facilitated his job.

After Peter nearly reveals how his marriage to Alicia has changed, Eli asks Alicia if he can come by her apartment for a chat, and shows up just as Zach is about to model his graduation cap and gown for Alicia and Grace. In the manner of moms everywhere, Alicia gleefully dorks out about this milestone moment: she and Grace barely register that Eli is there except for Alicia to note that he's being weirdly formal, to which he replies, "Just watching a family...be a family." It's not clear if Eli is moved by this because he misses being in a family like that himself, since his divorce, or if he thought of the camera-ready Florricks as his model for marital success (er, minus the hookers, I guess), or if he regrets the part he may have had in keeping Peter and Alicia together past the point of viability; maybe it's all of those. When he gets Alicia away from the kids to ask her what's happening, she's as cagey as she'd want a client to be under cross-examination, and then comes out with the truth -- that she and Peter are now only married technically, and for political reasons, but that they're not getting divorced. Whatever Eli was expecting to hear, evidently it wasn't that.

Eli immediately tries to tell Alicia that she's reacting out of grief over Will's death, and that he knows she loves Peter -- "And if you don't, he loves you." And while the Eli of yesteryear would be making this pitch for his own sake, this feels different. When he starts the conversation by saying he's asking her about her marriage because he cares, Alicia kind of snorts, but even she can tell he means it...or so I have to surmise based on the fact that she tells him the truth. Or, the cynic might say, Alicia knows there's no point in being in a political marriage of convenience if you don't give your staff all the facts so they can handle whatever crises may follow it...but I really don't think that's it.

By now, Eli and the Florricks have gone through so much together that Eli's investment in their relationship is more than just strategic. And given that I like Eli more than I like either Alicia or Peter, I'm sad for him that the Florricks' failure to keep it together has made him so sad and possibly even cast doubt, for him, on the possibility that true love could ever exist. But cheer up, Eli: we still have Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally.