Ready Player...3?

Deep Powder

We pick up in the scene from the last episode in which Finn agreed to the more stringent restrictions on Cary's bail. If he seemed distracted then, that's because, as we now learn, he WAS! He wants an extension on the speedy-trial provision so that he can try to find Trey Wagner (remember him?), or...like determine whether or not he's even still alive. Judge Over It is over it, and says no.

But Finn has decided not to take no for an answer, and wanders down the halls at his office, pensively looking at the photos of past Deputy SAs, including not just Cary but our old friend Geneva Pine. Might SHE have any dirt on Cary?

When Finn finds Geneva in court, she's evasive at first, but then mentions that at a certain point, Cary was put on administrative leave, and she never actually found out what the deal was.

And then Finn tracks down Jim Halpert's brother Pete, who in this universe is a cop, and one who's pretty pissed that Cary fucked something up and got Pete's partner blamed for it. What was the issue? Oh, nbd -- just two kilos of cocaine that went missing from evidence.

So then it's on to Sophia Burset's wife, who works in a crime lab and had worked there at the time of the incident. Her understanding is that Cary was supposed to have brought the cocaine to the lab himself, but that he never signed it out of the evidence room and it never showed up at the lab, and as a result, Lemond Bishop skated on some charges, which is kind of a crazy coincidence since Cary had represented him when he was at Lockhart Gardner, before he moved over to the SA's office? WEIRD.

Finn then meets Alicia for a drink, which is apparently becoming a regular-enough thing that she's already ordered his for him and slides it to him when he arrives. Finn is clearly preoccupied, and asks, "You know when something good happens to you but it means something bad's going to happen to someone else?"

Finn leads Alicia to a stairwell and tells her, "Cary's in trouble." Alicia's like, duh, but Finn urgently tells her, "Worse trouble." He can't tell her exactly what the situation is, but he's concerned that it could hurt her campaign: he thinks she needs to isolate herself from Cary, and that even though he can't tell her the WHOLE deal, she needs to believe him.

And Alicia clearly does, because when she goes into the (new/old) office the next day, she asks Diane how things are going. Diane is psyched that Finn's request for an extension was denied and thinks things are going great. Alicia obliquely warns her about what she's just heard from Finn, but tries to soften it as "maybe nothing." Yeah, probably totally nothing, which is why he risked his job to tell her about it?

Campaign Plepp

Alert Type: Challenger Alert.

Issue: When Eli runs into a Warren Plepp, the "king of petition drives," in the wings at a TV interview Peter's doing with local news anchor Frank Prady, he thinks Plepp's trying to psych him out about a challenger he's backing in the SA race -- and a little digging turns up evidence that said challenger is Prady himself.

Complicating Factors: Prady is very popular, and if he runs, Eli and Johnny are pretty sure he'll win.

Resolution: Johnny and Eli have determined that one way to figure out if Prady is running is for Alicia to meet with him seeking his endorsement of her candidacy.

Spoiler: Alicia should have prepped more for that encounter.

Beautifully Tailored Echoes Of The Past

Situation: On her way to a meeting with Eli and Johnny at the governor's office, Alicia runs into Ramona for the first time in ten years.

What makes it awkward? Alicia's big fat mouth. First, when Ramona says she's there to interview to be Peter's new personal attorney, Alicia's like, oh cool, what firm are you coming from, and Ramona's like, ummmm, Wipey Diapers And Snacks LLP? Alicia's embarrassed to have been so insensitive, given that she was in that situation herself not so long ago, and then...makes things worse by asking after Ramona's husband, who is now her ex-husband. D'oh.

How is order restored? Alicia very sincerely wishes Ramona luck at the interview and then takes off before she can comment on how trim Ramona's figure looks and find out she has AIDS or something.

"What's This Word Here? 'Pl...ease'?"

Alicia is getting ready to sit down with Frank Prady and ask him to endorse her for SA. She's not the world's best pupil. When Johnny mentions that Prady's mother was recently attacked and that therefore Alicia should stress how serious she is about prosecuting crimes against the elderly, she balks.

Love Sick

Judge Over It having granted Finn's motion for a hearing to determine whether the whole lost (or "lost") cocaine story can get admitted in Cary's trial, Finn's questioning Geneva about it when Kalinda comes in. Diane briefs her on the situation, and then Kalinda sits -- the required thirty feet away -- to watch and also text Cary while he is presumably supposed to be paying attention to whether he's about to be super-fucked at trial. "Wish we could get a drink." "I miss you." Cary being this shmoopy: fine. But are we really supposed to buy that Kalinda is puppy-dogging Cary like this? Surly looks out for one guy: Surly.

Tough Cookie

Who called the meeting? Alicia.

What's it about? Securing Prady's endorsement.

How'd it go? Starts bad; ends worse. First, Prady ushers Alicia into his dressing room, which is absolutely crammed with the evidence of how much his fans looooooooove him: cookies!

Then Prady puts her on her heels by saying he heard she was coming to offer herself for an interview. When she corrects him and goes into her spiel, she pretty much chokes on the line Eli and Johnny gave her about crimes against the elderly, and Prady's like, uh, okay, adding, "Just so you know, that's not true, about my mom getting beaten up": it was another lady who lives in Prady's mother's retirement community. Alicia says the specifics don't matter: "I still feel bad for...that lady...and I believe it. The elderly crime...thing." I'm just saying, when a meeting goes well, you don't end it looking like this.

The Bus, And Whom To Throw Under It

Cary's in his office moping about how damning Jim Halpert's brother's testimony against him was, and how even Diane is saying this hearing is "killing" them, when Kalinda calls. He can see her, through the glass, down the hall, keeping thirty feet away as she says she's figured out that Cary isn't mounting a more vigorous defense for himself because Peter -- then the State's Attorney -- told him to deal with the cocaine himself because he was planning his gubernatorial run at the time and a Lemond Bishop conviction would have helped his campaign. Cary says that Peter had nothing to do with the "misplacement" of the cocaine, but Kalinda counters that Cary didn't have anything to do with it either, so he has to say he was under orders to transport it himself. Cary says he won't. Kalinda says that, in that case, she will -- and he can't even run after her to stop him because thirty feet. HANDS UP, WHO CARES IF CARY GOES TO PRISON? Oh, shut up, you do not.

The Comeback Mom...back

Alert Type: Shark Alert.

Issue: True to her word, Kalinda's gone to Diane with her Peter-related suspicions, and Diane has subpoenaed him to testify in the cocaine hearing.

Complicating Factors: Eli tells Ramona to submit a motion to quash the subpoena on grounds that any conversations at that time between Peter and Cary constituted privileged work product, but she thinks that's exactly what Diane wants them to do, because that will make Peter look like he has something to hide, and tarnish Peter while helping Cary.

Resolution: After an initial seeming choke in court, Ramona smoothly gains control and, anticipating Diane's argument, counters that since Peter has nothing to contribute, the subpoena should be quashed. Judge Over It agrees.

Spoiler: Diane is pissed, and Ramona should look the fuck out.

Frank Prady vs. Alicia Florrick

After Johnny's prepped her for a very aggressive interview with Prady, Alicia is thrown when he starts with softballs -- how she balances work and family (he phrases it slightly differently, but...it's that), what she and Peter and their kids talk about over dinner ("We have dinner, like other families"). When he asks whether her being a mother is "part of the logic of [her] campaign -- replacing the prosecutor machismo with the perspective of someone who spent the majority of her life raising kids," she does what Johnny taught her and objects to the basis of the question. Prady seizes on this, saying he didn't mean it as an insult, and Alicia is forced to backtrack: "I'm proud to be a mother. I just-- I've done a lot of other...things." "Things," you say? GEE, ALICIA, I WISH I COULD VOTE FOR YOU TWICE!

Winner: Prady.

Alicia -- rightly -- curses her terrible interview performance, and surmises that her campaign is over since she clearly can't compete against Prady! But Eli and Johnny are confident that there are other ways they can beat him! Alicia's going home to get drunk!

Kalinda tracks down Sophia's wife the crime lab lady to ask her about a weird $30,000 deposit in her bank account! After trying for approximately one second to sell her story about having won it at a riverboat casino and then getting tripped up on the question of which one, she cares and blames her own theft of the cocaine on a cousin! Which cousin? OH, JUST TREY WAGNER! But she doesn't know where he is!

Kalinda goes down to the parking garage, finds Mrs. Sophia's car, and pulls up the GPS history! Oh snap, this lady's been taking a lot of trips to an address in Gary, Indiana! (Geez, Kalinda, maybe leave her alone, she's already got it pretty bad!)

And then Kalinda's knocking on a door in an apartment building in, presumably, Gary, and finding Trey on the other side of the door! "Lady, whenever I meet you, there's trouble"! he says, thinking she's there on Bishop's behalf! But she just wants to talk!

Johnny and Eli are proud as shit to have turned up a law review article Prady wrote a million years ago about West Bank settlements that will ruin him with basically every religious voter! Alicia doesn't want to use it because it's a million years old, there's no reason to think he still holds the same beliefs, and it's immaterial to his fitness as a State's Attorney anyway! Eli wants to use it anyway, but Johnny backs her up: "She's right. Let's have the PAC do it." Alicia very strenuously objects, but when she leaves, Eli's like, I got this!

Kalinda calls Finn to tell him she found Trey and he wants to testify against Bishop, because he feels guilty for framing Cary, "who did nothing wrong," and because he's pretty sure if he does, Finn will grant him immunity! Finn doesn't really care that the lady on the phone isn't giving him her name! He just wants to talk to Trey!

Later, Finn and Castro talk strategy, in light of this new witness! Finn now believes that Cary is innocent, and adds that even if they can't connect Bishop to the $1.3 million in heroin that's in question in Cary's trial (Trey and a few other crew guys did that one), they can connect Bishop to other drug dealers! But Castro still wants to get at Bishop via Cary! Finn finally figures out that Castro is making decisions based on what will help his campaign, and, grossed out, says so! Castro sternly tells him to reconsider what he just said! Finn will not! "You don't care about Bishop! You care about Alicia Florrick!" AND THAT'S FINN'S JOB, RIGHT, FINN?

Alicia meets Finn in their bar, and he tells her he quit! She's shocked! He still can't tell her EXACTLY what the issue was, other than that they disagreed over trial strategy! Alicia thinks he'll tell her everything if she just puts a few more drinks in him! Now he's going into private practice! Hey, Alicia may know of an extremely large office where he could rent some space!

And then CASTRO is in a web video Alicia's watching, in which he denounces Prady's anti-Israel stance of a million years ago! Alicia calls Johnny because she totally knows he leaked the article to Castro! Johnny tries to claim that Castro's people could have just as easily found it the way Johnny did, but mostly he's just glad that Castro's gambit hurts Prady and helps Alicia while keeping her clean!

And then Diane's stopping in to ask if Alicia's heard the news! Self-involved Alicia thinks Diane's talking about this Castro/Prady thing, but no: seems that Trey Wagner was on his way back to Chicago to testify on Cary's behalf when he was killed in a car "accident"! He was Cary's last hope! Cary is fucked!

And then Alicia's assistant is telling her that Prady's there! For a second, she tries to pretend to him that she hasn't heard anything about the old law review article, but then her laptop starts playing Castro's address again and she has to stop faking it! Prady is crestfallen about "losing friends" over this ancient "thought experiment"! He brings up her request for his endorsement, which she takes to be his agreeing to grant it! But instead, he rants for a minute about the personal nature of campaigning these days and how the leak of his old article has convinced him to run!

Alicia turns to ICE and says Prady could have just told her that over the phone! He says he knows, but that he wanted to give her his reasons in person! Alicia: "You're such a hypocrite....You've known for days now that you were running. You had me jumping through hoops for your endorsement when you knew." Prady insists that he was never going to run until this leak thing happened (and he knows it came from her team), but Alicia doesn't buy it, and even as he insists upon his innocence, she dismisses him contemptuously!

But...maybe she's not actually so sure that Eli and Johnny were right? OH WELL, KIND OF TOO LATE NOW THAT SHE'S MADE AN ENEMY FOR LIFE!