I’ve read various recaps of The Good Wife’s Hitting the Fan episode and the accompanying comments from readers. There’s unanimity in the opinion that this was one of the best episodes of the entire series and of television in general. I agree. The show was uncharacteristically fast-paced, making the outstanding writing and performances for which it is known, jump out and grab the viewers to keep them on the edge of their seats.

However, I do have one criticism about the writing. When Alicia tells Will to “go to hell” on the phone and Will replies “no, you go,” right after that, he tells Alicia that she needs to call the school to give permission for a field trip for Grace. There’s a brief back-and-forth that ends in Alicia thanking Will and he replying “you’re welcome.” This is not credible. Will is still too angry with Alicia to be so civil. It would have been much better if he had answered “right” or just hung up. This part felt like the writers were trying to inject some humor, but for me it failed.

This misstep in the writing is small but it put a black mark on an otherwise perfect episode filled with great moments. I’d love to write about each one. However for the sake of brevity, I will just focus on Alicia. I was surprised that I found no comments condemning her behavior on any of the sites that I visited. So, I will.

Alicia has decidedly changed.  As a reader pointed out on one site, the Alicia of earlier seasons would have never had the confidence nor the courage to do what she’s currently doing. But the Alicia of earlier seasons would also not have had the dishonesty to do it.

Let’s face it, whichever way she tries to spin it, she’s stealing clients from Lockhart/Gardner. What she’s doing is unethical and, as it relates personally to Will, downright disgusting.  Will not only gave her a job when no one would, he has never done anything to hurt her, personally or professionally.  He has every reason to feel the anger and betrayal that he does and, from now on, the right to do whatever it takes to save his firm.

In stealing clients in order to partner up with Cary, who by the way has more professional and moral justification for what he’s doing than she does, Alicia is becoming as slimy as Peter. Is this really the only way that she can move out and move on? Is backstabbing someone who helped her, when she was at the lowest point in her life, the way to build the foundation for her new firm and future success?

For the longest time, I thought that Peter didn’t deserve Alicia. But I’m starting to feel that maybe they do deserve each other, after all. Although, to be perfectly honest, I still want to see her end up with Will. Yes, I unapologetically do. For starters, I still haven’t forgotten that Peter hired and had sex with prostitutes. But, as if that were not enough, he always says or does something that gets on my nerves.

In this last episode, it happened when he comes to visit Alicia and finds that instead of being destroyed, she’s doing some destruction of her own, he tells her “Look at you, you look like you’re 25 years old, fresh out of law school, ready to….um….conquer the world.”  Hey, Peter, women can be hot, can be kickasses, and can conquer the world way beyond the age of 25. Your own 40-something wife is proving it. Jerk.

But back to Will & Alicia, ironically, there’s now a bigger chance of them ending up together, than ever before. The feelings that will be unleashed in the upcoming war between them will no doubt stoke the passion that they have kept in check for the most part in 5 years.

Needless to say, all of this is also stoking the passion that we, the fans, have for this excellent television series. I, for one, am motivated more than ever to watch The Good Wife especially now that I’ve found out that she’s a bad friend.