Monsters of Television

“They tried to flip it, but they didn’t put any work into it.”

Nothing ever dies, nothing ever goes away. Things can be forgiven, but they can never be forgotten. So, yes, you may keep defeating two crafty lawyers time after time, Lockhart-Gardner, but they never forget the defeats. Yes, the grand jury didn’t indict anyone, and the SA didn’t bother to try again, but the stink of judicial bribery will always be there, Will. Yes, you can run from your past, from your husband and live in a spartan, all white apartment, but he will find you, Kalinda. And, yes, Alicia, you can kick out your husband and he will fall on his sword for your professional success, but the marriage will never be fixed because neither of you seemed to really make an effort.

So no matter what you think about new days and starting over, the past is there, always lingering, always waiting for you to stop looking over your shoulder.

“The Dream Team” is a legitimate finale since it concludes this season so nicely, bringing back things to full circle, to land the impacts of the season’s big stories in a perfectly encapsulated way. The firm is, no matter how many clients they keep or lose, kind of ruined. They can celebrate big wins, but they’re weak now because of Will and because the judicial bribery charges will not go away. Ever. Short of Will leaving or the entirety of Chicago’s sitting judges all dying or leaving, the firm will constantly struggle to keep its footing in an environment where people can always appeal on judicial bribery concerns.

It’s the kind of conclusion to the grand jury plot that feels not only realistic to the narrative, but also with a sense of “real world-ness”, as in this sort of thing conflict, albeit possibly heightened, would happen to a law firm in the real world (they would’ve probably gotten rid of Will, but whatever). And it’s something that the show can constantly address as it goes forward, and the firm scrambles to keep itself afloat.

Having Nyholm and Canning team up is sort of evil genius sort of thing that appeals to me (who doesn’t love when villains team up?!), and I like even more that Nyholm and Canning basically pulled a Doctor Doom victory. Yes, of course, they lost the challenge against LG’s nuisance suits, but like they said, it was all a distraction to land Mark Zuckerberg Patrick Edelstein. Even in their loss, they assumed a victory, just like all the best supervillains do.

Speaking of menacing presences, the arrival of Kalinda’s husband (or who I sincerely hope is Kalinda’s husband) is, I hope the end of this ambiguous Kalinda nonsense. I’ve never been a fan of it, and while even I cannot deny the sheer coolness of Kalinda buying a sledge hammer and then knocking a whole in her wall (she’s not getting that security deposit back) or the very idea of sitting and waiting to kill someone, I just want it done with. Kalinda hasn’t been super-compelling this season (or last), so I want this to be the end of it. Or at the very most, the mini-arc of season 4.

Peter scuttling his campaign, announcing that he and Alicia are separated, is perhaps the ultimate sacrifice that Peter could’ve made for Alicia (Eli is going to be furious). But it’s just not enough. That house, that damned house, having become such a metaphor and symbol for the past and tranquility, it can never be reclaimed, or redressed. And while Peter, I think, is aware of this, he’s still trying, he’s still making offers to try and repair things. But can he? Is Alicia open to it? I don’t know, and she doesn’t either. She politely thanks him for what he did, but makes no real concessions about what it means for him politically (I refuse to think that Alicia is the linchpin in his campaign, but then I decided not to be a poli-sci major), and she’s still unwilling to sit down with him, with her family.

Can she move on, thaw, for lack of a better word? Do we want her to? Does Peter deserve it? His investigation into Will was personal, and motivated by hurt feelings and betrayal. Is his confession about the separation an atonement for that? I want Alicia to move on, I want Alicia to be happy, and I don’t know that it’s going to be with Peter (no matter how damn charming he is). But apart from New Age Jesus Boy (“Like a commune”, Grace? Really?), her kids are generally happy and well-adjusted, and maybe she can move on. Maybe it’s time for that to happen.

We’ll find out in the fall.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Never let anyone say this show isn’t funny. The pile-up at the elevator was just great fun, and then capped off by the roaming baby in the walker thing. I was dying. And Michael J. Fox’s face as Canning when Peter dropped the bomb was priceless. That jaw was on the floor below the conference room.
• Speaking of Fox, it seemed to be a rougher episode for him, physically, than any episode has been.
• “They can’t fire you if they can’t find you.” Oh, Zack. If only it were they easy.
• Overall, I’ll say I enjoyed s3 more than s2, but I was really frustrated with lots of s2.