Dramatics, Your Honor.

“I was just thinking, none of this existed six months ago.” –Alicia

I can't quite process this. I feel like I have lost a dear friend, which is such a crazy feeling to have while watching a freaking television show. I just finished the latest episode of The Good Wife and I am literally writing this through tears. Not subtle, misty-eyed weeping, but full on gasping for breath, heart wrenching sobs. If you're reading this, then you're a fan of the show, which means you probably know what transpired at the end of the episode and you feel much the same way I do.

Will Gardner is dead.

I can't believe I just typed that. I can't believe the writers DID THIS TO US. Did Josh Charles want to leave? Was it something we said? How have we not heard anything about this?! Are he and Dan Stevens starring together in a Broadway show called "Fuck You, Fans"?

Here's a funny story (I know, it's hard to imagine laughing at a time like this... even with Michael J. Fox returning as Louis Canning). When I discovered that the show would be delayed last night because of stupid basketball, I made the executive decision to just go to bed and then get up early to watch the show and write my recap. I woke up to five text messages from four different people, including my brother who doesn't even watch this show (ever the sensitive one, his just said 'Knox Overstreet, uh oh'). I also had two emails -- one from my CG editor eager for my reaction and one from a best friend asking how I was holding up. Clearly people know how much I love this show and how deeply Will's death would affect me -- and you, dear reader. 

Let's get to the grades I guess.

Alicia

A

“Hey, we might have our differences, but you’re the better lawyer.”–Alicia
“I am, aren’t I?”–Will
“And the more humble.” –Alicia

It's hard for me to grade the way Alicia acted in this episode. I can't stop thinking about what she'll be like next week. What her reaction will be when she hears what Kalinda has to say on the other end of that phone call. In hindsight, this was sort of a revelatory episode for Alicia. This was especially poignant when she stood proudly surveying her own law firm that she and Cary built from the ground up. She even thanked Cary for making her do it. She seems happy where she is. And in a cruel twist, we finally got a non-animosity fueled conversation between Alicia and Will when she warned him that his client's parents were shopping for a second opinion. Little did we know it would be their last.

Will

A

“We can look at normal people and want to be like them, but we can’t really.” –Will

I feel ill. I can't even write about him. This death, albeit fictional, just sucks so damn much. Will is such a fascinating character and there's so much we have yet to see from him. Not only that, but Josh Charles is fantastic and I've loved watching him every Sunday. What a brutal way to go. And he so desperately believed in that kid! Who was innocent after all! Why did this trial mean so much to Will? I feel like we've never seen him care about a client with such abandon. I wondered why they let so much time pass between this episode and the last time we saw Jeffrey Grant. It felt like they put so much effort into that first episode about his trial and Will's faith in him and then just dropped it. Now I guess we know why. Plot-wise, this is a very interesting development (hello, understatement of the year), but I mean specifically for the election fraud case that hinged on Will's testimony. Where will that go now?

Diane

A

“Keeping the world safe for drunk CEOs.”–Will
“It’s my new motto.”– Diane

We haven't seen a lot of Diane lately, so it was a comforting presence to have so much of her in this episode. On a lighter note, of course she has that enormous link necklace in more than one color. The scene where she hears the gunshots from the courtroom neighboring Will's was brilliantly done. The look of fear on her face was palpable.

Kalinda

A

“I don’t know, I wanted to do something different.” –Kalinda
“What, farming?”–Will

I think we all assumed that what Kalinda wanted to talk to Will about in private was the fact that she's now dating Cary. But she didn't even bring it up and instead told Will that she wanted to leave L/G, a move she pulls every few months or so, as Will pointed out. Did she really want to leave? Did she deliberately not tell Will about Cary even though Cary admitted the relationship to Alicia? So many questions! Kalinda was brilliant in this episode -- from finding the piece of evidence that finally proved Jeffrey Grant's innocence (a lot of good that did) to dashing into the courtroom to check on Will, with no regard for her own safety. The fact that it was Kalinda and Diane who discovered Will's body in the hospital seemed right, even though it was the most heartbreaking scene in the entire episode.

Cary

AWhen did Cary become, like, the best? Have they been grooming him to fill the Will-shaped hole in our hearts? He has come such a long way on this show and I'm so grateful for his character's general awesomeness. First off, he flat out admits to Alicia that he's 'seeing Kalinda' (even though she, like most of us, thought Kalinda was gay. She's bi, for the record). That was a ballsy and gallant thing to do. I seriously hope this becomes a real relationship and not just a fling. We need a little love in our lives right now. Secondly, Cary stepping up as Alicia's lawyer for the deposition about the voter fraud scandal was also a gracious gesture. Cary and Alicia truly seem like a team now and it's hard to even imagine them as the frienemies they once were.

Eli

A-

“As long as it’s performed by underlings, we’re okay.”–Eli…famous last words?

Oh, Eli, how we've missed you. There wasn't a whole lot of Eli this time around, but what little we saw of him was excellent. We got some snark, some tenacity, and even some shocked tenderness when he handed that bad news cell phone to Alicia. I think Eli admired and respected Will and this will not sit lightly with him. Then again, it really makes his job shoving this voter fraud thing under the rug a whole lot easier.

"Dramatics, Your Honor"

BHow does one process an episode like this? I don't even know how to justify any of my grades. I gave everyone As because they were all incredible, but I detested the episode overall. I mean, it was brilliantly done, like most episodes of TGW, but oy. What a blow .The scene when Jeffrey Grant is unraveling and darting his eyes around the courtroom until they rested on the cop's unsecured gun was the most intense thing ever. The anticipation it built was simply jarring. And then to hear the gunshots from off-scene was even more torturous. Looking back, Will's speech to Kalinda about how they can observe normal people but never actually become one of them was very telling. This was it for Will, this was his life. He was never going to ride off into the sunset with Alicia.

Extra Credit

• Really? You want me to award extra credit for this horrific episode? Ugh, fine...
• “Okay, but, uh, you’re not giving her anything?”–Alicia to Cary about his dating Kalinda. Oh, he's giving her something alright. Hey oh!
• “She's bi…or something.”–Cary
• “Kalinda I could kiss you.”–Will
  “Not here.”–Kalinda
• “It’s like Perry Mason here with all this late arriving stuff.” –The judge of the week
• I like their Castle-style murder board

Demerits

• Um, Will died. Minus one million points