Message Discipline.

“Questions are for dopes.” –Johnny

There are 58 days until Cary's trial. 58 DAYS. I really thought this "Cary Goes to Jail" thing would be a fun little way to kick off the season, not one of its major plot lines. I'm not sure how much more of this I can handle.

Not only are we dealing with the original charges brought against Cary, but now the evil State's Attorney office has accused him of stealing 2 kilos of cocaine from evidence in order to help out Lemond Bishop. None of this is accurate, but Cary insists on keeping the truth from Diane and his defense team. It takes the wily leather jacket-clad Kalinda to sniff out the real reason Cary's staying mum on something that could save him from spending the next ten years in jail. While Cary thought he was protecting a pre-Governor Peter, what actually happened was that the cousin of Trey, Lemond Bishop's missing lackey whose testimony was crucial to Cary's innocence, worked at the crime lab and stole the cocaine that Cary dropped off for testing. Whew. I'm tired from just trying to explain that. Kalinda tracks the guy down and manages to convince him to come forward but then... oops, he dies in a car accident. Curious, very curious.

Then there's Alicia who spends much of the episode blundering through the early stages of her campaign for State's Attorney. Her campaign manager prepped her for a hardball interview with Frank Prady, played by the always delightful and now bearded David Hyde Pierce, a political talk show host whom her team thought had eyes on the State's Attorney's seat for himself. After Alicia blows her interview by being way too on the defensive, she makes a call not to leak a damning paper from Prady's law school days because she wants to play the rare honest political game. The paper leaks anyway and Prady comes to see Alicia to tell her that he does plan to run but that he only decided once he learned that her team played dirty and leaked the paper (which they totally didn't, it was Castro). Alicia chooses not to believe Prady and turns on her newly found ice cold politician attitude and essentially tells him that it's on like Donkey Kong.

Alicia

A-

“Okay. I’m going home to get drunk.”–Alicia
“That’s a joke, right?”–Eli
“It is. I know. Don’t joke.”–Alicia

I think the question on a lot of fans' minds is how in the world did Alicia think she should get into politics if she sucks at asking for things? As Eli pointed out, that's literally what running for elected office is. So that's certainly a little conundrum Alicia's going to have to deal with -- is she going to continue to struggle with the nastiness of politics or was her total 180 in her final conversation with Prday in her office supposed to indicate that she's ready to play dirty? Also, do Alicia and Finn meet for drinks like, on the reg? Because if her DUI stop ended up online, how has no one snapped a pic of these two flirting it up in crowded bars all the time?

Cary

B+

Why is Cary risking his life, freedom and career to protect Peter? They've never really seemed like bros or anything... in fact, I always get the distinct feeling that Peter doesn't even like Cary. Alas, Cary put his designer tie-clad neck on the line for the Governor when it turns out, Peter didn't even need any protection. That poor lady from the crime lab though, she sure did. It's pretty adorable how Kalinda and Cary seem to think texting and phone calls don't apply to their court issued mandate to stay 30 feet from each other. And by adorable I mean stupid.

Kalinda

B+Kalinda finds out all the secrets, as usual. What will the writers do when they can't send Kalinda out in her little skirts to dig up all the dirt? I was impressed with Kalinda's sleuthing, but not so impressed by the fact that it never occurred to her that she might be leading Bishop directly to the witness he obviously wanted dead.

Eli & Johnny

B&B

“We think a third candidate’s joining the race.”–Johnny
"I thought we were going to ease her into it!” –Eli
“I changed my mind.”–Johnny

These two have been playing with their Jump to Conclusions mat a bit too much. Eli spotted a guy known for garnering signatures to get names added to ballots via petition at a taping of Frank Prady's show, which is what led him and Johnny to gear Alicia up for battle should Prady decide to run. Turns out though (if you choose to believe him) that Prady wasn't even planning to run until someone leaked his old law school paper. These guys are definitely good at their jobs and Alicia's lucky to have them in her corner, but they need to start tailoring their strategies to match up with their candidate's style.

Finn

“The longer I work here, I always realize there’s a reason behind the reason.”–Finn

Finn is looking cuter and cuter these days which can only mean that he and Alicia are just episodes away from getting in each others' legal briefs. I mean come on, he tried to warn her about what was coming down the pike for Cary and then he QUIT HIS JOB as an ASA when he realized Castro was trying to take Alicia down no matter the cost. This guy is crushing hard. Now he's going to open his own practice and/or be hired by Alicia's firm. Interesting developments.

Peter

B-Peter insists on hiring the mother of the panty-less former intern as his new personal legal counsel. Yeaaaaaah, he's either A. banging this lady B. wants to bang this lady or C. used to bang this lady and possibly fathered the aforementioned panty-less intern.

Ramona

B+I can't help but think of this lady as the terrifying psychopath in The Following, so it's difficult for me to even remotely trust Ramona. I loved the juxtaposition of her run-in with Alicia -- Ramona is basically following in Alicia's foot steps from lawyer-turned-mom-back-to-lawyer again and the icing on the cake is the fact that they appear to be old friends.