The Good Wife recap: 'What Love Means'

We’ve reached the penultimate episode of the fifth season of The Good Wife. So let’s get to it: The episode began with a brunch at the Paisley Group, where CEO James Paisley (Tom Skerritt) discussed the upcoming merger planned for his company. Paisley’s address was an attempt to quell the concerns of his board members, who were worried about the shedding of the domestic workforce and the ongoing wrongful termination suit by his former CFO. Enter Alicia, who explained she was confident they would reach a settlement before going to trial. You know what this scene needed more of? Pie! Paisley was pied in the face by a protestor. (Alicia’s outfit also fell victim to the dessert.)

I loved the used of “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming to You” by Nerf Herder in this scene. (Fun fact: the song was written and commissioned specifically for The Good Wife!) Sure, Paisley was the target of the protester’s outburst. But we quickly learned this guy suffers from foot in mouth disease, much to Alicia’s chagrin. But first, Alicia tried to settle Paisley’s case with Louis Canning outside of court. Unfortunately, their negotiation attempts fell flat.

Alicia made one last effort to get Paisley to accept Canning’s $140,000 payoff amount. And Paisley agreed! But you know it can’t be that simple, or this would have been an extremely short episode. Paisley gave a TV interview to the Financial Daily Watch, where he compared himself to Anne Frank hiding from the Nazis. Ooof. But it didn’t stop there. Then he said the one percenters were the new minority in the country, just like the Jews in Nazi Germany. The whole thing was pretty awful, but it was a hilarious scene. While Alicia watched and begged Paisley to quit talking, Louis watched and begged him to keep going. Knowing Paisley’s comments would taint the jury pool, Canning upped his asking price to $3 million. That made it official: this case was going to trial.

But before that, they had to select a jury. And both Alicia and Canning knew that this case was going to be all about that first seven jurors, especially considering Paisley’s offensive comments. They knew whoever got the first seven jurors would have the upper hand in negotiations. Canning asked Howard Lyman to sit second chair, solely because he’s Jewish, and instructed him to “look wise.” Canning was using Paisley’s comments to get the jury he wanted and to amend the case to include religious discrimination. So Alicia attempted some damage control: She had Paisley meet with Simon Fishbein (Merwin Goldsmith), and that meeting resulted in Paisley’s on-air public apology. But the apology took a turn for the worse when Paisley spoke about not rewarding the lazy, and basing people’s voting rights. Canning giggled, and Florrick/Agos were back to losing jury members.

Grasping at straws, Cary and Alicia tried to get one of the seated jurors disqualified, and it worked! But they were still doing damage control behind the scenes. After two very offensive and very public statements, Alicia wanted Paisley to issue a final apology and statement. This one, wisely, would not be broadcast on live TV. Paisley wasn’t too into the idea, so Alicia presented the bottom line: They were losing jury members, and the fund managers were getting nervous. He’d created a media death spiral, and now his merger was in danger of falling through. So they hired a PR firm to focus group an appropriate statement.

NEXT: James Castro breaks out the big guns

Paisley made his (pre-recorded) statement, and Alicia sat in the hot seat with the two reporters from the Financial Daily Watch. Unfortunately, since she was being filmed in a room without a monitor, she kept confusing the two African-American reporters on the show. Ooof. Paisley made light of the situation, asking her to work up her apology.

Back in court, they completed the jury selection process. Alicia was getting side-eye from one of the African-American ladies on the jury. It didn’t look good. Canning upped his ask to $5 million. Fortunately, the inside drama at Lockhart/Gardner worked in their favor. (More on this later.) Lockhart/Gardner had won Kael Pepper’s business, and one of the juror’s sons had died from AIDS. Kael Pepper had been accused of price gouging AIDS medication. Canning knew he was backed into a corner, and they reached a settlement deal right before trial. And at $1 million, I think Paisley got off easy.

Meanwhile, Finn met with Alicia and Eli to discuss Peter’s endorsement announcement. Eli came with good news: The official report on the Jeffrey Grant shooting absolved Finn of any wrongdoing. Instead, the blame was placed firmly at the feet of the state’s attorney. Eli warned them that James Castro would try to hit back by exposing something on Finn. But at least they were prepared for him to do his worst. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize how bad Castro’s worst would be.

Castro went to see Peter, and he gave him a surveillance photo of Finn leaving Alicia’s apartment building. Peter knew that Finn had been at Alicia’s apartment, because so had he two months ago. But this photo was from two weeks ago. “How do you think it will look that you endorsed your wife’s lover?” Castro asked Peter. And the Governor didn’t take too kindly to that. He threw two glasses of water in Castro’s face, then promptly kicked him out of his office. It was awesome. But the seed of doubt had already been planted. Peter asked Eli to hold off on the endorsement announcement.

Finn asked Alicia why they were delaying the announcement, and she questioned Eli. He had to tell her that Peter wouldn’t sign off on the speech, then decided to investigate further. He wasn’t happy with what he found: Peter flirting with one of the office interns, Lauren (Katie Paxton). Lauren was hoping to get an interview with Peter for her blog…’cause that’s what the kids are calling it these days? Eli — who’s always concerned with the optics — insisted that Lauren stay 50 feet away from Peter going forward.

NEXT: Eli finally learns about Peter and Alicia’s marital arrangement

Peter was highly irritated with Eli’s micromanaging. They argued about the situation, and Peter came pretty close to spilling the beans about his and Alicia’s new arrangement. And that was enough to make Eli realize something was going on. So Eli paid a visit to Alicia to get some answers. She remained tight-lipped at first, but eventually opened up: “This is about everything. I’m just tired, Eli. I’m just done.” Eli was shocked by the news, but played his part, telling her that she loved Peter and that he loved her. But I think his words are too little too late. Can anything rectify Peter and Alicia’s relationship at this point?

Peter was also irritated that Eli spoke to Alicia behind his back, but the truth is out there now. And Eli isn’t happy about it. He knows that any extra-marital activities will eventually go public; they always do. So Peter told Eli about the photo of Finn leaving Alicia’s apartment.

Eli went to see Alicia and directly asked her if she was sleeping with Finn. This obviously didn’t go over well. But eventually, Alicia confirmed what we already know: She’s not sleeping with Finn, and this was just Castro making a play. Eli told Peter that Finn and Alicia weren’t together, but that didn’t stop Peter’s interest in Lauren the intern. That’s how the episode ended: Peter looked at a picture of Alicia, the one saved as his computer background. He closed his laptop, and then Lauren arrived at his office. She asked if he needed anything. And I yelled at the TV. “NOPE!” Peter’s not heeding Eli’s advice, and this can only end poorly, right?

Over at Lockhart/Gardner, Rayna Hecht (Jill Hennessy) returned. She had asked Diane to be co-counsel on a class action suit against Kael Pepper. Louis Canning had an odd reaction to Diane’s new business, so Diane asked Kalinda to figure out what was going on with him. (There’s always something going on with him! He’s Louis Canning!) Instead of investigating, Kalinda went straight to the source. Canning admitted that he was in the process of signing Kael Pepper labs, and they obviously couldn’t be representing both sides of the case.

Diane and Louis both wanted to keep their respective cases, so they agreed to pitch both options and let the firm decide. After a chat with David Lee, Diane thought she had a chance to get his vote if she could bring Hecht into the Lockhart/Gardner fold. Word on the street was that Hecht wasn’t happy with her new partner, Elsbeth Tascioni. (Miss you, Elsbeth!) But Rayna didn’t show up to her meeting with the Lockhart/Gardner crew later in the episode. Diane assumed Rayna had gone to Florrick/Agos — information she got from Kalinda. And Kalinda, of course, got that information while she was in bed with Cary.

NEXT: Diane’s battle with Canning continues

Rayna eventually saw Diane and told her they wouldn’t be able to work together. Rayna was hearing rumors about Diane not being able to put Will’s death behind her. None of that is true, of course. Diane stormed into Florrick/Agos to confront them about stealing Rayna away. But they had nothing to do with it. Canning is the source of all this drama. He’d been feeding bad information to Rayna to make sure Lockhart/Gardner would get the Kael Pepper business. So Canning won this round, but it ended up hurting him in the Paisley trial. I still think he’s probably happy with the $8 million in yearly business.

Best lines and moments from “What Love Means”:

++ Louis Canning: “You have changed.”

Alicia: “Yes, I have.”

Louis Canning: “I liked the old Alicia better.”

++ “Oh, come on. You don’t understand. This is not about the facts. It’s about what the facts can be made to look like.” –Eli, perfectly explaining politics to Finn

++ “I still can’t get used to this place. You need more walls.” –Eli, talking about the Florrick/Agos offices

++ Howard Lyman: “What do I call you? Is it, uh, crippled, or handicapped, or what’s that other word?”

Louis Canning: “What do you call me? How about Louis?”

Howard Lyman: “No. When I’m talking to other people. What do I call you? Challenged. Isn’t that the word? Challenged. Do you like that?”

Oh, Howard. Never a dull moment, but frequently an offensive one.

++ Kalinda startling Louis Canning in his office

++ “Gooooaaaalll!” –Louis Canning

++ “That was really crappy.” –Louis Canning, to Kalinda after she answered his phone while he was trying to ignore Alicia’s call

++ “Diane, if you represent only the innocent, you’ll go quickly out of business.” –Louis Canning

++ Peter: “Eli, do you know Lauren? She’s one of our interns.”

Eli: “I haven’t had the pleasure.”

Lauren: “I get your coffee every morning, Mr. Gold.”

++ Peter: “I will not be contained in a bubble. I have to be with people. That’s who I am.”

Eli: “Okay, if this were a normal conversation, I would now make fun of you for saying that Lauren the intern is people. Because I can find you people in the supermarket or the Shop ‘n Save, but this doesn’t seem to be a normal conversation, so what the hell is going on?”

++ Peter: “Eli, I don’t pry into your life.”

Eli: “I don’t have a life. Your life is my life.”

What did you think of the episode? We got a quick scene of Cary and Kalinda in bed together. What is going on with those two? How do you think the Diane vs. Louis battle will play out in the season finale? Will Peter start something with Lauren the intern? We also learned that Finn is divorced. He and Alicia aren’t an item right now, but do you think they’ll become one? Do you want to see them together? And most important, what did you think of Finn’s haircut?