During the Super Bowl on Sunday, CBS announced that this would be the final season of The Good Wife. We don’t know a lot about what’s to come, but we do know that the finale is on May 8 and creators Robert and Michelle King only have nine episodes left to wrap up the personal, political, and professional saga of Alicia Florrick. The Kings made it clear in an interview today with TVLine that neither original cast members Josh Charles (his character is dead!) nor Archie Panjabi (her character is complicated!) will return before the show goes off the air, but that they are “reaching out to a number of actors” including Jess Weixler, whose character, Robyn, mysteriously vanished from the series at the beginning of Season 6. “We want to see where some of these characters ended up and landed,” Robert King told TVLine. That sounds like they’re toying with doing a time jump, but the Kings emphatically said that concept is also off the table. So what can we expect from the final nine episodes of The Good Wife? Here’s a wish list, one for each episode, of how we’d most like to say good-bye.
A Musical Episode
Listen, we’re all extraordinarily grateful for the existence of “Goliath and David,” the Season 5 episode that brought us F. Murray Abraham awkwardly busting a move while straightening his tie. But the fact that a post-credit dance video starring Matthew Lillard and skewering Glee, Jonathan Coulton, and “Baby Got Back” is the closest The Good Wife has come to a musical episode is a crime. Not every show should have a musical episode, but barring The Flash on the CW, there isn’t a single non-musical show on-air with quite this much Broadway talent on its roster. In addition to triple threats Christine Baranski and Alan Cumming in the cast, The Good Wife—which films in New York—is constantly featuring musical-theater actors as guest stars. The best example? Why Hamilton star Renée Elise Goldsberry, a.k.a. District Attorney Geneva Pine.
But if Goldsberry is busy there are plenty of other musically gifted guest stars the Kings could bring back like Nathan Lane, Taye Diggs, Steven Pasquale, David Hyde Pierce, Bebe Neuwirth, Joanna Gleason, Anika Noni Rose, Rene Auberjonois, and, of course, Stockard Channing.
The Death of Louis Canning
We come here not to bury Michael J. Fox, but to praise him. As one of Alicia Florrick’s three best antagonists (the other two being Mamie Gummer’s Nancy Crozier and Martha Plimpton’s Patti Nyholm), Louis Canning has been a highlight of The Good Wife since he showed up in Season 2. The Canning character is afflicted with tardive dyskinesia, which both allows Fox to perform without obscuring the symptoms of his real-life Parkinson’s and gives the devious lawyer a sympathy card he readily plays with judges and juries. In the often-confusing Season 6 we saw Canning in and out of the hospital following up on his Season 5 declaration to Alicia that he only had a year to live. Obviously, it’s been longer than a year, and Alicia has reason to doubt Canning was telling the truth, but I think we’d all prefer it if he were. Canning has been a morally murky character played to perfection by Fox. If anyone deserves to comedically undercut a dramatic death scene, it’s this character.
The Return of DGAF Alicia
A few weeks ago in the Iowa Caucus episode of the series we saw a borderline catatonic Alicia. She was detached from the political circus going on around her but not at all in a fun way. After her emotional crisis in last week’s “Judged,” though, it seems like fun Alicia might be on her way back. She’s definitely off to a good start grabbing Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Jason in an elevator (a favorite romantic Alicia spot) and planting a kiss on him.
But as much as we enjoy watching Alicia get her kicks with anyone other than Peter, fingers crossed we get to see some of that joie de vivre carry over into her career, especially as she returns to Lockhart, Agos, and Lee. A saucy Alicia is the best Alicia, and we haven’t seen much of her in or out of the courtroom since Will’s death in Season 5.
The Complete Triumph of Elsbeth Tascioni
Fan favorite Carrie Preston is scheduled to return to the series for the February 21 episode titled “Targets.” She’ll be arguing for Eli and Peter and going up against her ex-husband, a lawyer named Mike Tascioni (Will Patton in his first appearance on the show). This should provide not only some tidy parallels for an upcoming Alicia and Peter showdown, but also give the always-enjoyable Preston plenty to do with her delightfully neurotic character. We’ve no doubt Elsbeth will come out on top and maybe even find enough closure to open the door to Kyle MacLachlan’s enamored Josh Perotti.
The Marriage of Jackie Florrick and Howard Lyman
Sure, it’s a little cliche to end a series with a wedding episode, and we’re not saying Jackie and Howard’s nuptials should be the series finale. But if the show finds room for these two cranky lovebirds to tie the knot, think of the joyous comedy that could ensue. First of all, a Jackie wedding probably means the return of Alicia’s family (Stockard Channing and the great Dallas Roberts). Nothing brings out the best/worst in them like Jackie.
But in addition to being an excellent excuse to bring back favorite faces from both the law firm and the Florrick family, a lavish Chicago wedding will give us one last episode with Alicia in formalwear. And Julianna Margulies can wear the hell out of a gown.
Finally, actress Mary Beth Peil has played an impressive matriarch on 66 episodes of Dawson’s Creek and 48 (and counting) episodes of The Good Wife. She deserves to be the center of attention for one last hurrah.
A Happy Ending for Cary Agos
You may have chosen to repress much of Season 6, so here’s a refresher on the terrible torture of Cary Agos. Everyone’s favorite blond lawyer not only went to jail on trumped-up charges, but also saw his long-simmering relationship with Kalinda cut off at the knees when Archie Panjabi left the show. Cary could not catch a break last year. This season, sadly, is not much better by virtue of the fact that the show doesn’t seem to know what to do with Cary (or Diane) at all. Don’t we miss the old, cocksure Cary?
Matt Czuchry has done an amazing job turning what should have been a smarmy, ambitious, Ivy League jerk into, well, a smarmy, ambitious, Ivy League jerk we’re all desperately rooting for. He’s at his best when he’s by Alicia’s side, which was made evident as he defended her in last week’s “Judged.” And while Kalinda is probably gone for good, the show is laying the groundwork for a Cary/Lucca happily ever after. It’s the least they deserve.
The Return of Your Favorite Judge
In my opinion, the best judge is Denis O’Hare’s Charles Abernathy, but in your opinion it might be Ana Gasteyer’s Patrice Lessner. But no matter who your particular favorite judge may be, I hope she or he returns for one last eccentric ruling. And if that ruling winds up sending Peter Florrick to jail for a long, long time, well, in my opinion, that would be justice.
One Final Diane Lockhart Exit
We’ve had seven magnificent seasons of Lockhartian putdowns, comebacks, power suits, and chunky necklaces. Christine Baranski has been an absolute phenom in a role that could be ally or antagonist depending on how the wind was blowing. Unapologetically liberal, powerful, tremendous at her job, and one half of TV’s most endearingly mismatched couple, Diane is an inspirational and aspirational character. Like Cary, Diane has been pushed to the sidelines this season. But just because the show hasn’t known what to do with her this year, doesn’t mean the Kings can’t give her the good-bye she deserves. Preferably we’ll see her striding off into the sunset with one last amazing outfit and a victorious smirk on her face.
Another High-Concept Episode
Not all of *The Good Wife’*s more ambitious episodes panned out. For example, “Shiny Objects,” the Season 6 episode that went inside the erratic mind of Elsbeth Tascioni, was a serious misfire. But arguably the show’s best episode was Season 5, Episode 10, “The Decision Tree.” The show’s 100th episode centered on Josh Charles’s Will Gardner trying to strategically map out a legal argument. Featuring a Rashōmon-esque look back at his failed relationship with Alicia, the episode employed subtle visual clues like the changing color of Julianna Margulies’s dress to tip off the viewer as to who was doing the remembering.
It was smart, emotionally wrenching, and featured some of the show’s best performances—particularly from Charles. In addition to the stellar cast and solid writing, it’s episodes like “The Decision Tree” that elevated The Good Wife above legal-procedural status. “I like when the ending is surprising and inevitable at the same time,” Michelle King said Monday of what we can expect from the tone of the series finale, while her husband cited the relatively high-concept finales for Breaking Bad and Six Feet Under as inspirations, saying he likes “finales that are happy and sad at the same time.” It’s pretty clear that if the Kings have one more high-concept episode in them, it should be a musical episode (see above), but if they don’t go out with a song, this show should at least go down swinging.
