‘The Good Wife’: Hello, Clarice

“The Good Wife” sees the return of Dylan Baker’s Colin Sweeney, Celeste maybe actually being nice to Alicia and Peter’s Governor campaign ramping up.

Case of the Week

For another week in a row, the actual substance of the COTW hardly matters. But the point is Alicia has to appeal to Colin Sweeney (Dylan Baker) for help after a key witness kills himself. Colin bargains his testimony on their case for freedom from the State’s Attorney in exchange for info on a white supremacist leader. Baker is fabulous in the role of Sweeney, so it’s nice to have him back and makes for some interesting interactions, even if the actual plane crash case is a complete aside.

The Firm

Alicia is given the task to pick a new first-year associate, but in the end it’s completely rigged to hire David Lee’s niece Caitlin over Alicia’s first choice, Martha. Will reveals to Alicia that he voted for Lee’s niece because Alicia herself was “a Caitlin” when she was hired. That actually would’ve been a nice little moment, Will telling Alicia that “Caitlins often surprise you” except …

Girl Talk

Celeste enjoys screwing with Alicia, to be sure, but this episode we think Celeste finally started to like Alicia, which is why she sincerely warned her off of Will. Celeste alluded to Will’s theft that we heard about last season ($ 45,000), saying he “put it back” and that Will would always disappoint Alicia.

The Campaign

Meanwhile, Eli wants Peter to give the DCCC keynote speech, so he goes about finding dirt on the other prospective speech-givers, until Kalinda learns it’s Peter who she is helping and refuses to help anymore.

Keynote for a speech at Democratic convention for Peter? Adam Spellman is the one the DCCC likes, Eli has Kalinda find out that Spellman’s wife gave money to the Defense of Marriage Act. Eli makes a promise to the DCCC that he can get Alicia by Peter’s side for the keynote speech. Good luck, Eli.

The Homefront

And at home, Alicia and Peter are totally weirded out by Grace’s tutor Jennifer. Alicia really has no good reason to be concerned, other than the fact that Grace and her 22-year-old tutor are makign silly dance videos and putting them on the internet. The internet I kind of get, but it’s also more Alicia and Peter projecting their “weirded out” feelings onto Grace.

Thoughts & Tidbits

• Love Alicia and Celeste hanging out. Let’s get Kalinda back into Alicia’s good graces and have a girls’ night! With Diane!
• Love the movie references – Alicia/Colin as Clarice/Hannibal and then the opening with the suicide juxtaposed with Diane’s court statement. That reminded us more than a little of “A Few Good Men” when Col. Markenson kills himself.
• I really do believe Will was paying a compliment to Alicia when he told her she was a Caitlin. I also think Celeste actually meant well, for once.
• I really thought after last season’s finale that the Will and ALicia hook-up would be tehe show’s jump-the-shark moment, but this season has pleasantly surprised me with the nuance of that relationship.

What do you think, “Good Wife” fans?

Photo/Video credit: CBS