Will Died
And it was truly unbelievable. He’d been the leading lady’s ongoing love interest, the one fans were barracking for, the chemistry couple of the century with oodles of ‘bad timing’.
And then they had a massive falling out, and spent about a season or so hating each other.
The day after they had their first civil conversation in episodes – that’s a legitimate measure of time in television, just FYI – Will Gardner was shot by his own client. And. He. Died.
It was just like real life; no warning, no closure, no chance to say goodbye, the rest of your life left to spend wondering what he was going to say on that final voicemail before someone interrupted him and he hung up.
Everyone was affected – Alicia, Dianne, Kalinda, the fans. RIP Will, RIP.
Peter Went to Prison
Alicia’s husband Peter was not only monogamously-challenged – while employed as State’s Attorney, he used public money to pay for it.
Nobody thought much of the wife who stood beside him as he publicly resigned, looking shell-shocked and like a total pushover. But when something good comes from a bad situation, that situation begins to look like a blessing, no?
The betrayal and public humiliation she endured, culminating with the incarceration of her husband, were arguably some of the best things to have happened to Alicia Florrick. These events forced her return to the workforce, and that was the beginning of the fascinating saga, ‘Watch How Alicia Changes When Bad Stuff Happens to Her’.
Witnessing her metamorphosis into a strong, successful, driven, take no BS woman, in a world laden with moral, ethical and political landmines, is what The Good Wife’s all about.
The Big Firm Split of Season 4
It was lauded as the finest hour of television in 2013 – when Alicia and Cary split from Stern, Lockhart & Gardner, the firm that practically raised them.
Desks were swiped clean in fits of rage, clients were poached, injunctions were sought, there was blackmail, bribery, intense lobbying, all the good stuff!
Alicia delivered one of the best lines in network television: “We’re coming after you — all your clients — every single one we worked to make happy while you swept in at the last minute to take credit. We’re taking them. And then you know what you’ll have? A very nice suite of offices.”
The break-up of the Soviet Union was more peaceful and with less repercussions.
The Failed Run for State’s Attorney
Well, it wasn’t so much that the run failed, she did win, albeit – and unbeknownst to Alicia herself – fraudulently.
She had no choice but to withdraw from the position, just as she and the fans were starting to wonder whether a final season of The Good Wife would take place in the Oval Office.
The shame she endured harked back to that very first episode. It was as though someone had hit the reset button, leaving her to consider, once again, where to from here?
Kalinda-gate
First-time watchers of The Good Wife, don’t even bother Googling ‘Kalinda + Alicia’ if you’re looking for a rundown of the relationship between the two characters. You’ll only turn up in-depth speculation on the fall-out between Archie Panjabi and Julianna Margulies, the actors who played them IRL.
To sum up the relationship between the show’s – a good case for arguing, strongest characters – they were its dynamic duo.
The unlikeliest best friends are often the bestest, and watching the well-spoken lawyer in designer suits and ever-immaculate hair throw down tequila with the leather-clad private investigator made for some of the funniest and warmest scenes.
Their fall-out was nuclear; the effects are still being felt.
