There was a lot going on in “Double Jeopardy,” a pretty good case of the week, which I will get to shortly, and some office shenanigans. With the recent merger, Diane and Will are settling into a new firm dynamic, and part of that seems to include playing two against one with the new partner, Derrick Bond. In a private meeting, Diane asks Will to take her side for a partner vote on two conflicting clients, one including Lou Dobbs in a cameo role.
Those scenarios rarely play out as expected, and when Will sided with Derrick over the sheer volume of billable hours Dobbs brings, Diane was one unhappy lawyer lady. During this time, I realized we have yet to see Derrick in action, and I cannot remember the last time Diane ran an actual courtroom case. It really has nothing to do with anything, but I find it strange that firms who merged due to struggling financial issues could afford to have two of their partners sitting on their asses all day. In any event, there is much strife to be had from this merger, and I think all three of them will soon be shooting from the hip trying to maintain their power and not become the third wheel. Kalinda knows something, but it’s a reveal to await another day.
Will, the working man’s partner, is working a military case with Alicia. Nemesis Cary lost the case in civilian court and reintroduced it to the military so they might win where he failed. It’s not like he’s a bad guy, he just seems to have little ability to act upon his convictions. Every week we can count on him being involved in some injustice that his old coworkers have to step in and clean up.
In spite of the fact I spent all summer watching military cases on Army Wives, it turns out those were just child’s play. This military justice was a whole new ballgame. Ruled by laws completely outside the realm of regular state laws, it really tested Will and Alicia; so much so that Will sacrificed himself to time in the military pokey just to buy a continuance for the case. His two partners are fighting over Lou Dobbs, for goodness sakes, and he’s working from a cell to win a case. Something is just wrong with that picture.
So why do I say The Good Wife is always the best lawyer? Because Alicia never gives up. She has so much heart it would be embarrassing to work beside her. If the military laws are different, then by golly she’s going to learn them. Seemingly this would put civilian lawyers at a disadvantage, but the military doesn’t know Alicia Florrick. Just as she does with all of her cases, Alicia wins the respect of the judge; the same judge who was hastily tossing aside objections by the civvies in the beginning of the case was impressed and giving the subtle nod of approval to Alicia as she goes on to victory against the military.
If my family situation were the same as Alicia’s (read: pure hell), I too might be willing to work myself to the bone just to take my mind off of it. We were subjected to bits of Peter and his insufferable ego as he tries to win a political race; in spite of the fact he is just out of prison and with complete disregard for his family. I’d like to smack that man silly. The hooker he ‘hooked’ was featured in a great YouTube like video featuring double entendre lyrics like “the stiffer the better” and “you can caucus me all night.” I scoured the CBS sites in the hope they would have the video available, but as of this writing, no go. It fit very well with a series whose name betrays the very fabric of the characters and their situations, most of whom are anything but good.
Clacked by Carissa Pavlica 
on Oct 06, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Man, this was a great episode. I think I forgot just how much I love this show over the summer.
This was one of the most interesting cases I’ve seen in a lawyer drama to follow from the beginning to the end. Well-written and as a viewer, I never knew what was going to happen next.
It is probably just me, but I actually am getting kinda sick of the whole Peter storyline. I don’t really care about that anymore. There is just no positive outcome that I can foresee and it is just torture watching how his actions are hurting his family.
Regarding Will and Alicia, I can’t believe they could work the civilian murder trial and never talk about the message he left. That seems so improbable. I hope that gets resolved sooner rather than later.
The firm and the merger story … I hope that there will be a big payoff from this storyline. Was this storyline to make the show more of an ensemble than about Alicia? It seems that way and I don’t really care for it. Perhaps in season 3 or 4, but season 2 … not really working for me.
*POST AUTHOR*
I don’t think Will will ever bring up the message he left. As far as he’s concerned, she rejected him. She never knew he left it, so she feels silly and rejected, as well. Eli Gold (I never even knew his name until looking it up just now) played God in Alicia’s life in his support of the loser who is Peter. Makes me sick. There was really no point to his part of the story at all last night, but I guess he’s here to stay, or else the title of the show would have to change!
I’m assuming the merger was to bring in some new obstacles to keeping Alicia and Will in all the cases together. Surely Derrick, as her new mentor, will actually be working some cases in the future.
I forgot about Derrick being her mentor. Where was he? A case being retried? You would think the mentor would be there for his mentee, right?
The writing geek in me has to pay homage to your final sentence’s rhetorical flourish. :)
This was a great episode. Datleline recently covered a double jepordy story like this about a military man that killed a woman and her 2 kids and was let go but the military tried him again 20 yrs later with the DNA evidence and he was sentenced to death. I never knew that the military could try their own after the “regular” court.