The Televangelist: ‘The Good Wife,’ Season 4, Ep. 10

Alicia ends things with will to spend time with her family, just like Urban Meyer. And we know how that turned out.

Image



When I’m out and about, I have a habit of asking people what they like to watch on television, both because I’m looking for a conversational topic and also because I’m genuinely interested in the demographics and appeal of certain shows. (I don’t trust the Nielson ratings at all). Yesterday after an abysmal Falcons game - no, I don’t want to talk about it I was chatting with a former viewer about “The Good Wife,” talking it up and claiming how this season, though uneven, has had some of the best episodes of the series so far.

Unfortunately, if she tuned in last night (bless her, I hope she didn’t), she might well call for my resignation as someone affiliated with giving opinions on television. “The Good Wife” took a holiday break last week and promised this week to return with a potentially gut-wrenching episode where Grace goes missing. Was there anyone who, just from that promo, didn’t assume Grace had just wandered off with one of her Christian friends for the afternoon? “The Good Wife” never gets too dark, and I didn’t think they would start that trend by kidnapping and doing anything horrible to a child. Furthermore, the episode laid some pretty clunky foreshadowing in the first half (Alicia waking up from a nightmare that Grace is being harmed, the mention of the White Supremacist on the lose, Grace and Alicia having a heart-to-heart about Alicia having too many “distractions” and not enough time for her kids) that we were really just waiting for Grace to get captured.

Another suspicion was that Alicia would have been with Will when she missed the phone calls, but “The Good Wife” cannot damage Alicia’s character that much without needed some serious penance, particularly if something had happened to Grace. The outcome though was the same - Alicia broke things off with Will because she needs more time with her family. Or will she pull an Urban Meyer and after a little while decide she’s ready for a major affair again?