The Televangelist: ‘The Good Wife,’ Season 3, Ep. 12

• CBS
• Oh crap, I forgot to file that brief. Two years ago.

Though it’s been a month since the last “Good Wife” episode (and without any information about when it would return after the big deal made about it’s winter hiatus, I was surprised it came back so soon), there was no alienation of affection caused by the intervening holiday season (see what I did there?) There was, however, a strange amnesia the show had toward its own plots from before the break. Last we heard, Wendy Scott-Carr was not actually investigating Will or Lockhart Gardner at all - she had gone completely rogue and turned her sites on Peter in what I personally considered a terribly redundant idea. The writers may have belatedly agreed, since this week Wendy is back on Will’s track, specifically, and now that his lawyer Elsbeth Tassioni brought the heat to Wendy, Wendy plans to bring it right back.

A month ago we saw Alicia acting bored and trying to find friends, whereas this week she seemed to be ok being back at work and stressing over papers she may or may not have filed two years ago. Her relationship with Kalinda remains icy but is no longer actively filled with disdain, which is an improvement. And somehow Cary, without provocation, takes Alicia’s side during the deposition. That’s about as right as a day at Lockhart Gardner can go!

Of course, everything else went wrong. The bickering and in-fighting among the equity partners was delightful, particularly every snide look and curled lipped filled sparring match between Eli and David Lee. David Lee and Julius was just a warm-up for the real knock out fight for those two, and even though Diane was forced to step in like (everyone pause, it’s a “Game of Thrones” series reference!) Catelyn Stark in A Storm of Swords and tell both of the bickering men (in that case, brothers fighting for a crown) to just sit down and shut up. Unlike the characters in George R. R. Martin’s book, Eli and David Lee listen to reason, and the lives of thousands of innocent men, women and children are saved. Wait ... maybe I have that confused. In any case, Lockhart Gardner’s problems are averted by the underhanded dealings of David Lee - an encore performance, as regarded this case - by having Alicia sign new paperwork standing in for the old paperwork that she lost two years prior. In the end, the spurious nature of David Lee’s methods are covered up in the short term by evidence uncovered by Diane’s flirtation with an Australian process server, and in the long term by the fact that divorces are profitable for the firm. Charming.