The Good Lyman
These two were actually kind of perfect in this hour. He flirts -- and even subtly checks out her buns while she accepts a phone call in Alicia's elevator -- and then they spend the rest of the time delighting in each other, and he basically seems to worship the ground on which she glides. I have never been more delighted. Seriously. Howard has been played for old-lech yuks for several seasons, but put him in bed with the right silver fox and he becomes a lovable coot. I had no idea Jackie Florrick and Howard Lyman were all I had been waiting for, until it happened. I'm totally Team Jackman. Wait. Team... Howie? No. Florman? Lyrick? We'll sort it out.
The Good Jackie
HIT IT, GRAMS.
The Good Visitor
How did Howard MEET Jackie? Well, Alicia came home and he was sitting in her living room, underscoring the mysteries of her home office setup. Someone pointed out last week that her expensive Chicago condo building does not seem to have any kind of doorman in place, so Alicia is always surprised when she gets a knock at the door. Perhaps she should move.
Anyway, Howard has come to consult her about LAL, and how he thinks Cary is leading the charge to get rid of him. He wants to file an ageism suit. She says he has to tread carefully: If he gives them cause to fire him, he has no recourse. She suggests that he freely write down anything they say to him that could be construed as ageist, but mostly, she says he should smarten up and make himself valuable, and recommit himself to the work. I think she is suggesting this as a way of saying, "All your problems will go away if you just DO YOUR JOB," but of course this will get misconstrued later as her advising him to build a case against LAL (which, frankly, she also could've been doing). It IS a treat to watch Howard in action on this, though, and it ends with Jackie using a connection to help Howard bring in a $33 million account to the company, which leaves all their jaws on the floor. I don't know how it happened, but suddenly I am totally Team Potential Old Lech Who Naps A Lot.
The Bad Receptionist
Grace still isn't in school. And, improbably, she and Grams let in Howard and then just LEFT HIM IN THE LIVING ROOM to wait for Alicia while the two of them cooed over old family photo albums. This is bad security, bad assisting, AND bad hostessing. Grace, are you resuming being terrible? You can tell me.
The Good Checkers
Alicia has on another sleek grey jacket, and Lucca Quinn again brings it with the bright work dress -- this one in a lumberjack motif. I love how cheerfully they dress her, given that she's in bond court all the time and the show is constantly underscoring that this is like practicing law in the newly discovered tenth ring of hell.
Lucca and Alicia represent a drug buyer and dealer, respectively, and the episode throws them together and pits them against each other several times in the course of the hour. In a VERY brief summary: Alicia convinces Lucca to do something that ends up backfiring, but she meant well; it still ends up screwing Lucca a bit and pissing her off. Worse, Alicia's client turns out to be undercover FBI, trying to bust the judge on corruption, but the scam doesn't end up biting and so the agent angrily fires Alicia. It's nice to see her not win 'em all, even if I am weary of YET ANOTHER career reset.
The Good Jacket
There is something marginally hideous about this blazer on Lucca but I also might love it. I think it's because she rocks it with a really crisp collar, which I will show you next.
The Good Collar
There's just something about that blouse underneath that gives this a more modern look than the vaguely '70s swirl would normally evoke.
The Good Office
Margo Martindale awesomely relegates Eli to a closet office -- well, it has a window, at least -- and so the power games continue. She also tells him the wrong time for a meeting so that he'll be late, which feels a bit Amateur Hour, both of Margo AND of Eli (for not finding a way to check it). I like that in this scene, both Eli and Margo are in blood tones. Because theirs is BOILING at each other, just below the surface.
The Good Casting
I still love Eli's assistant the most.
The Good Granny
Why can't Margo get some good power suits? I might have a theory. Someone complained last week in the comments that Margo is dressed more like a grandmother, and I do agree with that in principle; it seems potentially lazy. But I also think you could call it strategic, for the character. Margo's mien is very warm even when she's clearly messing with Eli, so I wonder if she goes with Grandmotherly as a way of disarming those around her, so they won't notice the venom seeping from her pores.
The Good RIzzo
Stockard Channing guests this week as part of the Rehabilitate Alicia and Make Them Seem Like The Warmest of Families plan. It involves making these two appear on a cooking show, pretending they have a slew of family recipes to share. It turns into a squabble about all their frustrations with one another. I like Stockard Channing a lot, and obviously J.Margs is a good actress, but I'm not sure I ever bought mother-daughter chemistry between them -- not even knowing that their characters' history has not been a close one.
The Good Ties
The costumer must miss Lemond Bishop so much.
The Good PI
Okay. So. Alicia just hired Jeffrey Dean Morgan, but suddenly GRACE is doing all this detecting? There's a reference to making Grace call JDM, but Grace does all the legwork herself to suss out that Alicia's client is FBI -- including running FACIAL RECOGNITION SOFTWARE ON HIM. Alicia is to her credit very surprised, and Grace is like, "I KNOW RIGHT? Um, Zach helped." But I think Alicia should be a little more concerned about how Zach got her some facial-recognition software so she could... I mean, this is a bit preposterous, no? WHY AREN'T YOU IN SCHOOL? WHAT MONTH IS IT? WHY IS JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN NOT DOING ALL THE FACIAL RECOGNIZING? (That one is because, I suspect, they didn't have a way to get him in the same room as Alicia for this episode and so what's the point of spending the money if you can't do that. I bet they don't have him for the full 22 and so they're rationing him.)
The Good Leather
If you had said, "This season you will be entranced by a perforated teal leather suit," I would have pointed out that it's not 1989. But then Diane Lockhart put this on and I was like, "Well, okay, I'm listening. I HEAR YOU DIANE."
The Good Guest
This was my favorite bit: Alicia comes home to hear Diane in her living room talking to Grace, and she stops and checks her hair in the hallway mirror. I, too, would stop to check my hair if I knew I was about to come face to face with Diane, and I think that speaks to the fact that Alicia still looks up to Diane and desperately wants to impress her.
That thing twinkling on Diane's chest is a new chain necklace, by the way. THEY'RE BACK. I don't really like the jacket that much, though. But what I really want to know is why Alicia has a wood carving of a giant galloping horse sitting on her shelves. Horses do not seem especially important to this family.
The Good Necklace
Diane and LAL agree to go soft on Alicia and offer her some overflow cases. But then David Lee overhears Howard calling Alicia about the ageism suit, and takes that incomplete information to Cary and Diane. Enraged, Diane shows up at Alicia's -- unannounced, and I guess the doorman was asleep -- to excoriate her for accepting their favor while plotting behind their backs. Alicia says that what she discussed with Howard is privileged and "not what it seems," but Diane spits, "Sometimes it is." And I think... I think Alicia did give Howard pertinent advice, like keeping a written record, but I also do believe she told him to get back to work and take it seriously as a way of being like DUDE FOR REAL JUST DO THE JOB YOU'RE PAID TO DO BECAUSE THEY PROBABLY HAVE A POINT.
However, even with the striped suit that again doesn't capture my imagination, Diane redeems it with a perfect necklace and her entire head. I find it interesting that Diane is also so personally, mortally hurt by this. The show has done a lot of weird things to their relationship, but I want it to warm up again. Although I wouldn't object to Diane schooling Alicia in court a few times first, mostly because I love the Lockhart and I feel like it shouldn't be so easy for Alicia to go toe-to-toe with her.
OH! There was also a moment where Diane compliments Alicia on how she handled the inheritance case, and Alicia accepts it without even an apparent SHRED of self-awareness about the fact that Lucca won it for her. OH ALICIA. Go find Jeffrey Dean Morgan and bask in the healing aura of his man musk.