Putting the Fox In Charge

We’re in the final stretch, folks. With only four more episodes remaining, I’m curious what The Good Wife writers have planned for the rest of season 5. Only time will tell, but I do have one request: No more shocking and heartbreaking deaths, please! But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s chat “All Tapped Out.”

Zach Woods returned as NSA employee Jeff Dellinger, along with Tyler (Tobias Segal) and NSA newbies Stephen (Michael Urie!) and Jonathan (Haynes Thigpen). As you’ll recall, the NSA is listening in on Alicia & Co. courtesy of a three-hop warrant. Anyway, when the polygraph expert (Brian Keane) changed up one of the questions on Jeff’s weekly lie detector test, he became suspicious.

Apparently, someone in the office had been leaking information to the press, and when they asked Jeff if he knew of any co-workers who had taken home confidential materials, it worried him. If only he knew of any lawyers who could offer legal services! He sought out Florrick/Agos, but would only talk to them in the elevator. Jeff knew better than to conduct any business over the phones. He admitted to taking a flash drive home from work to upload a Valentine to his home computer. He didn’t touch the other stuff on the flash drive, but it did contain confidential information. Cary and Clarke agreed to take the case, but Alicia didn’t want to take on any cases involving the U.S. government. I know they’re allowed to disagree, but I hate it when mom and dad fight.

In the end, they decided to move forward with the case and planned for Zach to be a whistleblower. He wouldn’t be protected if he took the flash drive home accidentally, but if he took it home due to wrongdoing, he would be. So Jeff went back to work and laid the groundwork for his defense. He told his co-workers that he thought Charles Froines (Michael Kostroff) was checking up on his ex-wife using NSA resources. Then, he reported the “wrongdoing” to NSA General Counsel Roger Garber (John Leonard Thompson), which was supposed to protect him from repercussions.

Unfortunately, their plan backfired. Jeff was suspended, and they accused him of spying on Froines. But a meeting with his lawyers turned out to be fruitful for other reasons. Alicia noticed Jeff’s slip of the tongue: “And you can’t be saying ‘NSA’ anywhere. It was picked up on his speaker phone.” Alicia knew the NSA had to be listening to her firm. Jeff tried to backtrack, but it was too late. Alicia called Grace and threatened to say Jeff’s name out loud until he eventually confirmed that the NSA had obtained a three-hop warrant and that she was at the center of it. That caused a whirlwind of crazy at the Florrick/Agos offices.

NEXT: Peter has a streak of awesome

Alicia went to warn Eli, who was obviously worried because he and Peter had discussed the ballot box election over the phone. And Peter decided to take matters into his own hands. He called a senator friend at the Senate Intelligence Committee and asked him to check to see if Peter was, in fact, being targeted.

Back to the case: Clarke and Cary went to a mediation with the General Counsel. But they hit a pretty big roadblock when the NSA kept playing the state secrets card. Basically, they couldn’t discuss any real aspects of the case without threatening the State Secrets Act, which was obviously just a ploy by the NSA to end the case. Clarke tried to make it about civil rights and discrimination, which was a stretch. But the threat that the case would become public record was enough to get the NSA to take a recess. We’re counting the minor victories here.

The senator called Peter back and assured him that he and Alicia were in the clear, but Peter obviously had his doubts. So he brought up the Westgate construction site. The senator kept trying to end the discussion, but Peter pressed on:

Senator: “Uh, Peter, that was just between you and me.”

Peter: “And it is between you and me. Now. On the phone.”

Senator: “Peter, stop. You’ve made your point.”

Peter told the senator to use his considerable influence to stop the tapping, or he’d call Alicia’s office twice a week for the next five months to discuss the Westgate construction site. The senator said it was Froines running the situation, and Peter asked for his contact information. It was awesome. And Eli thought so too. He dropped to his knees: “I am not worthy!”

Back to the NSA mediation: Clarke and Cary were hitting more roadblocks because of classification issues. But in the end, it didn’t matter. Peter had already done the dirty work to end the case. One of Peter’s interns placed an ad to buy a car at a mosque. The attached contact information was for Charles Froines. So when Froines started to receive multiple calls from “members of a group advocating the violent overthrow of the U.S. government,” red flags went up at the NSA. They placed Froines on administrative leave, and officially shut down the Florrick tap. Whew! The case against Jeff Dellinger was dropped, but he was MIA when Cary called to let him know. His co-workers figured he wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon. Which makes the cynic in me wonder, did Jeff leak any confidential information?

Meanwhile, over at Lockhart/Gardner, Diane was trying to move forward with a potential Florrick/Agos merger. But with Alicia still at home in bed, she couldn’t really get much traction. Unfortunately, Alicia had failed to mention the merger to Clarke and Cary. So when they heard about it, they were less than thrilled — but recognized that Alicia was having difficulties processing everything. So they acknowledged that they’d have to start making some decisions without here.

NEXT: Louis Canning returns!

Cary called Diane and stated what Florrick/Agos would need for a potential merger. Diane tried to negotiate, but Cary held firm, essentially quashing the merger before it began. But David Lee, who was against the Florrick/Agos merger from the beginning, had other ideas: Enter Louis Canning. Welcome back, Michael J. Fox! Diane was none too pleased with this potential partnership: “Are you really thinking of putting the fox in charge?” She was obviously referring to Canning’s conniving behavior, and not the guest star’s last name. But I guess it works both ways. Puns, guys! Still, Diane had a point. Louis Canning at the helm of Lockhart/Gardner? He was the one partially responsible for LG landing in bankruptcy court. I think Will is rolling over in his proverbial/literal grave. Unfortunately for Diane, Louis has what the firm needs: Infrastructure in New York and L.A. So welcome aboard, Louis Canning.

He called Alicia to share the good news: Lockhart/Gardner is now Lockhart/Gardner/Canning. And she promptly hung up on him. Kalinda also wasn’t too keen on Canning joining the firm, and she didn’t hide the way she was feeling. But Canning laid down the law: He’s the boss now, and he needs her help.

Louis: “I’m the new Will.”

Kalinda: “You’re not the new Will.”

And she threw one of Will’s baseballs to make her point. Even though we’d seen this scene teased, it was still pretty great. (Lambchop, the cat sleeping on the couch next to me, jumped at the shattered glass. Clearly, he had not seen the previews, and didn’t enjoy it as much as I did.)

Diane also tried to come to terms with Canning joining the Lockhart/Gardner team. But they came to some sort of understanding. Diane said she would begin to respect Canning when he stopped playing games. We’ll have to wait and see if that’s something Canning is actually capable of. One thing’s for sure: He didn’t waste any time trying to lure ChumHum back to LG & C. He called Alicia and told her that as a peace-offering, Lockhart/Gardner/Canning would be willing to assume a portion of the liability if the $6 million malpractice suit against her came to fruition. (That’s the adoption case in which Alicia was accused of bribery.) But instead of releasing ChumHum, Alicia asked Canning what his thoughts were about al Qaeda and the NSA, knowing that would pop at the NSA. Nicely played, Alicia.

Canning had another conversation with Kalinda in which he basically threatened to sue her if she kept working exclusively for Diane and the firm. He told Kalinda that he wasn’t trying to push Diane out. And in the end, it seemed like he was earnest about that. Louis also managed to undo some of the deals Will had made, and promised that there wasn’t some hidden agenda: “It was the olden days. I’m your partner now. I may be a scumbag, but hey, I’m your scumbag.” The looks on Kalinda and Diane’s faces were priceless. And it appears that Louis Canning is here to stay.

Alicia made good on her promise to represent Finn Polmar. The State’s Attorney, James Castro (Michael Cerveris), was looking for a scapegoat for Will’s death, and they were going after Finn for his alleged mishandling of the Jeffrey Grant case. Alicia went to see Castro. I loved how Alicia had trouble processing the gruesome crime scene photos in Castro’s office. Losing Will was a big deal, and these subtle reactions just show that even though she’s out of bed and back to work, she’s still not totally okay.

NEXT: Alicia’s ready to kick some ass

Case in point: In their first meeting with Castro, he pointed out that Polmar had placed Jeffrey Grant in general population. This was a tactic the prosecutors sometimes used to encourage defendants to accept a plea bargain. You’ll recall that Grant was getting harassed in general population, one of the reasons he ultimately snapped in the courtroom, resulting in Will’s death. That connection was a little too much for Alicia to handle, and so she asked Clarke to take the case over for her. “I’m not in a position to defend him anymore.”

But she got a second wind, and decided to move forward with Polmar’s case. Basically, she was ready to kick some ass. Alicia caught Castro in his own web of lies, after he claimed he didn’t use the term “gen den.” But she had text messages that proved he’d talked to Finn Polmar about that very thing. Castro claimed that he meant “going down” when he used the term “G.D.” in his texts to Finn. Which certainly made things awkward when Alicia had a second text that said, “I can’t wait to G.D. on Batiste. What fun!” They were going after Polmar when they were all guilty of using the same general detention tactics. And that level of hypocrisy was enough to sufficiently end their scapegoating mission against Polmar. Alicia’s back, y’all!

The episode ended with Peter and Alicia discussing their schedules. They’re keeping up appearances for their careers. But I imagine this can only go on so long before someone catches wind that for all intents and purposes, their relationship is over. Eli was already suspicious.

Notable lines and moments from “All Tapped Out”:

++ Jeff wearing a ChumHum shirt and an It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia shirt

++ The NSA guys had another It’s Always Sunny reference by debating the lyrics to “Troll Toll”

++ “Yeah, he’s kicking ass.” –NSA worker Tyler, after hearing Cary and Diane’s conversation about a possible merger

++ “You’re not the enemy. You’re the devil.” –Diane, to Louis Canning

++ Grace’s confusion at Alicia’s phone call to trick Jeff into telling the truth

++ Eli: “Is there something I should know about you and Alicia?”

Peter: “No.”

Eli: “You’re monosyllabic these days.”

Peter: “Yeah.”

What did you think of the episode? How do you feel about Louis Canning joining Lockhart/Gardner? Are you happy that this NSA storyline has finally come to an end? And how excited are you for Colin Sweeney’s return?

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