De-equitizing unproductive partners is definitely a "thing" these days. No one wants to push out productive partners, though. Law firms are businesses, after all, not social clubs. In my experience, most tension is around who gets credit for originating business. In Biglaw, having a good book of business is the key to…

There is concurrent jurisdiction, so a federal investigation would not rule out a state investigation. The feds have better investigatory resources, though, with the FBI at their disposal, so it is difficult to see why Cook County would want in on this. Maybe the State's Attorney is investigating as a conspiracy to…

When Canning accidentally referred to Diane as "Alicia," that struck me as quite purposeful (on the writers' part). I must admit, this episode left me very, very curious about what Canning, David Lee and Cary are up to. Canning and David Lee are both "villains" as far as that term applies to anyone on TGW, but the…

I think the audience was supposed to have both reactions. For Alicia, though, it was designed to get her thinking about how many compromises she's actually willing to make. The scene brought to my mind the episode where LG worked to get a dangerous psychopath off death row in order to secure his help defending their…

Peter's reaction actually reminded me of the real Bill and Hillary. The former president was easily affronted on her behalf during Hilary's primary fight with Obama; he was also quite protective of his wife.

I had the same thought, actually. Jeopardy had not yet attached. It doesn't attach until the start of trial, and this was just a probable cause hearing, right? So Alicia could report the confession. She has no attorney-client relationship with Renata, and the admission qualifies for a hearsay exception, so it would be…

What I like about the Alicia-FInn relationship is that it mirrors, in many ways, the season 1 relationship between Alicia in Will (without the romantic history). This time, Alicia is the cynical, worldly one. Alicia is the one trying to protect Finn, offer him a lifeline. So many of Alicia's actions are motivated by…

I absolutely think Wendy Scott-Carr thinks she's good. She thinks she's the only (or one of the few) pure ones in a very dirty world. She ran a clean campaign, remember? And she ran for State's Attorney because she wanted to clean house. She's angry for sure, and she does some pretty awful stuff, but she can probably…

Yes, and the ones who are sure they're "good" — the self-righteous true believers (like Wendy Scott Carr and Agent Dubeck) — are truly dangerous.

It was good to see Alicia get some of her power back, and it was nice to see the pace of the show pick up a little and the humor return. But Alicia still needs to deal with some of her guilt over Will. Since I can't imagine her ever seeing a therapist, she needs to talk to the only two people she ever really talks to:…

The whole case was designed to elicit these thoughts from Alicia. The wife had been wronged and, in her anguish, made love to a friend of long standing. In doing so, the wife hurt her child. This mirrors Alicia's own situation, or at least how she viewed her own situation at various points. I thought the husband was…

I don't know. I can see it going either way. She was burned by her friendship with Alicia in season 3, and now she's been destroyed by losing Will. In real life, I could see her determining that it's safest to avoid getting too close to anyone. I agree with you, though, that the writers are leading us to a point where…

This is right on. I like how "A Few Words" gave us insight into who Alicia has always been and how she's changed and then this episode shows her grappling with those aspects of herself. Alicia has always been "good," even as a suburban housewife. She's always been smart and savvy and understood how the game was…

I thought Will fired Damian for stealing clients. I guess we're never going to get an explanation of that one?