Yeah, I agree with the symmetry bit, which is why I sort of see the reasoning behind adultery-affair vs. pre-Diane-affair, but I just didn't see it until the Internet told me to.

I agree with 100% of this until the Kalinda bit. I definitely thought she was initially overrated in the first season (oooh, leather, bi, capable of doing anything — how controversial by CBS standards! like the 40-year-old Goth in "NCIS"), but I felt they fleshed her out enough after that that she was really terrific…

I agree with your second two paragraphs (sentences, w/e), but I think it makes a difference whether this was an example of Kurt's pre-Diane activities or whether Alicia made Diane into another "good wife," so to speak, by revealing adultery.

I love the AV Club community and will miss "The Good Wife" forever (the last two seasons notwithstanding), so since this is the last great message board discussion of the show, how about everyone stay away while I have final exams? =P

Wendy Scott-Carr was the show's great queen, but she was written out explicitly on the basis that her character seemed to have a vendetta against Peter, hence the introduction of Josh Perotta. I imagine the same would've been true of Glenn Childs.

The word "affair" was used, but its valence was unclear. The interwebs as a whole are reading that as "cheating," but on this viewing, I was very much not struck that way. I'm going to watch the finale again tomorrow, though, and I'll see what it looks like there — since the Kings always loved to keep us out of the…

Ben in the Civil War is definitely worse than James's Adventuretime, but by far the worst subplot the show ever did was the Lucy love triangle. Having Badalamenti's haunting score play over that drivel offended me to my bones.

Cool. Yeah, I personally don't agree with your premise at all, but meanwhile, I was just confused by the structure of your sentence: "I think anyone who writes about plot vs. character is an inveterate shipper and I'll never change my mind."

Oh, wait, you mean she is favoring character over plot, which strikes of 'shipping and not of appreciating the novelistic qualities of the show. Gotcha.

I just don't see what 'shipping has to do with that sentence you cited or the plot vs. character dynamic you mentioned above. 'Shipping whom and whom? 'Shipping a story with coherent characters and a story with an engaging plot?

I'm not nearly so mad as you about the Kurt arc this episode (in fact, of the many things I'm mad about with this show, I actually enjoyed the Kurt bit fine), but I just want to compliment you profusely on lemonade stand comparison. I am just so impressed with how apt that is.

What?

She's a big part of the "Hamilton" cast, which I've been assuming is why she's been away for so long.

Baranski has wanted a musical episode for years, alas.

I initially thought the same thing — that of course this should be about one of the election frauds, it's been ages, why on earth are we spending time with some new random thing from his State's Attorney days? — but I've actually come around to it. They've done a nice job, I think, of bringing lots of the recurring…

Thank you so much!! I was having a devil of time finding it online!

The argument I've heard, though the show has never bothered to pay lip-service to it, is that Cuesta was forever barred from hearing a case in front of the legal entity Lockhart/Gardner & Associates following their representation of him. By the time we see him again in the sixth season, he's presiding over Florrick,…

Nothing to be done about Panjabi, I agree, but the Kings have gone on the record a few times recently to say that they were always planning to kill someone about halfway through the show, though they'd planned on either Peter or one of the children. They wanted there to be one profound tragedy to partially define…

Phrasing..?

I'd sort of forgotten about that. I definitely don't think the writers were really trying to have us believe the affair here, though. I thought it was sort of suspicious that they had the new ASA (Geneva's old job?) trashtalk her. I think that was all sketchy office politics stuff, especially with Canning as much a…