"Great Firewall" is a turning point episode, and what a turn it is. After a season of build up, with Bond invading the office and Peter on the campaign trail, it all came to a head in a grand flourish. Even if you weren't surprised about the outcome (The Good Wife isn't really a show where the protagonists lose), you gotta admit you felt the elation emanating from all the characters.
Well, except for Alicia. While Will, Diane, the partners, Peter, Zach, and Eli are as excited as could be, Alicia is pushed into a corner. For a while, she was the breadwinner, working at a law firm and seemingly doing good for the world while supporting her family. Everything has changed, however. If Peter wins, will he revert to past behavior, and will Alicia need a job?
Tying into that is this week's case, a Chinese dissident who wants money from a social networking company, Chum Hum, for giving his IP address to the Chinese government. The case is amicably resolved in the end, but the bigger story is that Edelstein is still a client. In fact, the dissident case was used primarily to push Chum Hum out of China, opening the market for Edelstein. As for principles against turning in people to the government, Will could care less. Caught in this web, Alicia has to feel uncertain about her place at the firm.
Meanwhile, Kalinda moves to a new place and Cary informs her that Childs is moving on her in a week. Their encounter is topped off by a kiss after Kalinda indicates she likes "normal".
Increasingly, The Good Wife has a bizzaro universe that doubles on everything. There is Social Network and a movie similar to that, both based on young people who made tons of money off websites. Then there's Yahoo! and Chum Hum, both which ratted out people to the Chinese government, as well as Facebook and Edelstein's site. Crowded world (or the people really like the same things). Do the writers really need to reference real life examples for the viewers to get the connection? I'm fairly certain most people got the Bill Ayers thing on last night's episode of The Chicago Code.
Zach and Becca don't ruin everything for once, actually running things by Eli to his delight. Has Zach finally learned from his mistakes?
Score: 9.3/10
