‘The Good Wife’ recap: Fifty shades of scamming

Now, that was fun! Everyone uses questionable tactics to get what they want in this week’s “The Good Wife.” At least new investigator Jason Crouse -- the wonderfully sexy Jeffrey Dean Morgan -- uses his dubious powers and shady past for good, as he, Alicia and Lucca help a graduate of a for-profit college who got caught in a scam.

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The episode starts with new partners Alicia and Lucca, along with Jason, listening to a recording of an extremely frustrating phone call between the student, Maggie Rossum (Justine Lupe), and the collection agency that claims she owes $8,000 for her school loan. Maggie insists that she paid it, and shows the new law team her canceled check to prove it. Though she can’t really afford the new fee, she says it will be worth it if they can stop the collection agency from harassing her.

Jason calmly calls the collection agency back, and for a while it seems like a sexism issue, as though the agency is more likely to listen to a man than a woman. But of course it’s more involved than that. In his calm but mildly sinister way, Jason finds out where the agency is and who’s in charge. After learning that the agency doesn’t actually have a location in Michigan, where Maggie was sending her checks, Jason discovers that Maggie fell victim to a scam.

Amazingly, in something that would probably only happen in a television show, Jason eventually finds the guy running the scam, and somehow “persuades” him to return Maggie’s $8,000. Though I would have liked to see Jason’s “conversation” with the scammer, it’s quite a fun fantasy to know the scammer is taken down and Maggie gets her money back. It also leads to a fun little exchange between Jason and Alicia, who invites him into her home for a drink.

While Jason investigates the scammer, Grace -- who seems more concerned about Alicia’s debts than Alicia is -- persuades Alicia to turn Maggie’s small case into a bigger, more potentially lucrative one. Alicia and Lucca decide to go after the for-profit university, Colosseum.

They face off against returning lawyer Carter Schmidt (the always-entertaining Christian Borle), who continually forces them to change their approach. While it’s not looking good for them, they discover that Maggie is only one of a few hundred students who had trouble with the school. A class-action suit won’t quite work, but Eli gives Alicia the idea of launching a debt strike (more on Eli in a moment), with all of the students withholding their payments.

When Schmidt pushes back against the debt strike, Alicia and company decide to escalate further. They may or may not have something to do with a new suit that the school’s shareholders bring against the institution -- one that could, coupled with the debt strike, even bring about a federal investigation into the school’s questionable recruitment tactics with veterans.

So Alicia and Lucca win their first case in their new partnership. Eli, on the other hand, is not having so much luck. He thinks he’s doing well when Ruth’s advice appears to backfire and Peter ends up the target of the media’s wrath, but it’s all working exactly to Ruth’s plan. Peter may look foolish to the media, but he’s ahead in the polls -- and that’s what really matters. It’s less likely every day that Peter is going to hire Eli back.

This -- thankfully -- brings Eli’s daughter Marissa back (hooray for sassy Sarah Steele! I hope they find a reason to keep her around). She tries to persuade Eli to leave Peter’s office, even landing him a new position running a high-profile political campaign in Israel. Marissa even asks Alicia to fire Eli so that he’ll take the new job. That’s how Eli comes to be at Alicia’s apartment to suggest the debt strike. But Eli refuses to give up, and his helpful debt-strike suggestion ends up as another step in his continuing scheme to embarrass Peter.

This really does seem unhealthy for Eli, but next week’s previews make it look like something might come to a head (but that’s probably not likely until a (mid-)season finale).

Over at Agos-Lockhart, Cary and Howard Lyman are still butting heads, with Howard claiming ageism at every turn. Diane tries to mediate the situation, and they discover that the associates have treated Howard very cruelly, leaving adult diapers and catheters in his office. If that’s true, it is quite heartbreaking, and Diane promises to do what she can to alleviate the horrible atmosphere at the office -- although if that sensitivity training, which seemed as ageist as the behavior Howard claimed, is the answer, I think maybe they should try again.

So how about you, “Good Wife”-ers? Are you glad to see a little off-work interaction between Alicia and Jason (not that we really saw it)? Did you enjoy the fantasy of the fledgling law firm taking down a for-profit school and forcing the scammers to pay back what they stole? Chime in below.

Twitter: @camusr6