‘The Good Wife’ recap: Everything old is new again

Welcome back, Good Wife-ers! It’s been three weeks since the previous episode, and with only two more before the series finale, things are ramping up. Yet this episode doesn’t end with a cliffhanger so much as a “duh.”

Alicia has to leave Jason, again comfortable in his underwear at her apartment (he clearly has a key), while she and Lucca fly to Toronto to help Jeff Dellinger (Zach Woods). You may recall, Jeff is the “C-list Edward Snowden,” a National Security Agency agent who got in trouble for whistle-blowing. After traveling abroad (hiding from the NSA), he’s now at the Toronto airport, headed to Arizona for his mother’s funeral (as if things aren’t difficult enough for the poor guy). He gets caught in a human tug of war between U.S. and Canadian officials as they argue over whether his feet were over the border. He calls Alicia to help him out.

This episode plays fast and loose with time as Alicia hops easily back and forth to Toronto, because Peter also needs her in Chicago. Connor Fox, who’s been hounding Peter for weeks, finally makes his move, publicly arresting Peter for “arranging a mistrial in trade for campaign donations.” It’s about time the writers tell us what Fox is up to, though Eli and Mike Tascioni still don’t know what he has on Peter. Eli tells Mike to hire an investigator, one who has absolutely nothing to do with the family, to help them. So naturally, Mike hires Jason. Oops.

Jason talks to Cary, in his one brief appearance since he’s now free of Lockhart & Lee, about a murder trial in which, Fox claims, Peter put pressure on the crime lab to lose evidence. That eventually led to the case ending in a mistrial that set the murderer free. We all doubt Peter actually did this, which again raises the question: Why is Fox out to get Peter? At least Alicia, who agreed to hide her intended divorce until after the trial, refuses to let Fox humiliate Peter, by putting a tie around his neck and a jacket over his cuffed wrists. I wonder how much difference that really makes to the public.

So Alicia is back where they started seven years ago, standing dutifully beside her scandalized husband. It doesn’t look good for Peter though, because Mike feels that Fox does have a case against him. Fox offers a plea bargain, allowing Peter to serve three years in jail.

In Toronto, Alicia and Lucca deal with a cartoonish, haughty Canadian judge who insists they call her “your worship” instead of “your honor,” and disparages America’s over-hyped security and lack of courtesy while praising her country’s superior policies. As what is now an espionage trial progresses, occasionally interrupted (though less than in a real airport, I think) by the PA system, Alicia discovers that the NSA has used a hot mike on her in the past, which means that its agents have probably been following her for months and that Jeff was the whistle-blower in the case tried by a confidential military panel on which Alicia served a while back. That case resulted in the firing of a dedicated civil servant accused of the leak. But introducing that confidential information in this case could result in an espionage charge against Alicia too.

The judge finds for the NSA and allows the agency to extradite Jeff to the United States, but Alicia responds by requesting asylum for Jeff in Canada. With a little trickery -- intentionally staging a phone call between Alicia and Lucca so that the NSA and its Canadian counterpart (the Communications Security Establishment”) overhear -- they obtain asylum for Jeff because the CSE wants him to work for that agency. So all is resolved there. Phew.

Back at Lockhart ... Central (Who knows what it’s called now?), Diane talks to David about her husband, Kurt McVeigh (remember him?). Fortunately, Diane and Kurt are just fine -- always a concern because we only see him when there’s a problem. In fact, he wants to sell his business so that he and Diane can spend more time together. He found a buyer, PGT Ballistics, and asks Diane to look over the contract. She and David agree that Kurt’s business is worth a lot more than the deal offers, but Diane decides that rather than insult Kurt’s pride by having his wife tell him he’s undervaluing himself, she’ll just go over his head and meet with the buyer for him. Yeah, that makes sense.

She meets with PGT and finds that the “company” is just one young, gorgeous blond, Holly Westfall (Megan Hilty, where have you been since “Smash”?), a former student of Kurt’s. Despite the handshake agreement Holly had with Kurt, Diane refuses it, demanding more money, which she tells Kurt she’ll put into an account for him to “hire Republican strippers,” because pretty blond Republicans are apparently his weakness. Despite the slut shaming, accusatory tone and high demands, Diane later reneges and says Kurt can sell to whomever he wishes, especially because they don’t need the money, but Kurt agrees with Diane because he loves her. Aw.

The episode’s final moments show Jason, always quietly intense, asking Alicia what she wants, why she decided to divorce Peter now. Like Peter last week, Jason doesn’t seem to believe that he has nothing to do with Alicia’s decision, and I guess he wants to know how it will affect him. He just wants things to be simple, but life is often messy -- especially Alicia’s life. Alicia reveals (big shocker) that she wants him. Doi. Not much of a nail-biter there.

What do you think, Good Wife-ers? Could Alicia possibly want to get married again so quickly? I doubt it, but then what is Jason worried about? Will Peter be set free, or could he end up serving jail time again? Could Alicia be brought up on espionage charges too? What do you foresee for the series’ end?