{alltv} 'The Good Wife': What are Peter and Cary up to?

Apologies for the lateness of this recap. Due to some technical difficulties, we couldn't get to it until this morning. But let's jump right into the episode, shall we?

Liver Alone

The "Good Wife" case of the week is Marjorie, a woman desperately in need of a new liver. When one becomes available, Marjorie (a regular person, not well off) is bumped from the list by her hospital because a wealthy donor needs a liver too and is a match to both of them. Alicia is there to save the day - with a little help from our old friend Patti Nyholm (the always delightful Martha Plimpton).

So in another case of the week, Patti is fired from her firm. She claims it's because she's pregnant again, they claim it's because she was trying to steal clients and start her own firm. She starts feeding Lockhart/Gardner information about the liver case, as she was opposing council. It's super-duper no fooling around highly illegal to do that, but since they're defending a hospital who is trying to take a liver away from the woman at the top of the list, we can't muster up too much anger about it.

Alicia takes on the hospital specialist who took Marjorie off the list, but the hospital administrator maintains they are trying to preserve the integrity of the donor list because Marjorie is beyond the point of help. But Alicia notices pictures of Marjorie as a big-time party girl in her younger days and uses them to get Marjorie's doctor, Dr. Lawton, on overtesting alleged "partiers." He overtests the ones who have tattoos and body piercings because he judges their lifestyles.

The hospital administrator offers to have another doctor look over Marjorie's case and make a determination. Dr. Haynes, the new doctor, reverses Marjorie's decision and she gets her liver, but now Lockhart/Gardner are gearing up for a class-action against Dr. Lawton and the hospital. And Patti is back on the opposing side, as her firm hired her back with better benefits. Heh.

The Aftermath

Julianna Margulies knocks another episode right out of the park. Just take the last 15 seconds of the previous episode and multiple that to span 45 minutes. Her breakdown, moving Peter out, her rockin' get-ready-for-work montage, dealing with Jackie, talking to her kids ... amazing. Masterful.

But back to the story. As Alicia has moved Peter out, he is devastated, but again - can't muster up much sympathy. We did side with him on the "best friend" area because let's be fair, she didn't even know Kalinda back then. But. That doesn't make the cheating any better.

It's also just so in character that she wouldn't tell Jackie or her kids about this new affair. It just kills us that she won't because it's making her out to be the bad guy when she's really, really not, but it's so in character and that must be why the show is called "The Good Wife," huh?

Eli talks to Alicia, at Jackie's behest. He's very understanding and kind to her, which is lovely. We just love their relationship (Eli and Alicia's). Peter comes by later to say he phoned a marriage counselor and says he's going to start seeing her, but Alicia is having none of it. So Peter throws Will in her face and gets a little self-righteous about it. Says sarcastically that Alicia's the injured one. Well - she is!

After dealing with his affairs and wanting honesty, then getting this bombshell? She has every right to think you are a piece of garbage, Peter. He should have told her.

Cary Me Home

With Peter back in the State's Attorney's office, Cary is looking to come back to the firm and has Kalinda tell Will to hire him back. When he meets with Will and Diane, they offer him a second-year associate position, but he thought he'd be a third-year associate. He balks and goes to Peter and with Peter in his current I-hate-Alicia mood, he's receptive to talking to Cary about their past working together. Huh.

That sure left a sense of foreboding, didn't it? What are Cary and Peter up to?