The Good Wife: “Marthas And Caitlins”

Ah, feel the cynicism, wafting over you finely in a way that only The Good Wife can provide, that wonderfully bitter outlook on how to get ahead in life. Just as Alicia is kicking ass in pretty much every sphere of her professional life, along comes Will to kneecap her with the news that she was basically a charity hire, brought on board (I would assume) for her name and because Will liked her/knew her. After a fun caper of an episode that brought back Mr. Hannibal Lecter lite, Colin Sweeney (Dylan Baker, who was in two great season one episodes), The Good Wife didn’t let Alicia savor her win for a moment.
The (cute) title “Marthas and Caitlins” referred to the hiring choice Alicia had to make between sunny, peppy Caitlin (Anna Camp, formerly of True Blood) and the better on-paper candidate Martha, who is holding off on accepting a job because she likes the “family atmosphere” of Lockhart/Gardner. I don’t know what the hell family atmosphere she was picking up on. Maybe all the romance and fighting? Anyway, Alicia wants Martha because she likes foreign films and Caitlin likes something called “trampboarding” that required me to rewind my DVR to make sure I was getting that right. But Caitlin gets the job because she’s David Lee’s niece. The whole thing was a little obvious: Anna Camp is a stereotypical annoying blonde, while the other one was as mousy as humanly possible. But it was worth it for the final moment (I’m less interested in Alicia mentoring Caitlin, but we may get some of that). Also, for the return of David Lee, sorely missed so far!
My one problem is that… surely Alicia knew she was hired through favoritism? I mean, she hadn’t worked in more than a decade, she knew Will in college, and it’s been a while since I saw the pilot, but I’m pretty sure he gets a big thank-you for hiring her there. Still, to hear it so clear-cut (Will needed David to approve the hire, which is why David gets his way in this episode) would be jarring under any circumstances, especially after the impressive maneuvering we see here, where Alicia (and Celeste) leverage Colin to get a white supremacist to confess on a wire so he can testify in HER case against a nasty airplane company. Ooh, the legal acrobatics were fierce, and everyone got involved, and all the stories tied together well. It was fun all around!
“But what about Celeste, whom you keep complaining about?” I hear you ask. Well, yes. Even Celeste wasn’t that bad this time around. Sure, she’s still being unnecessarily outrageous and tells Alicia that she wants to break her up with Will because she’s a miserable human being (to her credit, she is drunk). But at no point does she deal a round of poker or reference group sex in front of a lot of people. She does allude to a lesbian relationship between her and Alicia, but Colin’s too smart to believe that. Also, her drinking tequila with Alicia just had me longing for her relationship with Kalinda. Better days. I hope those kids patch things up soon.