The secret’s out; Alicia and Cary scramble to keep their new firm intact.
Recap:
We pick up directly where last week left off: Will is in the process of interviewing new publicists, trying to improve the firm’s image from its last tumble – Diane’s interview. Then Diane lays it on him: Alicia is leaving with the fourth-years and intends on taking some of the firm’s clients with her. Will can’t even begin to process that information, but when he does, he is piping mad and makes his way to Alicia’s office. He keeps his calm when speaking to her for all of two minutes and then savagely clears her desk in a way that would’ve been sexy under different circumstances. He takes her cell phone and tells her to leave, but Alicia pulls the partner card and knows that she must be voted out first. Will sets Robyn to watch her while he gathers the partners for a vote and shuts down access to the client files.
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Carey Zepps is fired and removed from the offices before he has the chance to download anything. The other Cary rushes in, hoping to gain access before he too is fired, but Diane is already waiting in his office, holding his laptop. She feels betrayed because she was his mentor, the same mentor that fired him once before. She asks for the names of all of the associates leaving with Cary and Alicia, and if he refuses, she’ll just fire all of them. In their sparring session, Cary mistakenly brings up their treatment of Chumhum, and Diane takes this to Will. They must get to Neil Gross first.
After taking a vote, Will fires Alicia and escorts her to the elevator, where she begins to cry. (Only after the doors close.)
After the break, (that opening was long!) Will asks Kalinda if she’s leaving with the others, and after she fakes her surprise, he asks her to look into the other associates.
David Lee ends up firing all of them, and I’m pretty sure he enjoyed every last minute of that.
Alicia rallies the team in a nearby Starbucks. They have to get to their clients before L&G. David Lee gets to one first and lets on that Alicia may have stolen money from some of the clients. There goes one!
Kalinda approaches Cary and asks if she can still join the new firm. He’s wary at first, but agrees and asks her to bring the Chumhum files to their new office.
Alicia tries to stall Will by calling one of their clients waiting to be deposed. Will catches on and tells Alicia to back off and also to call Grace back and sign her permission slip. Haha!
Kalinda is working for the enemy! She tells Will and David Lee the address of the competition’s new office and that they don’t have the Chumhum files.
Right as Cary and company meet up with Mr. Gross, they’re served with a restraining order, preventing them from meeting together.
Peter is on the phone with the Tribune when he finds out, from the reporter, that his wife has been fired. He calls Alicia’s cell and tells Will (my favorite line): “I will handle this as a husband.â€
There’s more trouble ahead. The associates need a place to meet now that their building is being fumigated. Good one, David Lee! They settle in at la casa Florrick.
Diane wants to make sure that this squabble with Alicia won’t affect her nomination, and Eli assures her that Peter will not let his personal feelings affect his politics, but something tells me that’s not so true.
Cary and Alicia take Will to court in an attempt to have the restraining order lifted. Will calls Diane as a witness to their thieving ways, but she no longer wants to be involved. He then calls up Beth, another associate who was planning on leaving but then changed her mind. She says that Alicia and Cary lied to the clients about the firm. It just so happens that Will offered her a partnership before her testimony, but this has no bearing on the judge’s decision. He’s keeping the restraining order in place.
As they’re leaving the courtroom, David calls Alicia “Judas,†and her claws comes out. She vows to go after ALL of their clients. And she starts with Chumhum. After tracking down Judge Winter, someone not too fond of Will, they get their own restraining order. It’d be pretty funny if, after all this, he goes with a third, unknown, firm.
Even with that small win, Florrick and Agos only have 3 clients on board, down from 12. They entertain the idea of going after Bishop, but not everyone is convinced that they should start representing a drug dealer.
Peter stops by to comfort Alicia with a quickie.
The Florrick home is getting crowded. Diane drops by shortly after to make peace. She suggests that they both drop their restraining orders and meet with Neil Gross to have him decide.
Will and Co. get first crack at him, and after speaking with Alicia and Cary for two minutes, he decides to go with Lockhart Gardner. He’s worried Peter’s governorship will work against his unethical practices. So much for that.
Will knows that Kalinda knew about the fourth years before today, but needs to know where her loyalty lies. She’s staying put and agrees to help Will take down the competition.
Peter finds an opportunity to talk about taxation of internet commerce during a publicized conference, leading Neil Gross back into the arms of Florrick/Agos.
While they’re celebrating, Peter asks Eli to put together a list of other possible Supreme Court nominees, and Eli is genuinely surprised. That doesn’t happen often!
Review:
How amazing was that?! I have to admit, I never believed that Florrick/Agos would really come together. I thought it was a ruse, to rile things up for the season premiere, and then after the dust settled, things would go back to normal. They’re changing things up, and while this ruins my Will/Alicia pairing, watching them go after each other is almost as fun as…watching them go after each other. 😉
Another favorite: continuity. Alicia using Judge Winter against Will and bringing up Bishop (bring him back, please!) make for one happy viewer. This season is off to an amazing start, and I can’t wait for a new episode!!
– Lindsay
