The Good Wife recap: Wanna Partner?

First thing’s first: Who expected [NAME REDACTED] to be behind the door?! I won’t spoil it that early in the recap. But I will say The Good Wife writers did what they do best with the season 6 finale. They tied up all the loose ends from the past 22 episodes and presented Alicia with one new question to launch season 7. So let’s get to it.

In the case of the week, Alicia teams up with Finn to aid Jacob Rickter (Seth Gilliam), who’s looking into the medical marijuana business. Just a little while later, Alicia misses a call from Rickter, but receives an odd voicemail from him. It sounds like he’s being beat up, or at least being accosted by someone. When Alicia tries to call Rickter back, she can’t get a hold of him and neither can his wife, Nicole (Sharon Leal). Alicia finally realizes that maybe Rickter called her, and not his wife, because he was being arrested. So she calls central booking, but it’s a dead end. Left with no other options, Alicia takes advantage of current iPhone technology to locate Rickter’s last whereabouts.

That leads her to a nondescript building in an even more nondescript area. She sees a police car pull into a driveway and decides to go inside to investigate. There, the officer on duty, Chris Tannerman (Kevin Bigley), tells her that Rickter was just signed in a few hours ago. But a few seconds later, he does a complete 180. He retracts his story and says he just made a mistake. Alicia knows they’re giving her the runaround, but she’s gruffly escorted out of the building, saying that if she stays, she’ll be interfering with police matters.

Back to square one, Alicia tells Finn about her latest findings. He tells her about Homan Square, a place where police hold suspects. Alicia and Finn file a habeas petition in an effort to get Jacob Rickter out of the secret police facility. They face Matan Brody (Chris Butler) in court, again. And Judge Suzanne Morris (Jane Alexander) is presiding over the case. But the judge’s hands are tied until Alicia and Finn can bring stronger evidence of arrest.

Alicia knows Tannerman is sympathetic to their situation, so she decides to play that against him. She tells him that Rickter is an epileptic, and that he’s gone 12 hours without his medication. “Everyone in that building has deniability except you.” She tells him that if he has his doubts, he should call Rickter’s doctor. This is all a ploy, and Rickter’s “doctor” is actually Finn. An important Finn update: That woman he’s been seeing? He finally tells Alicia that it’s his ex-wife. Awkward.

Anyway, the judge doesn’t approve of their sneaky tactics, but it works. Judge Morris demands that the police open Homan Square to Alicia. But when Alicia goes back to the facility to talk to Rickter, Officer Joe Collins (Danny Mastrogiorgio), says Rickter is already meeting with his lawyer. They’re clearly screwing with her, and Alicia is none too pleased. The judge isn’t either. She demands that the police bring Jacob Rickter to court within the next two hours. The police deliver Rickter, but now they say he confessed his intent to acquire 25 marijuana plants. That’s a class-three felony with a minimum sentence of two to five years. Alicia and Finn want the confession thrown out for obvious reasons.

NEXT: A triumphant return.

On the stand, Rickter says he confessed because they said they’d let him go. But Collins maintains while he’s on the stand that Rickter wasn’t under arrest and that they did nothing wrong. Alicia and Finn decide to put Tannerman on the stand, hoping that he can substantiate Rickter’s claims. A second important Finn update: He and Alicia are discussing the case over drinks, but he leaves early because he doesn’t want to get “sloppy.” He thinks if he stays, something bad will happen. In this case, “bad” is clearly a synonym for hooking up with Alicia.

Anyway, they put Tannerman on the stand and he admits that he heard over the radio that Rickter was referred to with a 10-26 designation. That’s police code for a detained arrestee. So the judge has no choice but to throw out Rickter’s confession. Woot! Way to go, Alicia and Finn. I feel like this is the beginning of a beautiful partnership. But I spoke too soon. Finn goes to see Alicia and tells her he can’t continue their partnership. He recognizes that there’s something between them, and he can’t separate the work from the personal. He tells Alicia goodbye, and just like that, he leaves.

The season finale brought a familiar face back into the fold. Enter Charles Lester (Wallace Shawn) who represents Lemond Bishop in some of his shadier activities. Lester is on the hunt for Kalinda and starts at Alicia’s apartment. Now that Bishop is in prison, both Bishop and Lester assume Kalinda was the one to turn evidence. They are both correct in that assumption. But as you’ll recall, Kalinda is MIA. In not so many words, Lester threatens Alicia. She holds her ground, and quickly ushers him out of her apartment. In the meantime, she hides the note Kalinda left for her. So clearly, that letter was more than just a goodbye. Alicia calls Cary and warns him that Lester is sniffing around. Cary emails Kalinda to warn her, but the message bounces back. She’s totally off the grid.

But is she? The first shock of the episode comes in the form of Kalida’s return. (Yay!!) She’s waiting around the corner in a grocery store for Lester. He tells her that he and Bishop are suspicious of her because she ran after Bishop’s arrest. Kalinda says she only left because she knew Dexter was blaming her, but we know that’s not the truth. Before she leaves, she makes a deal with Lester: If he leaves her friends alone, she’ll come talk to Bishop.

The real high point of the episode came in the form of an Alicia/Kalinda reunion. They share tequila shots, and finally get the closure their relationship deserves. At this point, Kalinda tells Alicia that she needs to hand over the goodbye note to Lester. It’s not actually a goodbye note, but a full confession. Kalinda knows it will get Alicia, Cary, and everyone off the hook for her decisions. But the important part here is that Kalinda will leave The Good Wife universe on a happy note with Alicia.

Kalinda: “I’m really sorry that things got messed up.”

Alicia: “I wish we had the chance to do it over again.”

Me too, Alicia. Me too.

Anyway, Alicia returns home to find Lester waiting for her. He’s looking for Kalinda again since she didn’t show up to her promised meeting with Bishop. While he’s there, Alicia pulls out Kalinda’s note. I really thought she was going to hand it over. But silly, me. Instead, Alicia turns on the stovetop and burns the note right in front of Lester.

Lester: “Why did you do that?”

Alicia: “I didn’t want you to have it.”

And then, she sends Lester on his way. Alicia, sometimes you are truly the best.

NEXT: So who’s behind that door?

Kalinda makes one more appearance to Lester again. He’s getting a new phone since she took his at the grocery store. Kalinda makes her own threats: When she took material from Bishop’s computer, she also got information on Lester. Kalinda promises to keep that information to herself if he lets her go. Lester reluctantly agrees, as long as Kalinda makes the promise to never come back. He doesn’t want her to make him a liar. But before she leaves, Lester wants to know if she’ll consider going into business together.

Kalinda: “No. I’m good.”

And that, ladies and gentleman, is how you make an exit. Bye, Kalinda! We miss you already!

Meanwhile, before the title credits Peter and Eli visit Alicia to drop this bomb: The Democratic Committee has asked Peter to run for president. Yup. Hail to the Chief, Peter Florrick. That thought is actually pretty terrifying if you ask me. But it turns out Peter is only considering a presidential run so he can be considered as a serious contender to fill the VP role. (And, yes, this is a fictional world. But Peter being one stopped heart away from the most powerful man in America? It’s still a scary thought.) Before he makes his campaign official, Peter wants the approval of Alicia, Zach, and Grace.

Zach is excited about the possibility, but Grace is a harder sell. She’s concerned about Peter and Alicia continuing their pretend marriage for the public eye. Similarly, Alicia isn’t too excited. She knows Peter has already made his decision, but she doesn’t welcome the scrutiny that the family will face when he declares his candidacy. Peter claims he wants to do what the family wants, but I don’t think he expected Alicia to vote no. It will be interesting to see how this plays out next season. Can he really let it go? My guess would be no.

And finally, in what initially appeared to be a throwaway story line, Diane, Cary, and David Lee realized that Simone Canning (Susan Misner) has been working at their firm. She’s the newest paralegal, but applied for the job using her maiden name. So everyone’s finally putting two and two together. Unsurprisingly, they’re not too pleased with this revelation because they think she could potentially be spying for her husband. Louis Canning is obviously not above playing dirty. Simone promises that she’s trustworthy, but it’s not enough to save her job.

And when Louis Canning gets wind of his wife’s, um, canning—sorry, I had to—he is pissed. That’s an understatement, probably. He storms into Lockhart, Agos, and Lee and threatens to “burn this place to the ground.” And he promises to pull them apart “until there’s nothing left.” Are these empty threats? Not at all. Because that’s when we get the second shocker of the episode. Who’s behind that door? It’s Louis Canning! And he has two words, one question for Alicia: “Wanna partner?” Episode title alert! And that, folks, is the end of season 6.

The best moments and lines from “Wanna Partner?”:

• “Yikes.” —Alicia’s reaction to Peter running for president
• “If you could take five steps back so I could close the door.” —Alicia, to Charles Lester
• Charles Lester: “You know it seems that every time I come up here, this place has a new name.”

  Diane: “Oh, we like to keep you on your toes.”

• “You looking for me?” —Kalinda, in her triumphant return
• Charles Lester asking Kalinda if she can recommend a good frozen pizza
• Charles Lester: “Wait, what about my phone?”

  Kalinda: “Buy a new one.”

• Alicia: “Good. Our first win.”
• Finn: “Well, don’t count your chickens.”
• Alicia: “Sit down, Eli.”

  Eli: “I would, but I don’t like sitting on steps. I always think dogs urinate there.”

• “What is it with all these tough-talking women? You know a word you don’t hear very much anymore? Demure. How about bringing that one back?” —Charles Lester

So did you think Louis Canning would be on the other side of that door? After their strained history, would that even be a good idea? How disappointed are you about the Finn/Alicia partnership fizzling out? Will Peter really go through with his presidential run? Will Alicia continue to work on her memoir now that Eli has shown his involvement? And finally, do you think Kalinda got the exit she deserves?