‘The Good Wife’ season 7, episode 10 review: The ghost of Will Gardner in Eli’s lips

There are so many ways we envisioned “The Good Wife” ending for its midseason finale, whether it be with some huge scene between Alicia and Jason, Peter making a big move in his campaign, or maybe the entire cast getting together for a rare gathering.

What we never anticipated was seeing a secret from five seasons ago coming back and redefining the relationship of Alicia and Eli potentially forever. We’d almost forgotten about the voicemail, a confession of love from Will Gardner to Alicia that Eli deleted so many years ago, realizing that if she ever heard it, it would jeopardize almost everything. He didn’t want anything to go wrong. Now, everything is going wrong.

It may seem a little random and exploitative to have this moment come up in a midseason finale, but what “The Good Wife” did that was so smart here was figure out an interesting way to implement a little bit of context. When Courtney slipped away Eli realized just what it felt like to have someone you care about not next to you, and he encouraged her to do what she could to get Jason back. He had made the mistake in his own life, and he had made the mistake before with Will. Now, Josh Charles’ character is no longer around, and Jason represents a second chance.

Yes, we do know that there was a Lockhart – Agos – Lee storyline where they could be losing associates to the ever-conniving Louis Canning, but it’s hard to focus on that thanks to the emotional, personal relationship that is at stake. The same goes for the case that featured dark fantasies coming to light and so much more. While the entire episode was very strong, the scene in the closing seconds is one we will remember for some time. Grade: A.