‘The Good Wife’ season 5, episode 10 spoilers: More of Archie Panjabi, Jordana Spiro ahead

Sunday night’s new episode of “The Good Wife” was a big one for a variety of reasons, but one of the most notable ones was seeing Kalinda finally get some viable screen time for the first time in a while. Not only that, but she seemingly has someone new in her life in Jenna, a cop played by Jordana Spiro. This gives her an opportunity to have a new romance following her time with Nick, and we all know how fans responded to that story.

So what inspired bringing this new character on board specifically for Kalinda? Speaking to TVLine, executive producer Robert King confirmed that Sprio will be around for a while, and that Damian was an intentional red herring to throw off viewers:

“We thought it would maybe be a head-fake to the audience, that perhaps we were going down a Nick route again [with Jason O’Mara’s Damian]. What we wanted to do was have someone that sent us in a direction that would be more interesting for Kalinda, which is a woman who is a little closer to who Kalinda is — although possibly tougher. And once we knew we could get Jordana Spiro, we were thrilled, and even wrote more in that direction.”

King also confirmed (finally) that Juliet Rylance will not be a part of the story this year, which was the original plan. Her character was cut from the premiere episode earlier this season due to time constraints, and they decided to go in a completely new direction with the role rather than giving viewers what would have been a largely-incomplete story when you look at what was already brought to the table.

New episodes of “The Good Wife” will return to CBS early next year, and you can expect a wealth of greater surprises on the way soon. As for the reason why there’s no new episode next week, it has much to do with “The Amazing Race” airing a two-hour episode.

Photo: CBS