THE GOOD WIFE Redux: A Trap Is Sprung

“The Good Wife”

Perhaps there was no more heart-breaking moment on THE GOOD WIFE than in the 2^nd season episode  “Foreign Affairs” when Alicia (Julianna Margulies) found out that her estranged husband Peter (Chris Noth) had slept with her new best friend Kalinda (Archie Panjabi).  We could just see the glass shattering around Alicia as her carefully constructed façade of control began to slip.  With expediency that one can only marvel at, Alicia had the locks changed on her apartment, packed Peter’s things, and rented an apartment for him — all within hours of learning of his latest betrayal.  Peter had betrayed her one last time and she was not going to take it anymore.

“The Good Wife”

Yet throughout the 3^rd and 4^th seasons, we were chagrined as Peter began to woo Alicia again and as she slowly began to allow him back into her life.  Fortunately, it was not without a rebellious phase as Alicia threw caution to the wind and embarked on a torrid affair with her boss Will Gardner (Josh Charles). But then her better instincts prevailed and she called the affair to a halt before it destroyed both her professional career and her delicately-balanced personal life. So the affair was almost over just as soon as it started.

However, for the majority of this past 4^th season, Alicia chose to rekindle the relationship with her husband, albeit from a distance.  She still would not allow him to move back in, and she always initiated their romantic liaisons.   So she was in control of the relationship and she assisted Peter in his campaign as far as it continued to serve her interests as well — meaning she used it to gain status in her professional life which led to a coveted partnership offer.  So just as much as Peter used Alicia to further his political career, she used him to gain respect and stature in her career as well.  It was mutually beneficial to both and provided them both with an accepted sexual partner as well – one that would not blow up their strategically-planned career paths.

“The Good Wife”

But then Peter threw a curveball into the game, which Alicia quickly seized to her advantage.  He wanted to renew their wedding vows as a way of showing Alicia and everyone watching his campaign that he was a changed man.  No one was more surprised that the viewing audience. We were incredibly surprised that Alicia would accept his proposal. Yet a glimmer sparked.  Alicia must know that the timing was suspect and that Peter would only propose such a thing because it was advantageous to him.  So why would she go along with it?

It was the perfect time to spring the trap Alicia had been carefully laying for the past couple of years.  Her time for revenge had come.  How to best hurt Peter the way that he had publicly and privately hurt her?  Peter had given her the perfect opportunity – she would stand with him seemingly ready to recommit her life to him, and then utter the one word he would never expect to hear: “No.”  It would devastate him and perhaps damage his public persona in a way that he may never recover.  Payback is a bitch.

And the timing was ripe for another big power play.  The 4^th year attorneys were covertly planning to leave Lockhart Gardner to start their own firm and an offer had been extended to Alicia to leave with them.  Yet why would Alicia make such a leap on the heels of finally being offered partnership?  Given the callous disregard that the partners of Lockhart Gardner operated and how ruthlessly they used Alicia and her connections to get exactly what they wanted,  regardless of how it may damage her relationships with her clients or her reputation, Alicia was not feeling very happy with her partners.  In addition, they would not look favorably upon Alicia’s well-timed revenge stroke against Peter. They would fear the back-lash on their firm.  So the timing is perfect for Alicia to leave Lockhart Gardner, reclaiming her self-respect and giving back as good as she has endured under the Lockhart Gardiner regime.

“The Good Wife”

The crowning moment would be if Alicia were to tell Will: “I quit” and in the same breath ask him to marry her.  Who knows if Alicia would actually have the guts to go so far as to quit and then propose to Will, but the timing is perfect.  Dating the boss was frowned upon, but she would not be so constrained once she left Lockhart Gardner.  It would also be the final payback for her soon-to-be ex-husband Peter who always suspected that Alicia’s heart belonged to another.

The two-pronged revenge plan would be executed flawlessly.  This is assuming that Alicia is strong enough to go through with it.  But if anything we have seen over the past 4 years is that Alicia’s core strength.  She is not a woman to be trifled with and she will bide her time to strike back. No one ever sees it coming and she makes them bleed in ways they never anticipated.  The saying “hell hath no fury like a woman scored” is more than apt.  The show is called THE GOOD WIFE after all.  It was always a play on the words as Alicia was only a “good wife” so long as it suited her.  Peter’s infidelities and public humiliation of his wife were not going to go unpunished.  He may have served his time for his professional transgressions, but Alicia certainly had not forgiven or forgotten to how deeply he had hurt and humiliated her.  She was just more patient and had waited for the perfect opportunity to enact her revenge.

This is all wild speculation, but it certainly fits the woman we know as Alicia Florrick.  She has been the “good wife” and the “good employee” for too long.  It is time for her to reclaim her life, her pride and her dignity.  We will be anxiously watching this week’s episode “What’s In the Box” with breathless anticipation.  Will Alicia’s perfect trap be sprung at last?  We are praying that it is.  What a glorious revenge that would be.

To see what Alicia ultimately does, be sure to tune in for the 4^th season finale of THE GOOD WIFE on Sunday, April 28^th at 9:00 p.m. on CBS.  The clock is ticking down on Peter’s fate.

Where to find this article:

 

http://www.thetvaddict.com/2013/04/28/the-good-wife-redux-a-trap-is-sprung/

 

 

“The Good Wife”

ONCE UPON A TIME: The Ultimate Revenge of Captain Hook

Robert Carlyle and Emilie de Ravin (photo credit: Jennifer Schadel)

The long-standing feud of Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) and Captain Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) has lasted centuries.  After Hook had the audacity to woo Rumplestiltskin’s wife away from him, in a fit of jealous rage, Rumplestiltskin ripped out his wife’s heart and sliced off Hook’s hand; thereby creating the infamous moniker for the pirate formerly known as Killian Jones — Hook.  It was a long time coming, but after patiently waiting out the 28 years trapped by the curse in the fairytale land, Hook along with his cohort Cora (Barbara Hershey), finally found a way, using the giant’s magic bean to open a portal to Storybrooke – allowing Cora to reunited with daughter Regina (Lana Parrilla) and to unleash their terrible vengeance on the unsuspecting citizens of Storybrooke.

Aligned out of their mutual desires to slay the “crocodile,” Cora and Hook each had diabolical plans for their nemesis, Rumplestiltskin, who was now known as Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle).  Cora wanted Gold’s dagger so that she could either control the Dark One so that he would do her bidding, or even worse yet, to become the Dark One herself after killing Gold.  But Hook had a different approach, he first tried to destroy that which Gold held most dear to him – Belle’s (Emilie de Ravin) memory of Gold.

On that fateful day as Gold prepared to cross the Storybrooke line to go in search of his son, Belle stood nearby offering her moral support – which, alas, put her right in harm’s way as Hook suddenly appeared, shooting Belle, which sent her over the curse line into the human world – promptly wiping all memory of her former life and her love for Gold/Rumplestiltskin.

But that was not enough for Hook.  He had stolen Belle’s love from Gold for only just a moment.  He knew that Gold would find a way to cure Belle’s memory-loss eventually.  Thus, he must find another way to wreak his revenge.  And as every pirate knows that if you first don’t succeed, try, try again.  So Hook took the opportunity to attack Gold when he was at his most vulnerable in the human world, leaving Gold grievously injured and dying from one swipe of his poisoned hook.

But that was only the first back-up plan. Hook had another diabolical plan in place if Gold did not die from the poison.  In fact, Gold may ultimately wish he had succumbed to the easier death, by poison, than to have his heart ripped out.  No, Hook will not be so crass as to literally rip out Gold’s heart, he will employ a more delicate and devastating method – Hook will simply break Gold’s heart (again) by stealing Belle’s love.  Since Belle cannot remember her former life due to the effects of Regina’s curse still lingering in Storybrooke, Belle will be someone else entirely as her curse-persona takes over.  And Hook is only too good at wooing woman who are looking for a life of adventure.

That will be his ultimate revenge.  Death is too easy.  If Hook had to live centuries with his pain and loss, then Gold must do the same.  It will break Gold’s heart to see Belle/Lacey falling under Hook’s spell – just like Rumplestiltskin’s wife had done all those years before.  Making Hook’s revenge a perfect 3-prong strategy: steal Belle’s memories, fatally wound Gold so that Cora may strip him of his powers, and then to make Gold suffer as the love of his life is stolen from him.

At the recent PaleyFest event in celebration of ONCE UPON A TIME, there was an interesting curiosity noted, which you can see for yourself in these photos.  Emilie de Ravin and Colin O’Donoghue did their best to keep this upcoming plot twist a secret, even trying to sit as far apart as possible in order to not give away clues to the upcoming story of Lacey and Hook.

Emilie de Ravin and Colin O’Donoghue (photo credit: Jennifer Schadel)

Emilie de Ravin and Colin O’Donoghue (photo credit: Jennifer Schadel)

Emilie de Ravin and Colin O’Donoghue (photo credit: Jennifer Schadel)

Robert Carlyle, Emilie de Ravin and Colin O’Donoghue (photo credit: Jennifer Schadel)

Emilie de Ravin and Colin O’Donoghue (photo credit: Jennifer Schadel)

Emilie de Ravin and Colin O’Donoghue (photo credit: Jennifer Schadel)

Then if you listen carefully to the following interview with Emilie de Ravin, she also does her best to dance around the question of whether Gold will win back Belle’s love.

There is nothing more heart-breaking and cruel than love lost.  Songs, poems, and stories have been written for centuries about the power and pain of lost love.  And that will be Hook’s ultimate revenge. By stealing Belle’s love, and being an instrument in stripping Gold of his powers, Hook will finally have his revenge.  Only then.

But for fans of the show, it will break our hearts too.  The love story of Belle and Rumplestiltskin (the beauty and the beast) has charmed us all and we fell in love with them. We shall be heartbroken.  How dare that scoundrel Hook be so vengeful?  Or perhaps there will be a silver-lining in this diabolical plot – perhaps Hook will find he can love again and that his grieving heart will finally be at rest.  Would it be wrong to deny him true love if he should find it in the most unexpected of places

This is all wild speculation, but it fits the ONCE UPON A TIME story, as we know it.  So hold onto your hearts, and be on the look out for the clues, which shall reveal whether Hook does indeed pursue his ultimate revenge.

(Please do not repost these photos at other sites. Links only. Thank you!)

Where to find this article:

http://www.thetvaddict.com/2013/03/10/once-upon-a-time-the-ultimate-revenge-of-captain-hook/

Emilie de Ravin and Colin O’Donoghue (photo credit: Jennifer Schadel)

Wicked TV Mothers Who Kill With Kindness and Good Intentions

From ONCE UPON A TIME to THE GOOD WIFE to REVENGE, there is a whole new breed of mothers who will not only kill to protect their children, but who will do all sorts of diabolical things in the name of love.

In ONCE UPON A TIME, Regina’s mother tore her lover’s heart out. In THE GOOD WIFE, Jackie stole the house that her daughter-in-law wanted to buy.  And in REVENGE, Victoria had her son brutally beaten up in jail.

Daniel and Victoria on "Revenge"

These do not sound like acts done with love, but in their own warped way, each thought that they had their children’s best interests at heart. Regina’s mother did not want anyone to stand in the way of her daughter marrying a king, ensuring that Regina would never want for anything for the rest of her life.  Jackie thought she was doing the right thing by buying the house for her son Peter and her grandchildren because Alicia had refused to let Jackie be a part of their lives and had kicked Peter out because of his numerous affairs.  And Victoria thought the only way to protect her son was to have him attacked by her choice of assailants so he could be put in isolation and away from the general populace where he could suffer more harm.

Peter and Jackie on "The Good Wife"

These acts are definitely made out of love, but in the most twisted form.  Regina was so enraged that her mother killed her lover, that she became a creature so monstrous that she enslaved an entire world of people to be her minions and erased their memories of their former lives and loves and made them her play-things in another world.    Peter Florrick was also not happy his mother bought him a house without his knowledge, thereby creating further friction in his already tense relationship with his estranged wife.  And Daniel Grayson could not fathom how his mother thought she was protecting him from further harm in jail, by having him beat up.

What seems like acts of loving kindness by these mothers is seen as deliberate infliction of pain and suffering by their children; and with Mother’s Day coming up next month, I would hazard to say that these mothers are not going to be warmly received and celebrated by their children.

Cora, Regina's mother on "Once Upon A Time"

For is it truly out of love that these mother’s acted the way they did, or were they acting more out of their own selfish motivations?  Certainly Regina’s mother on ONCE UPON A TIME craved to have her daughter be queen and to wield power like none had ever seen before.  It was not enough to see her daughter taken care of for the rest of her life; Cora wanted Regina to be powerful and feared.  In Cora’s mind, money without ultimate power was nothing.  In order to unleash Regina’s magical prowess, Cora knew she would have to eliminate the one thing Regina cared for most: the stable boy.  She knew that unless properly provoked Regina would be happy and content to live a simple life, and that would never satisfy Cora’s desires and dreams for her daughter.  So she ripped out the stable boy’s heart right in front of Regina in order to trigger the latent magic lurking just beneath the surface.  And while Regina did indeed become queen and the most powerful woman ever, could Cora have foreseen that Regina’s unending pain would push her to enact a curse to enslave and brainwash everyone?  Just where is Cora these days anyway? Is she too safely locked away in one of Regina’s dungeons beneath Storybrooke?

Jackie Florrick on "The Good Wife"

Jackie, Peter’s mother on THE GOOD WIFE, is also a piece of work.  In what universe does a grown man want his mother to buy him a home for he and his children, without their knowledge, and presume that she could move in with them?  Peter Florrick is on the verge of announcing his decision to run for state governor and that last thing he needs is his manipulative and scheming mother micromanaging his campaign and his personal life.  It is going to be miserable enough having the media peeking in every window, snooping through his trash, and following every move he makes.  Having Jackie present at every turn would be enough to drive any normal man insane.  Plus, it puts a distinct crimp in Peter’s ability to reconcile with his wife who is dubious that he can be trusted ever again.  However, the fact that Alicia encouraged Peter to run for governorship gave him a sliver of hope that there may be some residual feelings to build upon.  So Jackie needs to stay out of everyone’s business and keep far, far away – stroke or no stroke.  Her meddling will only serve to make everyone miserable and to alienate her from her own family.

Victoria on "Revenge"

Then dear, dear Victoria on REVENGE.  We have always known that she was so caught up in her version of reality that she could never really see clearly.  After all, she handed the man she loves and the father of one of her children over on a silver platter to be framed as a terrorist.  What kind of woman pins such an insidious crime on the man she loves?  To treat one’s enemy in such a fashion would be despicable enough, but to treat someone you love in such a manner is insane.  It therefore should have been no surprise that Victoria then had her own son beaten within an inch of his life.  Yet it still shocked us to our core.  What kind of mother does THAT?!  Even her loving son Daniel cannot fathom it and has rejected her once and for all.

Since when did love give mothers the license to main, kill and torment?  Sounds more like stalking and deranged delusions.  These are but three terrifying examples of wicked mothers on television today.  Undoubtedly, these are just a few of the many.  But it feels like mothers are justifying their own motivations under the guise of love.  Is it love to humiliate, inflict pain, or bully you own children?  Sounds more like a form of child abuse.  Thus, let us remember that these mothers are not an example of love, but rather they are selfish beings who would not know what love was even if it hit them in the face. We are thus grateful that these are fictional characters and ones which we can delight in hating and watching in revulsion.  Their actions are not to be admired, but to be seen as everything a mother is not.

A good villain is necessary in every great story, but we shudder to imagine what other wicked deeds these mothers are capable of in the name of love.  It’s the stuff nightmares are made of!

Where to find this article:

 

http://www.thetvaddict.com/2012/04/19/hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-mother-scorned-a-closer-look-at-televisions-latest-breed-of-wicked-mothers/