Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 4 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT The Goldilocks Zone
By Jacob Clifton | Season 4 | Episode 13 | Aired on 01.27.2013
Alicia: "Fuck off, Maddie Hayward! I'm going to drink another bottle of wine and then fuck my husband in the bathroom. Today is MY DAY."
Just then, Jordan's plant shows up to make them fight, like bees in a jar, and asks Maddie about her "actions" in that recent viral video where she set a church on fire and then danced in the wreckage.
Journo: "Prayers are a big deal. Wasn't that a little disrespectful?"
Maddie: "Not really. I didn't bow my head because I don't believe in God, and I'm not a hypocrite."
Journo: "Aren't you worried how that'll play?"
Maddie: "No, because I'm awesome and I don't pander."
Peter: "I got religion in prison. I'm awesome too!"
Journo: "And what about your drunk wife?"
Alicia: "I AM A TOTAL ATHEIST, BITCHES! DEAL WITH IT! TODAY IS MY DAY!"
FORENSIC ACCOUNTING
Kalinda: "So congrats on the partnership offer..."
Cary: "Meh. They're handing them out like popsicles. It's just to raise money, I get it."
Kalinda: "Gonna reach for those sour ol' grapes anyway?"
Cary: "If I can get the money together, sure. No big deal."
Kalinda: "I detect a note of self-pity. Is this residual bake-off anxiety?"
They smile at each other and she drops it. But it's interesting, that for Alicia this was the biggest awful rollercoaster thing and for him he's like, "Why would I be surprised? Sometimes the rats fuck each other to death, I'm not going to take it personally."
I mean, a lot of that has to do with the fact that Alicia is more susceptible to praise than most, but I think there's also a little boy/girl privilege note here, about how he's entitled to enough self-esteem just by being Cary that no matter how competitive he acts, it's not coming from the same exact, somewhat needy place: He doesn't require quite the same amount of permission to exist. He's not trying to be as good a woman as Diane, or as good a lawyer-man as Will, because he always already won both of those, whereas Alicia is just a fourth-year associate off the mommy track who still thinks people call her a Caitlin behind her back. Praise from her bosses, particularly these ones, means a whole alphabet's worth of difference to her.
Kalinda notices something, I don't quite understand it yet, but there's a $112K payment footnoted on two different years' whatever ChumHum stuff they are looking at. Hayden Clarke always says look at the footnotes! What a sweet little callback. I wonder if Cary and Hayden are going to... Yup.