By Jacob Clifton | Season 3 | Episode 18
Lockhart & Associates is brought into a wrongful death suit that eventually becomes a full-frontal fight against the very concept of hockey once it's revealed that that the plaintiff -- who accidentally snow-ski'd his wife to death -- had his head knocked in a million times beforehand. The case is not exactly fascinating, (although the judge's insane wig is kind of fascinating) but it does cause two surprising ripples:
Number one, Louis "Michael J." Canning shows up working for the hockey league -- and, just like Nancy Crozier two weeks ago, he never really plays his quirky card because he's become symbolic over time for a Deeper Thing About Alicia -- and Tammy shows up to cover the story for her sports journalism thing she does... that I guess is real.
In the wake of the Caitlin Thing, Alicia has no way of knowing how hard Diane went to bat for her raise, or how shitty the ongoing Will mutiny among David Lee, Julius and Eli ended up making it -- so she feels burned on two fronts, because the raise is fractional comparatively. So when Canning plays his usual Pied Piper flute (and brilliantly deflects all of her usual objections about being a turncoat), there's not a lot reason for her to stay loyal.
Also a problem for Lockhart & Associates: Some a-hole has told the Bar Disciplinary Board about how bad Will is at "not discussing the law" while he hangs out, totally discussing the law, all the time, in every scene of this show -- meaning there's a traitor in our midst, duh. Not that Diane cares, because she's all caught up in a love triangle of her own, between that Australian Freddy Krueger motherfucker who is back, and that sexy gun nut Tea Party birther from even further back. She doesn't want to hear about your mess, thank you very much... Which sucks for everybody, because the equity partners at her law firm are a bunch of fucking man-babies with no manners that are still fighting over Will's office, right in front of him.
As part of the proceedings, Alicia pays little Cary Agos a visit, which mystifies him that she even wants to see him even though he is looking particularly beautiful this week, but ultimately the point of that little meeting is to tell us, the viewer, that he's been demoted from the Deputy SA's position -- "self-inflicted wound," he says, never explaining how literal that is -- in pursuit of the higher ideals that Peter will eventually be beating out of him.
In the end, not a shitload goes down. Tammy sniffs out Alicia's involvement in her story and comes to yell at her about sleeping with Will -- always with everything in airquotes, like her whole life is this ironic story she's telling people, which I'm not convinced is why people hate her so damn much -- and then Alicia has to continue mooning over the Highland Park house and her life what once was, while poor Kalinda is doing the same thing... When Alicia tells her to slow down and stop wooing her all the time, Kalinda has to admit she's been stepping her shit up recently, and promises to calm down. It's sad, but also the quintessential, near-silent, all-subtext Alicia/Kalinda scene:
"I JUST LOVE YOU SO MUCH!"
"Girl, I know, but you have to calm down. I am not done torturing you yet."
"I KNOW, SORRY."
"It's okay. I know I'm a lot. Let's get back to doing our jobs."