tellitslant | [i don't like breaking commitments] (Reply)

I don't have a place to go with this yet, but I find it intriguing that we have two competing tales of marital reconciliation at work in this episode, and by extension this season. Obviously there are some fairly serious differences between the Alicia/Peter and the Kalinda/Nick relationships, but there are some interesting similarities too, right down to the fact that they have third parties negotiating with/for them, heh (oh Eli).

Alicia is very bluntly questioned about her role as the good wife by Peggy, the reporter, but does the comparison suggest Kalinda could be taking on aspects of good wifeliness? If so, it's a rather damning indictment of the term. What I think is interesting, though, is the parallels evident between the 'bad husbands.' With Nick, it's obvious: he is set up as the bad guy: he physically overpowers and (all-but-)rapes Kalinda and then compounds his sin by being smarmy, self-assured, and insensitive to Kalinda's desires. But we only get this scene after we get a much subtler scene in which Peter uses his - not physical, but political - power to ignore the validity of the desires Alicia had previously expressed to him in her bedroom, when he calls up and threatens the other state's attorney. These are remarkably similar actions when you think about it, and the comparison paints Peter's 'gallant' action - which of course has its own knock-on effect and will no doubt continue to do so - in a rather different light.

If Alicia is the wife who stays, Kalinda is the wife who leaves (though of course now she won't leave Alicia). So where does that leave the other side of the dynamic? What are we supposed to be rooting for with Alicia and Peter?

(If you want to extend the metaphor I think it's also possible to see Will&Diane operating on a similar level with the law firm, rather than a marriage, hanging in the balance. They, of course, are the couple for whom reconciliation has led to a positive outcome - because they are equal partners and each treats the other as such.)