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swatkatIt is finals season, and instead of weeping over work not done, I have been making other people weep about the work they've not done. Well, 'weep' is probably an exaggeration, but I have been invigilating, and I like to think I have been very stern and srs bzns. Except for the few occasions where I cracked jokes to get them to behave themselves, but I'm afraid that's something I cannot help - it's pretty much my natural response to crack jokes about everything (see: Osama Bin Laden's death *facepalm*).
I also appear to be growing a wisdom tooth. Does this mean I'm finally gaining wisdom?
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I was pointed to this excellent recap of TGW 2.21, and I really liked this part:
“Oh really? Did you rape her?” Alicia shouts back. (Ouch!) “She didn’t even know you then,” says Peter. (Again, good point.) “She knew you were married,” says Alicia.
And there we have it, folks, the heart of Alicia’s dismay. She maybe could have handled knowing there was yet another woman in Peter’s past. And she maybe could have handled knowing that Peter and Kalinda had slept together in their wild college days, or some time before she and Peter were married. But as her brother Owen frequently pointed out, Alicia has an incredibly rigid moral compass. Over the past two years, she’s had to endure knowing that her husband is a good man with very bad tendencies, and that Will is a great lawyer who will manipulate anything and anyone to get his way. She’s been dipping her toe into defying authority (like that time she and Will found and moved a gun that the other side needed as evidence), but it’s with the spirit of a straight-A student playing hooky during her free period, the rush of illicit behavior without actually being illicit. And now she’s finding out that the one person she thought she could count on to be sound and supportive has a moral compass that’s pointing in a completely different direction from her own. It’s not just that Kalinda has slept with her husband and never come clean about it, but that Kalinda is the kind of person who would sleep with a married man at all.
Alicia will never not be that 'straight-A student playing hooky during her free period', but Will and Diane's cheerful amorality (or even Kalinda's, when she's on the job) has become easier for her to accept simply because they make no secret of it. They are who they are. Whereas here it's not just that Kalinda is kind of person who would sleep with a married man, but that she kept it a secret. That colours every bit of their interaction in the past two years, right from the day Kalinda sought her out at work. Was it because she wanted to see what Peter Florrick's wife was like? (Yes.) Was it because she wanted to get an idea of whether or not she knew? (Probably.) Was she laughing at Alicia behind her back? (No.)
We are, of course, aware of Kalinda's POV, and we're sympathetic towards her for it: she sought Alicia out of a sense of curiosity, because she wanted to see what Peter's wife was like. Circumstances threw them together, and Alicia surprised the hell outta Kalinda, because Alicia was nothing like what you would imagine a good little politician's wife to be. And then something even stranger happened - they became friends, and Kalinda doesn't do friendship. How do you tell your only friend that 'hey, I slept with your husband before I knew you because he helped me cover up my past, and I did not think about you, the unknown wife, because I'm not the kind of person who does that, I did not care if it would hurt you someday. I care now, but what's done is done.'
What's done is done, but Alicia, who spends so much time being trying to do the right thing, who tries so hard to not hurt other people and only ends up hurt herself, who is always mature and rational, deserves every bit of her anger right now. Later she's going to bottle it all up again and kick herself for believing that her marriage could work. And she's also probably not going to trust Kalinda anytime soon, which will break my heart. I JUST WANT THEM TO BE FRIENDS OKAY. ;__;
I also appear to be growing a wisdom tooth. Does this mean I'm finally gaining wisdom?
+
I was pointed to this excellent recap of TGW 2.21, and I really liked this part:
“Oh really? Did you rape her?” Alicia shouts back. (Ouch!) “She didn’t even know you then,” says Peter. (Again, good point.) “She knew you were married,” says Alicia.
And there we have it, folks, the heart of Alicia’s dismay. She maybe could have handled knowing there was yet another woman in Peter’s past. And she maybe could have handled knowing that Peter and Kalinda had slept together in their wild college days, or some time before she and Peter were married. But as her brother Owen frequently pointed out, Alicia has an incredibly rigid moral compass. Over the past two years, she’s had to endure knowing that her husband is a good man with very bad tendencies, and that Will is a great lawyer who will manipulate anything and anyone to get his way. She’s been dipping her toe into defying authority (like that time she and Will found and moved a gun that the other side needed as evidence), but it’s with the spirit of a straight-A student playing hooky during her free period, the rush of illicit behavior without actually being illicit. And now she’s finding out that the one person she thought she could count on to be sound and supportive has a moral compass that’s pointing in a completely different direction from her own. It’s not just that Kalinda has slept with her husband and never come clean about it, but that Kalinda is the kind of person who would sleep with a married man at all.
Alicia will never not be that 'straight-A student playing hooky during her free period', but Will and Diane's cheerful amorality (or even Kalinda's, when she's on the job) has become easier for her to accept simply because they make no secret of it. They are who they are. Whereas here it's not just that Kalinda is kind of person who would sleep with a married man, but that she kept it a secret. That colours every bit of their interaction in the past two years, right from the day Kalinda sought her out at work. Was it because she wanted to see what Peter Florrick's wife was like? (Yes.) Was it because she wanted to get an idea of whether or not she knew? (Probably.) Was she laughing at Alicia behind her back? (No.)
We are, of course, aware of Kalinda's POV, and we're sympathetic towards her for it: she sought Alicia out of a sense of curiosity, because she wanted to see what Peter's wife was like. Circumstances threw them together, and Alicia surprised the hell outta Kalinda, because Alicia was nothing like what you would imagine a good little politician's wife to be. And then something even stranger happened - they became friends, and Kalinda doesn't do friendship. How do you tell your only friend that 'hey, I slept with your husband before I knew you because he helped me cover up my past, and I did not think about you, the unknown wife, because I'm not the kind of person who does that, I did not care if it would hurt you someday. I care now, but what's done is done.'
What's done is done, but Alicia, who spends so much time being trying to do the right thing, who tries so hard to not hurt other people and only ends up hurt herself, who is always mature and rational, deserves every bit of her anger right now. Later she's going to bottle it all up again and kick herself for believing that her marriage could work. And she's also probably not going to trust Kalinda anytime soon, which will break my heart. I JUST WANT THEM TO BE FRIENDS OKAY. ;__;
no subject
Date: 2011-05-05 12:05 pm (UTC)ETA: I think yes, it means you are very wise.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-05 08:02 pm (UTC)It's such an incredibly difficult situation they're all placed in. Of course Alicia has every right to be angry, but Kalinda breaks my heart and THEY HAVE TO BE FRIENDS AGAIN, I CAN'T TAKE THIS. :((
no subject
Date: 2011-05-07 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 01:51 pm (UTC)