Posted by Janie Logan May 11, 2011, 11:09 GMT
Comedienne Sarah Silverman guest-starred as a twisted kind of matchmaker in "Getting Off." Photo courtesy of CBS.
"Ok. This will mostly be about...sex." From the start, last night's episode grabbed our attention and never let go. The undercurrents of tension that have been running throughout Season 2 finally came to the surface, and all we viewers could do was try to pick our jaws up off the floor while the drama unfolded.
Watching Alicia take charge of the situation after learning the truth about Peter's dalliance with Kalinda has been a rollercoaster of emotion. After the initial dread about whether the revelation would destroy her confidence, it's been delightful to see her even more empowered than she was before. She's not unfeeling about it all--she lost it with her kids last week, and then again when she had to face the woman she thought was her friend. Nevertheless, she is certainly not going to let this wreak havoc on her life. Julianna Margulies plays the perfect balance, breaking our hearts one minute and then making us cheer her on the next.
Where once she might've internalized her feelings, this is a new, bolder Alicia. She can speak her mind to Kalinda for betraying her and confront her intrusive mother-in-law ("Jackie, I have come to understand that you need to hear things two times to absorb them." Oh SNAP!). Or how about that smoldering glance at Will? I'm not expecting them to jump each other in next week's finale (though I wouldn't complain if they did...), but hopefully we can get some sort of progress. Perhaps revisiting that voicemail?
Alicia doesn't know what will happen to her marriage. She's exploring all her options with Lockhart/Gardner's shrewd divorce lawyer, but she's not making any hasty decisions beyond the separation. Peter certainly lost all my sympathy with "In Sickness" when he painted himself as the victim, but I don't think it will be easy to leave him behind forever.
I'd like to believe that Alicia is the kind of person who is capable of forgiveness. I don't want to see her become bitter because of Peter's actions, and I hope that her friendship with Kalinda can be mended in the future.
The case Alicia was working on this week kept the issue of fidelity foremost in her mind, as she represented Stephanie Engler (guest-star Sarah Silverman) who was being sued because of her website for arranging extra-marital affairs. Engler was a married woman with a very evolved view of relationships and didn't believe that monogamy was natural. She saw herself as a businesswoman providing a service, but one of her clients had been killed because of a hookup gone wrong.
Silverman fit the character perfectly--she got to be blunt and funny, and with her penchant for shocking people, I loved how the episode ended with Stephanie's surprising reaction to the news that her husband had jealously killed the man she slept with.
So we've got one episode remaining before the summer. Although CBS has not officially announced Season 3 yet, it's widely considered to be a sure thing. What does everyone want to see in the finale? And what did you think about "Getting Off"?
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