Warning: This column contains major spoilers about a recent episode of The Good Wife.
WARNING: This column discuses, in detail, major spoilers about an episode of The Good Wife. This is your second and final warning.
There was no lingering goodbye. We saw him bleeding on the courtroom floor and had one commercial break to come to terms with that.
Then he was just a body on a gurney in the ER. We never saw it coming.
Will Gardner is dead!
Even if you didn’t watch The Good Wife on Sunday night, you probably heard the resounding gasp across North America.
Even more shocking than Will’s death was the utter lack of warning.
Not a peep of Josh Charles’ plans to leave ever leaked to the media.
Just a few odd rumours that were summarily ignored. How did that happen?
When he renewed his contract into season five instead of six like all the other stars, he talked about directing more episodes and how it made him a better actor. A subtle misdirection if ever there was one. Apparently, he had already decided that this would be Will’s last season.
So when the time finally came to pull the trigger, so to speak, Robert and Michelle King, creators of the drama, had a letter for viewers already written, knowing full well that they were unleashing a sh_t-storm.
And that’s why they did it. Killing Will created new stories, new drama and new fallout for all the characters. It forced some of them to turn a corner – or push their way out of one.
According to the creators – makes them sound like gods, doesn’t it? – the drama of TGW has always been in the aftermath of these momentous events.
They are, after all, lawyers whose job it is to clean up the messes. Furthermore, the Kings believe that television rarely deals with “the irredeemability of death” – that you never know when it’s coming and there are no second chances to say goodbye. TGW will now face this fact head on.
In fact, producers offered a sneak peek into the rest of the season immediately after the final scene so that viewers could go to bed with some sense of hope for the future.
And it looked fabulous. Louis Canning (Michael J. Fox), Colin Sweeney (Dylan Baker) and Veronica (Stockard Channing) are all returning.
Kalinda is about to become even scarier. And Cary appears to have traded in his smart ass and finally put on some big boy pants.
It’s not going to be the same show without Will Gardner. But it can go on without him.
It’s time to stop the one-upmanship between the two law firms, bring in new characters and get clever again. It’s what The Good Wife does best.
And for those of you who still question killing off a major character, remember this: Will was the best. Alicia told him so.
And he died doing what he loved the most.
His “pep talk” to Kalinda made very sure that she, and we, knew it.
And isn’t that the best way to go?
