'The Good Wife' Recap: Natalie Flores And Eli Reunite Over Dinner, Florrick/Agos Moves Into New Offices

by uInterviewNovember 18, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

America Ferrera returned as Natalie Flores, flustering Eli and getting in between Florrick/Agos’ feud with Lockhart/Gardner (or L.G. as it is now called) in “The Next Month” on The Good Wife.

Natalie Flores Is Back

Florrick/Agos finally moves into a new office space: an old t-shirt factory, and, with their new offices comes a new client: Natalie Flores, who interned at Lockhart/Gardner years ago. Flores, who did not know that Alicia (Julianna Margulies) had left Lockhart/Gardner, first shows up at L.G. to ask for help with a case. David Lee (Zach Grenier), being David Lee, decides he has no interest in meeting with her, and Howard Lyman (Jerry Adler) takes the meeting. The meeting does not go well, with Lyman rambling about his love of Mexico and Mexicans and completely refusing to listen to Natalie’s case. The meeting sends Natalie straight to Alicia, and she becomes Florrick/Agos’ first new client.

Natalie needs a lawyer to represent her friend, and illegal immigrant Tomas, who is negotiating a Snitch Visa with an Attorney General. Alicia takes the case even though she knows Tomas has no way of paying them. However, Natalie now works for New York lobbyist Joe Pallota who could potentially bring millions of dollars to the struggling firm.

Over at the newly dubbed ‘L.G.’ Will (Josh Charles) was desperately trying to get Natalie back to L.G. so that they could get Pallota’s business. But, after Natalie’s awful meeting with Howard Lyman, it seems almost impossible. Will and Diane (Christine Baranski) coach Howard to apologize, though he sees no reason for it, and his apology is going smoothly when Pallota appears. Pallota, a black man, immediately gets an unwelcome greeting from Howard, who condescends to Pallota. We don’t get to see the meeting, but it is safe to say it doesn’t go well.

Robyn Goes To The Extreme

Florrick/Agos is floundering financially, and Carey Zepps (Ben Rappaport) is even talking about cutting an employee: Robyn (Jess Weixler), who was the last one hired to the new firm. Robyn overhears Carey Zepps floating the idea to Cary (Matt Czuchry), and heads back to Kalinda (Archie Panjabi) to see if she could get her job back. Kalinda tells her that it would be impossible, and gives her a piece of advice: if she wants to keep her job, she needs to make herself indispensible. So, Robyn returns to Florrick/Agos with newfound determination to help them win this case.

Tomas’ Snitch Visa goes up in flames after the defendant, a big criminal Tomas was set to testify against, flees the country prompting Tomas to be deported. Alicia and Cary try everything to keep Tomas from crossing the border because the second he gets there, he’s dead. As a snitch, Tomas will never survive in Mexico. Florrick/Agos travels from court to court, judge to judge and Robyn does her best to help. With only a few hours to go before Tomas’ transport reaches the Mexican border, Robyn falsifies evidence in the hopes of attaining a different kind of Visa for Tomas. Finally, she takes her case directly to the Mexican Embassy and fibs to get them to put Tomas on the Mexican watch list. Tomas is turned away at the boarder, and Natalie promises to recommend Florrick/Agos to her co-workers.

Eli And Natalie

Finally, Natalie’s presence throws Eli (Alan Cumming) off his game and almost gets him into trouble with Peter (Chris Noth). Eli and Marilyn (Melissa George) went to Florrick/Agos to negotiate the terms of Peter’s first visit to the new offices. Marilyn, always all about ethics, says there can be no photographs, no press, etc. Alicia laughs it off, and Eli gets distracted when he sees Natalie. When Natalie first appeared on the show, she had a flirtation with Eli, and their chemistry is still alive and well. After an awkward encounter, Eli musters up the courage to ask Natalie out on a date. The date is cut short, unfortunately, but Eli learns that Natalie will be at the Minority Voters’ Conference, where Peter was set to deliver a speech about redistricting. Eli, who had recently advised Peter to cancel his speech, suddenly changed his mind and informed both Peter and Marilyn that Peter would be making the speech after all.

Marilyn, still pregnant and quirky, quickly sees that Eli is letting his personal feelings affect his political decisions and rats him out to Peter, who later confronts him about it. After being called out by Peter and Marilyn, Eli is ready to cancel on his second date with Natalie. He calls to cancel and lies about having work. But, at the last minute, he can’t handle it and rushes up to Natalie to apologize and kiss her!

Over at Florrick/Agos, Alicia is unpacking her very own office chair when Peter, Marilyn and a handful of interns appear. The interns help Alicia unpack and Peter, impressed with her new offices, tells Alicia that she is going to change the world from these offices.

The Good Wife airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on CBS.