Alicia geared up for a battle to prove she isn’t guilty of election fraud, while Diane finds herself in jeopardy on The Good Wife’s “Winning Ugly.”

Alicia Fights Accusations Of Voter Fraud

Alicia (Julianna Margulies) and Eli (Alan Cumming) are in damage control after the city begins looking into the State’s Attorney election. Evidence shows that some of the electronic voting booths may have been hacked, and Ken Boxer (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.) gives Eli a head’s up that an investigation is officially taking place. Eli professes innocence, as does Alicia and her husband, but it still leaves her more questionable supporters, such as Lemond Bishop and Guy Redmayne. Unsure whether or not Bishop or Redmayne could have tampered with the votes, Eli convinces Alicia to reach out to Frank Prady in an effort to persuade him not to ask for a recount.

Alicia arranges a meeting with Prady, but Prady doesn’t show. Instead, Alicia is met by Martin Parillo (Remy Auberjonois), Prady’s associate, who is desperate to prove Alicia cheated the election. Facing a recount, Alicia and Marissa go to the DNC, where Spencer Randolph (Ron Rifkin), a civil rights lawyer, appears and offers his services to Alicia. Spencer and Alicia begin presenting their case in front of the Election Review Board, and, while things go her way at first, things quickly spiral out of control when Spencer brings up Peter’s run for Governor.

After Kalinda (Archie Panjabi) brought the hacking device to Hal, and he testified that the device was old and hadn’t been updated since 2012 – when Peter (Chris Noth) successfully ran for Governor. In front of the board, Spencer theorizes that any evidence of hacking could have been leftover from Peter’s election. Of course, clearing Alicia’s name by discrediting Peter’s isn’t how Alicia or Eli want to win, and, after new technical evidence contradicts Hal’s original testimony, they embrace the idea of a recount. Eli and Alicia head to the DNC to announce their decision, but DNC chair Frank Landau (Mike Pniewski) says they can’t approve a recount. They want Alicia to step down, quietly. It turns out that the DNC did compromise an election, just not Alicia’s. They rigged voting machines to secure a Democratic seat in the Senate in a tough race, and they can’t have a recount bring attention to other close races in Illinois.

Eli and Alicia go to Peter, and in the end decide to put their faith in Spencer Randolph. He could win the case for Alicia, put an end to the recount before it begins. Hoping to appeal to his background as a civil right’s attorney, Alicia comes clean to Spencer about the DNC, only to be completely blindsided when he takes the floor in front of the Election Review Board. Spencer lies, and says that Alicia is guilty of fraud. Afterwards, he repeats to Alicia what Landau told her earlier: she needs to step down as quietly as possible now, and let the DNC “take care of her.”

Diane And Kalinda Are In Trouble

Meanwhile, Andrew Wiley (Tim Guinee) is hot on Kalinda’s tail after learning that Diane (Christine Baranski) presented evidence in court that was falsified. He alerts Diane to the fact that the metadata she presented in court to free Cary (Matt Czuchry) from prison and rid him of charges was falsified.

Kalinda admits she falsified the evidence, but insists that she didn’t intend to use it after she found other evidence that could clear Cary. Diane found it without Kalinda and used it in court before Kalinda could stop her.

Diane goes to David Lee (Zach Grenier) and Cary. Not only could Diane be disbarred for unknowingly presenting false evidence, she could also end up in jail. David Lee calms Diane down and, with Finn (Matthew Goode) and Kalinda’s help, they come up with a game plan. David Lee, representing Diane, and Finn, representing Kalinda, will go in front of the Independent Police Review Authority and admit to submitting false data accusing a detective of unlawful conduct. Unfortnuately, once Geneva Pine (Renée Elise Goldsberry) learns of the situation, she springs into action and wants to files charges against Diane. Geneva brings Diane a deal: she’ll drop all charges against Diane in return for her testimony against Lemond Bishop – the same deal she tried to offer Cary.

Testifying against Bishop is a death sentence, and Diane knows she can’t accept the deal, but Cary worries that Kalinda will accept it for her. In an effort to protect Kalinda, Cary goes to Geneva and tells her turn Kalinda down when she volunteers to testify against Bishop. He’ll go on the stand instead.

The Good Wife returns with new episodes on Sunday, April 26.

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.