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The Good Wife: What is the Deal With Kalinda?

I've been fairly obsessed with CBS' The Good Wife this season as the series continues to effortlessly fuse together taut legal drama, compelling family conflict, and a smart serialized storyline that has tackled everything from infidelity to personal desire, politics to underage sex.

But the thing that's keeping me awake at night is the mystery surrounding Archie Panjabi's Kalinda Sharma, the kick-ass investigator employed by Lockhart-Gardner-Bond who might not be what she appears. Throughout the season, the formidable Kalinda been thrown off her balance by the inquiries made by her rival at the law firm, Scott Porter's devious Blake, who seems hell-bent on revealing the truth about her past.

And now State's Attorney's office--under the orders of Glenn Childs himself--is conducting their own investigation into Kalinda, something that rubs Cary the wrong way. (I loved the scene between Matt Czruchy's Cary and Blake in the prison parking lot. Was it just posturing or is Blake as dangerous as he seems?) With the walls closing in around Kalinda, the hunter, it seems has become the hunted.

Last night's fantastic episode ("Silly Season") sought to shed some more light onto Kalinda's possible past, lifting the veil of mystery as Blake contended that Kalinda was actually a Canadian national named Leela who had faked her death in a fire. Kalinda, with her indeterminable poker face, didn't crack under Blake's scrutiny, not revealing whether he's got her or is simply barking up the wrong tree.

Which brings us to the here and now and the question contained within this post's headline. What do you think is really going on with Kalinda? And what dark secret from her past is she concealing? Is Blake right in his determination? Head to the comments section to discuss and debate, though no spoilers please. Let's keep it limited to conjecture and analysis, shall we?

Next week on The Good Wife ("Real Deal"), as Alicia prepares to face Louis Canning (returning guest star Michael J. Fox) in a class-action lawsuit, the firm discovers that it has a mole in its midst.
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Comments

Jim Halterman said…
I actually love that we're only getting pieces of Kalinda and with each little bit of information there are more questions that come up. With some shows, this could be incredibly annoying but THE GOOD WIFE is doing a terrific job and I hope the mystery lasts.
2/02/2011
Caroline said…
Blake is probably on to something when he found the information about "Leela" and her alleged death. Childs has even said that he had discovered that Kalinda might not be who she says she is. While Childs is having her investigated for campaign/keeping his job reasons, Blake seems to be doing it for fun. He is someone who likes to play games and knows that even if Kalinda doesn't play along, he's going to get some kind of reaction out of her (i.e. Kalinda bashing out his car with a bat.) What ever it may be that she is hiding, it will be good. The Kings have proven that they can develop and execute story lines with excellency. And I agree with Jim, I don't want her backstory thrown at us all at once, I like the mystery; it keeps her interesting.
2/02/2011
Elizabeth Kerri Mahon said…
I have to agree with you. I'm obsessed with Kalinda's storyline. It's like an onion, and the layers keep peeling back and revealing more information. I can't wait to see where they are going with this storyline. Archie Panjabi is amazing and really deserved her Emmy.
2/02/2011
Jon88 said…
Caroline says, "What ever it may be that she is hiding, it will be good." But will it be good enough? I worry that they've created much too great an expectation, and the payoff won't satisfy. (Perhaps I'm still skittish after that awful delete-the-message business in the season premiere.)

On another front, after their confrontation, I had a warm glow imagining the "Eli and Becca Show."
2/02/2011
Anonymous said…
I wish we could cross-over THE GOOD WIFE and LIE TO ME. I would LOVE to see Cal Lightman interogate Kalinda - now that would be a challenge!
2/02/2011
Anonymous said…
Forget Kalinda (so, she's Leela of the North. And...?), forget moles (anyone but Blake would be kinda feeble). This is a drama about Peter and Alicia, and "Silly Season" scored a "10" last night! Sam
2/02/2011
Kat said…
I completely agree about the prison parking lot confrontation being awesome. As far as what's up with Kalinda, I think that Blake hit a nerve with that Candadian national, fire, etc. stuff. I also (btw, I have the first season on DVD and just watched this episode recently so that's how I remember it) think that early in the first season when Alicia and Kalinda were trying to keep Alicia's former neighbor out of prison for felony murder (the security guard thing, the first time Alicia and Cary teamed up), Alicia asked Kalinda how she knew the average running speed of a 17 yr old boy, and Kalinda replied "would you believe I was a track coach in a previous life?" Alicia said no, and it was dropped, but still, I think that that might be a clue to Kalinda's former life, until something drastic (we don't know what yet) caused her to fake her own death and change her identity and location. Anywho, that's my guess. Although that's just the bear bones of it, that woman's so closed off it's almost impossible to say anything for sure about her other than that she has a thing for Cary (and vice-versa) and that she's damn good at her job.
2/06/2011
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