The Good Wife Episode 2.06 Poisoned Pill

In our first sweeps episode, LGB crosses swords with a brilliant disabled attorney named Louis Canning who is cynically deployed by a desperate pharmaceutical company to battle the claim that their new billion-dollar antidepressant caused the grisly murder-suicide of our client's parents. Caitlin Fenton is the test case. Win and it opens the door for tens of millions of dollars in class action money. Lose and countless other victims will be unable to collect any compensation for the death of their loved ones.

Since LGB were preparing for a case against a table of stuffed shirt New York lawyers, Alicia and co. are unprepared for Canning's tactics. He first uses his disability to game the jurors, hoping they see that some side effects are necessary in the business of creating miracle drugs. Then he sensationalizes the case, painting a wild soap opera about Caitlin's parents' sex lives that is far more interesting than LGB's dry medical testimony. The case hits rock bottom when Caitlin reveals to Alicia and Diane that her murdered step-father was indeed interested in another woman: her.

In the end, Blake's research manages to lay doubt surrounding the testimony of the defense's best witness, the therapist who treated Caitlin's mother. Louis agrees to settle for 35 million, and the partners are thrilled: the firm has cash flow again! Later that night, though, Alicia learns the truth: the pharmaceutical company knew this was a 90 million dollar lawsuit, and would have been happy to settle for 50. Simon's plan all along was to get LGB to settle for far less than they would have won if all the information about the bad drug ever got out.

Meanwhile, the Florrick campaign is still at a loss with what to do about rising star Wendy Scott-Carr. Peter and Eli briefly consider going for the bigot vote, covertly playing up the fact that her husband is white. Then they find a better tact: she spent $19,000 last year on breast implants. Not only does Eli manage to get the issue into the public eye via a viral online cartoon, but he gets Glenn Childs to make the play! All seems good for Peter until Wendy reveals that she didn't get implants at all: the surgery was for reconstruction after breast cancer. One of Glenn's staffers is forced to resign in disgrace. While this is going on, Grace is caught on videotape supporting Wendy at a rally. Alicia learns that she blames her father for the cartoon, and was turned off by the dirty campaign tactic.

Also in this episode, Blake confronts Kalinda, revealing that he knows about her sexuality. Kalinda, knowing that Blake had to get the information from somewhere, re-establishes contact with her ex-girlfriend, public defender Donna Seabrook. While tempers flare as they re-live their break-up, it is clear that both still have feelings for each other.