['The Good Wife' - 'Ham Sandwich']

Kalinda!!!!!!

That pretty much sums up this episode of 'The Good Wife.'

The writers of this fine show had been teasing this episode on Twitter, predicting I'd have one very big gasp. They were right!

Everything we know and love about 'The Good Wife' and the solid friendship that Kalinda and Alicia built is about to change.

Over the last few weeks we've seen the State's Attorney slowly build his case against Kalinda, but the result was far from what viewers expected.

Kalinda slept with Peter!? Never in a million years would I have guessed that. Ever. I don't think I'm alone in being blown away by this. If you saw it coming, kudos. When Alicia finds out ... well, we'll see if she'll still be 'The Good Wife.'

The Kalinda shocker completely overshadowed the entire episode's happenings, including the Will/Blake revelation. Their prior dealings had been hinted at before, but now we know Blake worked with Will and covered up a theft. What kind of theft? Money? A certain darkness in Will has been boiling to the surface lately, brought on by the men who came to the firm this season.

Besides the two major bombshells, the newly Bond-free Lockhart Gardner law firm represented notorious drug kingpin Lemond Bishop in his divorce case, Grace explored Eli Gold's political racism and Diane got way too few scenes.

Representing Bishop gave audiences more insight into Alicia's mindset in regards to love and marriage. 'The Good Wife' has a way of having even the most subtle lines be very telling. For example, the look Alicia gave when David Lee said, "[Bishop is] in love and people in love do desperate things," was more telling than any dialogue the writers could've written for her. He's in love, yet he had an affair and is now playing hardball with the divorce? Right.

The messy divorce proceedings came to a halt when Bishop's wife suddenly overdosed. Her lawyer blamed Bishop for making the overdose happen and the look on Alicia's face sad it all: She and the firm are in over their head with this guy. Lockhart Gardner and Bishop's partnership will not end well. However, it was quite cunning of Kalinda to link her indictment hearings with the Bishop divorce by painting Blake as the man having an affair with Bishop's wife.

Now it's time for the "Florrick kids and State's Attorney campaign slow everything down" rant. Grace's religion storyline hopefully came to a head tonight. Silly me for doubting the writers introduced the plot just to give Grace something to do, of course there was a purpose. While the Grace/Eli storyline did slow things down and take away from the epicness of Kalinda's story, it wasn't as bad as previous weeks. Plus, it gave Alicia reason to give Eli a verbal smackdown, one he had coming for a while. He was getting too cocky, as evidenced by his opening scene where he pulled down his pants for the Democratic Party rep to kiss his butt.

I was hoping we'd meet Kalinda's former (?) husband in this episode, but the outcome of her indictment was much more shocking. The scene with Cary and Alicia on the phone was beyond sweet. Prior to the end of last season, the two really started to form a friendship. It was nice to see that return, even for a second.

Another great scene: Alicia and Kalinda at the bar. Of course they were swigging tequila. Drunk Alicia is always tiny comic highlight in such a dramatic series. The conversations between Alicia and Kalinda always seem to have veiled sad meanings ... now we know why. I'm torn up thinking about what will happen to their friendship.

'Ham Sandwich' was what you call a game-changing episode. A solid hour of TV that progressed/wrapped up current plots and set the stage for some very major episodes to come.

What happens now? How will the relationships change? How much more will I gasp in an hour? Find out next week!

Total gasp count: 2 ... and I'm still gasping after that last scene.

Some other things:

• This episode lacked some serious Diane action. I'm loving all the Kalinda and Alicia character development, but please, let's not forget Diane.

• "You know what your problem is? ... You didn't get your tubes tied." I guess Kalinda knows one of my only issues with the show!

• "Ever get the feeling something bad is going to happen?"
"All the time."

• "I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me."

Did you see the Kalinda/Peter shocker coming? Do you think Alicia and Kalinda's friendship can endure the revelation? Can Alicia and Peter's marriage survive?


'The Good Wife' airs Tuesdays, 10PM ET on CBS.

Follow Chris Harnick on Twitter.