Archie
Panjabi,
The Good
Wife
DALLAS:GLOBEPHOTOS/IMAGECOLLECT;OPPOSITE:JEFFLIPSKY
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Sorrow
Such Sweet
he Good Wife’s writers love a wrenching plot twist. Last season,
the murder of Will Gardner (Josh Charles) had jaws dropping
and tongues wagging for weeks after the episode aired. This
season, however, the biggest jaw-dropper to date happened off-
screen when CBS announced that Archie Panjabi, the British
actress who’s played Kalinda Sharma since the series’ 2009 pre-
miere and earned an Emmy (2010) for the role, would exit when
her contract expired at the end of Season 6.
No one says goodbye like The Good Wife.
How will it bid adieu to top PI Kalinda Sharma?
The announcement came as a blow to
the show’s die-hard fans, many of whom
are still reeling from Will’s untimely
death. As far as characters go, Kalinda
has certainly been one of a kind: From
the moment she first appeared, clad in a
leather jacket and knee-high boots (not
exactly office attire for a prestigious law
firm), Kalinda has written her own rules.
She’s also had her fair share of memorable
on-screen moments. Who can forget when
she confided to her friend and co-worker,
Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), in
Season 2 that she’d had a brief fling with
Alicia’s estranged husband? “Their friend-
ship hasn’t been the same since,” observes
Matt Roush, senior television critic for
TV Guide. “In fact, they haven’t appeared
in the same room together. But maybe
that will change now that Kalinda’s near-
ing her endgame.”
Roush, for one, would like to see her
leave on a high note: “Perhaps she comes
into a fortune from the family that dis-
owned her so she can bankroll the strug-
gling firm before heading off on a private
jet. The last we see of her, she’s eyeing
the attractive flight attendants—one
male, one female—and it’s left up to us
to decide which she chooses.”
John Griffiths, television critic for
Us Weekly and president of the Gay and
Lesbian Entertainment Critics Associa-
tion, hopes the show’s writers will push
the envelope with Kalinda’s final scene
just as she has pushed it for six seasons.
“I’d like to see her become a superspy, the
female James Bond,” he says.
Still others simply want to know
if she’s capable of love. “It sounds
lame because Kalinda has never been
defined by her relationships, which is
the awesome thing about her,” says
Renée Camus, who recaps the show for
reellifewithjane.com. “But I’d be curi-
ous to see if she could fall so deeply that
she’d follow that person anywhere.”
Despite the collective disappointment
over Kalinda’s departure, there’s little
doubt that the series will move forward
without her—just as it did without
Will. “There’s such an embarrassment
of dramatic riches that no single char-
acter’s departure—except of course for
Alicia’s— can derail its brilliant enter-
prise,” says Roush. “In fact, this show
has proven many times that change is
good. It keeps the creative juices flowing
and the surprises coming.”
— Michele Shapiro
Kalinda’s
Ending, Happy?
Don’t Bet on It
• THE GOOD WIFE •
airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
DALLAS:GLOBEPHOTOS/IMAGECOLLECT;OPPOSITE:JEFFLIPSKY
Larry
Hagman,
Dallas
If you were thinking of betting
on how Kalinda will exit The
Good Wife, you’re out of luck—
at least in Vegas. Setting odds
on matters of entertainment
has been illegal since 1980,
when people put money on the
line about who shot Dallas’ J.R.
Ewing. Concerned about fraud,
the state’s Gaming Control
Board ordered all bets off. The
board later crafted regulations
outlawing entertainment wagers,
“so a show’s crew, actors, writers
and their families won’t have
an unfair advantage,” explains
Michael Rumbolz, an industry
consultant and former gaming
board chairman. “You can,
however, place such bets offshore
in the U.K. or Costa Rica.” So for
now, Vegas oddsmakers will be
leaving the Hollywood ending
to the professionals: The Good
Wife’s writers.
cbswatchmagazine.com WATCH! | FEBRUARY 2015 25
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