Or to put it another way: She might not have been able to protect Alicia from Peter -- or, more sadly, from herself -- but she can damn well protect her from Nick. Especially when it was Alicia's freely offered, tentatively tender advice that helped her reassess the Nick situation last week anyway: That Kalinda deserves better than just another wounded, angry little tiger. And this solves both; it solves everything.

I mean, regardless of where their relationship was at, the end result of threatening Alicia would be Kalinda going ham on Nick, because they are the central romance of the whole show, but it adds another layer to think about it in terms of the husband/pet tiger equation: Kalinda and Nick are the feral versions of Alicia and Peter, in this way at least, so there's a quadrille of Beauties and Beasts in play that makes this even more beautiful: Save your girl, save yourself.

KILLER HOBO

Captain Tim Resnick, Chief of Investigations, Minooka PD: "Uh, I actually knew Killer Hobo from before this murder arrest, thanks to him beating Brandi up three months ago."
Tripke: "Not the whole story, though, right? She didn't press charges at that point, and he posted bail, and this was not a solitary incident. But later on, thank goodness, she got a restraining order. I mean, she's dead, but..."

Matan hands BAB a folder, having shown up to be the opposite of Alicia. Hi, Matan. I don't like you, but it's kind of nice to see you.

BAB: "Hey, did you maybe prejudge my client, Killer Hobo, based on that stuff?"
Resnick: "No way! I didn't form any theory of the case until I saw the murder scene evidence, as is SOP."
BAB: "Because this folder my Cook County Evidence Fairy just handed me has the Chicago detective's notes, and right here it says, Received a call from Detective Resnick in Minooka. Strongly believes killer is ex-boyfriend."
Tripke & Alicia: "Damn you, ASA Matan!"
BAB: "You bitches started this, remember?"

AM PSYCHO

Will: "Matan's helping the defense? What a topsy-turvy world!"
Laura: "Trouble? Heh."
Will: "Wonder what the taxpayers would say about you helping a murderer in another county get off."
Laura: "Probably the same thing your creditors would say about you sending the State's Attorney's Good Wife?"
Will: "Whoa, you kind of just said two pretty mean things at once. Want to date?"
Laura: "Uh, yeah. We're both gorgeous. How about loser buys the winner drinks."