Which is not, let's say, the case with Celeste Serrano. I find her slightly unhinged and a little menacing. Maybe less the child of Lockhart and Gardner and what might happen to Alicia if she's disappointed enough times, or hurt deeply enough, that her mind takes over from her heart. I mean, obviously that's all conjecture, but thinking about what the story needs this year and where Alicia's head and journey are at, I think a dark-mirror, lonelier version of herself is exactly what's needed. Especially in the middle of her complicated relationship with lonely, dark Will Gardner.

Will: "I'm going into my room now."
Celeste: "You haven't heard our case yet. It's a good one. My number, when you're ready to negotiate..."

And of course you know they will meet up, probably in the hotel lobby, because somehow Will's going to get cornered or Alicia will screw things up with the mediator or something, and in a last-ditch effort to avoid trial, he'll approach. Or maybe he'll do it just to burn her, throw her off. Or maybe both. She's a wild one. And even if you didn't assume, you could tell by the fact that the music goes nuts on them, and into the credits. A feint toward a romantic triangle? Barely. A teasing-out of Will's own ambiguous morality and willingness to use personal information to game the system? Always.

WANTON WOMEN

Alicia parks Owen with the kids for the weekend, and he's being particularly incandescent. She asks him, mostly to distract him, if she should even bother taking a coat: The nights are hot, he says, steaming, sultry with the scent of jasmine and forbidden love, he says.

Alicia, not having it: "Coat? No coat?"
Owen: "No coat. So, you and Will in a hotel room."
Alicia: "Oh yeah, me and Will in a hotel room. With eight other lawyers and Ira from The Wire. That is going to be hot as hell. Are you just like super horny right now?"
Owen: "You have no idea. I'm picturing Will in the hot tub right now. The best sex I ever had was at a businessman's hotel."
Alicia: "T! M! I!"
Owen: "You are so funny! You are the most prudish Wanton Woman I know."

Two insults, simultaneous, from opposite directions. He's still giggling when she weighs her words carefully and takes off without saying anything else. Owen's disappointed and bored, so he follows her out.