A surprise windfall in a pharmaceutical class-action draws the attention of Patti Nyholm, who teams up with Louis Canning to accuse Lockhart/Lyman of nuisance suits and legal misconduct. But their real aim keeps shifting: First it seems like they're just gathering intel for an appeal on the original case, and then they start asking weird questions about the judge involved, and then it starts being about Basketball Wednesdays, and before you know it they've subpoenaed everybody on the entire show, from Alicia to Peter himself, to somehow link Will to this judge, or Peter to the judge, or Peter to Will, or Alicia to this judge...

Just when it stops making sense altogether, by design, they get the call they were waiting for: Patrick Edelstein, the Zuckerberg stand-in, has just left the firm and taken 20% of their business with him. Functionally destroying Lockhart/Gardner at the roots, maybe permanently, which is exactly what their corporate masters wanted all along: To shut the firm up, by bankrupting them, for being too good at their jobs. It's a funny way to bring all the Wendy/Peter/Will stuff to a close, but also -- bringing in as it does a fairly large number of guest stars, either in person or by name or association -- putting a new spin on the whole deal, and bringing the firm to its knees like minutes before Will was about to come off suspension.

And he's not the only one who could use a financially healthy L/G right now. After Alicia calls a random person about a check in Kalinda's file -- Leela's husband, aka the man Kalinda was willing to kill Blake and/or fuck Peter to hide from -- things get very sticky for her, too. She spends most of the episode in her amazing apartment, digging out wads of secret cash and secret guns to go on the run, and is disappointed to learn that Will can't slip her the last bit of advance money that could get her out of town forever.

Through the machinations of the Canning/Nyholm case, Alicia's treated to the hellride freakout situation of being in close quarters with Will, Peter, Eli and Cary, but a visit to Jackie's hospital room and a quick peek at the actual problems Jackie's having calms her down immensely. She lays off the old bag, lets Peter move into the Highland Park house with the kids, and even -- in the last shot of the season -- agrees to stay for dinner.

By surprising parallel, we learn, Kalinda's also changed her mind about running from marriages past, and ends things sitting a chair, facing the door, gun in hand, waiting for a knock... Which finally comes. Oh, girl.

A brave way to end the season, with cliffhangers that rival the last two seasons' in some ways, but still, overall a bittersweet story. It moved fast, and the stakes were awfully high, but the mounting dread -- something the show does well -- made the collapse of Lockhart/Gardner seem almost anticlimactic, given that Diane and Will are constantly worried about money for one reason or another vs. Kalinda waving guns around without any friends. It's a complete, bookended run -- there's even an elevator scene for Will and Alicia, with the doors opening and closing on them -- and the last batch of episodes has been a pretty wild ride, but I'm definitely looking forward more to what next season has to offer. Which means it did the job, right? Still the best show on TV, for my money.