BISHOP

Lemond has summoned Alicia and Diane, in particular, because what that phone call was about was that his accountant has been arrested. No search warrant as yet, which buys us some time, but the Big News is that he's also called in his, ahem, other law firm, the one that handles his non-legit businesses.

Annabella Sciorra: "I'm the other lawyer, the drug-handling no-kidding-around criminal lawyer that handles all the stuff you guys are too good for."
Diane: "I am going to feel free to treat you like trash, then. Even if I'm moved to the No Giving Fucks side of our company philosophy, some habits die hard."
Alicia: "I just wish we could all be friends. But for the record, I secretly judge you too. In fact the only person I have any compassion for -- typically enough, for me -- is Lemond Bishop, which is kind of the awesomest thing about Alicia Florrick."

At first I thought they were belaboring this point, because they keep talking about the Chinese Wall again, but then it starts to make sense: Holding on to Lemond was already a tainted proposition, and now they've got the Trustee breathing down their necks it starts looking more and more like "Why are we splitting hairs pretending we only work for the Harvey Dent side of Lemond Bishop, when we're in over our heads financially and he's the same complicated guy either way?"

Which takes us right into ratfuck territory, like, Alicia's journey for three years has been diligently setting up these mental boxes and saying that as long as she can logically overlook the shitty things she's involved in, then she stays clean -- and then just as quickly having to dismantle those boxes and rearrange her insides when that system no longer works. And so as the soul of Lockhart/Gardner -- as Will is its mind and Diane is its heart -- it only makes sense that as she grows, so too will the firm grow.

Which makes Lemond Bishop central not only to the episode, but also to the show as a whole -- which I know he always was, because he's one of the beasts (Colin Sweeney, Peter, Eli, even Will) that only loves Alicia -- but matters especially now, because of the secret of Maddie Hayward and how the trickiness of being Peter's Good Wife is about to twist itself once again into newer and scarier places. So where Alicia's next challenge and the hands-clean dirtiness of L/G come into alignment is here: Settle the question of Lemond Bishop and you settle both of their journeys for at least the remainder of this half of the season.