Archie Panjabi,

The Good Wife

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SorrowSuch 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 fi rst appeared, clad in a leather jacket and knee-high boots (not exactly offi ce attire for a prestigious law fi rm), Kalinda has written her own rules. She’s also had her fair share of memorable on-screen moments. Who can forget when she confi ded to her friend and co-worker, Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), in Season 2 that she’d had a brief fl ing 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 fi rm before heading off on a private jet. The last we see of her, she’s eyeing the attractive fl ight attendants—one male, one female—and it’s left up to us to decide which she chooses.”

John Griffi ths, 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 fi nal 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 defi ned 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 fl owing 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.

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Larry Hagman,

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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 o� shore 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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