Reaction Post - You need to assert your authority.

The Good Wife: 4x15 Going for the Gold.

Now that Alicia made partner, Diane tasks her with something that feels more like a test than anything else: the firm is billing their best client Bishop too many hours, so Alicia is supposed to tell the team of underlying  currently led by one Cary Agos, to cut back. She struggles and struggles and even ends up cutting her own hours just to spare them the loss, until Diane reminds her that they probably hate her already anyway for snatching up that partnership (even though each and every one of them, maybe even Cary, would have done the exact same thing), and won't respect her until she starts behaving like their superior. Which she does, followed by sad-eyed Cary Agos, betrayed by Saint Alicia. 

Meanwhile, Elsbeth tells Kyle "Josh" MacLachlan to take her and Eli to federal court, which he does, but she needs to come up with a way to figure out who his witnesses are (he gets them excluded from discovery after Eli stupidly attack the good old Democratic chair who turns out to be one of the snitches). She asks Alicia to partake in a mock trial of her own and represent Eli when he sues Frank Landau for defamation ("You want me to play-act a lawyer in your sham defamation lawsuit?"), that goes way better than the federal trial, in part because Judge Marx is not a fan of either Kyle MacLachlan or the DOJ in general. Hilarity ensues when Jackie sort-of gives testimony against Eli in revenge for all the ways he wronged her, except then she promptly admits to suffering from memory loss and other afflictions since her stroke, and everyone's reminded for a moment that she is a frail old woman (only for a moment though, I'm sure she'll come back swinging). Thus Elsbeth wins once again (after a bit of a derail that had Diane Lockhart shift all the responsibility to Clark Hayden, because this whole thing really is a freaking rabbit hole), and celebrates by finally ending the awkwardness between her and Josh and walking away from his incredible weirdness (if Elsbeth of all people is creeped out by someone's weirdness...). 

Peter's prepping for his first debate against Maddie Hayward in the Democratic primary, realizes at the last moment that Jordan isn't half as good as Eli and is about to lead him towards a defeat (Alicia insists on it as well), and wins against her because gross racist men are still better than gross capitalist women. Whoo!

• YOU CANNOT DRESS UP AS A PEASANT HERE.
• In a sub-plot Will tries to win some business from the State's Attorney's office and meets Laura Hellinger, who first tells him that he's an idiot and then proceeds to flirt with him. I'm sure that's going somewhere. He's also afflicted with a cold, as is Alicia, and we're meant to draw the conclusion that this is some kind of karmic medical fall-out from their make-out session because it's not like co-workers constantly cross-infect each other without kissing. At least Laura got to tease him some about it: "Poor boy, you have a cold." And she gets to make fun of Chinese walls, which is always a good thing. 
• Elsbeth, observing Kalinda's techniques, calls her a "crazy woman". I just want Elsbeth to pursue a different career and join forces with Kalinda. They could do a spin-off. A spin-off that CERTAINLY doesn't involve Cary Agos trying to make out with her because I really thought we were over that (I mean I'm still bitter that the show wasted the fantastic Monica Raymund on that mess of a storyline but if anything good came out of that disaster, it's the insight that it just won't lead anywhere good, ever?). 
• Peter and Alicia share a great moment in his trailer after a booty call when he asks her out on a date and she seems to seriously consider for a moment to tell him that she hasn't exactly signed up for anything serious here, until she says yes. 
• "You know they are always wondering if men and women can be friends, but the real question is, can women?" - Alicia to Maddie. Which is an unfortunate thing to say for a character who hasn't been hanging out with her one best friend in AGES. 
• Peter + Eli, the greatest romance on the show.