The moral of "The Art of War" was that you can't win them all. Alicia learned that in court and in her personal life on this week's The Good Wife.

Even in a big city like Chicago, there are only so many lawyers and judges, so it was nice to see the return of both Judge Abernathy (Denis O'Hare) and Judge Kuhn from the military court. 

This season has been more cohesive than others because storylines seem to be carrying over more than in the past. There's a new case each week, but several story arcs are holding the show together. It gives the series an authentic feel. Rather than moving from courtroom case to courtroom case each week, we are learning more about the characters' lives in general.

For example, I hate Nick. And I don't like the Nick-Kalinda relationship at all. Although this week, I didn't mind it as much since we didn't have to see the two of them together. Wasn't it awesome for Nick to lose the city contract? He was so angry, but it was satisfying to see him fail. And then disappointing to find out that Alicia and Cary could fight for him to win the bid after all.

Alicia tried to drop Nick as a client once for Kalinda. She can't fight for him to win it now, especially after getting the full scoop from her friend. It was heartbreaking to hear Kalinda talk about her relationship with Nick. She knows it's bad for her, but she can't stay away. As her friend, Alicia should do whatever she can to make it such that Nick is forced to leave town. 

Losing the city bid could be looked at as a good thing. The bad guy lost, but in court it was just the opposite. In the end, Alicia proved that Ricky assaulted Captain Hellinger, but he and the military contractor were let off without any punishment.

It was awfully convenient that he was activated at midnight that night. I thought perhaps Alicia would have still won based on time zones or something, but it wasn't meant to be. Though, why can't he be court-martialed for the incident now that it has been shown he was active military at the time?

And why wasn't that known at the time of the criminal case? It's inconsistencies like that annoy me on The Good Wife and other law shows. They always try to pull some last minute fact out of the air to prove one side or the other's case, but often it destroys the integrity of the storytelling.

The premise of the case was intriguing, though. Military contractors work side-by-side with the government military. They get paid more and don't have to abide by the military command structure, yet they want the protections afforded the military. They want the best of both worlds and that certainly causes some conflicts. 

This duality played out in Alicia's life as well when her "friend" Maddie Hayward decided to run against Peter. She said that she didn't plan it, but I don't buy that for a second. She had never supported a male candidate before, so why now to only turn around and run against him? 

The donation she made, if she even turned over an initial one, was worth the price to get secret information from Alicia. It's possible that Maddie won't use that information in the campaign and it would be the right thing to do, but I doubt it will happen.

If nothing else, Maddie will use the intel behind the scenes to help her campaign. She's manipulative, rich and will probably beat Peter. Despite his 97% straw poll result, she has the means to take him down. It will be intriguing to see if the Lieutenant Governor position comes up again. Though, it doesn't make sense that she would want him to run with her any way.

With the exception of a few small issues with the episode, it held my interest and provided a few surprises along the way. So much story was packed into this one hour, but none of them felt slighted at all.

Odds and Ends

• Nice play by Eli to use Peggy Burne (Kristin Chenoweth) to bring down Mandy Post. Too bad Mandy lost her job, but she did leak the story to the blog even when it was proved to be fake.
• Is that the last we've heard about the alleged affair? If it is, it's been a bit of a let down. So much time spent on it with little reward to the story.
• The Trustee continues to wreak havoc at the firm, but he does have good intentions. Hilarious that he was attempting to use management methods from the Steve Jobs' biography.
• Kalinda brought up a good point to Eli. Which one of them is under federal investigation? Could it be a legitimate case that Lana is working on? Scary for one or both of them.
• Loved that Judge Kuhn used her power of her investigation panel to get the witness Alicia needed to prove her case. 
• Jackie and her male caretaker were a riot to watch. The flirty was a bit creepy, but hey if it keeps her occupied then that's a good thing.
• Peter's up for a fight. His "Let's get started." comment to Eli is definitely just the beginning.

Carla Day is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter and on Google+.