| Christopher Harnick 29. April 2015 – 08:30
The Good Wife has always tried to stay grounded in real life. Yes, even with courtroom shootings and mystery last phone calls. Real life can be heartbreaking and messy. And that’s just what Kalinda and Cary’s final moments were, according to series star Matt Czuchry.
Archie Panjabi‘s exit from the series has been known for months, and now that season six is in the homestretch, well, things are getting ugly. Because of all the ugly crying that is. We’re dishing all about the heartbreak ahead for Cary with Czuchry and you’re going to want to grab some tissues, Good Wife fans. We’ll be here with all the scoop when you get back.
E! News: The last episode left me gutted. Can you please assure fans everywhere that that was not the final scene between Cary and Kalinda?
Matt Czuchry: That is the final scene between Cary and Kalinda.
CLICK: Why did Kalinda go on the run?
Oh no. So you guys don’t get a proper goodbye?
No, and I think that’s the heartbreaking thing for Cary and for the audience as well, is that there is a lack of closure there. In many ways, Kalinda’s just kind of—she disappears mysteriously in the night. That going forward for Cary is going to be hard to handle in terms of lack of closure and no proper goodbye.
In season one, in about episode five, I told Archie, “Whenever your character goes, I think your character is going to go out in the middle of the night, in a fog, in mystery and never come back.” And so to see that kind of happen in episode 20, six years later, was really interesting.
MORE: Matt Czuchry’s dream Good Wife guest stars!
I’ve been getting tweets, still, from fans who are super nervous—I guess that’s the right word—about the final two episodes. Do you think fans will be satisfied with how everything with Kalinda—including her relationships with everybody else—is wrapped up?
Kalinda in a lot of ways came in mysterious and now she’s leaving mysteriously. For me, I think that’s true to the character, but I think for fans, it’s going to be varied in terms of the reaction. I’m sure it’s not going to be universal in one way or another in terms of how that feels. Again, what I do like about the Cary/Kalinda exit with the lack of closure: Life is messy. Often times you want closure with things and you can’t get that and you have a difficult time in processing that and that traumatic event changes you. That’s certainly the case for Cary in this way…like life in a lot of ways, you don’t get those goodbyes you wish you had. That will be the case for Cary, obviously after dealing with it in terms of episode 20.
CLICK: Will there be a Good Wife musical?
That’s what The Good Wife always does so well: Stay grounded in terms of real life and tragedy. I remember the Kings talking about it when Josh Charles decided to leave and his dramatic exit.
Yeah. When I had that last scene, you kind of see that written all over Cary’s face…where she’s gone. For Cary, when he walked in and saw that hole in the wall there and everything turned over—he always knew what kind of person Kalinda was in terms of she could up and disappear in the middle of the night. He knows in the moment that she’s done that to protect him, and to protect Alicia and to protect Diane. That’s who that character is.
Will the effects of Kalinda’s exit still be felt next year? I know you haven’t officially been picked up yet.
Yeah, we haven’t been officially picked up yet. You’ll certainly feel it with some moments in episode 21 and 22 for Cary. That was a friendship and a relationship that ebbed and flowed over the course of six years…Cary is certainly going to feel the weight of that loss. You will see little hints of that coming up in episode 21 and 22.
MORE: See The Good Wife‘s new season six gallery photos
Did you and Archie do anything special? Was there an emotional goodbye?
Throughout the whole season we were always very excited to see the amount of scenes we were in and each episode was getting closer to her being gone and of course the closure, or lack of closure, of that Cary/Kalinda story arc. We were always excited when we had scenes this season and that was one thing that carried throughout was looking forward to each scene…I’ve loved working with Archie and that storyline…Occasionally, along the way—there really wasn’t any ending or emotional goodbye in terms of at the end—but Archie and I would meet up throughout the season and talk about the scenes and we’d have lunch together and talk about the scenes because that’s kind of what we always loved to do—to break down those scenes and see how we could get the best out of that arc and those moments with those characters. Normally, where we might have done that over the phone in the past years, we did it in person and over lunch or something like that, which was a little bit different in terms of trying to capture and celebrate the last scenes we were going to have together over the course of this season.
Keep your eyes peeled here for more from Matt on what’s ahead for Cary, Alicia and The Good Wife‘s big finale with more scoop coming later this week!
The Good Wife airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on CBS.
PHOTOS: Is your favorite show renewed or canceled?
: