Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season 5 finale ofThe Good Fight.
But all’s well that ends well, right?
Thankfully, Diane came around in Thursday’s season finale.
Christine Baranski on ‘The Good Fight’.Elizabeth Fisher/Paramount+
“I think it’s our best season.
CHRISTINE BARANSKI:Well, I felt it was brave of Diane and rather typical of Diane.
That’s the basis on which she decides to step aside.
Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald on ‘The Good Fight’.Elizabeth Fisher/Paramount+
What did you feel about it?
I definitely struggled with Diane this season.
But I think that was the pointto both challenge Diane and the viewer.
Gary Cole and Christine Baranski on ‘The Good Fight’.Elizabeth Fisher/Paramount+
She gets called out on it.
I think she thinks about thathernocturnal conversations with Ruth Bader Ginsburg[laughs], of all people.
I think the ending is appropriate.
I think it’s a psychological and ethical journey for Diane throughout the season.
This season put Diane in an uncomfortable position.
What was the journey to this end point like for you from an acting and emotional standpoint?
Both Audra and I were wondering, “Gosh, where are we going to go?”
after that huge fight in the office.
That, in a way, alleviated some of the tension.
I loved that relationship.
They were just two professionals.
To answer your question, I think it was my most fraught season.
It was one that required thought and sensitivity, and introspection.
The season also focused on Wackner’s [Mandy Patinkin] alternative court.
How did you interpret the episode-ending montage with all of those small alternative courts popping up around the country?
So the endgame is not law and order.
It’s anarchy, and it’s frightening.
We’re experiencing a lot of that in our culture now because we’re so fractured.
Look at the people who are actually defending the Jan. 6 riots on our Capitol and somehow justifying it.
It’s unjustifiable, and it has to be adjudicated.
People have to be held accountable, including the man who incited that riot.
If we have alternative courts and alternative facts, where are we as a country?
In your opinion, how sustainable is Kurt and Diane’s marriage given how much their politics differ?
Does something eventually have to give after all this time?
I questioned that with the Kings.
But it’s very tricky because she does love this man, and it was very tenuous.
It would’ve been deeply sad for Diane.
I don’t know how she would’ve navigated her life after that.
It’s a big question mark.
There’s something deep in Kurt that she admires, and he loves her and she loves him deeply.
Can we get past a lot of our differences and love as human beings?
I think it begs that question.
You’ve been playing Diane Lockhart for more than a decade now.
She’s always curiously starting over and swimming against the current, and that’s always been her strength.
I don’t know where the next current is going to take me.
But she’s still going to have to live out her personal and professional relationships.
So where do I want to see her go?
I just want to see continue fighting and continue trying to figure it out.
We live in such a complicated moment in history.
The Good Fightwill return for season 6 in 2022.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
