Last Sunday on "The Good Wife," Eli (Alan Cumming) finally told Alicia (Julianna Margulies) that he erased a voice message from the late Will Gardner (Josh Charles), where he professed his love for her. Back in season 1, Will left that message for Alicia and told her that he wanted to be with her, but Eli deleted it because Alicia was about to join Peter to announce his bid for state's attorney.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, show creators Robert and Michelle King talked about the pivotal episode and explained why Eli confessed to Alicia after all these years.
The co-creators said that they chose to have Eli admit it because right now, he is still hurting over the fact that Courtney chose to leave because of work, and he also felt guilty about keeping Alicia and Jason (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) apart when he knew that the two were obviously attracted to one another. In a previous episode, Eli confronted Jason about his closeness to Alicia, warning him that Peter is about to run for president and that their relationship could have serious repercussions for Peter's campaign.
"He realizes he's doing the same thing now that he did back at the end of the first season," said the Kings about Eli. "He confesses in order to relieve his guilt, but also to push Alicia to not give up her chance at happiness."
The show creators said that they have always intended to have the truth come out since they knew that "such a malignant secret wouldn't stay secret forever."
As for how this will affect Eli and Alicia's relationship, the Kings said that fans should stay tuned to see how this plays out when the show returns next year. And while Jason said his goodbyes to Alicia, the co-creators said that Morgan will be in all but one remaining episodes of season 7.
"The Good Wife" returns on Jan. 10 at 10 p.m. on CBS.
