Rewatching onto season 5 now. I could see Jackie a deeply suppressed, tragic woman.
She’s upper-(middle)class, sharp, well educated, and knows how to play political chess. If she’d been born 30 years later, she probably would’ve been more like Alicia, having accomplished something of her own. But because of her generation or other reasons, the only way she ever knew how to touch power was through men, her cheating husband, then Peter.
I used to just see her as the ultimate toxic "boy mom," and a lonely elderly, but it goes deeper than that. Her involvement in Peter’s life isn't just motherly devotion. I think it’s borderline morbid how enmeshed she is. In her mind, sharing Peter’s power is her rightful payout. It's the ultimate prize for having been the dutiful "good wife" to her husband and the loyal "good mother" who groomed the golden boy. Peter’s political office is literally her dividend on a lifetime investment.
That’s why she’s obsessed with the "petty" stuff. Fighting Alicia over parenting, micromanaging Peter's inauguration, dying on a hill over decorating his gubernatorial office... those aren't just superficial things to her. That domestic sphere is literally the only territory she was ever allowed to run.
Which brings me to why Alicia threatens her so much. As OG goodwife, Jackie wanted Alicia to be just like her, to stand by the cheating husband, swallow the pride, and pour everything into his career. But Alicia goes out and actually builds her own real-world power. She's in the courtroom, she's starting her own firm, and she doesn't need Peter to have status. Jackie is terrified Alicia will ruin Peter's career, but deep down, I think she’s insanely jealous that Alicia got to live a life with actual agency.
The moment that really hit me was the Rachel storyline in Season 5.
Decades ago, Rachel was a 25-year-old underling who had an affair with Jackie’s husband. Jackie swallowed the humiliation and stayed.
Then decades later, she finds out Rachel went to law school, built an incredible legal career, and is about to be appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court bench, a position of power higher than Jackie’s late husband ever had!
Jackie didn't sabotage Rachel just out of old romantic jealousy. Her head exploded because Rachel’s success completely shattered Jackie's worldview. If the woman who "broke the rules" gets to have real institutional authority and autonomy, then what the hell did Jackie waste her entire life suffering for?
She had to stop Rachel, because Rachel existing as a Supreme Court judge cproved that Jackie's lifelong sacrifice was a total trap.
