Night Of Episode Two Hits Hard on Inhumanity Of Criminal Justice System

Second in Our Series of Criminal Justice and Defense Themed Television Series;

By Guest Reviewer Jake Morask

 

I talked about the first episode of “The Night Of” this last week, as I thought its themes were worth noticing for this blog, and now the second episode aired last week which I will talk about here. So SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 2

Ok-so last week ended brutally with Nasir  telling his parents he was being looked at for a murder and their horrified reaction to that. This week in a way slows things down, even though the last episode only took place over the course of one night. Some might call it boring but I don’t believe that’s accurate. Writers Richard Price and Steven Zailmann do a great  job of showing the tediousness, inhumanity, and the bureaucracy of the criminal  justice system. There is no skip ahead to Nas being in a prison, we’re forced to squirm and watch as Nassir is pulled from one place to another, and also deal with manipulative detectives. Dennis Box is obviously a good cop and as Nasir’s lawyer John Stone told him, “And like all good cops, he does ya over just inside the rules. He’s a talented oppressor, a subtle beast.”

Box throughout the episode tries to get at Naz using his expertly crafted nice guy routine. He both succeeds and fails. One of the sadder parts of the episode was watching the police callously turn away Nasir’s  parents from being able to visit because he was not a minor and then watching them defiantly tell the officer that they weren’t leaving, only to be met with another indifferent response. Even worse and more maddening is that Box is able to manipulate this to his advantage, making a big show of letting the parents talk to their son, while showing that the conversation was clearly orchestrated to make him look better. And it works, Naz foolishly sits down to talk with his parents, something the police can video tape. It’s an entirely understandable decision that Naz made as a scared kid who needed to talk to someone who loved him, but there’s a reason Stone profusely told him not to talk to anyone!

Nasir recognizes this fact in the middle of his talk with his parents, switching over into talking Pakistani rather than English. Still he can’t take back what he said in there. He did vehemently protest his innocence as the truth but as Stone told him the truth really can’t help him right now as sad as that is to say. The only people who know the truth were in that house that night, and maybe not even Naz knows, and no ones telling the truth if they do. Like Stone said if Naz doesn’t realize this he can “forget about the rest of his life.” His statements to his parents put him at the scene of the crime, with the girl. So whatever story he and John decide to make will have to include Nasir being at the victim’s house.

One of the most impressive scenes is where Box decides to break a few rules and once again gives Naz a dose of the causal nice guy routine, when Nasir is alone without his lawyer. He gives him his inhaler, which could turn out to be a poor choice for Nasir  later, and seems to get at him a bit with what he says. He tells him that the criminal justice system is pretty much a club with people doing favors for each other, and basically not truly caring about the justice administered. There is definitely accuracy to this statement, and he uses this accuracy to try and indict John Stone into it, calling him an opportunist who only sees Nasir as a job. That’s true isn’t it? Nasir’s life is giant opportunity for Stone, who multiple times throughout the episode is asked if he’s up for this, and mentions that he was in the right place at the right time. The exact opposite of Nasir’s situation.

So of course Box sets himself apart from all of that, he’s not apart of that club, he’s different. He’s out for the truth. Clearly Box is a bit different but his manipulation of Nasir was tough to watch. He looked like he had him for a minute there, but when Box gets to talking about how confessors feel religious exuberance when they confess, Naz realizes the ploy and coldly tells Box he isn’t talking to him again. Thank god! Though one of the more interesting parts of Box’s view of Nasir is that he at times seems genuinely convinced that he couldn’t do it, based on what kind of kid he is. “Arab freak” is how most of the other officers refer to him, but it’s clear Box doesn’t take part in their ignorance, and maybe will be eaten away by this gut instinct.

Focusing on Stone, he’s an incredibly interesting character. He deftly walks the line of being an underdog lawyer with a lot of humanity while being an opportunist focused on finding work and getting this case. The judge at Nasir’s  arraignment not unkindly asks Stone if he was in the right place at the right time and after Stone gives an aw shucks little laugh the judge is happy for him. He mentions it pretty giddily to his ex wife too, who then also asks if he’s not biting off more than he can chew. I like Stone a lot though. His character feels genuine and I believe he actually wants to help his clients, including Nasir.  Perhaps he sees them as the same kind of underdogs that he is. He certainly gave good legal advice and is doing his best at keeping Nasir  out of damning himself. But he’s complicated, people in life and especially in the criminal justice system aren’t these ultimate altruists sometimes TV and movies like to make them but people who likely care about both justice, money, and opportunity.

There’s some other good stuff with the inhumanity and indifference of the justice system. Showing a white collar Caucasian man being sentenced to only a couple years in upstate prison, while John Stone’s African American client questions why he got so little. Also despite Nasir’s  parents being helpful and nice to Box, (even giving him cookies) the police nonetheless ransack the house and take not just Nasir’s  computer but the family computer and other familial personal possessions that could cause distress to the Khans.

Then at the arraignment Nasir’s  Pakistani ethnicity is used against him to indicate him as a flight risk and make him seem more alienating and cut any chance of bail. We are painfully forced to watch Nasir inside a holding cell as one inmate begins throwing up, obviously sick and then is beat ruthlessly by another irritated inmate. Nasir can only look in horror as he forced to accept that this could be his life now. After he’s denied bail, he’s remanded to prison to await trial and the last scene is a haunting shot of him entering the cells at the horrific Riker’s Island.

image

 

It’s a great follow up to last weeks thriller and tells us the show will have a lot to say not just on this mystery but how the criminal justice and criminal defense system work in general.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.