For The People – Who Are We Now?

By: Dustin Bradley

We open the episode with Jill (Hope Davis) and Roger (Ben Shenkmen) in each other’s office waiting for the hand off of the baseball tickets. Each team questions why the opposition’s leader is in their territory. All the while Allison (Jasmin Savoy Brown) is looking for Leonard (Regé-Jean Page) and Jay (Wesam Keesh) is looking for Seth (Ben Rappaport). The only people in the office they are supposed to be in is, of course, new found friends Sandra (Britt Robertson) and Kate (Susannah Flood).

Speaking of, our big case this week is one that a former associate had until an emergency causes Sandra to take over. A bank robbery has gone wrong that was committed by a young adult named Betty (Philippa Coulthard). And guess who is the prosecutor against our dear Sandra? None other than Kate! Just after weeks and weeks of episodes featuring Kate and Sandra learning to get along and become actual friends. They agree to keep the fighting in the courtroom and the friendship out of the courtroom. Little do they know that won’t be easy seeing as they keep butting heads during the trial.

At first our defendant Betty denies having anything to do with the bank robbery at hand. It is only later in the episode where it is revealed that she was responsible all along along with her boyfriend, who was also the star witness in the case. After he perjured himself on the stand and falsifies his answers the truth is finally revealed. It turns out that they were partners all along and he was helping Betty. After he perjured himself on the stand and falsifies his answers, as well as get a sweet immune deal, the truth comes out. It seems that they were partners all along and he was helping Betty with the robberies as a look out until that day. He claims that Betty shot him so she could have all the money for herself, but she says that she shot him because he was reaching for a gun in his pocket that he was only supposed to pull out in emergencies.

Either way Sandra and Kate are down each other’s throat‘s in the courtroom with Kate withholding evidence until the last possible moment. They try having lunch together to meditate and prove to each other that they can be friends outside of court, but it just may not be meant to be. Towards the end of the trail, right before the verdict, our lawyers hear from Jill and Roger. There will be no verdict because the case has been settled out of court with Jill and Roger presiding over it. Sandra is pissed, of course, not only because Jill went behind her back but due to the fact that Jill and Roger are in a romantic relationship and have been on and off for years. She believes that their relationship is a conflict to the job at hand. She asserts that everyone’s intermingling and involvement with one another is a clear conflict of interest and shouldn’t be a natural thing. She believes that they are warriors and that they should not be fraternizing with the opponents. They don’t have to be enemies, but they also don’t have to be friends.

Speaking of Jill and Roger we see that Roger decides that it is finally time in their relationship to ask Jill to move in with him. He comes to this conclusion a little bit after Tina (Anna Deavere Smith) reveals that she’s known about the relationship all along because for the first time in a long time she sees Roger genuinely happy when he’s around and Jill. She helps Roger come up with a plan to ask Jill to move in with him. However, in the end he gets stood up by Jill after Sandra‘s outburst in Jill‘s office makes her second-guess her relationship with Roger.

Our secondary storyline was focused on Jay’s case with a disabled veteran who committed check fraud and identity theft after cashing his dead mother‘s Social Security checks. He was doing it not to commit a crime, but to help provide for himself after being disabled in the war. Judge Byrne (Vondie Curtis Hall) shows no mercy on him and lets him know that at his sentencing hearing he will be punished at the full extent of the law.

After conferring with Jill about the case, she suggests that they make a video for the sentencing to convince the judge to go easier on the defendant because this is his first offense and he is a veteran. This means that Jay has to get help from Allison who is the only person he knows who has an interest in film and pop culture besides him. Together they hire one of Alison‘s friends from film school to come and direct the video.

The friend turns out to be a complete disaster. He comes up with this wildly artistic version of the story to show the judge that in all reality just won’t work. And after lashing out at our defendant/veteran, Jay decides that enough is enough and fires him. He shoots the video himself after seeing our defendant struggle just to do a simple task like putting his pants on due to his disability. The judge sees the message and hears it loud and clear. Judge Byrne isn’t as harsh as he promised to be after all.

In the end we resolve with everybody being in a completely different yet very familiar position. They are once again all divided.