Night Court – The Nighthawks

By: Sammi Turano

The second episode opens with Olivia (India de Beaufort) and Dan (John Larroquette) working on another case. Dan argues that his client is innocent and points out it could be another person in the room—who looks like him. He then points to people in the room…who indeed look like the defendant. The defendant admits to being the robber, which leads to him being found guilty, despite Dan’s best efforts to get his client off.

Later on Neil (Kapil Talwalkar), Dan, Olivia and Gurgs (Lacretta) are hanging out. Dan tells them about Harry and says that Abby (Melissa Rauch) will be in with an inspirational speech.

As predicted, she gives a speech and gives them water bottles with Nighthawks written on it. She wants them to come together and make things better and makes Neil help her motivate everyone. Olivia is not interested and Gurgs is just snarky about the whole thing.

She also annoys the birds Nikolai (Dimiter D. Marinov) is trying to get out of the ceiling.

Later on, Abby tells Gurgs she is worried Dan might not work out. At that moment, Dan walks in and Abby asks him if he needs help working the defense. She offers him some advice, but she only serves to upset him.

Neil tries to help Abby inspire Olivia and Gurgs with new paper, but they are once again not interested. Gurgs tells him that he can get rid of the stenographer, but Olivia wants to keep her because she wants someone on her good side. However, she is also worried since she is Maggie’s emergency contact, she might disappear like the last three.

Court is in session and Dan tries to work on being a better public defender for Abby, right down to wearing a patterned sweater. However, he only upsets her because he is not doing what she wanted.

Abby realizes the defendant is dyslexic and that is why he could not use the bathroom code and ended up with a public urination charge. She dismisses the case on a disability clause.

Dan is upset over this, as is Olivia since Abby is doing her job.

Later on, Maggie (Kimia Behpoornia) tries to make plans with Olivia by knowing exactly what she is doing at any given time. Olivia is creeped out by this and makes a getaway.

Dan tries to talk to another defendant, but also ends up getting creeped out. He asks Gurgs for advice on socializing, but she will only help him if he gives her fifty dollars or remembers her name. She gets the money.

Abby walks into court to see a new stenographer and a mural being painted. She is not quite sure these are the changes she wanted, but says she is proud of Neil.

Gurgs helps Dan prepare for another case, but it ends up being a disaster. This leads to him fighting with Abby and Maggie coming into the court angry that she was fired. She has a huge meltdown and releases the birds Nikolai was trying to remove from the building.

Afterwards Dan, Gurgs and Neil discuss the day, all while the defendant finally opens up to Dan while handcuffed to the wall.

Dan goes to talk to Abby about his clients and comes up with some convincing arguments for why they are not guilty. He also opens up about himself, making Abby happy. She thinks he is there forever, but he still says he is still a temp. However, they end up bonding.

Later on, Abby and Neil are cleaning up and talking about how Nikolai’s paintings were featured in an Estelle Getty museum and how he learned English due to watching The Golden Girls. He also admits he feels insecure about not being a big swing guy, but Abby convinces him he is doing fine, especially since he got the birds out of the building.

Nikolai comes in and says they are not gone and he is prepared for them as the episode comes to a close.