THE NIGHT OF – EPISODE THREE – THE DARK CRATE
The wheels of justice move slow. The case is becoming a cause celebre and everyone wants a piece. All sides are jockeying to get their stories right and plans of attack in place. Meanwhile Naz is facing the horrors of being in a real prison with hardened criminals.
Detective Box goes over the reports of Naz’ arresting officers. He chastises the male officer for not including the fact that he threw up after seeing the victim’s body. He doesn’t want them to exclude any info that might come back to haunt them later. Later, as he looks through the materials taken from Naz’ home, he sorts through some photos of Naz, pictures of him as a child and young boy. What’s going through his head? Does he have doubts about his guilt? Or is he just working angle that he can use to confirm it?
We meet attorney Allison Crowe (Glenne Headly) a ‘Gloria Allred’ type attorney. We see her at a press conference with her client, a flight attendant, who sued a plastic surgeon for a botched surgery as well as her employer, the airline, for making her feel she needed to keep up ‘appearances. Crowe sees the police press conference about Naz’ case on TV and immediately wants to be a part of it. She goes to meet Naz’ parents and brings along a junior associate from her firm named Chandra (Amara Karan) who can speak to the parents in their native language and helps persuade them to drop Stone and hire Crowe. Crowe also tears down Stone by characterizing him as a low rent lawyer who only handles ‘drug dealers and prostitutes’ and would be more willing to settle out of court rather than fight for Naz’ release. And of course, she takes the case pro bono.
Stone takes a real beating in this episode. The episodes open with Stone meeting with Naz’ parents to discuss his payment. He keeps lowering his price as he sees that they have no money. It’s sad for all of them. Stone eventually settles for $50k and writes it down saying that he can’t start working on their son’s behalf until they sign it. But of course, he continues to work on the case and for Naz. He goes to see the DA whom he knows and seems friends with to try and find out what they have. He buys some clothes to take to Naz in prison. By this time, Naz has already been told by his father that they are replacing Stone with Crowe even though Naz professes to like Stone. This makes me feels as if he will make a decision later on to stick with him.
When Naz tells Stone he has a new lawyer Stone is devastated. He goes to try and speak with Crowe but is given the runaround by Chandra. Stone accuses them of poaching his client and knows that Crowe must have taken Chandra along to help convince the parents.
“Is there any message you’d like me to give her?” Chandra asks politely.
“You know what the message is? Stone tells her with a contemptible smile.
We see Stone at the doctor’s office seeing about his feet. The doctor chastises him for putting cologne o his ankles to cover the smell of the medication then tells him to cover his feet in Crisco and saran wrap! Later on Stone passes a store window and looks longingly at a nice pair of shoes. This poor guy is enduring one humiliation after another!
Cop: Are you in fear for your life?
Naz: No. Should I be?
Then there’s Naz. He seems so calm as he adjusts to life in prison. The prison is so overcrowded that he doesn’t even get a cell just a rollaway bed on the prison main floor along with many others. He seems to have a guardian angel in waiting in Freddy (Michael Kenneth Williams). Freddy takes an interest in Naz. He sends him a paid of shoes via a guard. “What are these for?” Naz asks. “Traction”, he’s told. Cut to Naz in the showers wearing the shoes. Eventually, he is summoned to Freddy’s cell, escorted by a guard. He steps in and the guard closes and locks the door behind him. He offers him protection. Naz doesn’t seem to realize what kind of danger he’s actually in until later that night. He gets up to go to the bathroom and then sees that a fire has been started. He then sees that his bed has been set on fire. He sees a crowd of inmates standing around his bed and one of them looks at him and gives him the slit throat sign. He’s a marked man.
I’m not sure what Freddy sees in Naz or what he wants. But obviously Naz will need his help to survive.
There was also an interesting story thread with Stone and Andrea’s cat. Stone goes to the crime scene and I think is shocked to see the level of violence that took place. He also goes to the fridge, gets some mile and feeds her cat. He tells the cop on guard he would take it but he’s allergic. Later in the episode he drives by the crime scene again and sees the cat outside the apartment building. He collects it and takes it to the SPCA. He asks how long will they keep it before it’s euthanized. He’s told ’10 days’. What does that mean? Does he see the cat as Naz? Stone is obviously a caring person and even though he’s been tossed off the case he can’t help but be concerned for this young man. Something tells me he and Chandra are going to have a meeting of souls and work together to help Naz. We’ll see.