“Did you like your life out there?” Freddy

As the trial begins, Naz gets more and more comfortable living on the inside. I’m starting to worry that he’s going to sabotage himself. Even if he didn’t kill Andrea is he starting to think that life in prison is better than whatever life he may have if he got out. People will still think he did it. It was an uncomfortable episode watching Naz. But let’s start on what was happening on the outside.

Stone goes to Chinatown seeking help for his feet. He finds a Chinese guy named Mr. Yee who mixes a powder for him that even includes a little aphrodisiac to mix with water that he says will work. Only three hundred dollars. Stone is desperate enough to try anything. Stone still has the cat. He wore a face mask and rubber gloves to clean the kitty litter. He opens the door and slides it back in and then shuts the door really quick. He does the same when he feeds it. The guy is a sucker! He’s allergic to the cat but keeps it and takes care of it anyway. Is he being a sucker about Naz, too? He must be starting to think so when Detective Box tells him what he’s dug up about Naz’ violent past. Box looked through Naz’ Facebook and discovered that he transferred from a school near his home to one 40 minutes away. He goes to the school and finds out that Naz pushed a kid down a stairwell and the kid broke his arm. He continued to get in fights so he was transferred to a different school. Chandra visits Naz and asks him about it. He says that after 9/11 there was a lot of anger directed towards him and his family which led to fights. He said he felt bad for his mom who couldn’t understand how he could push someone down the stairs but that he felt nothing. Chandra says she experienced the same things and that she understood.

“You understand that but maybe I did kill that girl. That’s what you’re thinking.”

Yeah, Naz. That’s what we’re all thinking. Meanwhile, we see Naz’ brother, Hasan, vandalizing school lockers with a red spray paint can. Naz’ mother is fired from her job due to what’s happened with Naz and takes a job mopping floors. Naz’ dad has become a food delivery man as Chandra finds out when she opens the door to find him holding her take out order. She goes back in to get some money but when she returns the food is there but he is gone.

The defense is doing some investigating of their own! Chandra reviews the security tapes of the gas station Naz stopped at the night of the murder. She sees the hearse and the driver go to speak to Andrea. When Naz pulls out the hearse seems to follow. Chandra is able to get the license plate number and track down the driver at the mortuary he works at. This fellow Mr. Day is an interesting guy. His take on Andrea is that she had ‘that vibe’, and described her as a cat and men were like balls of yarn to her. His opinion of women is summed up in the bible verse he gives to Chandra which is where the title of the episode stems from. Delilah betrays Samson by cutting his hair thereby taking his strength and he is made blind by the Palestines. When Chandra asks him where he went after he left the gas station Mr. Day shoots back, “You a cat, too? You think I’m a ball of yarn?” Chandra is thoroughly creeped out. She goes to Stone’s and he takes her to a bar for a drink. She tells him about Mr. Day and that she thinks he may have followed Naz and Andrea back to her place. Stone tells her to let him do the ‘Nancy Drew” work next time. Chandra also tells Stone that she broke up with her boyfriend. There’s a close up of Stone touching Chandra’s hand as he talks to her. Could they be setting up a romance? Only two episodes left. Maybe if they went ten episodes.

As the trial begins Weiss is putting her case together, Chandra nervously prepares for her opening statements, and Stone wakes to find that the eczema on his feet has cleared up! He puts on some shoes and goes down to the courthouse. He is so happy! He tries to show Chandra but she is far too nervous to care. OK. Now we go back inside.

Naz is worrying me. He is getting very accustomed to jail life. He’s getting tattoos, most notably the words, ‘sin’ and ‘bad’ on his fingers. Freddy gives him a cell phone and tells him he can loan it out to other inmates in exchange for payment. “I’m gonna make a proper convict out of you yet” Freddy tells him. When Freddy smokes some crack he offers some to Naz who turns it down but later when he offers some again Naz accepts. This is after the trial begins! Soon he’s in Freddy’s cell with the rest of the gang and they’re all smoking crack. On the morning of the trial Naz finds a new white shirt and black tie on his bed. He takes them back to Freddy to say thank you but his parents are bringing him some clothes to wear. “Yeah but they won’t be right” Freddy tells him. He was right. When they bring Naz into the court room he’s wearing a dark blue shirt. Stone immediately tells him to exchange shirts with him. Perception is everything. One night as Naz is returning to his cell something catches his attention in another cell. He stops and looks through the window to see a man on his knees giving another man a blow job. He knows both of these guys, part of Freddy’s gang. They notice him watching and he hurriedly moves away but the next morning he is attacked in the shower. The man he saw the night before getting the blow job holds a knife to Naz’ throat. “Did you tell Freddy?”
This is his life now.

Weiss begins to present her case. She’s well prepared. She follows the timeline as Box has provided her. It’s strong circumstantial evidence. Stone follows another hunch. How could Andrea afford that brownstone? He tacks down her financial advisor who was also Andrea’s mother’s advisor. The place was her mother’s as we already knew. She inherited it and some money after she died. Her step father, a much younger man who preyed on older woman like Andrea’s mother, so Stone is told wanted Andrea to give him half. Andrea refused. “I believe she said ‘over my dead body” the financial advisor tells Stone. Stone tracks down the step father to where he works as a fitness trainer. Stone looks through the window at the step father training an attractive older woman. Another suspect with a motive. But how can Stone prove anything?

Detective Box still seems pretty confident of Naz’ guilt but he never really looked at the step father at all. Can Stone convince him to? How can Stone get any real proof on his own without Box’ help? There is no way Naz gets off without another viable suspect being presented. And what about the guy that Stone chased last week? He must have seen something. In any case, Naz is tapping into his dark nature being in prison and under the tutelage of Freddy. He and his whole family have been destroyed by this and his being set free will not change that.