“Part Six” – Aired on January 10, 2021
Writer: Jennifer Cacicio
Director: Clark Johnson
Grade: 4 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
In my review of “Part Five” (to which I will refer a few times below, so I recommend a read prior to continuing this one), I underlined the two game-changing moments signaling the inevitable, but expected, narrative shift with regard to the dynamics between the show’s two main families. Considering Your Honor kicked off a year after Robin Desiato’s tragic death, and during Carlo Baxter’s incarceration for murder, the halcyon days seemed to be distant memories for either family. And yet, wouldn’t they give anything for a chance to turn the clock back to that copacetic morning at the start of “Part One” when Jimmy surprised his son Rocco with a new motorcycle, and Adam woke up in the arms of his girlfriend while his father Michael enjoyed his usual jogging routine?
The descent into madness in the aftermath of the hit-and-run tying the fates of the two families has been macabre to say the least, and “Part Six” brings us to the juncture where the father dyad of Jimmy and Michael find themselves face-to-face, with the former enraged and pointing a gun to the head of the latter who, for his part, has been in survival mode and plagued by compunction since the accident.
Call me nit-picky, but I cannot help but feel like the transition from Jimmy learning that Kofi did not kill his son to the point where he conclusively connects the dots to the Desiatos has been handled too hastily. I feel a bit shortchanged as a viewer in that I had hoped to see the emergence of an intricate cat-and-mouse game between the two fathers, one that never materialized. Nearly five episodes had been dedicated to Michael tediously laboring to eliminate any evidence that could connect Rocco’s death to Adam. That timeline would have been more intriguing, in my opinion, had Michael’s efforts also been motivated by the need to stay one step ahead of Jimmy’s investigation of who killed Rocco. Instead, the showrunners opted to have Jimmy already assuming that the killer was caught, which allowed Michael to operate for nearly five episodes without the additional menace of Jimmy actively suspecting him or Adam. It’s only late in the previous outing that the reality of the actual killer being at large dawned on the crime boss, and then, it took a mere third of the same episode for him to rapidly connect the dots to the Desiatos (granted, he has Michael, not Adam, pegged as the killer for now).
“Part Six” begins with Michael trying to track down the blackmailer, whom he believes to be the driver of the green Toyota that pulled up behind Adam in the gas station footage that he obtained from Leland back in “Part Three.” Only three digits of the tag are visible on the blurry photo, meaning that he will need access to police database in order to obtain a list of green Toyota owners with matching tags.
So, he meets Nancy for coffee and fabricates a tale (at best, a partial one) about a woman who got the short end of the stick in the courtroom against her abusive husband who happens to own one such car. Lo and behold, he carries the woman’s notes in his pocket, which conveniently means that Nancy could do the search on her computer right then and there, thanks to her access to the database. Why did Michael opt to use that particular tale? Because he figures that the poor woman’s plight will resonate with Nancy who apparently had a similar experience and can identify with her “better than anyone.” He is not wrong!
Michael even offers a fake apology to Nancy – grabbing her hand affectionately, mind you? – for bringing the woman’s case up without considering that it may bring back invidious memories for Nancy. Plus, he feels like “a hypocrite” for asking her to break the law by looking up the tag number for him. He is oh-so sorry; he didn’t mean to. Nancy consoles him: “Hypocrisy is probably the last thing anyone would ever accuse you of.” Michael stares. He is now officially a weasel, on top of being a manipulative liar.
Little does Michael know that, during that time, Jimmy is in his house snooping around. He touches and moves objects, looks at pictures, and pets Django. He even takes a picture with the polaroid camera that he finds on the spot, placing the photo on Michael’s pillow. Would it be too nit-picky if I asked why he does not seem concerned with leaving his fingerprints all over the house?
Jimmy also finds an inhaler in the bathroom which, combined with all the other clues, confirms to him that Rocco’s killer lives in this house. I must ask again, what of Adam’s inhaler recovered by Frankie on the accident site in “Part One”? Should we henceforth ignore the glaring narrative gap with regard to the “36-hour return” of the DNA results, as promised by Frankie? – For more details on this, see my review for “Part Five.”
The other main storyline of the hour is Adam’s day out Fia. Whether scenes involving this storyline work for you or not depends on your mileage with dialogues that bank on strumming the viewer’s emotional strings rather than advancing the plot. With Adam’s less-than-zero personality and Fia constantly doing the heavy lifting in order to keep the conversation lively, and cliché topics dominating the conversation, these sequences feel one-sided, played out too long, and riddled with topics that seem to be conjured from the local palm reader’s random tarot cards. For example, Fia delves into the devastating consequences of losing her brother, not realizing of course that she is talking to his killer; this was already done in the café in “Part Five” and feels cloying here. Adam, for his part, murmurs halfway sentences and dons the same fretful expression listening to her that he has had on his face pretty much any other time during the show, in the same way that Whitney Houston donned the same eyebrow-raised expression in The Bodyguard whether she was sad, happy, surprised, or mad.
One of the names on the list Michael got from Nancy’s computer is Edouard Lincoln (Jack Knight) a lonely old man suffering from dementia. He thinks Michael is one of his relatives named Danny visiting him from Tampa. He is delighted to have him stop by and Michael, feeling sorry for the old man and invaded by his own anguish from the “100,000 fucking pounds of steel pressing down on [his] shoulders,” decides to remain and chat with him. This dialogue takes several minutes and has genuine appeal thanks to the acting prowess of guest actor Knight and the cleverly scripted dialogue which eventually leads to Edouard mentioning his “ass-first motherfucker” son Trevor who stole his Camry! Michael, now alert, finds a letter sent to the old man by Trevor and notes his address down.
The next time we see Michael, he runs up to Trevor’s green Toyota and asks for a ride, claiming his phone died after he called Uber. He strikes up a conversation during which he learns that Trevor wants to buy his dream boat and that it would cost him “over 200 grand.” He even mentions where his dream boat is sitting at the marina. Michael calls Trevor later via the phone he left on purpose in his Uber to set up a meeting at the marina the next day to give him the money.
Allow me to go on a tangent for a second here.
I may end up making a fool out of myself, but I am not convinced that Trevor is the blackmailer. His comportment is kooky and he does not exude the intellectual wherewithal to pull it off. The devil is often in the details, they say, and here, they do not add up. Firstly, did he not recognize Michael in the backseat of his car? He certainly did not get nervous and chatted with Michael like he would with any other customer. Secondly, Trevor never responds with any verbal communication of substance whenever Michael mentions the clip and refers to the blackmail. He comes across bewildered, as if he were wondering why on earth is this guy buying him the boat and what is he talking about, but chooses to remain silent instead because, well, he wants his dream boat for free! More importantly, there is the discrepancy of a few seconds between the clip’s content and the timing of Trevor’s car pulling up to the gas station seen in “Part One” – again, see my review of “Part Five” for a detailed explanation on this, but suffice it to say, Trevor could not have been recording that clip at that moment from that angle, unless it’s an oversight by the showrunners.
Tangent done, back to the episode…
Michael returns home and notices the Robin’s photo turned around by the kitchen and the polaroid photo placed on the pillow upstairs. Someone had evidently entered the house. Adam arrives home right then, having just been dropped off by Fia. Frankie and Jimmy do not notice Fia driving off behind them (nor does she, them) because they are too busy stalking the Desiato household. In fact, Adam’s arrival saves Michael’s life without him realizing it because Frankie was on his way to the house with a gun when Adam showed up, making Jimmy think twice about killing both.
Four scenes of side stories, so to speak, follow in succession, cumulatively having more impact on the hour than the A story of Adam and Fia’s day-long escapade.
(1) Jimmy returns home and has a lovely father-daughter moment with Fia’s head on his shoulder. This scene showcases in an organic way their attachment to each other, whereas the part of her dialogue with Adam earlier when she claims that people tell “lies” about him and recites her dad’s life as if it were the emblematic success story of the American dream, rather serves to paint her as a naïve teenager in denial about her dad.
(2) Carlo visits Big Mo and proposes a deal for her to sell his drugs. After he leaves what appears to be a successful meeting (hard to tell), Big Mo says to Eugene and Little Mo, “Father and son. Divide and rule.” I am not sure Jimmy is paying enough attention to the danger the gang represents to his family.
(3) Michael meets Charlie at a diner. Charlie can immediately tell from Michael’s glum expression that something is not right. His instinct is confirmed when Michael asks Charlie to take care of Adam “if something should ever happen” to him.
(4) Lee is interviewing prisoners about Kofi’s death. They are reluctant to snitch, naturally, but she manages to squeeze out essential information, including Carlo’s name, from one named Danavian Lewis (Martin Bradford), following the promise of free counsel and years shaved off his sentence. Later, upon the advice of the examiner who did the autopsy on Kofi in “Part Five,” Lee obtains Carlo’s DNA on Kofi. “We got him” she says to Michael on the phone, but Michael is too busy. And I doubt any viewer could guess at that point how paramount that 10-second-long phone would later turn out to be (see below).
Trevor arrives at the marina where Michael takes him to his dream boat already brought down and ready to sail. He promises to pay the monthly installments, provided that Trevor never asks him for anything again — seeing how Trevor behaves in this tidbit, I reiterate what I avouched above, the dude has no clue what Michael is talking about when he extends his hand to Michael and says, “deal.”
In any case, Trevor will never get to enjoy the boat because he will not make it to the end of the hour. Jimmy and Frankie crash their party, drag them inside some warehouse where Jimmy gets ready to kill Michael. Frightened to the core, the judge pulls out one last desperate card, frantically telling Jimmy that Carlo is about to get arrested and stand trial for murder, and adding that he can have the case moved to his court and “make sure that he walks out a free man.” That is enough to stop the irate Jimmy from executing Michael just in time, but not enough to spare Trevor who, according to Michael, knows “everything.” Add accessory to murder to the “100,000 pounds of fucking steel pressing down.”
Last-minute thoughts:
— The last time I see Django is when he follows Jimmy into a room. I hope he is okay!
— I skipped two scenes where the topic revolves around Adam’s interview with NYU. I admit that I have trouble feeling any engagement to this topic. It ultimately matters little since the season cannot possibly end with Adam peacefully leaving New Orleans. There is some shit still left to hit the fan from Adam’s perspective, and it sure ain’t taking place in New York.
— Gina is seen once, welcoming Carlo and his sidekick Joey (Chet Hanks) to the basement where they can set up their drug operation without being disturbed. What is also implied here is that they are doing this behind Jimmy’s back. “Part Four” already emphasized that Gina may indeed be the cerebral driving force of the family.
— Another good use of point-of-view style camera work (see my review of “Part Three” for the previous mention) as Lee is conducting interviews with inmates. In order to generate the desired impact of such scenes, you need actors whose stare can penetrate your bones and transmit emotions across the screen with a mere spasm of a cheek or a twitch of an eyebrow. Carmen Ejogo as Lee and Martin Bradford as Danavian are certainly up to the task.
— I have already expressed my appreciation Your Honor’s score more than once, but I particularly enjoy the elevated tension of the string music during pivotal moments. Example: when the examiner mentions the possibility of DNA use to Lee as proof of Kofi’s killer, followed by Lee exiting his office as she phones the D. A.
— O Ye of the Writing Room! Please tell me about the SUV from “Part One.”
Until next episode…
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