“Part Seven” – Aired on January 17, 2021
Writer: Joey Hartstone
Director: Eva Sørhaug
Grade: (3 out of 5)
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
After the game-changing “Part Five” and the shit-hitting-the-fan “Part Six,” the seventh installment happens to be that ill-luck episode that carries the burden of not only being the follow-up act to two weighty outings, but also having to restrain itself due to the three episodes still to follow. Some may call this one a fill-in episode. I would argue that it is stuck with the role of stalling the narrative. Not by choice, but by obligation.
I am wondering if this season of Your Honor would have been better served if it were limited to eight episodes rather than ten. The overall arc was already fairly predictable after the delightful pilot (I commented in depth on this predictability issue in my review of “Part One“) and it was evident that the show’s success was going to depend on how compellingly the writing room planned to depict the combination of the protagonist’s impending downfall and the measures he takes to avoid it, while striving to circumvent the roadblocks erected by the antagonist.
Seeing how a few promising subplots have yet to be explored in the show, or seemingly dropped, I am less and less convinced that there is enough content beyond the central story to produce ten riveting episodes. “Part Seven” is therefore an inescapable product of this impediment. It is the least engaging hour of Your Honor so far. It still carries notable moments, but its composition would have been enriched had some of the show’s available substrates been examined.
For instance, wouldn’t it be fascinating to learn more, via a flashback or two if necessary, of the formation of the Desire Crew? Or the succession of events that brought Big Mo to its leading role? Was Kofi’s mother a close friend? How about delving for a scene or two into the history of Little Mo’s allegiance to Big Mo?
Or how about putting aside a substantial amount of time covering the backstory of Lee and lifting the curtain behind her intriguing “this isn’t easy for me” reference to Michael in the garage, back in “Part Two”? The scene of her getting fired by the firm even provided, in my view, the perfect opportunity to explore her past in this episode. Would it not have been interesting to learn the root cause of her obsession with Kofi’s case? It obviously resonates deeply with her, to the point of willing to jeopardize her lucrative career.
Or, how about spending half an episode or so on how Gina – Hope Davis remains vastly underused – crept her way up to the position of holding the reins within the family? How did she become the dominant figure in the household?
Any of these options above would have been more engrossing to watch if it were incorporated into this episode, instead of spending half of it watching Michael and Frankie hang out in Trevor’s boat, with the former huffing and puffing, and the latter solemnly observing him. Well, they dumped Trevor’s corpse into the water and waited for Jimmy’s call. Err, yay?
Alas, the writing room decided, instead, to make use of Cranston and Stuhlbarg’s dexterity in saying thousand words with their faces. It felt like too many trips to the same well, too much blatant stalling for my taste, and I am speaking as an avid fan of both actors. There is an abundance of one-on-one scenes featuring either Michael and Jimmy together, or one of them with a third one, where they still remain the focal point. As a result, “Part Seven” largely leans on drawn-out, atmospheric scenes filled with slow dialogues featuring stares into the horizon, sedate one-line deliveries, raises of the frontalis muscles while nodding in exasperation, and frequent mid-sentence pauses with deep breaths or nasal suspirations. I shall also note the bonus (!) scene of Michael’s solo hose-splash shower scene in his suit in slow motion for your viewing pleasure.
The outing picks up a few minutes after “Part Six” ended, with Jimmy endangering the lives of a dozen New Orleanians per intersection as he zooms through them in his car, trying to get to their hotel before the police arrives there to arrest Carlo for Kofi’s murder. Speaking of Carlo the slimeball, he ignored his father’s calls earlier as he drove casually to the hotel with six-figure worth of cash collected from Little Mo for drugs, while rapping loudly with his sidekick Joey sitting strung-out in the passenger seat.
By the time Jimmy arrives, Det. Costello, accompanied by other officers, has already handcuffed Carlo whose bag of cash is also confiscated. Gina, in her only meaningful appearance of the hour, distracts Nancy and the officers just enough so that Joey, who holds another bag, can escape through the side door of the hotel.
Having just witnessed her brother get arrested again and learned of the murder he committed, Fia is profoundly shaken. She finds solace at the café in the arms of Adam who “dons the same fretful expression listening to her that he has had on his face pretty much any other time during the show.” I quoted myself from the last review, thus the quotation marks. The dialogue’s general content and tone are also in the same vein as the ones they’ve had before. It is safe to say that the irony of Fia unknowingly falling for Rocco’s murderer, and sharing with him her suffering from the ghastly consequences of her brother’s death, has by now lost its lure.
After a fruitless one-on-one with Carlo at the precinct, Nancy goes to the recording room to listen to voice mails left on Carlo’s phone. Jimmy’s frantic messages, urging Carlo to stay away from the hotel, alarm Nancy who realizes that the Baxters had prior knowledge of Carlo’s forthcoming arrest. She soon begins to suspect Cusack after learning from Officer Corrigan (Christopher B. Duncan, first appearance in “Part Two”) that Cusack met with Carlo’s lawyer in the parking lot outside.
“Go fuck yourself” is the theme of the day when Michael oversees Carlo’s arraignment in his courtroom, but much to Michael’s dismay, the actual trial goes to Judge Sarah Leblanc – Lorraine Toussaint made an ultra-brief appearance in “Part Three,” but more screen time in this hour allows her talent to shine.
Michael sinks further down the web of compromises by offering the angry Jimmy another solution because, simply put, breaking his promise to Jimmy of having Carlo tried at his court means certain death for him and Adam. Michael’s plan consists of taking Sarah out to the local bar with the sole intention of making sure she has alcohol in her system when she gets stopped later on her way home by Jimmy’s corrupt officers. They not only pull her over for no apparent reason, but also provoke her in any way possible to escalate the situation toward an arrest. Sarah is soon handcuffed, taken to the precinct, and will not be available for Carlo’s trial after all.
Sarah’s sequence is intertwined (Your Honor’s favorite method to underline disparity) with scenes of Lee driving Michael to his house where Charlie, Adam, Nancy, Lee, and his Senator mother-in-law await to surprise him for his birthday. Whether it’s Adam going to school mixed with Kofi going to prison back in “Part Two,” or it’s Michael going home to a party mixed with LeBlanc being taken to the precinct in this episode, such collage sequences of two similar individuals – Adam and Kofi are both teenagers, Michael and Sarah are both judges – put on display the grim reality of how their destinies can diverge merely because of the color of their skin.
I reiterate (see my reviews of “Part One” and “Part Five”) that Your Honor is bound to be blacklisted by some pet-lovers society if the show maintains its current rate of cringey scenes involving dogs. This time, Django (it’s his second such scene) smells a piece of Trevor’s organ that got stuck in Michael’s pants. Michael temporarily places the piece (morsel of the brain? Eww!) on the counter, which is when, of course, Adam walks in and notices it. Michael must lie again when his son asks about it. According to his dad, it’s offal from the local butcher for Django, which leads Adam to casually feed it to the dog. Oh dear! Poor Django throws up the piece and other food later during the dinner party. The episode ends on a shot of Michael feeling awful and staring at Django, while Django stares at his barf, confused and ashamed. Is the over-under on cringey dog scenes for Your Honor’s remaining three episodes posted on betting sites yet?
Here is a brief wrap-up of the current state of things:
Jimmy still believes that Michael killed Rocco. Michael prefers that Jimmy believes so. Nancy is slowly but surely figuring things out. The danger posed to the Baxters by Desire Crew looms large on the horizon. Lee is falling in love with Michael and haplessly bound for a soul-crushing lesson in betrayal, as is poor Fia with Adam.
I could have written the same paragraph above at the end of “Part Six.” Nice stalling indeed!
Last-minute thoughts:
— Just how far down the devil’s road has Michael traveled? And how calculated has he become? Let me summarize. He spits out, “I love you,” on the spot to Lee in the car, in order to distract her from momentarily noticing Judge LeBlanc’s arrest at a distance that he helped set up!
— While Michael and Frankie are on Trevor’s boat at the marina, waiting for Jimmy’s call, Trevor’s bloody corpse is on display, as well as Michael’s blood-soaked white shirt. It’s almost comical how the two men make no visible effort to hide any of it from the view of someone who may walk by.
— I have already mentioned Lee getting fired. The Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) is one of their clients, thus Lee representing Kofi is unacceptable. From a narrative standpoint, better sooner than later. Considering how Lee’s portrait is painted in the show in opposition to that of a conventional corporate lawyer, file this away under mundane plot developments.
— Charlie and Michael’s friendship apparently go back their childhood. Michael saved Charlie from drowning in Lake Pontchartrain when they were children.
— Still nothing on the SUV from “Part One.”
Until the next episode…
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