“Part Nine” – Aired on February 7, 2021
Writer: Jennifer Cacicio
Director: Eva Sørhaug
Grade: 4 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
Alright!! I have a question. How on earth will the show wrap up in the season finale a plethora of open-ended plotlines that accumulated faster than the number of governmental crises in a pandemic? It almost feels like the writing room backed itself into a corner here.
There is the central court case of Carlo that needs resolution. There is the issue of Michael trying to concoct a way to save Adam from charges of murder or from being assassinated in the hands of Jimmy Baxter, not to mention Michael himself being in that same danger zone. There is the growing mystery surrounding the death of Robin a year prior to the show’s debut. Gina, for her part, manifests signs of being on the verge of going postal on just about everyone, including Jimmy, depending on how much she learns once the shit hits the fan. How will Lee proceed with her discovery of Kofi not being the murderer of Rocco? How will Charlie do the same with his of Adam murdering Rocco? Can the budding romance between Adam and Fia survive the foreboding storm coming their way? There is also the quasi-mathematical question of how Big & Little Mo, and the Desire Crew, figure into the various intricate equations. What will poor Eugene do? Detective Costello? Frannie?
My goodness! The finale has one hour to unpack a load heavier than an elephant.
The first half of “Part Nine” is largely preoccupied with the fate of Joey, Carlo’s ex-buddy and drug addict, who has been running for his life in order to steer clear of Jimmy’s cronies. His solution is to run into the arms of the police, eager to spill the beans on Carlo’s killing of Kofi and on how Gina orchestrated her son’s transfer to the OPP, as long as Nancy Costello and Fiona McKee, who are questioning him at the station, guarantee him some type of immunity.
The news drops like a bomb on Michael whose duress is visible thanks to the wonderful camera work of director Eva Sørhaug in the scene in his chambers, as Fiona tells him about how Joey’s testimony must be allowed to shine the conclusive light on the case. Michael will allow it, but he has a plan that undoubtedly comes as a surprise to Jimmy (delightful little twist here) who was initially told by the judge that he would give a day-long recess for the defense to prepare their case, thus allowing Jimmy enough time to eliminate Joey.
His plan works to perfection, although from a narrative point of view, it pushes the boundaries of plausibility. I mean, they laid it on thick to say the least with Joey guzzling down the drugged water while he was testifying, and the timing of his collapse could not have been more conveniently perfect. One notable detail is Nancy’s close observation of Jimmy’s reactions to Joey’s passing out on the stand followed by his relieved glance toward Michael.
Outside the courtroom, the vaping Nancy crosses Jimmy and Frankie and warns them to stay away from “Michael, Adam.” Upon hearing the name, Jimmy and Frankie put two and two together, with an assist from social media, to realize that Fia’s boyfriend is indeed Michael’s son. In what way could that serve Jimmy, I am at a loss. Knowing how much he dotes on Fia, I sense that he will be reluctant to hurt Adam, especially after seeing Fia defy the priest and her mother at the house as she declares her undying love for the boy.
Speaking of Gina… The fact that Joey confirms what viewers learned back in “Part Four,” that Gina is the one holding the reins when it comes to the intimate Baxter-family-related matters, is yet another reminder of one of Your Honor‘s major shortcomings, which is how underutilized the talented Hope Davis and her character Gina remain. Five episodes later, and with only the season finale to go, we have seen nothing more than an occasional camera focus on her face, or a brief sentence or two coming out of her mouth. After seeing “Part Three” and “Part Four” back in December, I thought my concerns that I had expressed in my review of the pilot episode about Gina’s character getting shortchanged – consequently stifling Hope Davis’s ability to showcase her talent – were just paranoia on my part. Almost two months later, it turns out that they were not misplaced after all. We have only gotten snippets of an otherwise fascinating character that could be fleshed out in so many riveting ways.
With Joey promptly discredited as a witness and dismissed by Michael, the last half of the outing focuses on other matters such as, for example, Eugene’s place in the Desire crew. He is a clever boy and gets Big Mo’s attention when he suggests a way for them to launder the gang’s illegal money.
Meanwhile, the punctilious detective that she is, Nancy has uncovered some disturbing details about Robin’s death. She was cheating on Michael – and Michael admits to having knowledge of the affair, but not the details, or so he says – and Nancy needs the secret to come out in the open in order to properly search for the murder suspect in Robin’s death. Michael wants no part of it, claiming that he cannot “cope now” and that it would devastate Adam to learn of his mother’s cheating nature. Nancy turns to Elizabeth, basically putting the Senator in charge of informing Adam of his mother’s salacious escapades in a hotel room paid with cash under a fake name. Imagine revealing that to your grandson, “dear son, my daughter who is also your mother is not exactly the marvelous individual that we deemed her to be.”
Adam, behaving as a trial about a murder that he committed did not exist, is busy grappling with the triangle consisting of the bitter Frannie and his lover Fia. Frannie attempts to convince him to let Fia go, to no avail. Frannie is about to face problems of her own when Charlie catches up with her at a bar and basically threatens her to leave Adam alone or she may be headed to jail herself for having sex with a minor. Charlie comes across as the pompous older male bullying a young woman, until the moment when he discovers from Frannie no less that Adam is Rocco’s killer. She seems to be the last of his worries.
In perhaps the most engrossing scene of the hour, Zander fails miserably, under the concerned eyes of Jimmy, to get into Carlo’s thick skull the concept that he must appear remorseful on the stand about killing Kofi in “self-defense.” Carlo’s essence has traveled so far into the land of deplorability that his conscious is no longer capable of recognizing the issue at hand, unable to even feign any penitence.
The penultimate episode re-introduces the character of Rudy Cunningham (ha! I forgot to include his name in my paragraph on top about the plethora of plotlines) who was first seen in “Part Two.” Remember when Charlie got the phone-call chain going to handle the matter of getting someone to conveniently steal Michael’s car that Adam was driving on the day he killed Rocco? Yes, Rudy was an integral part of that ill-fated scheme.
Lee unloads on Eugene the reality of his brother not only being innocent in Rocco’s murder, but also of him taking the fall as a loyal soldier to Desire. She urges him to tell her if he has any knowledge of who may have been driving the car on that day because she is convinced that someone from Desire is the culprit. This is when Eugene drops the name Rudy that he heard Little Mo mention in an earlier scene. That is all the motivated lawyer needs to further pursue the matter and following a meticulous search on the database, she discovers that Rudy Cunningham was the cop who arrested Little Mo many times and yet none of the arrests led to charges. Talk about entering someone’s radar at warp speed.
The hour ends with Adam informing his dad that he is headed to meet up with his girlfriend. For all the energy Michael has invested into the nuts and bolts of Carlo’s case, he has not even cared to learn the identity of his son’s inamorata. Oh dear…
Last-minute thoughts:
— Joey tells Nancy and Fiona that he has been running for three months from “them,” as in Jimmy Baxter. Three months have passed since Carlo was arrested two episodes ago in “Part Seven”? It sure does not feel like it.
–We have yet another case of a man running – hobbling but still running – with a broken ankle and/or tibia bone (or something) in a TV show. I always want to know whenever I see this trope, but forget to ask. Can one run with a freshly broken ankle/bone? Is that even possible? My instinct says that it’s a load of codswallop.
— Michael still had time to get his daily jogging in during all this mess? I call codswallop on that too.
PS1: Click on All Reviews (also at the top) for a comprehensive list of my episodic reviews
PS2: Follow Durg on Twitter and Facebook