The Night of Episode 4 Review

The Night of (2016)
Mini-series: 8 episodes (2016)

Written by: Richard Price, Steven Zaillian, Peter Moffat (based on the novel by)
Starring: John Turturro, Riz Ahmed, Michael K. Williams

The Night of Episode 4

Plot: 
This HBO mini-series features Nas (Riz Ahmed), a Pakistani-American, with no recollection of what happened the previous night, accused of murder. Jack Stone (John Turturro) is his lawyer.

Verdict:
A murder  charge affects more than just Nas, and his family isn't faring well. While this isn't the focus of the episode, the show does a great job of including that nuance. Nas's new hotshot lawyer plays both sides and gets him a deal. As you can guess, a window is left open for John Stone to return. Stone investigates the victim's past, which seems to be more than the cops have done. With the trial looming, I expect more detective work and plausible alternatives to "Nas did it."

Review:
Check out my The Night of episode reviews!
Nas is getting walked all over in jail. He's getting counseled by yet another inmate. I get people would take advantage of him, it's part of the game, but are there really that many people that want to help?

John can't leave Nas's case alone. He attends the funeral and sees Andrea's father arguing with somebody. John does some detective work and finds out Andrea was in rehab. He makes a deal with with one of the people in the program and gets pictures of her file. This is an outlier, as not only do cops not have the time, neither do lawyers. It's portrayed as something about this case sticks with him, but he's the kind of lawyer most likely to run through as many cases as possible.

Freddy is the king. If Nas is going to survive, it's through Freddy.

Nas's new mentor tells him to avoid Freddy. This contradicts what he was told before by his old bunk buddy. Is his new mentor in this for the long con? It doesn't seem like it, but it also seems contrived. Everything he was told before about how to act in jail, his new friend tells him is wrong.

Nas's brother is getting beat up at school. The school tells him to drop out. This episode really drives home how the family members are discriminated against. The media shows up at his parents door, dubbing Nas a murderer.
John tells Alison Crowe's paralegal, Chandra, to look into Andrea's rehab history. She retorts that Andrea is the victim. John's question sums up this episode, "Nas isn't too?"
Chandra is upset that Crowe used her to appeal to Nas's family, and now she isn't even involved in the case.

It's Nas's day in court for arraignment. Alison sets the tempo and even puts the other men in the cell in line before Nas goes to the court room. She comments it's good they didn't put him in an orange jump suit. They did, but Freddy game him a blue one. Violent offenders are given orange.
Alison Crowe is very sharp and endures no nonsense. She addresses the fact that being Muslim is why they won't let him out on bail, but it doesn't change anything.

Nas revisits Freddy for protection after getting his arm sliced. Freddy gives him the book The Call of the Wild. It will teach him everything he needs to know about jail. Freddy chose Nas because he's seeking an intellectual equal. Freddy likes school, and he wants somebody knowledgeable with whom to converse. I don't know if I buy this.

John's an interesting character. He's got eczema, sleeps with prostitutes, and is an ambulance chaser. For some reason, he can't shake this case.

He's a killer.

Freddy finds a sparring partner, someone who is running a cell phone business. Freddy beats him unconscious while Nas watches in horror.

Crowe negotiates with the D.A. to accept a manslaughter plea with a maximum of fifteen years. She turns around and tells Nas that he will get convicted, but she could try to plea. Everybody but Nas and his parents is convinced the deal is great. We know he won't take it. We know that John Stone is going to come back into the picture too.

Nas tells Crowe he'll take the deal. Chandra tells him to take the deal, but that he has to ask the question, "Did he kill her?" If he didn't, he should pass on the deal. Even John Stone tells him in the courtroom he should take it, and that he shouldn't trust twelve jurors. A deal doesn't make you guilty.

The final scene is the plea bargain. Nas is asked to recount what happened the night of the crime. He relays the details, but tells the court that he didn't kill Andrea. Crowe is upset he didn't take the deal, and Nas tells her to quit. Just as I expected, John Stone is back in the picture. He's already done more research than the cops.

Nas's newest mentor scalds him as a sort of twisted revenge for his niece. The niece has nothing to do with Nas, but proves that you can't trust anyone inside. Nas doesn't rat, but he does pay yet another visit to Freddy, admitting he needs Freddy's help.