The Night of Episode 6 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

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:
And so the court proceedings begin. The potential of where this could go gives this episode a big feeling. The evidence we saw in the first episode finally comes back. Nas is falling deeper under Freddy's control, sporting a few tattoos, though  I wish we saw the conversation preceding those.
There area a few red herring suspects, but I doubt those will become concrete.

Review:
Check out my The Night of episode reviews!

I expected a showcase of how the system is stacked against those that are charged with crimes despite being innocent until proven guilty. While I like the show, and it does a fair amount of displaying how a charge affects multiple people, it doesn't go far enough. Maybe the next few episodes will bring this home, but Nas's jail scenes feel contrived.

This show really does have great direction. The way shots are framed always looks great. This episode felt less gratuitous than previous episodes. This episode also has some nice editing, Nas will flash back to the night of, and this transitions to evidence in the court case. I keep thinking Nas will remember what happened that night with these teases, but not this episode.

Stone is taking care of a cat he can't see because he's allergic. Is this meant to parallel Nas's case? Stone learns something about Nas he didn't know. Stone also starts using herbal medicine.
What happened to Duane Reade? There is no mention of it.

Nas sporting sick tats.

Nas is part of Freddy's family, but what does that mean? Freddy provides Nas a cell phone, but no doubt there are strings attached. Nas gets a tattoo of "SIN" across his knuckles. No doubt, his lawyers and family will love that. He's also gets "BAD" on the other hand and a wolf on his shoulder. We don't see the discussion of how that came to be. We don't know if he was coerced, but it doesn't seem like something he'd opt for. Has he relegated himself to being at Freddy's bidding?
This is what happens, jails corrupt the innocent. You find a wolf pack, remember that wolf tattoo, and try to fit in. That's how you survive. At least, that's what this show proposes.
I still feel like Nas is innocent, but maybe the twist is he isn't. The cops don't always uncover every stone, but sometimes it doesn't matter. Despite that, results shouldn't trump how suspects are treated and tricked.
This seems to be setting up that even if he gets out of prison, he's going to be broken. How is he going to function in society with a drug addiction and the stigma overhead? Even if the jury declares him innocent, the world won't see it that way.

Chandra talks to the mortician from the gas station, and he gives off a strange vibe, calling Andrea a destroyer. Nas was just a ball of yarn, soon to be destroyed by a woman with a dangerous vibration. This seems like misdirection, to make this guy seem like a potential suspect. Would he really only talk to her while preparing a body? Would he really spout off this nonsense?

Chandra goes to Stone's, upset. She thinks the mortician followed Andrea. The mortician thinks all women are deceivers. It's a red herring that is way too obvious.

Box is ahead of Stone and Chandra on the background check. Nas pushed a classmate down a flight of stairs in the ninth grade and transferred schools. I have no doubt this is also misdirection. Nas will be vindicated for this. He is when he talks to Stone. It happened after 9/11.

Stone schools Chandra on jury selection. It's about who you weed out, not choose. You want a young urban woman on the jury. Law enforcement, related family, Fox News watchers, the elderly are all out.

The big night before. Chandra is working on opening statements, Fox News is spinning the story against Nas, Stone is drinking herbal supplements, and Nas's parents are delivering food and mopping floors.

The herbal stuffed cleared up Stone's Eczema.  Is this a good sign for the case or just happenstance? At least we don't have to watch stone go into court with sandals and cling wrap on his feet.
At first I wondered why Chandra is doing the opening statement, since Stone has more experience, but this is her firm's case. They hired Stone, and it's also her chance to prove her worth.

Freddy gave Nas a white shirt and black tie for his day in court, but Nas refuses. His mom is bringing him clothes. His mom brings him a royal blue shirts, which Stone tells him you can't wear in court. The defendant has to wear a white shirt. How would Nas or his family know that? No one told them, but that's part of the system. While Freddy is helping, Nas knows Freddy is gaming him.

And so the case begins. I expect the case will go through episode seven and part way through eight.

The day of the case, Stone awakes with an interesting question. How did an unemployed twenty-two year old afford a ten million dollar house? John finds the man Andrea's stepfather was arguing with at the funeral, it's a financial planner.
Andrea's stepfather is not a nice guy according to the financial planner. He has a thing for rich older women and stopped working the day he got married to Andrea's mom who was twenty five years older than him. We've got another suspect, but at least this one is plausible. I'm sure the next episode will debunk it though.