For the People
Episode 8 of For Life Season 2 begins with Aaron Wallace being publicly announced as the lawyer to stand up for the Josiah family. Determined to honour Andy’s memory, Wallace is ready to fight the cops head-on. First up though, he heads over to see Sofiya and asks for her help in joining him in the courtroom. Sofiya admits she’s not a prosecutor but Wallace needs people he can trust, so that means she and Henry are definitely on the team. At the office, they go over their statements and learn there was no internal investigation conducted by the police; there were no photos or crime scene analysis conducted at the time. Aaron decides to head up with Sofiya to the convenience store in a bid to learn more. The tender, Sherwin, admits that the night was quiet because of the virus. With his cameras broken, and the police telling him to stay inside, it seems the pair have hit another dead end. A text from Henry brings more bad news. An image of Andy with his arm around an old friend throws a big spanner in the works. That friend was involved in a home invasion burglary, which inevitably spreads like wild fire online. Aaron instead turns to little Marcel for a statement. The boy tells his side of the story, including why the police asked him to stop the car. Apparently Andy was doing a U-turn while the mobile phone story doesn’t hold up, given Marcel was the one holding onto it all this time. Sherwin heads over to hand back Marcel’s toy, but Sofiya heads out after him, removing her mask and asking the store owner to tell them the truth. She knows that his security system wasn’t broken. The footage he has incriminates the police completely, as they see the scene play out in its entirety. Henry suggests they go conservative and build up to a change in venue; that way they can then get a new Grand Jury and pile on the charges. Wallace and Sofiya are not so sure though, although Aaron decides to make a backroom deal with the judge in Staten Island. It’s clever, and he intends to play them against their own system. After telling the judge they’ll go for a lower charge, when Aaron admits in court that he’s going for homicide, the judge drops the case completely and clears the courtroom. Elaine is irate and slaps Wallace across the face. This single action from Wallace causes online opinion to sway, with many people calling him soft and a sellout. Following an incident involving Ronnie confronting the police, we’re back with Wallace going in all guns blazing to this case. Sofiya warns that his personal involvement in the case is clouding his judgment. They should be convincing Marcel and Sherwin to testify, prompting the latter to eventually be called in. Well, with new evidence in hand, Wallace heads to Richmond Court to re-try the police but they have a trick up their sleeve. A prosecutor by the name of Veronica Marshall shows and she’s apparently incredibly adept at her job. Anyway, after hearing from Judge Howell, Wallace stands up and decides to file a superseding indictment which incriminates the police with murder in the second degree and manslaughter in the first degree. Given the sudden change of events, this would mean the police would need to be held without bail. Well, Veronica knows Wallace’s history and cleverly uses that against him, claiming these accusations can’t hold weight just yet. Given he himself was held without bail for over a year, he needs to be careful what he does with this power. For now, the police are allowed to go home to their families. As the episode closes out, Sofiya is horrified to learn Sherwin is being arrested by police.
The Episode Review
For Life returns this week and doubles down on the racist cop storyline. While this is okay in itself, it also completely negates some of the early season subplots that cropped up. What’s happening with Wallace’s probation from the prison? Are we just ignoring the tight schedule he’s supposed to be on with his probation officer? Also, there’s a few inconsistencies with mask wearing here again, and although it’s minimal, for a show that’s so adamant on bringing this storyline in, it’s a little disappointing. Beyond that, the ending leaves the door wide open for this story to continue, with lots of question marks over what’s going to happen with this new court case. There’s a lot of irony with Wallace cutting corners while he himself was a victim of this, and in a way it’s good that he was called out by Veronica. Quite how this one is likely to end up remains to be seen but one thing’s for sure – this conflict is far from over.
