Thoughts on episode 7 from HBO's "The Night Of"

Seven episodes down. One to go. What a ride this season has been, let's see if it all pays off next Sunday evening for the finale. But in the mean time, let's take a peak in the rear view at episode 7, titled "Ordinary Death." Episode 7 finally gave us the necessary scenes inside the courtroom, actually digging into the trial aspect of Andrea's murder. Don't get me wrong, I understand that we needed to take some time to slow things down and learn about the characters. I understand that we had to explore the timeliness of the system. I appreciate that we got to see the transformation of Badass Naz in Rikers. I appreciate all of the meticulous camerawork, spine chilling soundtrack, and award-worthy acting. I do, I really do. But the reason I invested my viewership into this show was to find out if Naz committed the murder, or if someone else did. Although I'm a little irritated that it took until the seventh episode, I was certainly satisfied that we got to see some courtroom action.

The MVP of the courtroom was easily Dr. Katz.

If there is going to be a savior for Naz, which at this point I'm unsure of, it will be Dr. Katz. Ironically every fan of this show has been saying that the cat will somehow solve the murder, making up theories of the cat's symbolism, and maybe it was all just a preview of this legend. Dr. Katz is the first person who has even remotely rattled Weiss so far, and it was pure poetic justice. Every time that woman appears on my screen I cross my fingers hoping I never have to see or hear her again. Dr. Katz finally brought up some useful points in Naz's defense, something that we've seen very minimally throughout the show.

The LVP from the courtroom, without a doubt in my mind, was the disloyal Mrs. Khan.

Seriously I was so beyond furious when I saw Mrs. Khan walk out of the courtroom. Although she's clearly going through a very tough time, you've gotta be ride or die for your son. I don't care what the media has to say, what the State has to say, or what anyone has to say. It'd be one thing if she thought Naz was a dirt bag from the beginning, but she straight up let herself get persuaded and now even if Naz gets out, those two will never have the same relationship as before. I get why she could be enraged and frustrated by the unfortunate scenario she has been presented with, but you've got to stick to your roots Momma Naz. In an earlier episode, some time when Naz and Freddie's relationship was still undeveloped, Freddie told Naz something along the lines of "Family is everything." As I see it, while Naz's Rikers family grew stronger (more to come on that later), his real family was falling apart. Naz's mom is the first, and I hope last, member of his outside family to bounce.

I've seen a lot of chatter on Reddit that bring up her finding the Maxim magazine and condoms was the very beginning of her losing faith in Naz. But finding some sexually related stuff in your college son's bedroom doesn't even look at the same moon as stabbing a girl to death. Absolutely no correlation. If every Maxim reading, condom wearing male was a murderer, the incarceration rates would outweigh the free population.

Other courtroom highlights:

We saw Naz's former high school basketball coach at the stand, and they reviewed the previously known altercation that got Naz suspended from school. Things were looking up as Chandra is a wildly credible source to defend a point such as built-up post 9/11 tensions, until the coach revealed that Naz had another damn altercation after his suspension. Another altercation that his lawyers knew nothing about. Another altercation that helped the State portray him as capable of murder. Come on dude, you need to do a better job of filling your lawyers in on things like that. Be better.

Chandra FINALLY brought up seeking out other suspects such as the hearse driver, Duane Reade, and Trevor. At first when people started to complain about these things not being brought up, I chalked it up to the loads of evidence against Naz. But for the sake of the viewers, this is ridiculous. I'm pumped Chandra finally brought it up but there's still no answers and we have one episode left. This certainly could've been brought up earlier during those few drowsy episodes. And speaking of Duane Reade-related unanswered questions, how did they never explain what happened when Stone was chasing Duane through dark alleys with a weapon? I feel insulted. Deprived. Foolish for believing the writers would finish that scene, or at least explain an aftermath of the situation that was potentially lethal for a main character.

It was also FINALLY brought to everyone's attention that Box took evidence from the crime scene, Naz's inhaler. I will admit his responses were strong, as he did so in a pretty convincing manner. But even though his argument was reasonably persuasive, we still sort of saw a more cutthroat side of him. Personally I've always kind of liked Box, because I've been waiting for him to realize he truly doesn't believe Naz did it. But he's come this far, I don't know if he'll turn back now. If anything did give me a sense of him coming to this realization though, it's the combo of another girl stabbed to death at the beginning of the episode, and his thoughtful stare at the new set of golf clubs after his retirement shin dig.

Maybe it's starting to resonate with Detective Box that he doesn't want the last job of his career to be a botched one. Or perhaps, a bogie. Am I right? Thanks, donations are not only allowed but encouraged. 

The State attempted to further dismiss Naz's "good boy" image by questioning one of his frequent Adderall customers from school. Very easy case to make, but it definitely doesn't have enough leverage. Much like Mrs. Khan discovering that her son did in fact have hormones, the fact that Naz sold his Adderall is nowhere comparable to murdering someone. Surely disproves that he is a perfect angel, but I know plenty of far-from-perfect characters that have refrained from taking another person's life. When Weiss broke down how Naz was scheming this kid on Adderall prices and insulted this kid (Amir I think is his name) in the process, she asked (in referral to them both being in the same business school), "Which of you would you say is learning the most?" I could kind of see this also indirectly referring to him learning how to survive and climb the totem pole at Rikers.

Probably insignificant but Naz's smirk to his customer in the courtroom weirded me out for whatever reason. Can't explain it. Honestly he was probably just smiling a bit because seeing someone familiar outside of the prison might have been comforting to an extent. 

Highlights outside of the court room:

As I had said before, the scenes that took place in the courtroom were vital to our cravings for a conclusion on this case. But outside of the courthouse some crazy, crazy stuff went down in episode seven. Where do we start?

The kiss!! Out of a every single "Are you kidding me?!" moment in this show (mainly Naz's decision making ability), this one is lightyears ahead of the rest. I hated every part of it. I was for sure creeped out by Naz's late night phone call to Chandra an episode or two ago, and I was hoping it wouldn't come to them actually hooking up. The storyline definitely could have done without that in my opinion. It seemed forced. Unless, of course, the fact that security footage exists of that major mistake and could possibly play the role of twisted fate for both Chandra and Naz.

In last week's recap I mentioned how sketched out I got by Petey. Seriously every time they showed his face I got uncomfortable. And as we found out last week, he was doing some extracurricular favors for one of the higher ups in the gang, aside from just having his mother be Mule #1 of a 2 mule drug ring. And as we found out in episode seven, Petey just couldn't take it anymore. I don't blame him. But hey, Pistol Pete, if you can't do the time, don't do the crime buddy. I do wish we knew what he was in for, I can't quite figure out what he was capable of. When Naz was in the bathroom, before we knew Petey was dead in there, it was obvious that something incredibly shady was about to go down. I thought Naz was about to get jumped by Petey's "boss" or something like that. And of course right when Freddie found out, he was not a happy camper. His whole operation was screwed. So how did he react? Duh, of course he immediately asked Naz if he had any information on Petey, Naz spilled the beans, and Freddie went to slit the throat of big dude. I've referred to him so many times without knowing his name, and now it's too late because, well...like I said Freddie slit his throat.

Now as we've seen, Freddie has had guys killed or put in critical condition multiple times without hesitation or consequences. However, Naz played a role in this murder, distracting the guard by asking for a new inhaler/paperwork that comes along with it. Freddie was in 'n' out of there without leaving a trace of his presence, and Naz did the same after the guard ran off to peep the situation. Naz being an accomplice to this murder could mean two (or a million, or nothing) things: Either Naz, by nature, is capable of committing a crime that would end someone's life, or prison changed him and he gets caught with this crime even though he was not guilty of killing Andrea. I think it will go one of those two directions for the finale.

As good as this episode was, I still can’t help but think that those slower episodes were a complete waste for an eight-part series. I just feel like when you decide on eight episodes, you don’t really have any time to spare. Luckily for us, I did hear that the finale is supposed to be about 1 hour and 45 minutes long. I’m not entirely sure how true this is, but it would definitely make sense since it feels like we have too many loose ends to tie up in an hour-long time slot.

Unfortunately, I’m starting to get the feeling that we won’t find out who killed Andrea. I just don’t think there’s enough time left. My guess is the closest thing we get to finding out who the murderer is will be finding out that Naz didn’t do it. However, I don’t think Naz will be a free man due to something that goes down at Rikers, quite possibly Freddie’s most recent murder. Maybe now that Petey is gone, Freddie and Naz will approach a new strategy for smuggling drugs in, a strategy that doesn’t go as smoothly as before. While we’re on that topic, I think Naz’s mule days have come to an end as he’s certainly earned a promotion within the gang.

If the show concludes with Andrea’s stepdad being the murderer, I will be extremely disappointed. It would just be too obvious of a choice. I want this show to end with the unveiling of Andrea’s murderer more than anything, but the stepdad would be a cheap ending.

So after next Sunday night, hopefully we’re not too underwhelmed with the conclusion. Have any theories of your own? Comment below or let’s discuss on Twitter @CalebBlackmur. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and as always spread the word.