Poor Marcia
I feel like we can imagine this look on Marcia's face forever and always. She's going to be at the LA Times Festival of Books this weekend, and I hope I don't accidentally just go up to her and hug her. In reality, this trial was twenty years ago, but I just feel like she's been through so much lately!
Brainstorming
Here, Johnnie is writing his closing statement. “If the glove’s too small, easy call," he rejects. Then he tries, “if the gloves don’t fit….LIGHTBULB.” (He does not SAY "lightbulb," but he might as well have done.) I wish we could have seen several rejected iterations of his famous catchphrase. “If the glove’s too tight, you know I’m right.” “If the glove is tiny, OJ’s halo is shiny." "If the glove is snug, OJ gets a hug?" "If the fit is wrong, OJ must join the throng...of people not in prison? THINK, Johnnie, THINK."
Closing Arguments
Marcia's closing argument is good. She has a MOUNTAIN of evidence on her side, and she begins by noting (basically) that she wishes Mark Fuhrman had never been born. She runs down the evidence the defense did not even try to refute: Ron Goldman literally had OJ’s hair on his shirt, and the glove found at OJ’s house had Ron’s DNA, Nicole’s DNA, and OJ's DNA on it. OJ had a bloody sock in his bedroom with Nicole's blood on it. There were footprints at the scene from a shoe in his size. There's a picture of him literally wearing the gloves found at the scene. And on and on and on. It's kind of incredible...
Closing Arguments 2
Chris's arguments are also compelling -- he turns and literally points to OJ and calls him a murderer.
REGRET
And Bobby Kardashian believes it. A great deal of the emotional center of this episode involves Kardashian, and I think Schwimmer was really, really excellent this week -- as he has been all along. He knows OJ did it -- in fact, when the verdict is read, he stumbles out of the courtroom and he and Marcia have this moment where...to borrow a phrase, she knows he knows, and he knows she knows he knows. And then he goes into the bathroom and vomits. It's really compelling and hugely sympathetic, and we end the episode with Bobby basically telling OJ he's out, and leaving his life forever. (He later told Barbara Walters that he thought OJ did it, and they never spoke again. He and OJ. I assume he and Baba Wawa remained on good terms.) I can believe that this is the worst thing that ever happened to him, and it cannot have helped his health.
Johnnie
And then Johnnie comes up and he just...is really remarkable at his job. He is a great and compelling story-teller -- which is exactly what Darden knew all along -- and tells the jury they are empowered, that they’re there for a reason, and they’re the right people at the right time to take a stand against the racist, systematic brutality of the LAPD. He literally compares Fuhrman to Hitler, before telling the jury to send a message to the world. In short, he makes this trial into a cause for the greater good, by telling the jurors that they have an opportunity here to right some legitimate, powerful, serious wrongs. It is -- and clearly was -- extremely effective. “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” he finishes. He repeats it three times, like a mantra. I remember watching this live -- or at least I think I do. I would have suspected that I just remember watching the news coverage of Johnnie's closing but I remember watching Marcia, too, because I didn't know how closing arguments worked, and wondering, when she was done, what was going to happen next.
Swoon
Closing arguments argued, everyone takes off for what they think will be a HUGE break. Marcia's going to Santa Barbara with the kids, and tells Chris to call her if anything happens. "What if nothing happens?" he asks. "Call me in a month to say hi," she says. MAKE OUT.
Deliberations
But it doesn't take anywhere near a month. We get a brief hit of the jury deliberating -- and I am relived it was brief; the jury, to me, was the least interesting part of this -- in which we learn the original vote had only two Guilty verdicts. It was interesting to me, though, to see that a portion of the jurors DID think that OJ committed the crime; they just didn't think the prosecution proved it. I did not really keep up with the media that spoke to the jurors after the fact, but I'd be interested in hearing what they did say about their decision-making process. I feel like that's a legitimate argument, if not necessarily one I would personally agree with -- and this show has done an amazing job in showing how you could see that argument being made, in Los Angeles, in 1995. I honestly feel like I understand more than ever why this jury came back with a Not Guilty.
YOU GET A VERDICT! AND YOU GET A VERDICT!
EVERYONE, including Oprah, is stunned that the jury is back so fast. No one can believe it -- “Are you shitting me?” “They’ve discussed this case less than anybody in America.” is the exchange over at the defense HQ (I do wonder how much of the speediness of the verdict stemmed from a desire to go the hell home. Because those two hold-outs gave in pretty damn fast. I don't even mean on a conscious level, just that these people were DONE.) The DA's office thinks this might be good news, and when Chris Darden tells Marcia that maybe they WON, it just breaks my heart.
Autograph Please
However, in the jail, OJ's guard both asks him for an autograph, and tells him not to stress. From what he's heard from the guys on duty at the hotel where the jury is staying, OJ is JUST FINE.
Everyone Is Watching
Something I thought this episode did well was really capture how many people tuned in to see the verdict read. As I've mentioned before, I ditched Bio 40 to stay home and watch it, and thus was eating a Hot Pocket in the kitchen of my apartment in Westwood when this historic moment unfolded. (I then packed up my stuff and went up to campus, where I told everyone what happened, because this was before people could get news from the phone in their pocket.) I remember being slightly surprised, but mostly what I remember from the split second before the verdict was read was thinking that it could go either way, and I didn't know what was going to happen.
Verdicts
I also thought the split screen use when the verdict was being read was well done. Bobby Kardashian has...a lot of emotions about this.
Barfy
Emotions that come right out his mouth.
Sweet Darden I Love You
The DA's office is, of course, stunned and distraught. Marcia cries that she's ashamed of herself, Gil Garcetti cannot believe any of this is happening, Chris wants to resign. It's just a REAL bad day at the office.
Pressers
And then they have to go out and give a press conference. Chris cannot even get through his portion. He's too upset. LET ME HUG YOU CHRIS DARDEN.
Reunion
After the press conference, Darden is happened upon by Johnnie Cochran, whose reaction is basically a (very kind) "good game," and who then offers to "bring [him] back into the community," once everything has died down. "Hmm," is Chris's reaction, before telling Johnnie that he never left the community, and that, in fact, Johnnie hasn't changed ANYTHING. "You think I don't understand this situation? I get it. It's payback. OJ's the first defendant in history to get off because he's black," he says. "This isn't some civil rights milestone. The police in this country will keep arresting us, keep beating us, keep killing us. You haven't changed anything for black people here. Unless, of course, you're a famous rich one in Brentwood."
Bill Clinton
But Chris is at least partially wrong. EVERYONE on the news is talking about Johnnie, and the role the corruption and racism in the LAPD played in this case. Up to the President of the United States. And, as far as I understand it, the terrible job that the LAPD did on this case as a whole caused big changes in the way the police department did a lot of things. It's fascinating to see both of these men twisting (subconsciously) the narrative to serve their own point of view (and personal interests) and neither one of them is acknowledging the entire picture: the LAPD's culture of racism and brutality DID need to be brought to light, and OJ IS a rich mega-star who can afford the country's best defense attorney, and his circumstances are not universal.
The DA
Chris tells Marcia that he's going to resign. That he ALWAYS wanted to resign, and that the DA's office just isn't him. Marcia wonders if maybe that's lucky. If maybe you have to have "some...thing inside you already when you get here. Something that you have to make right. Something that you have to avenge." She gives a very good, very understated, very moving monologue in which she tells Chris that she was raped at 17, in Italy, by a waiter, and that when she tried her first rape case, she had to deal with that all over again. "But it made something very very clear to me. I have something. This thing in me that wants vengeance. Vengeance for victims. That's what justice is to me. And I have always, always had faith that when I look at a jury, we have that in common. Everyone wants justice for victims, right? I never doubt that. Until this." It's worth nothing that Sterling K Brown is also GREAT in this scene and he says almost nothing. Except to ask her what happened to the waiter ("the same thing that happened today") and this: "So what do you want to do now?"
"Is it too early for a drink?" Marcia asks. "No," Chris tells her, and they leave the office arm in arm, which is the last we see of them. SIGH. Never was there a more unexpected and wonderful quasi-romantic pair of coworkers. In my imagination, they went and got a drink and then, finally, at last, MADE OUT.
Not Making Out With Anything
Across town, KARDASHIAN IS OVER IT. He's been tasked with taking a gleeful OJ home to Brentwood -- in a white van, a televised journey that echoes the slow speed Bronco chase. When they get to Brentwood, there are some protestors there that seem to irritate OJ -- "That's BULLSHIT, I was found not guilty," he says -- but he cannot dwell. He sold exclusive rights to cover his victory party to Star for $400,000, and so he must party. But the party isn't so great -- it's full of people he doesn't know, the Browns haven't let his two small kids come over, the Riviera Country Club will no longer welcome him, it's terrible when he's alone and has to look at himself in the mirror, and no one at the party seems to go for his grandiose speech about how, now, after the party, he's going to look for the real killers. In fact, it is that announcement that causes Bobby Kardashian to announce that he's done, and leave OJ forever.
Face to Face
So OJ eventually wanders out back to his statute of himself and looks upon his own former glory and has to wonder...what the hell happens now?
Marcia
Well! These cards will tell you.
Chris
This cards are ALSO a good way to give applause to casting, hair and make-up, and wardrobe, for doing such a fantastic job on this show.
Gil
THIS is a little misleading. As I mentioned last week, Garcetti actually WON the election directly after this case. He lost the NEXT election. So I must side-eye this card a wee bit. It's true, but I think a little disingenuous.
Ito
This is excellent casting, but the glasses and facial hair configuration really help. I did find that, during the course of this program, I kinda forgot what REAL Judge Ito looked like.
Bobby Kardashian
As we talked about in the comments several weeks ago, there is something sadly poetic in the fact that a man who felt forced to stay silent eventually died of throat cancer. Like the words he kept in eventually ate him up. It's really, really sad. So much of this is incredibly sad.
Kato
Kato didn't even come to OJ's Big Not Guilty Party. THAT is a burn.
Faye and Kris
I'm not sure I'd call Kato a "reality star" along the lines of one Ms Kris Jenner.
Johnnie
I am very sad that Johnnie isn't alive to see this program. Because I feel like he would have had MANY statements about it, and they all would have been interesting and somewhat dramatic.
Robert Shapiro
I appreciate that Miss Ross got her "Miss" even on this card.
F Lee Bailey
OH F LEE.
Alan Derschowitz
Give me a break, Alan.
Barry Scheck
Good on you, Barry.
Mark Furhman
BOOOOO.
The Browns
This poor family. Your heart has to break for them.
The Goldmans
This poor family, also.
OJ
Yep. That happened. I have to say, this side-by-side does support the fact that, physically, Cuba wasn't a great match for OJ, who is just both larger and more handsome than Cuba is. (Sorry, Cuba.) I did read, though, that one of the reasons they cast Cuba is that they needed an actor for whom the audience would have a lot of residual fondness and a sense of familiarity and warmth, and THAT he does fit.
Actual OJ
Guess who is up for parole next year?
Ron and Nicole.
And this was, I thought, a classy way to end this endeavor. What a tragedy. For so many people.