The episode started the same way - blurry flashes of blue light that finally came into focus as the UV light that Stone was using on his feet. I guessed the ending shots were the same, but I suppose there’s a chance the opening on next week’s episode could be Stone waking up to blue police lights or something.
Thank you. 
I missed that.
I thought it was an odd bookend to the show, but I wonder if it’s meant to invoke that Stone couldn’t give chase to Duane because of his foot condition… so it continues to haunt him and his capabilities in his career.
Also, I can’t decide if the cat/backdoor is a red herring or not. If it was her step-father, he’d probably have a key.
It appears Duane Reade was dropped like a desiccated cat turd (who cleans their cat’s litter box on the kitchen cabinet??!!), creepy hearse driver is really creepy, step dad has a history of going for the gold. With just two episodes to go, this thing just headed off on a slew of tangents, Naz is nothing like we thought he was when it started, but Stone has found ancient Chinese secret (had to look, it was from a Calgon commercial).
Beats the heck out of me. Stone did make a speech about how he just needs one juror, maybe Naz really is guilty and the rouges gallery of questionable characters raises reasonable doubt.
Creepy hearse driver was a bit too creepy. I mean, I like to think if I’m a murdering creep and the lawyer for the guy who is taking the fall for a murder I committed comes to visit me, I’d be able to tone it down a notch or two.
I heard a theory today that the creepy hearse driver is actually Freddy’s brother and that he committed the murder. He’s been getting control of Nasir so he’ll force him to admit under oath that he did indeed kill the girl. That’s why Freddy keeps saying family above all.
Pointless theory but possibly symbolic: The powder didn’t do a thing. His eczema cleared up because his immune system is busy attacking the minor allergens he’s exposed to now that he owns a cat. (Eczema is an autoimmune disease, right?) Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor. 
The creepy mortician is indeed a bit too creepy. Although I have to admit, he wasn’t entirely wrong about the murdered girl. She was clearly using Naz as a plaything. Not that Naz seemed to mind, for the most part.
The pacing seems a bit off in the past couple of episodes. I know that it can take many months between arrest and trial, but it was weird to watch Naz getting multiple prison tattoos and regularly smoking crack. The transformation seemed sudden, even if it really wasn’t.
What about the free food??? Was it from Stone? Was it from the mortician? Why was the delivery guy so creeeeeeepy?
That was the most intense scene in the episode lol
The delivery guy was Naz’s father.
I missed why they connected the name to the drug store… or maybe they didn’t and that’s what I missed.
Was it a quick misdirection type of thing that was so quick it was pretty much a throw-away?
Just a coincidence, I think. Stone thought Trevor made the name up since they were right across the street from a Duane Reade store, but when he checked it out he called Chandra and said his name really was Duane Reade.
Cat somehow curing his feet was also a theory I postulated a while back.
I didn’t notice the delivery guy being Naz’s dad, but that scene was a bit strange. When she left the door opened and turned her back, I didn’t think free food was how that was going to end.
I totally missed that somehow. What was up with that then?
It was supposed to be like the “George Glass” scene in the Brady Bunch. When put on the spot and forced to make up a name, he looks out the window and sees a Duane Reade across the street (in Manhattan, there is ALWAYS a Duane Reade across the street) and just says that his buddy’s name is “Dwayne Read”, or so Stone assumes initially. But, I guess in this case, the guy’s name really was Dwayne Read.
Thanks (also to D of R). Turns out I hadn’t deleted that ep and found the sequence quickly. It helped that the call to Chondra came in the very next scene.
A pretty worthless plot point IMHO…
I keep feeling like there are lots of worthless plot points. For example, why did the creators of the show give Stone eczema? At first, I though it was just supposed to be some sort of quirky thing about the guy. But they have spent so much time on doctor visits, cures, the pharmacy, etc. They’re really invested in the whole eczema storyline, but why?
I totally did not get that Naz’s dad was the food delivery guy. I didn’t understand that scene at all. Chandra seemed surprised that dinner was being delivered to her door, as if she hadn’t actually ordered food. Then, she agrees to pay for it and goes to get her purse, leaving the door standing open. I thought for sure that the delivery guy was in her apartment.
I still have the episode on the DVR, so I’ll watch it again, but wouldn’t Chandra recognize Naz’s dad? Or at least acknowledge him or something. I guess him delivering food would be a way to make money while the cab was impounded, but I would have expected a bit of an exchange between them. She acted like she hadn’t even ordered food, and if he was just being nice and dropping a meal off, why ask her to pay (even if you don’t stick around to collect)?
It’s just showing Stone’s life for the unrelenting misery that it is. In fact, the whole series is shot in a very noir style: the city’s denizens - including the cops, the lawyers, the doctors, etc. - are living in a hell on earth; an uncaring, dysfunctional dystopia of a city. Stone has very little money, lives in a shitty apartment, has a prostitute for a girlfriend, has a caseload consisting of the dregs of society, and has a raging case of the crud on his feet. He goes to endless doctors who prescribe endless non-solutions for him and attends eczema support group meetings that are not at all supportive.
Now he sees a glimmer of respectability in working on a high-profile case, and suddenly can wear shoes instead of wrapping his feet like leftover lasagna. We’re sort of happy for the poor schlub. Hey, he may even hold out a faint hope of landing Chandra as a respectable girlfriend.
I think this is probably a lot more realistic than what we… well at least I am used to in terms of police procedural. I love detective shows some serious and less so like say Monk or Columbo.
So I’m used to seeing Detectives as seekers of truth and justice. But the reality is that they are probably over worked, looking for quick promotions, about to retire, etc.
In this case, the guy with the knife is easy, for everyone, and that’s the story they are going to stick to, probably no matter what now. There’s a vested interest in seeing Naz being put away. Careers are on the line. Admitting their suspect maybe didn’t do it, is not something remotely on their radar.
Just see how the Prosecutor is already massaging the “experts” for a narrative of her own design.
Yeah, I was disappointed they dropped Duane Reade in this episode. I found it jarring in so many ways. We’re already into a trial, meaning jury selection has already happened (a process that takes days if not weeks in a highly publicized trial)… but the parties haven’t even completed investigation of the case? Come on.
I’m not surprised step-dad has come back into play or that the valuable property owned by Andrea via inheritance is a likely motive. I could offer a fairly straight forward theory of the case that includes both step-dad and Duane Reade explaining what happened to Andrea, how and why. No doubt everyone here could. We’d probably be wrong. Lots of dead ends in this tale.
I’m glad Stone’s feet are better. As for the scene of him cleaning the litter box on his kitchen counter, that scene caught me just as I was taking a first bite of dinner. So much for that. Gawd.
Getting back to the trial, the courtroom stuff was really disappointing for me. All the yakkity-yak between Stone and Kapoor about the importance of whom to put on the jury, and they don’t show even one moment of voir dire? Naz wouldn’t have gotten caught with the wrong clothing if they had shown the trial being conducted in the way trials actually occur – meaning to start with the jury selection process. They completely skipped it. The trial commencement just made no sense after the “one juror” speech Stone made. If you’re counting on that “one juror” for a mistrial, don’t we want to see who that “one juror” might be? Instead, they launched straight into opening statements with a jury that just magically appeared. Really irritated me. I’m accustomed to trial scenes being wholly unrelated to reality, but this one was especially bad. Doing my best to suspend disbelief, but…
I’m starting to think that even if Naz is exonerated, it’s beside the point. He likes being Somebody in the jail system. Maybe it’s the first time in his life where he feels like he knows where things stand and his place in the world. Freddy briefly mused on that. Naz does seem to have taken very readily to incarceration. He’s only in jail, now… wonder how he’ll take to prison if convicted?
LOL, I like the theory about the creepy hearse driver being Freddy’s brother! I’m going with that one for the time being. 
This is very true. Law enforcement, prosecutors and judges are all reluctant to look stupid in front of their public for a whole host of reasons. That’s far more realistic than this series is being. Would Box still be nosing around if he didn’t mean to turn the case on its head? Or is he just trying to bolster his hopes that he’s got the right man, even though his intuition is telling him otherwise?
That’s why the Duane Reade thing bugs me so much! Obviously Stone’s investigation unnerved Mr. Reade. And Stone just drops it, and allows the trial to go forward? Now, maybe Mr. Reade has become difficult to locate… but wouldn’t we at least have the results of the “squirrel blood” discovered by Stone’s private investigator prior to the commencement of the trial?
I know, I know. I’m overthinking it.
I agree with everything in those two posts. It started out so slow I mistook that for thorough, but it’s sure taken some fast, sloppy skips that are going to be hard to reconcile in two hours.