‘The Night Of’ Episode 7 Recap: Undesirable Consequences
Warning: This recap for “Ordinary Death” episode of The Night Of contains spoilers.
“S–t is all f–ked up now,” Freddy Knight mutters to Naz towards the end of The Night Of’s seventh episode, “Ordinary Death.” He was speaking about Petey’s suicide — committed quietly in the cell block bathrooms, after being forced to orally pleasure Victor one time too many — which upends the lucrative drug smuggling operation Knight’s crew has going. But with one episode to go until we pass our final verdict on The Night Of, that summation applies to pretty much everyone else’s lives as well. With the initial shock of the crime having worn off, the long-term consequences are kicking in and no one is left unscathed.
Related: Catch Up on ‘The Night Of’ With Our Recaps
The duo who seem in the most immediate danger are Naz and Chandra, who unwisely seal the personal component of their previously professional relationship with a kiss in the courthouse holding cell. While they aren’t seen by the on-duty office, their lip lock was observed by the all-seeing eye of a security camera, and that piece of incriminating footage definitely doesn’t fall under the purview of attorney/client privilege. If their fledgling romance were to be made public knowledge, both Naz’s case and Chandra’s career would take significant hits, putting the kibosh on any plans for their long-term future. Then again, perhaps mutual self-destruction is part of the attraction; we’ve already seen that Naz is adjusting to prison life a little too comfortably, and if Chandra continues to get so personally involved — and not necessarily in a romantic sense — in her cases, the legal profession might not be for her.
At least Chandra still believes in Naz’s innocence. After enduring day after day of prosecutorial testimony and the accompanying graphic images of Andrea Cornish’s corpse, his mother, Safar, is starting to wonder whether she’s raised an “animal.” One particularly devastating detail sends her fleeing from the courtroom, a departure that doesn’t help her son’s case in the slightest. Her husband, Salim, is able to stay in his seat, but then he’s got plenty of other worries to distract him from the proceedings. Worries like his former taxicab partners, who have stopped talking about filing charges against Naz, but are asking him to sell them his taxi medallion for well-below asking price to begin their own venture. Considering that he’s currently making his living by delivering takeout, it’s hard for Salim to turn down any offer of cold, hard cash, but the blow to his pride is not inconsiderable.
Elsewhere, Andrea’s cat is f–king life up for John Stone by causing a flare-up of the eczema he thought he’d conquered with Dr. Yee’s magic herbs. The good doctor advises him in no uncertain terms to rid his apartment of his feline houseguest, but Stone is non-committal about that prescription. In the short term, he may want to invest in some Costco-sized bottles of aspirin, because he’ll be in for a world of hurt if he keeps sneaking around the gym where Andrea’s cougar-hunting stepfather, Don, is searching for his next elderly conquest. Don gives John a small preview of what he and his son might be in for if he doesn’t back off. If he does back off, though, the chances of pushing this bad stepdad out of the shadows and potentially implicating him in Andrea’s murder will go from slim to none. We’d like to believe that s–t won’t be f–ked up for these characters after next week’s series finale, but at this point, the forecast seems to promise a s–tstorm.
Related: ‘The Night Of’ Theories: If Naz Didn’t Do It, Here’s Who Might Have
The Crime: You’ve heard how the prosecution thinks Andrea’s murder went down. Allow the defense’s expert witness, Dr. Katz, to offer a convincing rebuttal. Drawing on the pictures he took of the crime scene back in episode 3, Katz outlines a scenario where another assailant entered the house either through the front gate with the rusty lock, and the closed (but unlocked) basement door or by scaling a tree to an open second-story window, borrowing a knife that belonged to a set of four similar blades and using that to stab Andrea twenty-two times before fleeing the scene with the murder weapon. Step right up and place your bets… Which mystery assailant was it? Don “The Beard” Taylor or Duane “That’s Really His Name?” Reade?
The Cops: For his last official act as a police officer, Det. Box returned to the stand and got thoroughly raked over the coals for his decision to remove evidence — specifically Naz’s inhaler — from a crime scene. “Grossly unprofessional,” is how Chandra summed up his actions, and while Box waved that accusation away in court, it’s clear her words stuck deep in his caw. Walking to his retirement party, he looked more like a man heading to his own funeral rather than a respected officer of the law riding off into the sunset. Our last glimpse of him came after the music had stopped and the partygoers had gone home, leaving him alone with his thoughts, none of which appeared to be pleasant.
The Court: The prosecution rested this week, and the defense took center stage, allowing Chandra to show off formidable courtroom skills for a lawyer trying her first major case. Her steady hand and pointed questions both impressed and troubled veteran prosecutor Helen Weiss, who deployed her years of experience in subtly puncturing the otherwise convincing testimony of Dr. Katz. Through a combination of flattery and feigned ignorance, she backed him into admitting that he’s not above speaking untruths as truths, like the time he praised Dr. Chester — Helen’s hand-picked pathology expert — as a “modern day giant,” in front of a testimonial dinner, despite bad-mouthing him in open court. Even Katz couldn’t help but admire the complex web she wove at the same time he was walking straight into it.
The Cat: Andrea’s cat staged an overdue jailbreak, slinking through the door of Stone’s son’s room and curling up in bed next to its new owner. John awoke horrified, tossing the lonely animal back in its cell and rushing off for a lightning-fast detox. This came just after he had offered the cat to his kid, who flatly turned the furry gift down. So Stone’s home life has pretty much gotten worse since welcoming this pet into his life, but he’s not about to throw the kitty out with the kitty litter. Cat lovers everywhere are appreciative of his suffering.
The Night Of airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.
