'The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story' Recap: Peers Pressure

Warning: This recap for the “A Jury in Jail” episode of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story contains spoilers.

Almost nothing provokes such a vast spectrum of emotion as receiving a jury summons. Anger, annoyance, confusion, excitement, solemnity, resignation. Tons of feelings emanate from that beige envelope like rays from a particularly d–kish sun. All but the most naive or bored know that jury duty is something to get out of, but it’s our proud American duty to serve! So report we must.

As much of a pain as jury duty can be, I think we’ve all sat in those immense, drably-carpeted waiting rooms fantasizing about being selected for a jury in some kind of huge, high-profile case. That would make the whole process worth it, right? To be part of an important trial? Well, no trial has ever been as important as the O.J. Simpson trial, and if “A Jury in Jail” is to be trusted, perhaps no jury has had a worse experience. From actual verbal abuse by the courthouse guards to denial of everyday pleasantries like television or swimming pool access, the jurors eventually turned on each other and the system itself. But where most of us knew of all the dysfunction surrounding the prosecution and defense, all this jury drama had been shielded from public eye. Until now! What a truly fascinating episode. Let’s talk about it.

We began in a tacky hotel conference room where a borderline RACE RIOT was about to break out.

Meet the men and women of the O.J. Simpson trial jury. We were eight months into their daily ordeal and it was safe to say that they were no longer stoked or excited to be apart of the Trial of the Century. But things weren’t always this way.

We flashed back to their original arrival at the hotel in which they’d be sequestered, and a few were feeling pretty jazzed about getting a high-profile vacation for their efforts. But within minutes they were all being yelled at very harshly by uniformed officers, and also they weren’t allowed to read magazines, watch TV, or even take a sweet dip in the jacuzz’!

So right away things were not fun, and this was before outright arguments broke out between the jurors that reflected tons of racial tension. For example, all the white people wanted to watch Seinfeld on the communal television, but they were outnumbered by those who wanted to watch Martin.

If we are being honest, this was the only correct decision this jury ever made. Martin was the best.

The Dream Team, however, was having a GREAT time. This was mostly due to the whole “glove not fitting” incident, a victory which caused them to break out champagne and do cartwheels around the office. Even O.J. was feeling pretty good, as evidenced by this very fun-seeming poker game he played with the boys using Skittles for money. (I honestly would’ve Hungry Hungry Hippo’d that whole table.) In contrast, Marcia Clark was feeling very angry and bummed about the glove thing (which made her kinda hate Chris Darden even more than the time he failed to sex her up on vacation). But in her opinion they still had very convincing DNA evidence on their side.

Unfortunately the jurors seemed to be actively sleeping during most of this confusing and dry testimony, and the DNA specialist was further bullied by the Defense into admitting all the flaws in his testing methods. To make matters even worse, this guy left the stand humiliated and then basically did a running high-five of all the lawyers, which caused the jury to wake up long enough to give him a lingering side-eye. Who WAS this turkey?

At this point the show’s genius music supervisors cued up “Natural One” by Folk Implosion just in time for Marcia Clark to kick the s–t out of her office! She made a damn mess of the place, and for good reason: Her case was rapidly falling apart.

The main thrust of this episode (besides demonstrating how horrible it must’ve been to be on this jury) was to illustrate how ugly it got between Johnnie Cochran and Marcia Clark when it came to manipulating the demographics of the remaining jurors. See, both sides had gauged which jurors seemed most likely to vote guilty or not guilty, and then sought to dismiss any jurors that might not side with them. This meant that several of them were suddenly subject to background checks that revealed information to disqualify them. One man was kicked out for being a possible kidnapper while another was kicked out for lying about being a domestic violence victim. Another guy had “forgotten” that he’d once had his picture taken with O.J., and another was accused of taking notes on his fellow jurors in case he intended to write a book about the whole thing. Basically the whole jury was a mess and people were getting dismissed right and left.

Aside from the angry woman who resembled the Pine-Sol lady, my favorite juror was probably the one that Johnnie Cochran referred to as The Demon. In my opinion, anyone nicknamed The Demon has to be at least SOMEWHAT cool. But I guess she had earned the name because she had a reputation for “listening to facts” and convincing other jurors to vote using “logic.” Clearly she was untrustworthy in a case like this. Anyway, there was a moment when a black juror was dismissed and The Demon’s number was randomly selected to replace her, and Marcia Clark basically fist-pumped in Johnnie Cochran’s direction.

Things were getting FIERCE. (But also they were running out of jurors, which could lead to a mistrial, and NOBODY wanted that.)

Oh wait, I changed my mind. THIS GUY was my new favorite juror. Look at this sweater!

There was an incredible moment when the jurors became so disgruntled by how they were being treated by the guards that they refused to show up to court on time, and later all wore black in solidarity (including The Demon!) while “Fight the Power” played. It was amazing. I especially loved how the guy in the amazing Cosby sweater STILL wore his sweater though. I would, too, if I owned that. Like, cool idea, guys, but look at my sweater!

One juror was clearly the outcast of the group, and she had been very vocal about how the guards had been treating the jurors differently depending on race. Her most damning claim was that the guards had allowed the white jurors to hang out at Target for a full hour, but the black jurors only got 30 minutes at Ross. (The aside where Johnnie Cochran confirmed to Marcia Clark that black people love Ross was easily one of my favorite moments in the show so far.) As someone who ALSO loves Ross, I can confirm that much more than 30 minutes is necessary to do any shopping there. The place is basically a thrift store where everything’s new and nothing is racked in an understandable way. It’s a big treasure hunt and that kind of thing takes TIME.

Eventually — and after the Defense very obviously attempted to get The Demon kicked off the jury via an “anonymous letter” claiming that an old white woman was shopping a book — Marcia and Johnnie came to a truce to stop kicking jurors off the jury. Again, this trial had been such a colossal pain in the A. for everyone involved, nobody wanted a mistrial under any circumstances. And as much as Johnnie offering Marcia a cup of coffee was a strictly diplomatic move, I still thought it was touching. These two must’ve harbored at least a little respect for each other as lawyers, so this was an acknowledgment that their professional relationship would likely extend far beyond this clash. (Well, until one of them dies, at least.)

At this point the Dream Team grew concerned that they no longer had the numbers on the jury, so they toyed with the idea of putting O.J. on the stand so that he could unleash his signature charm. But then they did a mock cross-examination in which he was forced to answer for all the domestic abuse charges against his slain wife, and he creepily smiled the smile of a killer while offering no good explanations for anything. Scrap that idea!

But O.J.’s performance was enough to fully convince Robert Kardashian that he was 100% a killer, and this made Robert Kardashian feel VERY guilty. This, plus the very convincing DNA evidence left Kardashian with no choice but to admit to himself that he was helping an actual murderer go free.

So yeah, in one of the episode’s most disarming and telling moments, he broke down in front of his ex-wife Kris Jenner and they bonded over finally being on the same page. She, of course, had always believed that O.J. murdered her friend, and now Robert finally agreed with her. It’s truly saying something that on this show THE KARDASHIANS are the moral compass. Seriously, I don’t know if I’ve ever loved and respected this family more.

But just when it looked like Marcia Clark’s case against O.J. was starting to look less and less like an uphill battle, an anonymous tipster called in a doozy: He had access to audio recordings of Mark Fuhrman talking about “framing N-words.” Whuh-oh! What a rude cliffhanger.

“A Jury in Jail” was a riveting examination of one of the most purposefully hidden aspects of the O.J. Trial. It wasn’t until after the trial was over that we learned anything about the jurors as individuals or what their hellish experience had been like, but to be quite honest very few people actually cared by that point. But this episode truly felt enlightening: NO WONDER these people made the choices they made. No person could’ve survived in that environment with their sanity intact. The lack of television alone! How did they get by without riveting primetime dramas like this one? After watching The People v. O.J. for eight weeks, it’s clear *I* could never survive without it.

What did YOU think of “A Jury in Jail”?

The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.