The Night Of - FINALE...The Call of the Wild (Spoilers)

[dero316]

I liked the wrap up in the finale but was disappointed with the lack of investigation on both sides, but I guess thats probably how it goes in real life not all trials have CSI type evidence and investigation. Stuff that seemed obvious to investigate wasn't even looked at until the last episode.

Guess the blood in the back yard was from an animal? Never brought it up again.

Neck tattoo, really?

Every step of his exit from prison I was thinking a guard would take him out, wife thought Freddy was going to kill him during that innocence unicorn talk.

I think Nas removed himself from the drug running when he found the new guy that was married, I would guess Freddy already has a system on the outside to get the drugs to anyone(young lawyer for example).

Think the young lawyer is relieved to only be busted for the kiss and not the drugs?

Other than Nas being addicted to drugs its hard to guess what will happen. Family house is for sale so they'll move and maybe get away from the influences.

Was Stone's condition entirely based on his stress? Did the Chinese medicine actually help or was that coincidentally during a period of time he was happy?

 

[EveryoneBleedsGarnet]

This show was True Detective Season 1 all over again. Tons of easter eggs and clues that get everyone amped up during the season and then a totally lame cop out ending.

As someone posted above, the worst possible ending was for them to write in the killer in the last episode instead of using the clues that had us all guessing. It makes the whole journey feel pointless. TWO THUMBS DOWN. Would not watch season 2 (which I'm pretty sure was never supposed to happen).

 

[dero316]

This show was True Detective Season 1 all over again.

Did anyone notice who the judge was?

 

[Noles61]

In the end, it's a show about how in innocent person can get caught into the web of a police investigation, where the goal is to get a conviction as opposed to the truth. The police and the DA took the easy way out and followed the evidence in one path. Only a seasoned veteran with a conscience was able to somewhat right the ship. But Naz is now a drug addict, a pariah in his neighborhood, and will be forever estranged from his mother. The public will never accept him until the real killer is found. Season 2?

Bingo. Great summary.

To add just a bit, there's also the financial loss his parents suffered.

 

[RTM58]

In the end, it's a show about how in innocent person can get caught into the web of a police investigation, where the goal is to get a conviction as opposed to the truth. The police and the DA took the easy way out and followed the evidence in one path. Only a seasoned veteran with a conscience was able to somewhat right the ship. But Naz is now a drug addict, a pariah in his neighborhood, and will be forever estranged from his mother. The public will never accept him until the real killer is found. Season 2?

Yep, lawyers being lawyers.

 

[dmm5157]

I agree that this really was TD Season 1 all over again.

I think they rushed things in the Finale a ton. I can think of a slew of better endings they could have explored:

• Nas is found guilty and then Box passes the info along to Stone to reopen the investigation and try to get him freed as wrongly imprisoned. Could have even ended the show with Nas still in jail awaiting his future.
• Could have been found guilty and Box retires, never pursuing the financial adviser.
• The show could have ended without finding out if he was guilty or not (no verdict).

I really disliked how they played out the Chandra character.

I agree that a lot of timeline was wasted, when the Financial Adviser could have been further investigated. And why didn't Stone call him onto the stand to offer testimony towards the Step-Dad's motives and suspicions? Seemed like a dropped ball there.

So much sloppiness in the ending, the more I think about it.


And yes Dero, I did notice the judge was the yellow king from TD Season 1. I thought he did a good job.

 

[EveryoneBleedsGarnet]

Bingo. Great summary.

To add just a bit, there's also the financial loss his parents suffered.

VAnole is correct about what the show really was about in the end, HOWEVER we don't realize that was the point of the show until the who-done-it angle plays out and fails miserably.

 

[rdbarks10]

-

-After Stone kicks ass in court he is no better for it and back to doing the $250.00 cases with very itchy skin.

-The "who done it" is was made this show interesting. Discussing and coming up with various theories while following the clues and reading between lines made this show a lot of fun. I just wished they could have written in the killer with the clues we had. A murder investigation that does not question the boyfriend. Box with Stone witnessed the investor getting yelled after the funeral while having a picture of him and victim at the beach and this doesn't peak Box's interest.

Two things:

1) I think the last episode comes as a development on Stone. He's not comfortable with closing statements and that affects his career choices. However in the first episode, he talk about the defense and the prosecution telling a story and the jury decides who's story they like better. He says he doesn't care about the truth and doesn't like to be stuck with the truth until he has. Well that's what happens in his closing argument , it was a very honest talking about what they really know speech. Stone also focus on how he knows when someone is guilty and Naz doesn't fit that type. Very cool character development and you see at end when he's nonchalant talking to his new client because he knows the guy on the is like his other clients.

2) I completely agree with you on the who done it aspect and wish they have left more hints. I would have like to see flashbacks of the financial advisor point of view while he was giving answers to Box. Box supplies the surprise evidence but it's too few and would have like that developed. I would also like have seen Naz remember what happen that caused him to go down stairs. Also what about the window that was left unlocked? Did the killer come in that way or up the stairs where he couldn't see Naz at the kitchen table. Also having Duane breaks in at the same time as the financial advisor is in the house and that he was the killer because she freaked and try to call police would have made things fall together better.

Definitely enough there for a second season with going after the financial advisor and showing character development post this case of everyone involved.

 

[Nole Lou]

Everyone has pretty much portrayed my thoughts. What started off as a very realistic seeming story of the justice system and a murder mystery just continued to fray around the edges until it ends with something worthy of a network episodic or Lifetime movie. I don't watch those for a reason.

Everything involving Chandra was pathetic. I've never seen a character be more thoroughly degraded in a couple episodes. The kiss and the drug smuggling were terrible, but to put Naz on the stand was ridiculous and entirely unrealistic. And then for what? She didn't even use him to establish anything...she simply put him up there to be cross examined. Even in a "it's just a TV show" context, it didn't make a lick of sense in the story. And Stone spent all of about 20 seconds as he was walking out the door trying to convince her otherwise.

Totally agree about the dissatisfaction with the killer and the "last chapter introduction" way that was lined up, and whoever made the point that him fingering the step dad made ZERO sense given that he was the killer and Naz was ready to be convicted. Naz might very well have been convicted without being able to point to the step dad.

Even the theme of "good kid ruined by the system" was poorly done, as Naz basically instantly became a cold blooded drug dealer, drug addict and murderer, with zero remorse shown, over a couple episodes. If anything, the most you can say is that the system brought out the terrible person that Naz always was, which isn't nearly as effective. And the whole "caught up in the system" required so many crazy coincidences and terrible decisions on his part, that it doesn't even have the "could happen to anyone" part. Anyone ever stabbed someone through the hand playing mumbledey peg as foreplay?

All that said, the performances were good, and scene to scene, it was compellingly executed. I think they might have fared better to focus the story primarily on Box and Stone and made it more of a character study than a mystery. Like True Detective, those guys were the best parts of the show, and it was at it's best when they were doing their thing, and the mystery part just didn't hold up. In a show like say Happy Valley, there's a mystery or a plot, but the overall defining feature of the show is the lead character. The mystery is just the playground to see them work.

Had the show taken that approach with Stone and/or Box (or if TD1 had done the same), it would have made a better show.

 

[Manch.]

Did anyone else laugh their ass off when Trevor was on the stand trying to take the 5th and then talking about being cursed with the name Duane Reade?

 

[rdbarks10]

The whole ending made at least 5 episodes irrelevant. The inhaler - the investigator (Katz) who knew that you couldn't see the kitchen from the front door or staircase - the open refrigerator door - the number of knives - the gap of time where Naz does not know how he got from the bedroom to the kitchen - the long silent stare between Naz and Duane - why Trevor really lied about being alone - the broken gate - the sample taken from the deer head -

All these facts led us on to a wild goose chase. And that would have been ok had Halle played a bigger role and we had seen more hints about him.

But did he really stab her 22 times? Are we being set up for another season?

This why I would have show some flashbacks from Halle's point of view that night to answer the questions about the crime screne.

I think the writers to leave a lot explain to allow the viewer to fill in my different point of view of how the murder took place similar to how a song writer never tells meaning behind a song. Still it comes off as in the middle of preparing for a second season and trying wrap up as season.
It was sloppy. Never understood the reason for the fight at the funeral and I thought it was the father that was more agitated in the conversation and didn't understand the reason if he two days earlier had applied for sole possession of her estate which he was entitled to.

I think the point was to throw you on a bunch of wild goose chases with all the curious details and that's how imagine real investigation work. Still I think they went overboard and needed to loop in the Hearst driver or Duane as being involved. I did like how they defined Freddie of having an interest in owning someone who was completely innocent as compared to guys who say they are innocent. Freddie's conversation does come off how a demented criminal who think and his angry response to losing it does fit.

Overall a good show but Halle should have been developed more.

 

[rdbarks10]

Did anyone else laugh their ass off when Trevor was on the stand trying to take the 5th and then talking about being cursed with the name Duane Reade?

I did, I thought when he lost it on the stand while expecting the judge to sympathize was the comic relief of the episode.

 

[dero316]

Even the theme of "good kid ruined by the system" was poorly done, as Naz basically instantly became a cold blooded drug dealer, drug addict and murderer, with zero remorse shown, over a couple episodes. If anything, the most you can say is that the system brought out the terrible person that Naz always was, which isn't nearly as effective. And the whole "caught up in the system" required so many crazy coincidences and terrible decisions on his part, that it doesn't even have the "could happen to anyone" part. Anyone ever stabbed someone through the hand playing mumbledey peg as foreplay?

Not sure how long the actual timeline was but I assumed it took place over a number of months. IMO Nas did what he had to do in prison to survive(other than the neck tat, wtf) and it did make him a different person for that period of time. Would be interesting to see how he adjusts to life again, kick the drug habit, back to school, new friends when they sell the house and move.

 

[rdbarks10]

I wonder if one of the themes was criticizing the judicial system for not doing thorough investigations from the get go. They had Halle's DNA on her or on the bed then why wasn't he questioned earlier as a person of interest. I also don't know how he could watch the film of her walking to the cab and not catch her looking behind earlier. The DA as this case went on looked weak in proving her case; I mean a redacted document from the FBI is how you prove beyond a reasonable doubt??? The agruement was he was in the house, found with a murder weapon, and could remember so obviously he did it. She looked bad cross examining Stone's pathologist and why her guy was right and Stone was wrong. The DA not cross examining two violent other person of interest would look bad to me as a juror. Does she really expect us to think Naz is more likely to kill someone because of behavior 14 years ago as oppose to recent violent behavior of two people especially one who's know for breaking into house and using knives in the house? A knife was missing why not ask question about it to Duane?

I think Chandra was present to show she was overconfident based on who she worked for compared to Stone, yet she's the one that screws up big. I think more character development could have been with her. Also what about Naz made him attractive to her?

 

[SoddyNole]

I forgot to add the camera work in this show was masterful. So many artistic scenes of the environment and various uses of the camera which gave this series a feeling that there was story to be told through the visuals. The feeling that if you looked close enough the answer was there and the mystery could be solved. Even in the closing moments the camera is capturing scenes and producing strong imagery in a sea of lost narrative.

 

[dero316]

I forgot to add the camera work in this show was masterful. So many artistic scenes of the environment and various uses of the camera which gave this series a feeling that there was story to be told through the visuals. The feeling that if you looked close enough the answer was there and the mystery could be solved. Even in the closing moments the camera is capturing scenes and producing strong imagery in a sea of lost narrative.

People that watched the original BBC series said the camera work and acting was much better in the HBO version and the story lines were almost exactly the same. The BBC version had much more "unnecessary 3 camera Bourne style" shots. Once I saw this was based on a previous series I didn't investigate for fear of spoilers.

 

[DanC78]

The whole ending made at least 5 episodes irrelevant. The inhaler - the investigator (Katz) who knew that you couldn't see the kitchen from the front door or staircase - the open refrigerator door - the number of knives - the gap of time where Naz does not know how he got from the bedroom to the kitchen - the long silent stare between Naz and Duane - why Trevor really lied about being alone - the broken gate - the sample taken from the deer head -

All these facts led us on to a wild goose chase. And that would have been ok had Halle played a bigger role and we had seen more hints about him.

But did he really stab her 22 times? Are we being set up for another season?

I agree with all this. When the show was over last night I had questions on a lot of little things. The more I think about it and read some of these post, I have LOTS of questions.

Hard to wrap a show up with that many moving parts in 8 episodes. Very poor ending for such a great start.

 

[OrlandNole]

I will say the opening theme music superbly done. Set a very, very dark tone for the show.

 

[Nole Lou]

Not sure how long the actual timeline was but I assumed it took place over a number of months. IMO Nas did what he had to do in prison to survive(other than the neck tat, wtf) and it did make him a different person for that period of time. Would be interesting to see how he adjusts to life again, kick the drug habit, back to school, new friends when they sell the house and move.

I'm sure, but that goes back to the really sloppy depiction of time in this series that I referenced an episode or two ago. They needed more to show the passage of time...even a straight jump ahead with a title card. We can say several months passed, but in the show it takes like three episodes for Naz to give Freddy the time of day, and then he's helping him murder a guy a couple episodes later. Some elements look like they're taking place over a few weeks, while other things look like they take months. I mean, Naz goes from a scared college boy to helping Freddy smuggle drugs and murder someone in roughly the same amount of episodes it takes his father's partners to get around to seeing about maybe whether they can get their cab back. The entire cab partners arc would have taken place in the first six weeks at MOST since the murders.

Again, I don't think the show was terrible. I think it was well directed and well acted, but poorly written.

And I have to say this...I'm no social justice warrior, but it is rather amazing the absolutely shit treatment of female characters in yet another HBO show. The show has basically 4-5 female characters.

-Andrea - whorish and drugged out, violently killed in a sexualized murder
-Naz's mom - Only character trait is disloyalty to her son and being sexually manhandled on a jail visit
-Chandra - Starts as a decent character with potential, who then takes a left turn in total opposition to the previous writing to be:
a. The dumbest lawyer alive, possibly the dumbest person who has ever seen or read one thing about trials
b. Someone who throws away everything to fall in love with a scumbag she barely knows, to the point of getting fired/disbarred and smuggling drugs in her snatch
-Head of Chandra's Law firm - totally cynical media lawyer that's a total caricature
- Prosecutor - the prosecutor is the closest thing to a real female character and not just a plot device. She's got some good moments in the trial and some contextual evidence about what kind of prosecutor she is. But at the very least, she's totally undeveloped. We know a little about her professional personality, but she's totally one dimensional and we know NOTHING about her other than she smokes. The guy that burned Naz in prison is a more fully developed character than the "best" female character on the show.

I think some of this stuff is overblown as to the impact in society, but at some point it has to be acknowledged that the inability or unwillingness to create and develop female characters is highly detrimental to the quality of the product. I think the inability to write both Andrea and Chandra as characters half as full or realistic as Box, Stone, Freddie, etc can be directly tied to the major failings of this show.

The stupid solution to the murder is probably not so lazily and haphazardly done if Andrea is a real character and not a plot device and the writers are forced to actually have to build a reasonable scenario for the character being in a position to fall victim. And if Chandra is built like a real character, we don't have the utter stupidity of her trial/disbarment antics.

 

[rdbarks10]

I forgot to add the camera work in this show was masterful. So many artistic scenes of the environment and various uses of the camera which gave this series a feeling that there was story to be told through the visuals. The feeling that if you looked close enough the answer was there and the mystery could be solved. Even in the closing moments the camera is capturing scenes and producing strong imagery in a sea of lost narrative.

I agree especially during the court scences of final statements. Plus little things like Chandra get emotional explain the aftermath of putting Naz on the stand.

 

[EveryoneBleedsGarnet]

And I have to say this...I'm no social justice warrior, but it is rather amazing the absolutely shit treatment of female characters in yet another HBO show. The show has basically 4-5 female characters.

-Andrea - whorish and drugged out, violently killed in a sexualized murder
-Naz's mom - Only character trait is disloyalty to her son and being sexually manhandled on a jail visit
-Chandra - Starts as a decent character with potential, who then takes a left turn in total opposition to the previous writing to be:
a. The dumbest lawyer alive, possibly the dumbest person who has ever seen or read one thing about trials
b. Someone who throws away everything to fall in love with a scumbag she barely knows, to the point of getting fired/disbarred and smuggling drugs in her snatch
-Head of Chandra's Law firm - totally cynical media lawyer that's a total caricature
- Prosecutor - the prosecutor is the closest thing to a real female character and not just a plot device. She's got some good moments in the trial and some contextual evidence about what kind of prosecutor she is. But at the very least, she's totally undeveloped. We know a little about her professional personality, but she's totally one dimensional and we know NOTHING about her other than she smokes. The guy that burned Naz in prison is a more fully developed character than the "best" female character on the show.

I think some of this stuff is overblown as to the impact in society, but at some point it has to be acknowledged that the inability or unwillingness to create and develop female characters is highly detrimental to the quality of the product. I think the inability to write both Andrea and Chandra as characters half as full or realistic as Box, Stone, Freddie, etc can be directly tied to the major failings of this show.

The stupid solution to the murder is probably not so lazily and haphazardly done if Andrea is a real character and not a plot device and the writers are forced to actually have to build a reasonable scenario for the character being in a position to fall victim. And if Chandra is built like a real character, we don't have the utter stupidity of her trial/disbarment antics.

What should they have done? Write Detective Box as a female just to balance out the male:female ratio? Really it seems like your only legit gripe is that Chandra was a head scratching character that made some really stupid decisions. I could argue that Nas made just as many stupid decisions though. Matter of fact he was worse. Neck tattoos, drugs, murder assist all in a matter of weeks. The rest of the female characters mentioned all filled their roles exactly as needed for the plot. Why would you want to develop characters that don't need to be developed just for the sake of being PC? Screw that.

 

[SilverChalice]

I don't think Halle's DNA was on the house--I think Box made that up to see what reaction he would get.

 

[rdbarks10]

I don't think Halle's DNA was on the house--I think Box made that up to see what reaction he would get.

I thought that was a bold move because he said he used that and the photo to say something was going on besides a business relationship. Box also ask him if he remembered him like they had met before. It could have been that they met at the funeral but that was never clarified. There was just a lot that could have been developed from that encounter. Plus he was at her place at 3:00 am which means Naz was probably passed out for 2-3 hours since they got to her place at some time between 10-11:00 am and it didn't take long for things to escalate.

 

[dmm5157]

I thought that was a bold move because he said he used that and the photo to say something was going on besides a business relationship. Box also ask him if he remembered him like they had met before. It could have been that they met at the funeral but that was never clarified. There was just a lot that could have been developed from that encounter. Plus he was at her place at 3:00 am which means Naz was probably passed out for 2-3 hours since they got to her place at some time between 10-11:00 am and it didn't take long for things to escalate.

Box said they had met before after a club shooting a year before (that guy got shot). Box spoke about it at length at the beginning of the chat.

 

[Nole Lou]

And why would Freddie be so concerned with what color shirt Na

What should they have done? Write Detective Box as a female just to balance out the male:female ratio? Really it seems like your only legit gripe is that Chandra was a head scratching character that made some really stupid decisions. I could argue that Nas made just as many stupid decisions though. Matter of fact he was worse. Neck tattoos, drugs, murder assist all in a matter of weeks. The rest of the female characters mentioned all filled their roles exactly as needed for the plot. Why would you want to develop characters that don't need to be developed just for the sake of being PC? Screw that.

No, I don't give a crap how many female characters there are, or whether they are "good guys" or "bad guys" or if they're strong independent role models, or anything of that nature. Don't give a crap. It's an artist's vision of a story, and if the story is just about guys, then that's not a knock in my mind at all. A lot of people slagged True Detective 1 for being a boys club, and that they didn't have major female catalysts. I wasn't on board with that criticism at all...the story is what the story is. Maybe there could be a macro case for whether women are represented enough on TV, but that's an argument that doesn't move me much since there is so much TV from so many sources.

This is a different story. The creators put women in this story. And then they were in my mind, either unwilling or unable to write those characters. I have no idea what the writers room looked like...for all I know this was jointly written by 37 NARAL activists...but they did a terrible job on the female characters in this show, and it significantly directly detracted from the end product.

I absolutely agree that Naz as a character was poorly executed and made dumb decisions, right from the first episode. But the thing is, as poorly as they were done, at least they were explicable. It was ham handed and overbaked at times, in my opinion, but you got the IDEA of why he was doing what he was doing. Yes, stupid to have him tatooing his neck before the trial ended...but at least it was consistent...he was falling into the system, he was finding the family/community he didn't have on the outside, he was embracing that dark part of him that was always there, etc. Was it a dumb way to show it, definitely, but it wasn't out of the blue. It's not like the story had Naz all of a sudden, say, go to the warden and offer to wear a wire on Freddy, or get a job in the kitchen and start poisoning people, because the plot needed it.

And of course, a shoddily done character like Naz is one thing, while you have characters like Stone, Box and Freddie that are quite well done and fully realized.

In my opinion, by NOT giving a sh_t about the female characters, it opened the door to the biggest problems the show ended up with. The out of left field killer, which I think was a major letdown, was only possible because the character of Andrea was so unrealized. Sure, we can make her be having an affair with whoever. We can make her a druggy party slut that's seeing sleeping her financial planner, but sure we can say that she all of a sudden looked at one statement and jumped all over a discrepancy and was ready take him down so he had to kill her but he liked to assault whores anyway so was Andrea a prostitute he was seeing and then he became her money guy or maybe he killed her because all of a sudden she was a forensic accountant and was getting to the bottom of his theft whatever don't worry about it making sense.

And I went over the Chandra stuff. If they even gave the slightest damn about that character, they would not have her acting dumber than a 12 year old who saw one episode of Columbo. Oh, a young lawyer getting her big break on a high profile case that's too big for her? Of course she's smuggling coke up her plumbing and falling in love with a scumbag, because you know, women do that.

All I'm saying, is they wouldn't have say, Stone getting a crush on the prosecutor, and handing her the defense files, because it doesn't fit the character.

I'm not a media social justice warrior as I said, but it was just glaring to me in contrast how poorly they drew up the female characters, which wouldn't even be that big a deal, if not to have those deficiencies totally play out in the endgame of the last couple episodes.

 

[rdbarks10]

Box said they had met before after a club shooting a year before (that guy got shot). Box spoke about it at length at the beginning of the chat.

Okay, I didn't catch that. Still it bugs me if he had real DNA of him being in that house. It looks bad if they didn't pursue that from the get go but the writers are trying to show the dangers of rushing an open and shut case.

 

[Nole Lou]

Okay, I didn't catch that. Still it bugs me if he had real DNA of him being in that house. It looks bad if they didn't pursue that from the get go but the writers are trying to show the dangers of rushing an open and shut case.

You would have thought that either Box or Stone would have turned up the guy as part of the investigation, wouldn't you? Box, you have the excuse that there really wasn't an investigation, but I'm not sure why the defense wouldn't be looking at who she was seeing.

 

[dmm5157]

You would have thought that either Box or Stone would have turned up the guy as part of the investigation, wouldn't you? Box, you have the excuse that there really wasn't an investigation, but I'm not sure why the defense wouldn't be looking at who she was seeing.

Exactly, since they had access to the same evidence the prosecution did. Seriously dumb IMO.

 

[rdbarks10]

You would have thought that either Box or Stone would have turned up the guy as part of the investigation, wouldn't you? Box, you have the excuse that there really wasn't an investigation, but I'm not sure why the defense wouldn't be looking at who she was seeing.

I dunno Ive felt the whole season like Box was trying to rush this case because he wanted to retire. It's why I think they include the first scene about the cops joking about police just go through the motions which Box gets up leaves because he doesn't want to go out that way. I felt like Box could have found the rehab center she was in by doing some research on her drug habit. I mean the girl had A LOT of drugs on her dresser when they found her and her stepfather said she had a drug problem. The lack of checking additional cameras till the end still bugs me.

 

[nynole1]

I thought the jury HAD to end the way they did, a conviction would have been ridiculous considering they were presented with other possible suspects in the case. The problem I had with those suspects is just how CONVENIENT the three of them were. I just could not get over that.

How many times have you read about/seen a case where four people could have committed such a savage crime? Think about it: 1) Duane - long wrap sheet of B&E, each time taking a knife from the victim's house while committing the crime. 2) Driver - wrap sheet consisting of domestic abuse, clear hatred towards women on full display while being questioned by two women in court. 3) Stepfather - womanizer fired from his job for what amounts to sexual harassment and benefits big time financially by the girls death. 4) Nas - physical evidence all over the crime scene, violent behavior in school, newly tattooed and head shaven just in time for the trial.

I mean if you were defending a murderer and could get just ONE of these witnesses on the stand, you would have a pretty damn good shot of getting your client off. This case had three, completely ridiculous and took away from this show tremendously.

Those who compared it to TD season 1 are spot on, I felt the same way at its conclusion. Its like the writers in both series did an awesome job all along and just straight up dropped the ball in the finale. Disappointing to say the least.

 

[Nole Lou]

I thought the jury HAD to end the way they did, a conviction would have been ridiculous considering they were presented with other possible suspects in the case. The problem I had with those suspects is just how CONVENIENT the three of them were. I just could not get over that.

How many times have you read about/seen a case where four people could have committed such a savage crime? Think about it: 1) Duane - long wrap sheet of B&E, each time taking a knife from the victim's house while committing the crime. 2) Driver - wrap sheet consisting of domestic abuse, clear hatred towards women on full display while being questioned by two women in court. 3) Stepfather - womanizer fired from his job for what amounts to sexual harassment and benefits big time financially by the girls death. 4) Nas - physical evidence all over the crime scene, violent behavior in school, newly tattooed and head shaven just in time for the trial.

I mean if you were defending a murderer and could get just ONE of these witnesses on the stand, you would have a pretty damn good shot of getting your client off. This case had three, completely ridiculous and took away from this show tremendously.

Those who compared it to TD season 1 are spot on, I felt the same way at its conclusion. Its like the writers in both series did an awesome job all along and just straight up dropped the ball in the finale. Disappointing to say the least.

In addition, from what I've read and seen of murder cases, it's extremely hard to get other potential suspects on the stand like that, let alone several. Seems like the judges specifically disallow that in most cases. Can someone more familiar with trials say if that would be realistic to be able to trot out three alternative suspects like that?

 

[RTM58]

Here's a very cool edit highlighting how the framing in The Night Of was so on point. It will make you want to go back and watch the series.