Bob Shapiro is at the courthouse offering a “Good morning” to Gil Garcetti, who is not here for any of Shapiro’s shenanigans. “We barely recovered from the Rodney King riots of two years ago, and now you and Johnnie are standing in a damn pool of gasoline playing with matches,” Garcetti snaps.
Shapiro insists that he’s not the one stirring things up. It’s Cochran.
But Bob, you hired Cochran to do exactly what he is doing. Playing “the race card” was your idea. Cochran is just better at it. And really, it was F. Lee Bailey who was screaming the n-word at Fuhrman, sooo …
Garcetti isn’t trying to hear Shapiro. “Enjoy your legacy, Bob,” he says.
Ahahaha.
Garcetti storms off just before Shapiro is besieged by reporters. He’s mid-eye roll when he spots Marcia Clark, who has changed her hair again. It’s short and straight. It looks much, much better. “Please don’t ever mention my hair again,” Clark says to Garcetti.
In court, Cochran is talking about the rush to judgment that cops made about O.J. Simpson. Alan Dershowitz and his students at Harvard are watching the case live. He instructs them about the changing culture and how the public wants narrative and entertainment. “If there’s going to be a media circus, you better damn well be the ringmaster,” he instructs.
Later, Clark describes this approach as “desperate flailing.” Darden says that the jury is eating it up and the defense’s “big moments” are having the desired effect on the jury. Someone listen to this man.
Cochran is meeting with Robert Kardashian, who is growing skeptical about Simpson’s innocence. Attorney Carl Douglas interrupts their chat to tell Cochran that his ex-wife and his former mistress are on A Current Affair spilling piping-hot tea. Apparently Cochran had an outside kid while he was married. And despite the payoff Cochran gave his ex, she’s on TV talking about the time he “assaulted” her. Oh.
Detectives swing by Denise Brown’s home to sort though the remainder of Nicole Brown Simpson’s things—that is, boxes of stuff in her sister’s garage. The search is fruitful. They find Nicole’s credit card receipts that show she purchased two pairs of the gloves that are a match for the ones found at the crime scene. “This is cold, hard proof!” Clark declares. “The gloves are our conviction!” Uhh …
The next day at the courthouse, Clark is hanging out waiting to watch the press pounce on Cochran. She gets her wish. She also says that she needs a vacation. Darden volunteers that he’s going to Oakland, Calif., for a friend’s birthday. He asks Clark if she wants to tag along. She says, “Hell, yes.”
Shapiro meets up with Kardashian to speak with him about getting the team on board for a plea deal. Shapiro’s worried about the prosecution getting murdered on “the glove thing.” And he’s concerned about Kardashian, who was seen taking a garment bag from Simpson’s estate. Many people believe that the never-recovered murder weapon was inside. Kardashian is shocked by the accusation and storms out.
At home, Kardashian pulls out the aforementioned garment bag and calls A.C. over to open it with him. There are only clothes inside. Whew.
A.C. takes it as “more proof” that O.J. didn’t do it. But Kardashian is skeptical. “Who do you think did do it?” he asks. Kardashian can’t understand how there is no other suspect. Good question.
Clark heads to Oakland to hang out with Darden and his friends. Somehow, it’s not as awkward as I expected. After a few drinks, the guys want to talk about the case. Clark dismantles the conspiracy theory about Simpson being set up to the point where saying, “O.J. was framed!” sounds utterly ridiculous.
Clark heads to the bar for another round. Darden’s boys try to convince him to do grown-people things with Clark. A drunk Darden walks a drunk Clark to her room. At her door, she’s hoping he’ll ask to come in the room. He fumbles. Womp.
Back at work, Clark is back to all business. Darden has a proposal for her: have Simpson put on the gloves in the courtroom. They need a big moment. OK, I was wrong. Clark should absolutely not listen to Darden.
“You have a king and a 10; why do you want to ask for another card?” she asks. Darden pushes again, until Clark pulls rank on him and emphatically says no.
Darden and Clark head into court. Out of nowhere, Darden, at the podium, asks Simpson to try on the gloves. We all know how this ends.
In the most dramatic fashion possible, Simpson obliges. Of course the gloves don’t fit, which would lead to Cochran’s infamous line, not even quoted (yet) in the show: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
That night at the office, Darden calls the Goldmans to apologize for the bad call on the gloves and to reassure them that the prosecution will “come back from this.”
Um … bruh? No, you won’t.
Demetria Lucas D’Oyley is a contributing editor at The Root, a life coach and the author of Don’t Waste Your Pretty: The Go-to Guide for Making Smarter Decisions in Life & Love as well as A Belle in Brooklyn: The Go-to Girl for Advice on Living Your Best Single Life. She is also a blogger at SeeSomeWorld.com, where she covers pop culture and travel. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.