The Night Of #4: Chandra To The Rescue

Another great episode - #4 - of The Night Of on HBO tonight, in which Chandra, the hot-shot defense attorney's assistant, was the hero.   This series is clearly the best show on summer television, just as HBO says.

About Chandra - she's the only one who tells Naz what he and we want to hear. Allison Crowe, his expensive defense attorney, happy to work pro bono so she can get the publicity, tells him to take the deal.   Freddy wants him to take the deal. Everyone in the DA's office wants him to take the deal.  Even hard-bitten Jack Stone, who means well, wants Naz to take the deal.

And actually, there is one person other than Chandra who doesn't want Naz to take the 15-year plea-bargained sentence. Detective Box doesn't want Naz to take the deal, but doesn't want that for the wrong reasons - he wants Naz to be found guilty of first degree murder, which Box is sure Naz committed.  Not to put too fine a point on it, but Box wants to put Naz in a box, and will settle for life imprisonment as the best he can do in the (I would say enlightened) State of New York.

But Chandra, on the side of the angels and played just right by Amara Karan, tells Naz only to take the deal if he really did the murder.  And if not - to turn the deal down, to not publicly proclaim his guilt for a crime he didn't commit.  It was a breath of inspiration to hear.  And Naz takes her advice.   One of the first smart things he's done.

This is good not only because it felt right, but because it keeps the story in motion.  In a separate thread, we also learn why Freddy has taken Naz under his wing - because Freddy values knowledge and intelligence, and sees that in Naz, and that's good to see, too.

But if Naz didn't do it, we're still left with the question of who did?  At this point, it looks like Don Taylor had something to do with it, but that's a little obvious, so we'll just have to see what next week delivers.  I'm game - my only regret about this show is that I can't stream it all on Netflix or Amazon.


See also The Day After The Night Of on HBO ... The Night Of #3: The Schlep vs. the Star