S02.E12: Morgan's Story

[statsgirl]

Quote

A teacher going through a messy divorce gets arrested under suspicious circumstances.

Starring Meghan Rath, Dennis Andres, Christopher Gorman, Allisson Hossack

Airs April 11, 2023

[Snazzy Daisy]

Accused | 1x12 Promo "Morgan's Story"

 

 

Edited April 11, 2023 by SnazzyDaisy

[AnimeMania]

Next New Episode: April 25, 2023

Meaghan Rath as Morgan Knight 
Christopher Gorham as Jason Knight
Dennis Andres as Eric Knight
Kashir Amari as James Ubom
Allison Hossack as Kate Chin, Morgan's attorney
Christopher Seivright as Alex Breacey 
Hanneke Talbot as Regina
Gianpaolo Venuta as Dean Johnson
Jamillah Ross as Rashida Arain
Stephanie Herrera as Principal Isabel Martinez
Emma Campbell as Judge
Kyle Mac

Edited April 11, 2023 by AnimeMania

[Crashcourse]

I didn't like any of these people, and I didn't feel sorry for Morgan.  That poor kid shouldn't be with either parent.   

I'd never seen any of these actors before, and they were all awful.

[Halting Hex]

Nope, sorry.  You're not going to make me hate Gorham, no matter the part.  (I didn't even hate him in 

Spoiler

Harper's Island and not only did he turn out to be a mass-murderer, but his plan was one of the stupidest in human history.

The only time I've ever been against him was when

Spoiler

James the Hissy-Fit Ghost tried to kill Willow, and a) that was Willow and b) that whole over-dramatic episode with the barely hidden "girls, forgive your abuser!" theme was there to assure the 'shippers that Buffy and her temporarily-estranged boyfriend were going to get back together, about which I so did not care.  [I hated both of Buffy's major relationships, for many of the same reasons.]

)

My only complaint here is what was wrong with his voice?  Did he have health problems, or is that something he affected for the role?

Eric, of course, was the stupidest cop in the history of cops.  There was zero reason to bring a "witness" into the deal since they probably had enough to convict Morgan without it.  (And even if she was acquitted, her being tried on drug charges should be enough to allow Jason to revisit the custody verdict.)

And if Eric did try to get some "skel" to testify, he shouldn't use somebody he could be linked to.  You can't tell me that there wasn't another cop he couldn't have swapped "favors" with.

AND if Eric did use this guy, you'd think he could do some decent prep work.  Not only should the guy (I didn't catch his name) have been drilled over and over so that he knew all the little details, like Morgan's car, but they should have had him actually there to observe Morgan on a few Wednesdays, since there wasn't really a rush.  Have him be able to say when she got there, what she was wearing, etc.

And gee, isn't it lucky that Jason mentions Morgan's "expensive" tastes, but he never mentions that Ms. Humble Schoolteacher is driving a freakin' PORSCHE as an example of said expensive tastes.  (In New York City?  Where does she park it while she's at work?  I'm guessing the public school doesn't have the most-secure lot in Manhattan.)

Very much of the stupid.  I didn't catch any obvious procedural errors this time, but I'm sure Chicago Redshirt would do a better job of that, anyhow.

*************************

BTW, why did Morgan get custody in the first place?  Jason makes more money than her, she works full-time just as he does (and he can probably do some telecommuting where she can't), she's the one with a criminal arrest on her record, and she's the one who broke up their marriage by running around behind his back.  (When he cheated, he tried to save their marriage;  when she did it, she ensured that little Ari would never be with both of his parents again.)

I really hope it's not just because she's a woman.  We should be past that by now.

************************

Speaking of things we should be past…I trust that next episode we're going to see two saintly white brothers being tormented by a nefarious Indian woman and her black lover, right?  

Because I'd hate to think they're color-coding the casting based on which characters are "good" and which are "evil".  Just saying.

Oh, and Henneka Talbot (Regina)'s attempt at a "Noo Yawk" accent sucked.  Maybe next time don't hire an actress who was born in Holland and raised in Kuala Lumpur for that part?  (I couldn't figure what her real accent was, but I could hear it fighting to get out.)

I'm pretty sure you can find American actors to play American parts, even if the show is filmed in Canada.  (Call Meghan Markle; she probably knows some people in the same boat she once was, and I don't think she's that busy nowadays…)

ETA:

That was Allison Hossack as the defense attorney?  Damn, I feel old.  I grant you that it hasn't.been 1987 for a good long time, but still.

Also, James Ubom should fire his publicist.  They have him listed by his character name ("Kashir Amari as James Ubom") when it's the other way around.  Whoops.

Edited April 12, 2023 by Halting Hex

[Madding crowd]

The judge would not dismiss simply because the witness didn’t remember her car. However, any decent lawyer could prove her whereabouts with the gps on her phone and expensive car. The money could be tracked by whose computer it was sent thru and it seems unlikely the husband could have set up bank accounts in his wife’s name without her knowledge. This wealthy woman would not need a public defender either. For the sake of her son she should have held off on a romantic relationship until after the divorce. I didn’t like her much either; her husband rarely calls her, he’s alone with your kid and you don’t answer 12 calls. 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Madding crowd

[Starchild]

Note to writers: there's a big difference between ambiguous vs. unfinished endings.

[Halting Hex]

Wow, I missed the start of the teaser first time through and it makes things even worse.

How incompetent is Morgan?  She doesn't know how to do the Heimlich Maneuver?  Who doesn't know that by now?  I get it, we want her and Kashir to "meet cute", but still.

(I suppose it's possible that the school is really scared of lawsuits and forbids teachers touching students or whatever, but that would mean Kashir is in trouble.)

How incompetent is Morgan (part 2)?  She can't change a flat tire?  Really?  I'm sure the Porsche has a spare and I'm sure that Jason sprung for the power wrench and jack so Morgan doesn't have any trouble getting it off of the ground or loosening the lug nuts.  (Not that she should need the power version, necessarily.) Or if she can't manage the tire on her own, why doesn't she just call the school and tell them she'll be slightly delayed, have them keep Ari for a half an hour or so (there's some after-school activity, I'm sure) while AAA comes to fix her flat.  Her "why can't you drop everything to solve my problems, Jason?" act isn't exactly impressing me.

Also, given that the school is apparently waaaay out in the country, it's ridiculous she hasn't built a bit of lead time into picking Ari up.  Driving into Manhatan is often subject to delays, if she didn't know.

Why is Kashir mentioning the Los Angeles Lakers?  They wear gold, not yellow.  And this is New York, anyhow.

Oh, and Kashir can stuff it with that "Miss Knight" jazz.  Not only does it disrespect her marriage (Morgan specifically said "my husband" to him) but "Ms." has been a thing for over 50 years now, if he didn't know.

How incompetent is Morgan (part 3)?  She doesn't tell Jason that she'll need him to pick up Ari until the night before her trip? Really?  They never discussed the possibility of Jason going to the recital before this?  Yeesh.

How incompetent is Morgan (part 4)?  Why doesn't she have the Porsche back?  You can't tell me the car had to be in the garage for more than a day just to fix a flat tire.  That's 10 minutes' work, maximum.  C'mon, now.

I know they need an excuse for Morgan to sleep with her stalker, but…

BTW, in case the writers don't know this, there's more than one "Boston train" leaving from Penn Station every afternoon.  More like one every hour.  Not sure why Jason immediately assumes it's Morgan's train.  Not sure why Morgan can't just have a few rounds in bed with Kashir and then grab the next one.  (Well, okay, I know why.  Bad writing, that's why.  I was hoping for better, though.)

And if Flaco is a CI (confidential informant) who has helped Eric make cases in the past, no way he'd burn an asset like that just to make one case against a relatively minor "dealer" such as Morgan is accused of being.  No way Flaco would even be held on a charge; they would have dropped the case in exchange for his continued service.

My brain hurts…

[Madding crowd]

Lots of things don’t add up on this one. Morgan’s attorney could probably tie Flaco to the brother, there were likely times she was in school meetings which could be verified when he claimed she was selling drugs, they had no proof of her getting the drugs to begin with, they could probably place Flaco elsewhere at some of these times. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

9 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

The judge would not dismiss simply because the witness didn’t remember her car. However, any decent lawyer could prove her whereabouts with the gps on her phone and expensive car. The money could be tracked by whose computer it was sent thru and it seems unlikely the husband could have set up bank accounts in his wife’s name without her knowledge. This wealthy woman would not need a public defender either. For the sake of her son she should have held off on a romantic relationship until after the divorce. I didn’t like her much either; her husband rarely calls her, he’s alone with your kid and you don’t answer 12 calls. 

The judge would/should dismiss the case because it is clear from Flaco's testimony that he was perjuring himself left and right, and that the prosecution is thus flawed. At least in my experience, one doesn't routinely see Porsches OR yellow non-taxi cars. So it literally makes no sense that he had no memory of such a standout yellow sportscar that she supposedly met him driving at least a dozen times (once a week for about three months, sometimes twice). Maybe you don't know what a Porsche is or don't specifically remember it's that. But anybody would remember it's at least a sportscar. There is abundant reasonable doubt about the prosecution's case since it rests on the testimony of an obvious perjurer.

I can handwave in the era of cryptocurrency that a smart, narcissistic and obsessive finance bro who is literally willing to consider money as no object could have created an electronic money trail that plausibly led to her and put money in her pocket that she could not explain. It might require him to get a corrupt bank official to do that opening of accounts in her name without notifying her, or lying about notifying her, or him intercepting the notifications or something.

GPS would be harder to fake. As would contact between Flaco and Morgan. If Flaco was telling the truth, there would have to be months of calls/texts/emails/something between them because they would have to arrange to meet to exchange drugs and money regularly. And there would also have to be months of contacts between Morgan and her supplier, whoever that was, to be able to obtain and move the drugs. But again, hypothetically Jason could do it if he got corrupt phone company people to alter records.

I don't think the story suggested the attorney was a public defender. Morgan's high income bracket presumably meant that she is not eligible for the services of a public defender.

I disagree that Morgan should have held off on a romantic relationship for her son's sake until the divorce. Maybe three months' dating is too soon to introduce him to the guy she's dating, but there's no reason she should continue to put her life on hold for the divorce. Mama has needs. 

Accused generally wouldn't work without several characters hauling idiot balls, and one of them would be Morgan not picking up after the 2nd or 3rd call. Again, I can suspend disbelief of going from "We are going to have a collegial drink before I get on my train" to "I'm going to miss the train so I can grind on you in a hotel." But who knows, maybe she was just so loaded from drink, or so hot for Other Teacher that she could have blown off the first bunch of calls. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

10 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

Eric, of course, was the stupidest cop in the history of cops.  There was zero reason to bring a "witness" into the deal since they probably had enough to convict Morgan without it.  (And even if she was acquitted, her being tried on drug charges should be enough to allow Jason to revisit the custody verdict.)

And if Eric did try to get some "skel" to testify, he shouldn't use somebody he could be linked to.  You can't tell me that there wasn't another cop he couldn't have swapped "favors" with.

AND if Eric did use this guy, you'd think he could do some decent prep work.  Not only should the guy (I didn't catch his name) have been drilled over and over so that he knew all the little details, like Morgan's car, but they should have had him actually there to observe Morgan on a few Wednesdays, since there wasn't really a rush.  Have him be able to say when she got there, what she was wearing, etc.

And gee, isn't it lucky that Jason mentions Morgan's "expensive" tastes, but he never mentions that Ms. Humble Schoolteacher is driving a freakin' PORSCHE as an example of said expensive tastes.  (In New York City?  Where does she park it while she's at work?  I'm guessing the public school doesn't have the most-secure lot in Manhattan.)

Very much of the stupid.  I didn't catch any obvious procedural errors this time, but I'm sure Chicago Redshirt would do a better job of that, anyhow.

*************************

BTW, why did Morgan get custody in the first place?  Jason makes more money than her, she works full-time just as he does (and he can probably do some telecommuting where she can't), she's the one with a criminal arrest on her record, and she's the one who broke up their marriage by running around behind his back.  (When he cheated, he tried to save their marriage;  when she did it, she ensured that little Ari would never be with both of his parents again.)

I really hope it's not just because she's a woman.  We should be past that by now.

So dumping a couple of kilos of coke on Morgan in the trunk of her sports car and her home is not a very good case IMO, in and of itself. She is obviously going to maintain her innocence and ignorance of the drugs. It would be tough to believe a normal mom would stash drugs in their kid's bag, or that they would consent to a search of the trunk knowing that there's a kilo of cocaine in there. If they had just stuck with the planting of the drugs in the house and them getting a search warrant for the house, maybe I can buy that. And since the drugs were in Kiddo's bag and Jason presumably handled the bag, and she and Jason are going through a messy divorce, and Jason has money and connections to get coke and there's no real reason to think that Morgan does...well, hello reasonable doubt. At least, in a vacuum, I think the story of "crazy divorced husband frames wife as a drug dealer" is way more believable than "woman set to get divorce payday and ample child support turns to drug dealing out of the blue to maintain lavish lifestyle."

It would be way easier and just as devastating for custody purposes to have someone plant a plausible amount of drugs with a degree or two of separation from Jason personally. 

Anyway, they had to bring in something to get to the point where Morgan's car and house would be searched. Normally, the informant would be kept confidential. 

Eric's stupidity does need to be highlighted some more. He recognizes that Jason originally suggests murdering Morgan. He draws the line there. But for whatever reason, that's not enough to get him to be like, "I'm going to have no part of your revenge scheme and you're lucky I don't turn you in." Instead, he:

1. Agrees to help his brother plant drugs on a person he knows is innocent

2. Uses an informant he has used in previous cases, which ties things to him AND potentially jeopardizes those past cases and any future cases he might help with.

3. Fails to prep informant Flaco adequately for his perjury, leaving him open to being ripped apart on the stand as we saw. 

4. Risks his freedom and reputation and the possibility of any of his legitimate busts also being overturned.

5. Risks the careers of any officers he has roped into this

6. Risks the possibility that a prosecutor will see through this frame job and either not bring charges against Morgan, drop them or even investigate him and his fellow corrupt/incompetent cops

7. In a "best case" scenario, creates a situation where Kiddo loses his mom for years, and the feds try (and probably succeed) in seizing various of Morgan's assets as connected to the drug conspiracy

8. All for some unspecified amount of money for a brother who he is basically estranged from. 

The way they constructed the story, Morgan's car isn't just a little detail. It is an obvious thing that anyone would notice on encountering the car.

Thanks for the shoutout! I actually didn't see much in the way of inherent court procedure errors in this one, once you set aside that Jason/Eric, the police and the prosecutors all had to fall asleep at the wheel for the case to get this far. So I'm going to talk about that some more.

The show tells us this is brought as a federal case. The feds generally don't mess around. They have the resources to make 100 percent sure that someone is going to be found guilty. Video surveillance showing drug sales. Wiretaps. Undercover buys. They would want to work the case up the chain and not just get Morgan but Morgan's supplier as well. As discussed elsewhere, I could envision some sort of fake paper trail being created. But not one that is going to survive the scrutiny of a typical federal investigation. And even assuming Eric has enough corrupt/incompetent NYC cops willing to back him up, at some point the Assistant United States Attorney working this case, the FBI/DEA people working this case are going to have a lot of questions that the ginned up evidence isn't going to be able to answer. Again, at a minimum, the prosecution preps Flaco so he doesn't get housed on cross-examination the way he did.

But congrats on Morgan for having one of the few effective defense attorneys thus far. Sort of.

The defense theory of the case has to be those weren't my drugs, Jason planted them because he's big mad about losing custody and me banging a black guy. For the prosecution to call him as a witness is crazy, especially since his testimony is so irrelevant and speculative and risks playing right into the defense theory of the case. All he can do is eseentially what he did: say "I don't know nothing about her dealing drugs, but I could see her being so addicted to the wealthy lifestyle that we could barely afford that she started dealing drugs." His ass would have gotten chewed up on cross:

Isn't it true that you were earning lots of money?

Here's your most recent tax return. You were making a million that year, right? (Or whatever it is)

More than enough to afford your apartment?

You got a Porsche for your wife as a gift?

And you just got a million dollar bonus?

And a promotion to partner?

So you actually could afford that apartment and lifestyle you just told this judge you couldn't?

And you were going through a divorce?

You were angry about it?

In the terms of your divorce, Morgan was going to get X, true?

And she was going to get Y in child support for Kiddo each month?

I don't do family law, but even assuming for argument's sake that the historic bias in favor of mom is the better caretaker has been eliminated or minimized, in the particular case of these two, from what we saw, Jason barely had time or interest for Kiddo and Morgan actually loved and supported him. So it does seem like it's in the best interest of Kiddo to be with Morgan than with absentee Dad working 70 hours a week and sticking him with babysitters. 

[Madding crowd]

Morgan’s attorney acted like a public defender to me in that she didn’t seem to know anything about Morgan and stated I’m just here to defend you rather than seeming to understand Morgan’s situation. I also think Morgan could get her needs met while not bringing her child into a brand new relationship during a contentious divorce. I didn’t say Jason wouldn’t have the means to set her up financially, but a good attorney could have proof Morgan did not access the money, she would not have signed any paperwork, her phone would not have shown her accessing the account etc. The real issue with some of these episodes is that the back story eats up so much time that the court scenes are cut short.

[Crashcourse]

Morgan just sat there and stared at the choking kid.  Then, finally she gets up and I was yelling at her to do the Heimlich!

Then, when she put her son to sleep, she didn't even kiss him goodnight.  

I didn't like her at all.

[Halting Hex]

7 minutes ago, LtKelley said:

I just had problems with the brother being almost immediately arrested but the ex husband walking away free to stalk Morgan. This seems like a really obvious time for cop brother to look for a deal and turn on rich brother who frankly is the one with the motivation to get Morgan arrested.

Even without considering Eric's future actions, I had a hard time imagining the cops going to a judge and getting an arrest warrant for Eric without at least hauling Jason in for questioning as well.  Since Eric's only obvious motives (money, family loyalty) would both go through Jason.

(There could be the slight possibility that Eric had wanted to bang Morgan [hey, apparently all it takes is one or two drinks…] and she'd turned him down and this was all his own revenge.  But that's a distant third option, I'd guess.)

[Halting Hex]

Quote

MORGAN:  I want a divorce.

(Barely a minute later)

JASON:  You are not taking my kid!

But, of course, after the commercial break, we have the scene where somehow Jason has agreed to give Morgan custody, so that his later reversal is just down to jealousy (pathetic white weasel is threatened by Kashir's Big Black…heart, is that the subtext here?) and that's why the court won't even grant him joint custody.  The "plot" turns in a loop for convenience's sake.

Also:

Quote

MORGAN: …to blackmail you into spending time with Ari and I…

It's a good thing that Morgan is teaching either Geography or History, and not English, huh?  (That's "Ari and me", Morgan.  Object pronouns: learn them, live them, love them.)

Poor James Ubom.  Not only did the press release bungle his listing, but apparently he doesn't even have a Wikipedia page as yet.  Wiki gave links for Rath and Gorham and not him.  They also gave a link for David Gautreaux (Roger), which is hilarious, since Roger is hardly the 4th-most-important character in the episode.

But I suppose that when you're most famous for a role 35 years ago that didn't actually get made (there were plans to bring Star Trek back to TV in the late 1970s, but Leonard Nimoy wouldn't return, so Gautreaux was going to be Xon, the new Vulcan on the ship…but then Paramount okayed a movie instead and Nimoy came back), your team makes sure to get you all the credit they can get you.  James Ubom should fire the hacks he has working for him and hire Gautreaux's crew, I'm thinking.

Edited April 12, 2023 by Halting Hex

[Starchild]

1 hour ago, Madding crowd said:

The real issue with some of these episodes is that the back story eats up so much time that the court scenes are cut short.

There, that's why this feels like a bait and switch. I expected more in the court room.

 

17 minutes ago, Halting Hex said:

Object pronouns: learn them, live them, love them.

Word. (The right one.)

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 hour ago, Madding crowd said:

Morgan’s attorney acted like a public defender to me in that she didn’t seem to know anything about Morgan and stated I’m just here to defend you rather than seeming to understand Morgan’s situation. I also think Morgan could get her needs met while not bringing her child into a brand new relationship during a contentious divorce. I didn’t say Jason wouldn’t have the means to set her up financially, but a good attorney could have proof Morgan did not access the money, she would not have signed any paperwork, her phone would not have shown her accessing the account etc. The real issue with some of these episodes is that the back story eats up so much time that the court scenes are cut short.

Public defenders deserve more credit than they generally get, IMO. They are generally hardworking, battle-tested, savvy. But as you may know from seeing Miranda warnings umpteen times in, it's "You have a right to an attorney. If you can't afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you." So getting a public defender is means-tested, and I'm pretty sure someone who has a Porsche and lives in a swanky apartment doesn't qualify.

Morgan's attorney said that there were phone and bank records supporting the "Morgan is a drug dealer" narrative. What those could be is questionable because as we know, she is not and so didn't make mysterious calls that corroborate the notion of her dealing drugs. But Jason could hypothetically found a way to fake these things.

1 hour ago, LtKelley said:

I just had problems with the brother being almost immediately arrested but the ex husband walking away free to stalk Morgan. This seems like a really obvious time for cop brother to look for a deal and turn on rich brother who frankly is the one with the motivation to get Morgan arrested. The frame up just seemed so dumb when really, from a divorce standpoint, the husband really should have come out of it ahead. She somehow admitted an affair, and kept the house, the expensive sports car, and custody?

And there's so many reasons to question the storyline of "young divorcee is found with kilos of coke". She's been in a contentious custody battle with a rich man. His *brother* is involved in investigating the crime. His brother's wife clearly has suspicions. Other cops involved are going to mention the do a favor for me my brother is having troubles motivation. 

Yes, there is no world where Eric gets arrested within minutes of the case being dismissed. The show never makes it clear what Eric's full involvement is, beyond the informant connection. But even with the perjured informant, it's not 100 percent clear from what the authorities would have known at that point that Eric had committed a crime. He could have just been fooled by the informant's lies too. Indeed, if there is a known connection between Eric and the case, that would have introduced an obvious conflict and more reasonable doubt in the case and made it clearer that they should do more work before pursuing it. Having the brother of the ex of a suspect be a key figure in getting the suspect charged is not a good look.

Because Eric is more a plot contrivance than a character, it's possible he wouldn't roll over on Jason immediately. But if you suspect Eric of some level of criminal wrongdoing (as opposed to negligence or trusting the wrong informant), one almost would have to ask "Hey, how did Eric manage to get at least 6Ks of cocaine, fake these bank and phone records, etc.? He doesn't have the money or reach to do that, and (presumably) there's not 6Ks of coke missing from the police lockup that we can tie to him." And the only sensible solution is that Jason played some role in this.

To be fair, Morgan admitted that she had been with someone instead of getting on the train, but she denied sleeping with him. Even if the court found wrongly that she had cheated by going to the hotel, he had also committed infidelity previously, so I'd guess that is a wash. From what the Internet tells me, New York divides up marital property based on equitable distribution, so weighing a bunch of factors. She presumably gets to keep the Porsche as it was a gift. I think most courts would decide it is in Kiddo's best interest to be raised by loving, attentive mom versus distant, workaholic dad.

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Chicago Redshirt

[Madding crowd]

I don’t have a problem with court appointed  defense attorneys or in believing that a rich woman wouldn’t qualify for one. My beef is always on how the court side is presented in this show and it is always given short shrift due to the back stories. To me as a viewer, Morgan’s attorney came across as someone harried and over worked, who didn’t know Morgan and had no interest in hearing about her contentious divorce. As always your mileage may vary.

[Crashcourse]

Since he's stalking Morgan and the boyfriend, I can see him hiring a hitman to kill both of them. 

He was an awful father, and Morgan was a shitty mother, having her son worry that she's in a train accident while she's with the boyfriend.  

[Chicago Redshirt]

17 minutes ago, LtKelley said:

Well, really, if Jason can change phone records, buy enough coke to make the wife look like a dealer, buy a Porshe etc, why does he need his brother to kill his wife to begin with? Why not just hire a hitman?

I suppose that Jason asked Eric initially because he wanted someone he could trust/control. The average person would have no idea how to find a hitman, and even if you tracked someone down, you would always worry that they could flip on you or extort you. Eric has too much character and/or too much to lose as Jason's brother, a family man and a cop to do either. After hinting at the subject, Jason could figure that if he actually tried to find a hitman and succeeded, Eric would be like "Yep, he totally asked me to help take care of Morgan." 

9 minutes ago, Crashcourse said:

Since he's stalking Morgan and the boyfriend, I can see him hiring a hitman to kill both of them. 

He was an awful father, and Morgan was a shitty mother, having her son worry that she's in a train accident while she's with the boyfriend.  

I'll defend Morgan as a mother. She was oblivious to the notion that there was a train accident and thus oblivious that she should pick up. Should she have picked up after one or two calls? Sure. But I don't think that reduces her to being a shitty mother. Everything we saw showed she cared about Kiddo, joked around with him, supported him in his cello playing and tried to get his father to spend more time with him. 

The one questionable decision she made IMO was introducing Kiddo to Boyfriend after three months of dating Boyfriend. And I'm not sure that is all that questionable in the abstract. It is because Jason is psycho and it helped set Jason off. But in the abstract, I would suspect that the relationship with boyfriend has become serious after three months and it's not bad parenting to introduce a kid of Kiddo's age to the general prospect of Mommy is seeing someone else now at that point. 

[Halting Hex]

I'm not up on New York's divorce law, but the divorce isn't final until custody issues are settled, right?  So when Morgan was introducing Ari to "Mommy's new friend", she was still legally married to Jason (just separated)?  Yeah, I'd say that was a bit fast, IMO.

I did "like" when during the initial divorce talk, Jason said he wanted custody and Morgan mocked him by saying "when you heard about the crash and you thought that I might be dead, what did you really think about?  Did you think about being alone with Ari? Did you think about being a single dad?" as if Jason's failure to immediately shift into Courtship of Eddie's Father mode somehow made him an unfit parent.  I might think something along the lines of "No, I was worried that my wife, whom I've spent the past ten years with and who I'd planned to be with for the rest of my life, might have died a horrible and painful death.  I was too busy possibly grieving over you, since I didn't know you were actually banging another guy on my credit card* at the time" might have been an appropriate response.

*–they have to have used Jason's money for the hotel room, right?  Midtown hotels are at least a couple hundred bucks.  Especially on a Friday.

*************************

I think one of the problems of this episode is that the Accused isn't in trouble because of a mistake they made.   No Road to Hell Paved with Good Intentions, like 

"I thought about doing something to stop my son, but I chickened out."

"I HAD to take that poor deaf child away from those horrible hearing people who want to mutilate her!"

"I just wanted to help Clara get an abortion"

"I decided to go undercover to get those Nazis whom, um, my girlfriend helped doxx me."

"I didn't want to have to take care of my brother, and then I felt guilty about that when I realized I picked a REALLY bad care home for him."

This was more like episode 3, with Morgan (infidelity aside) being set up by EVOL ex-husband just like how Danny had his whole family wiped out by Psycho Nurse Bilson.  Pretty surfacey, I'd say.  Feh.

(Yes, "surfacey" is a word.  Because I say so.)

[Starchild]

24 minutes ago, Halting Hex said:

I did "like" when during the initial divorce talk, Jason said he wanted custody and Morgan mocked him by saying "when you heard about the crash and you thought that I might be dead, what did you really think about?  Did you think about being alone with Ari? Did you think about being a single dad?" as if Jason's failure to immediately shift into Courtship of Eddie's Father mode somehow made him an unfit parent.  I might think something along the lines of "No, I was worried that my wife, whom I've spent the past ten years with and who I'd planned to be with for the rest of my life, might have died a horrible and painful death.  I was too busy possibly grieving over you, since I didn't know you were actually banging another guy on my credit card* at the time" might have been an appropriate response.

But not an honest one, you saw his face, lbr

[Chicago Redshirt]

2 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

I'm not up on New York's divorce law, but the divorce isn't final until custody issues are settled, right?  So when Morgan was introducing Ari to "Mommy's new friend", she was still legally married to Jason (just separated)?  Yeah, I'd say that was a bit fast, IMO.

I did "like" when during the initial divorce talk, Jason said he wanted custody and Morgan mocked him by saying "when you heard about the crash and you thought that I might be dead, what did you really think about?  Did you think about being alone with Ari? Did you think about being a single dad?" as if Jason's failure to immediately shift into Courtship of Eddie's Father mode somehow made him an unfit parent.  I might think something along the lines of "No, I was worried that my wife, whom I've spent the past ten years with and who I'd planned to be with for the rest of my life, might have died a horrible and painful death.  I was too busy possibly grieving over you, since I didn't know you were actually banging another guy on my credit card* at the time" might have been an appropriate response.

*–they have to have used Jason's money for the hotel room, right?  Midtown hotels are at least a couple hundred bucks.  Especially on a Friday.

*************************

I think one of the problems of this episode is that the Accused isn't in trouble because of a mistake they made.   No Road to Hell Paved with Good Intentions, like 

"I thought about doing something to stop my son, but I chickened out."

"I HAD to take that poor deaf child away from those horrible hearing people who want to mutilate her!"

"I just wanted to help Clara get an abortion"

"I decided to go undercover to get those Nazis whom, um, my girlfriend helped doxx me."

"I didn't want to have to take care of my brother, and then I felt guilty about that when I realized I picked a REALLY bad care home for him."

This was more like episode 3, with Morgan (infidelity aside) being set up by EVOL ex-husband just like how Danny had his whole family wiped out by Psycho Nurse Bilson.  Pretty surfacey, I'd say.  Feh.

(Yes, "surfacey" is a word.  Because I say so.)

I think you can sum this up from a similar Road to Hell Paved With Good Intentions: "I wanted to be free from a possessive asshole who has made me profoundly unhappy."

Morgan made many mistakes... 

Among her (arguable) mistakes:

1. Staying married to Jason in the face of at least one affair and depression.

2. Falling for Kashir despite being married and going to an apartment/hotel to be with him on the night of the crash

3. Not answering any of a dozen calls while out with Kashir.

4. Introducing Kashir to Ari arguably too soon. (One of Jason's main complaints had to do with being replaced as dad or someone else raising their son)

5. Failing to realize the lengths Jason might go in the divorce despite knowing him to be a raging narcissist who needs to get his way.

6. Allowing the search of her trunk. 

it's just that her mistakes only indirectly led to her getting accused, whereas most of the others had their legal trouble more directly stem from their poor decision-making. Most of the other protagonists had a lot of agency that led to their downfall, and Morgan not so much.

At the same time, usually when she was trying to show agency, she was kind of ridiculous. Like her choice to yell at her attorney. Or to yell in court. I know the powers that be think it's cool and dramatic for the defendant to have repeated outbursts toward a witness and everything...but that just seems so unrealistic. Like I can get that someone might lose control once, but pretty sure after the judge intervenes there's not going to be a second time.

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Chicago Redshirt

[possibilities]

For me, the details are not as important as the overall premise, which is that a vindictive psycho spouse with a lot of cash can destroy your life. He was shown to be insulting towards her and disinterested in their child, and she was kind of sleepwalking through her life as a result. When she woke up, she had trouble taking seriously how dangerous her husband could be, because she had been numbed to it for years and was in denial. She also didn't have the kind of conniving mind that it requires to play that kind of psychological chess, and was happy to take every chance she could to think it was all going to be fine. We saw her being worried, but then abandoning her worries whenever Jason seemed to be backing down.

Yes, the story would have made more sense if it had had more time to be developed. They obviously take a lot of shortcuts. But it didn't seem lacking credibility to me, overall.  I've seen the damage an abusive spouse can do even when they don't have a lot of money. Jason was more than average in resources but not even the worst I've seen in terms of depravity.

And Morgan was not the most or the least paranoid/careful I've seen, either. The question is: do we need her to be perfect in order to feel sympathy for her? Do we expect that anyone who makes any miscalculations or is less than totally heroic deserves to have their life destroyed?

[dancingdreamer]

This wasn't  very good. Morgan, a teacher didn't  rush over to the choking kid. I  was also yelling,  do the  heimlich,  and hand the phone over to a kid to call 911, precious  moments! Her acting was horrible,  her husband  was a perfect  @ss, his brother  the dumbest  cop. I hated the ending. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

I want to go back to what Halting Hex said about this episode being "surfacey." Because that really resonates with me.

In most of the episodes of the series thus far, the protagonist really drives the action and Morgan didn't really. Mostly, she just reacts to what others did or wanted from her. 

But most of the other protagonists had competing desires and layers. Robyn the drag queen wants love, but also for all her posturing has self-esteem issues. Scott the doctor wants to embrace his son but wants to stop the threat his son represents but also doesn't want to go to prison but also can't shut his emotions completely off. The comic wants to be a professional success, wants to heal after being attacked, wants to lash out at the her assailant, and so forth.

Morgan doesn't really have conflicting desires like the other protagonists. 

So that along with her lowered level of agency makes the story flatter.

I also have to concede that although I was a fan of her in SyFy's Being Human, Meagan Rath is probably the weakest actor we have had for a protagonist. Someone like Michael Chiklis can elevate a character beyond the so-so writing that the show sometimes features. Meagan, not so much. 

[Halting Hex]

Also, most of the other accused knowingly broke the law, but did so for a "good cause" and that's why they ended up under arrest.

"I know kidnapping is wrong, but I have to save Lucie from being mutilated!"

"I know Texas has laws against taking minors out of state, but if I don't get Clara that abortion, she'll kill herself!"

"I know you can't just run people over, but those Nazis killed people, nobody can catch them, and they're buying more guns!"

"I know I shouldn't punch people, but my brother was being assaulted, and that hellhole wasn't doing anything!  Because they were the ones hurting Sam!"

There are occasional breaks (Scott thinks about killing Dylan to stop whatever he's planning, but can't do it), but that's the basic premise here.  A person faces trial because they acted out of what they felt to be altruistic necessity.

This one was right down there with Danny stabbing Crazy Nurse Alison because she was trying to kill him,  Which is just straight-up self-defense.  (And then she killed his dad and his brother, apparently.). Morgan didn't even contemplate doing anything illegal (adultery is not a crime), she just got framed by an asshole and his incompetent brother.  We're missing the basic fulcrum of the series.

What they could have done is have Jason get custody (maybe she had a minor drug bust in her past, pills or cocaine; no time served but it doesn't look so good in a custody case) but Morgan becomes convinced he's dangerous to Ari (taking things out of context) and she decides to take Ari (which is only custodial interference most times).  Jason catches her, starts beating the crap out of her, she pulls out her gun and shoots…and hits Ari.  Good intentions gone astray, how much can necessity excuse her actions, the usual idea.

But much as I like Christopher Gorham, an episode of him twirling his mustache doesn't cut it, I say.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Halting Hex
Because Morgan is not Megan, even if she was played by Meagan

[Simba122504]

On 4/12/2023 at 6:59 AM, Madding crowd said:

Lots of things don’t add up on this one. Morgan’s attorney could probably tie Flaco to the brother, there were likely times she was in school meetings which could be verified when he claimed she was selling drugs, they had no proof of her getting the drugs to begin with, they could probably place Flaco elsewhere at some of these times. 

And if she was an actual dealer. I'm sure the witness list would involve more than one person. Of course the dumb brother cop doesn't mention any actual important details no matter how big or small. The DA also had no evidence those two people even knew each other. The guy has a record. I doubt this case would have ever made it all the way to a court trial. There's zero evidence to support said drug dealing. She went from teacher, married to a well off guy to drug dealer in three months?! And it conventionally happened in the middle of a nasty divorce/custody fight. WTF was that ending?

Edited April 17, 2023 by Simba122504

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 4/16/2023 at 9:19 AM, LtKelley said:

You know, its not that she's not the most sympathetic person to be the defendant or that she's maybe made some poor choices that disappoint me in this episode. Its that its childishly easy to see she was set up and difficult to believe her otherwise not a criminal ex had the contacts to create the evidence that she was an upper level dealer. Where was she getting the coke? Who was she selling to? Did this just show up in the records? Why did the cop stop her to begin with and demand to search the car on an otherwise compliant traffic stop? In the prior "setup" case - the kid who was found crazy, it was at least cleverly done by the evil new wife. This just felt like three minutes with the cops on Law and Order and we'd have Captain Olivia Benson consoling Morgan as her husband is led away.

There was a quick reference to their being bank and phone records supporting the notion that she was a dealer.  What those  phone and bank records might be, the show didn't go into. To do the writers' work for them, maybe Jason had a burner phone planted along with the coke in the apartment where there were calls to another burner phone/Scumbag Informant's phone? Again, for this plot to work, Jason and Eric would have had to:

1. Had access to at least six Ks of coke. (I will accept as a background premise that between them a Manhattan finance bro and a NY cop with Scumbag Informant could figure out how to obtain the coke though.)

2. Planted said coke both in the son's bag and around the house (Jason presumably still has the keys to the apartment so that's not too difficult)

3. Created false incriminating phone and banking records (That one requires bribing multiple people, but with money being basically no object, doable) 

4. Tipped off the cops involved in the traffic stop that they should be on the lookout for Morgan and ask to search the trunk of the car, hoping that Morgan was not like "Screw that, you have no right to search my trunk" (P.S. when the cop said that they could get a warrant to search the trunk of her car, it seems to me that there's no way they could, or at least, could keep her detained while they did so.)

9 hours ago, Simba122504 said:

And if she was an actual dealer. I'm sure the witness list would involve more than one person. Of course the dumb brother cop doesn't mention any actual important details no matter how big or small. The DA also had no evidence those two people even knew each other. The guy has a record. I doubt this case would have ever made it all the way to a court trial. There's zero evidence to support said drug dealing. She went from teacher, married to a well off guy to drug dealer in three months?! And it conventionally happened in the middle of a nasty divorce/custody fight. WTF was that ending?

To be fair, the prosecution had the aforementioned phone records and bank records. the coke, plus Scumbag Informant's testimony that he was working for Morgan. If Scumbag Informant had been a better liar/was better briefed, he might have gotten away with it too.

If you didn't know the truth, which is more plausible:

The Informant, the bank and phone records and the coke found in Morgan's car and home all show that she is a high-level dealer, or Jason spent (at least) tens of thousands of dollars to frame Morgan with fake bank and phone records,  a scumbag informant, in revenge for losing a custody battle?

[Simba122504]

3 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

There was a quick reference to their being bank and phone records supporting the notion that she was a dealer.  What those  phone and bank records might be, the show didn't go into. To do the writers' work for them, maybe Jason had a burner phone planted along with the coke in the apartment where there were calls to another burner phone/Scumbag Informant's phone? Again, for this plot to work, Jason and Eric would have had to:

1. Had access to at least six Ks of coke. (I will accept as a background premise that between them a Manhattan finance bro and a NY cop with Scumbag Informant could figure out how to obtain the coke though.)

2. Planted said coke both in the son's bag and around the house (Jason presumably still has the keys to the apartment so that's not too difficult)

3. Created false incriminating phone and banking records (That one requires bribing multiple people, but with money being basically no object, doable) 

4. Tipped off the cops involved in the traffic stop that they should be on the lookout for Morgan and ask to search the trunk of the car, hoping that Morgan was not like "Screw that, you have no right to search my trunk" (P.S. when the cop said that they could get a warrant to search the trunk of her car, it seems to me that there's no way they could, or at least, could keep her detained while they did so.)

To be fair, the prosecution had the aforementioned phone records and bank records. the coke, plus Scumbag Informant's testimony that he was working for Morgan. If Scumbag Informant had been a better liar/was better briefed, he might have gotten away with it too.

If you didn't know the truth, which is more plausible:

The Informant, the bank and phone records and the coke found in Morgan's car and home all show that she is a high-level dealer, or Jason spent (at least) tens of thousands of dollars to frame Morgan with fake bank and phone records,  a scumbag informant, in revenge for losing a custody battle?

Dealers have connections. It never just one person to build an organization. One person is the King/Queen Pin,  but they have many other connections. You cannot do it alone and with only one foot soldier. Where did the coke come from? Who was her connections?  Phone records?  Okay,  who was she calling?  Bank records?  Okay, how much of it was tax free money?  Both she and her husband works. Also given he was her husband. The feds would have a lot questions for him. There's no way he would know nothing. It also takes the feds years to build cases against big drug dealers. In reality we know serious charges court cases take way longer than what TV shows us. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Simba122504

[Court]

On 4/12/2023 at 1:24 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:

I suppose that Jason asked Eric initially because he wanted someone he could trust/control. The average person would have no idea how to find a hitman, and even if you tracked someone down, you would always worry that they could flip on you or extort you. Eric has too much character and/or too much to lose as Jason's brother, a family man and a cop to do either. After hinting at the subject, Jason could figure that if he actually tried to find a hitman and succeeded, Eric would be like "Yep, he totally asked me to help take care of Morgan." 

I'll defend Morgan as a mother. She was oblivious to the notion that there was a train accident and thus oblivious that she should pick up. Should she have picked up after one or two calls? Sure. But I don't think that reduces her to being a shitty mother. Everything we saw showed she cared about Kiddo, joked around with him, supported him in his cello playing and tried to get his father to spend more time with him. 

The one questionable decision she made IMO was introducing Kiddo to Boyfriend after three months of dating Boyfriend. And I'm not sure that is all that questionable in the abstract. It is because Jason is psycho and it helped set Jason off. But in the abstract, I would suspect that the relationship with boyfriend has become serious after three months and it's not bad parenting to introduce a kid of Kiddo's age to the general prospect of Mommy is seeing someone else now at that point. 

I absolutely agree here. Yes, Morgan shouldn't have cheated but from what I saw, her husband was emotionally and mentally abusive. It seemed like there was a large age gap there as well. When you finally make the decision to leave, it feels incredibly different and just nice to be wanted. My ex cheated on me multiple times. He was already engaged before we were divorced. He had already moved out. I did date someone 4 months after he moved out but our divorce wasn't final. Now guess who lost her alimony  because of a stupid archaic law? I had NO job and he wanted nothing to do with our kids. 

Also, pretty sure that traffic stop was illegal and they had no right to search. 

 

[Chicago Redshirt]

30 minutes ago, Simba122504 said:

Dealers have connections. It never just one person to build an organization. One person is the King/Queen Pin,  but they have many other connections. You cannot do it alone and with only one foot soldier. Where did the coke come from? Who was her connections?  Phone records?  Okay,  who was she calling?  Bank records?  Okay, how much of it was tax free money?  Both she and her husband works. Also given he was her husband. The feds would have a lot questions for him. There's no way he would know nothing. It also takes the feds years to build cases against big drug dealers. In reality we know serious charges court cases take way longer than what TV shows us. 

No question that the frame wasn't great and the episode wasn't particularly interested in showing any of the many meaningful details of how she was framed. 

The claim was that Morgan turned to this life of crime post-separation. So that would allow Jason to feign ignorance as to the drug dealing. A better show that focused on the actual trial part would have featured the defense attorney eviscerating Jason's testimony and laid the groundwork for Jason having means/motive/opportunity to frame Morgan out of spite because she left him.

11 hours ago, Court said:

I absolutely agree here. Yes, Morgan shouldn't have cheated but from what I saw, her husband was emotionally and mentally abusive. It seemed like there was a large age gap there as well. When you finally make the decision to leave, it feels incredibly different and just nice to be wanted. My ex cheated on me multiple times. He was already engaged before we were divorced. He had already moved out. I did date someone 4 months after he moved out but our divorce wasn't final. Now guess who lost her alimony  because of a stupid archaic law? I had NO job and he wanted nothing to do with our kids. 

Also, pretty sure that traffic stop was illegal and they had no right to search. 

 

Sorry to hear about your personal situation.

As to the traffic stop, we have to read between the lines that Eric got some of his cop friends to be on the lookout for a yellow Porsche and because it would have drugs in a bag in the trunk, so they should stop it. The sad truth is given the breadth of motor vehicle laws, a cop can pull pretty much any driver over if they follow them long enough and are determined to do so. We are never told what the specific pretext was for pulling Morgan over is, but it's a fair guess that there could be one. Once there, the cop asked for permission to search the trunk. Morgan questioned whether a warrant was needed. The cop said he could get one if she wanted. It's unclear to me if a) the writers honestly think that the cop could get a warrant in this situation or b) the writers were having the cop do a bluff or semi-bluff. I don't think that an honest judge would grant a warrant to search the trunk of the car pretty much no matter what variant of the story the cop might try to tell without a lot more than he could bring to the table. Anyway, Morgan unwisely gave her consent to search, which made the search of the trunk legal.

[possibilities]

I think it's pretty realistic that many people are intimidated by police and will consent to things against their better judgment, figuring "I'm innocent, if I refuse I look guilty, let's just get this over with".  It didn't occur to her that they might plant evidence or that Jason planted it. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

Oh for sure, it is realistic that people will consent to searches because they figure, why not?

Heck, it is even the case that guilty people will consent to searches even though they should know better that the search will turn up incriminating material.

[possibilities]

I also felt like the reasoning could be that cops who pull you over for no reason are likely to make up a reason to arrest you if you're not cooperative. It's a no win situation.