S02.E15: Billy's Story

[statsgirl]

Quote

An aging rock star attempts to cement his musical legacy, while trying to prevent his troubled son from unravelling.

Season finale. Airdate May 9, 2023

Starring Keith Carradine, Laila Robins, Evan Gamble, Skywalker Hughes, Glen Michael Grant, Janet Porter, Tonjha Richardson,Matthew Tissi

[Snazzy Daisy]

Accused | 1x15 Promo "Billy’s Story"

 

[AnimeMania]

Keith Carradine as Billy Carlson
Laila Robins as Anne Carlson
Evan Gamble as Leo
Skywalker Hughes as Jo Jo Carlson
Janet Porter as Wendy
Tonjha Richardson as Judge Frances Parker
Glen Michael Grant as Rod Glass
Matthew Tissi as Prosecutor Halloway. 
Lyla Porter-Follows
Daniel Greenberg
Damon Redfern

[Starchild]

Meh, I was glad when Leo was finally gone. 

[Spartan Girl]

So once again we have someone taking the rap for something they didn’t do.

I can’t feel sorry for Anne, letting her terminally ill husband take the fall. Even if it was because he’d never live long enough to raise the granddaughter if she was in jail.

[Madding crowd]

Very depressing episode. Maybe I missed something but why did they have to tell the police they chose not to save Leo? Why not hide the syringe or say it didn’t work? Without a confession could it be proven they had the means to save him and didn’t? It might have been too late anyway. Still enjoy seeing Keith Carradine-he is a great actor.

[Starchild]

In my area, there was an emergency test over Billy's courtroom speech, does anyone know what he said?

[Crashcourse]

16 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I can’t feel sorry for Anne, letting her terminally ill husband take the fall. Even if it was because he’d never live long enough to raise the granddaughter if she was in jail.

I couldn't believe she just sat there silent in the courtroom.  I was expecting her to jump up and confess. 

[Spartan Girl]

1 hour ago, Crashcourse said:

I couldn't believe she just sat there silent in the courtroom.  I was expecting her to jump up and confess. 

She was just as bad as Laura’s son in that other episode.

Did she still believe that Leo’s addiction was Billy’s fault? Because that’s enabling bullshit: Billy wasn’t a perfect dad, but at the end of the day an addict is an addict. Sometimes you can do everything right and this stuff still happens.

And it wasn’t like Anne was the only option for the granddaughter: she could have gone to live with their other child, couldn’t she? Either way, I’m getting pretty sick of this schtick. I may not stick around for season 2.

[Crashcourse]

Also, she was content to let her husband spend probably his last days in prison.  If she had owned up to it, I doubt she would have gotten four years.  She's an older (white) woman and if she had taken the stand and spoken honestly and emotionally about what the family had gone through with the druggie son, she probably would have gotten a far lesser sentence than her husband. 

[Snazzy Daisy]

Anne Carlson is an asshole‼️

That’s all am gonna say…

 

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 5/9/2023 at 9:47 PM, Madding crowd said:

Very depressing episode. Maybe I missed something but why did they have to tell the police they chose not to save Leo? Why not hide the syringe or say it didn’t work? Without a confession could it be proven they had the means to save him and didn’t? It might have been too late anyway. Still enjoy seeing Keith Carradine-he is a great actor.

A contrivance here is that the paramedics were on the scene almost immediately somehow and  one of them spotted the busted syringe almost immediately. So hiding the syringe wasn't an option. (In real life, I'm guessing even in the best case scenario it would take 5 minutes from time of 911 call to get to some place, let alone some place that seemed relatively isolated like Billy's rock star mansion). 

A second contrivance is that the paramedic could tell that the syringe being busted was not an accident, nor the work of Leo having broken it, or any number of things.

A third contrivance is that Billy decides to immediately fall on his sword rather than stay silent or come up with a better story.

On 5/10/2023 at 9:14 AM, Starchild said:

In my area, there was an emergency test over Billy's courtroom speech, does anyone know what he said?

Basically Billy apologized for not being a good enough dad and wished he could have done better, but said that trying to take care of Leo was sucking up too much oxygen in their lives and said that letting him die allowed the rest of his family to live again.

Which, if you think about it, is a pretty shitty thing to say.

23 hours ago, Crashcourse said:

Also, she was content to let her husband spend probably his last days in prison.  If she had owned up to it, I doubt she would have gotten four years.  She's an older (white) woman and if she had taken the stand and spoken honestly and emotionally about what the family had gone through with the druggie son, she probably would have gotten a far lesser sentence than her husband. 

The show was treating it as though this was manslaughter. So four years is a fairly light sentence for manslaughter, and if Anne had confessed that she broke the syringe and prevented potentially life-saving treatment, she might have gotten a longer sentence. 

Anyway, again, I think the courtroom stuff unsurprisingly got short shrift. There was discussion of having witnesses testify and possibly being disqualified because they had drug habits. LOL, if witnesses with drug habits were somehow prevented from testifying that would clear up any and all backlogs of court cases. Moreover, it would be a stretch in general to allow witnesses to say "Yeah, he's a violent dude." But also, it's another misdirect. As we eventually learn, the case is about Billy supposedly smashing the syringe to deny Leo potentially life-saving treatment because Billy wanted Leo to die. The crime he's on trial for makes any testimony about Billy's supposed violent behavior in the past irrelevant.

Even with Billy's fake confession, though, the prosecution would need to show that withholding the Narcan or whatever it was killed Leo beyond a reasonable doubt. And I don't think under the facts as presented here they can do that. Leo was dead within seconds of the syringe being broken. Maybe it would have worked, but there's at least a reasonable doubt that it would not have. 

Under these circumstances, there is no reason for Billy to plead guilty. Have the case go before a jury. Dazzle the jury with some rock star charm and phrase the notion of "we had to let him die" better, and there's no way there's a conviction. 

Edited May 11, 2023 by Chicago Redshirt

[possibilities]

They could have said it was too late and their son was already dead when they arrived and they smashed the Narcan syringe in despair and frustration, I guess.

On the other hand, they seemed to have a stash of Narcan, so they also would have been asked why they didn't try another one, if they were claiming that it was an accident.

--

Also, the whole idea that strung out mother of the kid would need to voluntarily relinquish custody is a bit of a stretch. She was not a functioning alcoholic who could hide her problem. She was a way out there junkie who was obviously not able to be a reliable parent. They could have sued for custody and gotten it, I'd think fairly easily, without all the paying her off bullshit. It would have taken a little effort, but it would have been much more easy than going to prison.

They also could have stopped enabling their son. Give him the Narcan, and then kick him out. Stop the revolving door of co-dependency. Tell him he gets clean or he doesn't, but they're not going to support him anymore. It's better than deciding to let him die on their watch. 

I wasn't sympathetic to them. They had all the resources in the world and instead of availing themselves of the most basic common sense solutions, they chose to be enmeshed and stay in the very dynamic that they complained about. It wasn't an accident what happened. It was a willful act and they brought it on themselves and felt sorry for themselves.

 

 

[Irate Panda]

This ending was so stupid.  They could have just said they got mad he died before they could inject the Narcan so they smashed the needle or even one of them fell running over to him and accidentally smashed it.  The concept of the show is good but the writing is all over the place.  I don’t why these people keep confessing when they really don’t have to.  I don’t see how they could have really proved any crime if he didn’t falsely confess.  

[Halting Hex]

And you never thought to say, "I didn't mean to break the syringe; I just stepped on it in the confusion"?  Billy, Billy.

I can't complain about this too much, since I love Keith Carradine and Laila Robins.  (I met Laila when she made her Broadway debut, taking over for Glenn Close in The Real Thing.  [Jeremy Irons, in his own Tony-winning debut, was still in the show.]). And it's great to see Carradine sing again, as always.

I did flinch a bit when, at the beginning, Billy said "they've come to see the aging rock star get crucified".  Gee, thanks, Exposition Fairy.  Given that we can see that Keith Carradine is getting up there, and that we'll be flashing back to Billy in his recording studio in less than 15 seconds, I don't really think that line was particularly necessary, but glad you're getting work, I suppose.

(After that, I spent a portion of the episode imagining the other characters being introduced the same way:

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LEO:  I went to see Dana.

BILLY:  Your drug-addicted baby-mama who endangers your sobriety?  Son, how could you?

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BILLY:  We're having all the cousins over.

LEO:  You invited Tommy, my resentful younger brother who still bears a grudge because my addictions led me to endanger his child?  Thanks, Dad!

And so on.  But it was actually just a once-off.  I just wasn't expecting the very first line to be so awkward.)

BTW, given that Anne just played a part in her son's death, are we really happy that Grandma will now be raising Jo-Jo on her own?  I hope the Force is with Skywalker Hughes's character… 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Halting Hex

[Court]

I don't buy that either parent would have needed to sign custody over. They easily could have gotten custody. 

Also, since Billy pled guilty, why was there a sentencing? Shouldn't he have just struck a plea deal? 

[Chicago Redshirt]

3 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

BTW, given that Anne just played a part in her son's death, are we really happy that Grandma will now be raising Jo-Jo on her own?  I hope the Force is with Skywalker Hughes's character… 

I think we are supposed to ignore how screwed up JoJo will be when she grows up under the belief that Grandpa deliberately withheld potentially life-saving medical care from Daddy because he was tired of the burden Daddy was on his family. There's not enough therapy in the world to help her work through those issues, I think. Not to mention the uncle will probably show up to rub salt in the wound as well.

1 hour ago, Court said:

Also, since Billy pled guilty, why was there a sentencing? Shouldn't he have just struck a plea deal? 

IRL, it can be the case that the plea is just to a given crime without agreeing on a sentence. Sometimes the prosecution says "We recommend this range" and the defense asks for another range, and the judge makes a decision. Sometimes, both the prosecution and defense agree on a recommended sentence but it is still up to the judge to determine if the agreed sentence is just, and the judge can go for a lighter or heavier sentence. 

[MicheleinPhilly]

Are there actually jurisdictions in this country that make it a crime to withhold Narcan from someone overdosing? If so, that's a crock of shit. Addicts shouldn't be criminalized, but neither should bystanders. What if they weren't home or didn't hear the music blaring? He would have been dead anyway. What DA would bring this case to a judge? 

This show had such promise when it started but I'm glad this was the finale. 

Peace out, Accused! 

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 5/23/2023 at 7:59 AM, MicheleinPhilly said:

Are there actually jurisdictions in this country that make it a crime to withhold Narcan from someone overdosing? If so, that's a crock of shit. Addicts shouldn't be criminalized, but neither should bystanders. What if they weren't home or didn't hear the music blaring? He would have been dead anyway. What DA would bring this case to a judge? 

This show had such promise when it started but I'm glad this was the finale. 

Peace out, Accused! 

I obviously haven't done any meaningful research on the topic, but it seems to me that there's a difference between deciding to not give potentially life-saving care yourself and actively preventing someone else from being able to give it, which is what Anne did.

I don't think that there could be criminal liability for mere non-intervention, and possibly even civil liability. I don't think there's a cognizable duty to be a Good Samaritan.

But I at least think it is plausible that blocking someone else from administering possible life-saving care with the intent of having that person die could be construed as intentionally causing the death of another and thus meeting the elements of some degree of murder.