The most entertaining episode of The Night Of is also its most deftly crafted.
“The Season of the Witch” marked something of a shift in pacing and tone (to an extent). The show went from being a slow-burning character study to something more in line with CSI. There’s extensive scenes and montages of Box, Stone, and Chandra doing their investigations. But this is not to say that the show is losing its intelligence or is turning into a more standard police/courtroom procedural. Instead, the investigation serves to further the characters rather than the characters serving to further the investigation.
The major players in Naz’s story — Naz, Jack, and Box (not so much Chandra, sadly, who hopefully has depths yet to be explored) — are starting to show some serious change. Or, if it’s not change, they’re beginning to show sides of themselves that have been long hidden. Box seems to be showing more signs of uncertainty: he’s ready to retire after (or because of?) this case. Jack is going to extreme measures which seem to skirt the bounds of legality (but I’m no lawyer). And Naz… Well, Naz is falling deeper and deeper in with Freddy.
Naz has effectively passed the point of no return. In the showers, Freddy has cornered Naz’s “friend,” Calvin, who burned him with the hot water and baby oil, giving Naz an opportunity for revenge. Now, if you watched the episode, then you know what happened: Naz beats the guy to an inch of his life. This is the first indication given to us that there’s something more to Naz than the doe-eyed innocence we’ve assumed.
During this scene, when Freddy and his crew first let Naz have at it, he hesitates. He takes one kick, as if out of obligation (or even respect) to Freddy for going to the trouble. In a way, he has no choice — this is essentially one of Freddy’s traps for Naz. (After all, what sign of disrespect would it be if Naz refused the offer?) But then, when Calvin taunts him, calling him a homophobic slur, Naz just lets loose, not stopping until someone makes him. This scene shows a dark side to him, one of anger, violence, and aggression that can be let out in the right circumstances.
As Sgt. Box is beginning to possibly have doubts about Naz’s ability to commit the crime, we (the audience), Jack, and Chandra begin to lose our confidence in his innocence. And it’s not just the brutality of this beating that does so — there are other revelations that play into the murder-mystery side of things.
The way this episode handled the combination of intricate detective plotting and characterization is nothing short of remarkable. While I’m not coming to The Night Of for a Law & Order story, if the show runners manage to keep the depth and intelligence they’ve been infusing so far, I won’t complain if it keeps going in this direction.
That being said, I still hope the emphasis stays largely on the characters. That is to say, I hope the characters don’t simply become devices for mystery. After all, the central question of the show is not, “Who killed Andrea?” (although that’s a question still worth answering).
For my money, I’m still the most interested in Jack Stone. His motivations behind helping Naz seem to be getting more and more unclear. Is it totally selfish? Or is there really something about Naz he believes in?
And that’s about all I have to say for this episode. We’ve got three more to go to see how this all wraps up, and for all my reservations and criticisms I’ve had throughout the run, I can’t wait for it. The next two weeks will be standard episode reviews, but for the last episode I’ll be doing a sort of wrap-up of the show as a whole, analyzing more in-depth the themes and storytelling.
Until next week.