'The Night Of' Episode 2 Review

Image from the New York Daily News

By Darian Scalamoni

            The Night Of is one of the darkest shows I’ve seen in a very long time and in the second episode of the HBO miniseries, it only gets darker. Within this week’s episode we continue on the journey of Nasir Khan (Riz Ahmed) as he is in jail after he wakes up after a sexual experience with a girl he meets one night in Manhattan before waking up and seeing that the girl is dead. The worst part is, Nasir didn’t do the crime.

            This week’s episode provides us with great interactions between Khan and his lawyer, John Stone (John Turturro). Stone tells the Pakistani prisoner that he can’t talk to anyone about absolutely anything, even if he does believe he is innocent. This all changes when Nasir’s parents come to see their son and he begins to explain what happened in the girl’s apartment. Detective Dennis Box (Bill Camp), the head detective on the case who seems to coax Nasir into taking him for a nice guy who actually cares, is watching the suspect speak with his parents. As Nasir notices this, he begins to speak in Pakistani. This frustrates Detective Box before checking in on the family.

            We also get to see a little bit of the personal life and get a better sense of who John Stone is in this week’s installment. Stone is known around town as a guy who seems to just skate by when it comes to representing people who are bound to get jail time. We see this when he’s representing a black male in a courtroom before he’s given three years in jail to which Stone responds “Thank you, your honor” even though is client is less than thrilled about the outcome. Also, Stone has a son, one who is not of the same color as he is. His young, black son asks his father for coffee to which he responds with a no and then asks about his report about Winston Churchill. Stone also gets, what seems to be a congratulatory, verbal “pat on the back” so to speak when the judge asks in regards to Naz’s case if Stone was “in the right place, at the right time”.

            When Stone and Naz (Nasir’s nickname) meet up again after he sees his parents, Stone unravels and reminds him that he can’t speak to anyone, even his parents. Stone reminds Naz that he’s going to seem like he’s his friend but that’s what these guys are trained to do in the system. He then refers to Detective Box as a “subtle beast” which becomes key within the episode. Later, when Khan is alone in his cell, Box approaches him and tells the young man that he just needs some answers so he can help him out. Throwing around things like “He’s going to make money off you, off your parents. The longer it takes, the more he makes.” As well as, “The fact is, it’s a big club, the criminal justice system, we can’t exist without each other and we know it.” These are all facts which frighten Naz, but he refuses to continue with Detective Box’s game and that is the time in which Detective Box officially charges Naz to murder.

            It is clear that The Night Of is its own “subtle beast”, though the creators don’t cast judgement on the true culture within the justice system, they’re able to bring attention to the institutional racism that will make things harder for a young, Pakistani male living in New York. The high-toned, dark nature within the procedural about the particulars of a murder has intrigue. The heaviness of the show is likely to turn away some viewers, but the context of the show’s main message within the cruel issues of a justice system, and even the efficiencies that seem so wrong lead the viewer through a reckoning of a young man who is seems to be guilty until proven innocent.

8.5/10