Seven Seconds: S1E6-S1E8

Previously on Seven Seconds

Seven Seconds | S1E6-S1E8 | All episodes now streaming on Netflix

There is something wholly satisfying about watching KJ and Rinaldi finally do their jobs, especially because as the noose tightens on Jablonski and DiAngelo, everyone starts to turn on each other. Osorio is afraid they’re going to make him the fall guy so he goes to Rinaldi for help, but chickens out. He connects with Wilcox, who held on to evidence as an insurance policy. Then KJ and Rinaldi get a break and discover the make and model of the car, but think it belongs to Teresa, who is the cousin of Jablonski’s wife, and dating Wilcox.

Once Teresa knows, it’s only a matter of time because she’s the only one with a conscience. Jablonski’s wife is fully ensconced in her Lady MacBeth role so when she fears her husband and cousin are about to falter, she calls on DiAngelo to help. DiAngelo is over it and wants to get Jablonski out of town before the case against them gets any stronger, which he knows could happen at any point because he didn’t kill Nadine. Not only is Nadine still alive, but once she connects with Rinaldi and starts to get sober, she confesses that she saw the cops and they knowingly left Brenton to die in that ditch. Because they’re cops they were legally obligated to call for help and not doing so means they are in even more shit.  

Even though it looks like the cops are finally going to have to face what they did, Latrice and Isaiah’s lives are still falling apart as more and more revelations about Brenton come out. Latrice is trying to find a lawyer and she lies about Brenton having a record. He was arrested in New York for possession and even though it was a negligible amount, that’s enough to paint Brenton as a drug-dealing gang member especially since his uncle, Seth, has gone back to the life. Latrice is afraid of not getting justice so she asks Seth to kill Jablonski for what he did and Seth comes thisclose to doing it.

Meanwhile, Isaiah is living in that loveless home he built with neglect grappling with how disconnected he was from his son. He tries to make up for it by befriending Kadeuce, Brenton’s childhood friend and a member of the 5 Kings but their tenuous truce is shattered when Kadeuce tells him that Brenton was riding his expensive bike because he was trying to get home after spending the night with Kadeuce. Isaiah was so focused on whether Brenton was a gang member, he didn’t realize just how much he didn’t know about his son.

The Good

• I ugly cackled when Jablonski and the other cops were finally arrested. Though it feels like this series is a long way away from a happy ending, that moment of them being arrested and later indicted was *chef’s kiss* glorious.
• We learn more about KJ’s self-destructive tendencies. She was so gung-ho about prosecuting bad guys that one of the young men she was prosecuting couldn’t get bail, and the younger siblings he was caring for died because he was in jail. It’s a sad story, but I still need her to do her job for this case and stop letting her personal crap interfere.
• The relationship between Nadine and Rinaldi was so sweet. He’s become a shining light on this series.
• Latrice as the vengeful mother is a refreshing take on a character that is typically forced to forgive on television and in real life.

The Bad

• Jablonski’s tale of woe has nothing to do with the monster he seems to have become. He tells Latrice that Brenton’s death is on her. He tells his wife that he doesn’t want to be a coward, yet he refuses to take responsibility for what he’s done. If the show wants me to feel sorry for him, they’ve done a horrible job of characterizing him.
• It’s not really good or bad, but Malik Yoba (New York Undercover; Empire) showed up as a grieving parent and I’m afraid he’s going to smash Latrice’s mournful cakes to smithereens. 

Questions That Need Answers

• Is Connelly (KJ’s boss) trying to sink their case? At first he seemed to be pushing her into it for good reasons but now it feels like he wants her to fail.
• Osorio appeared to be the weak link of the crew, but he used the intel about Rinaldi leaking the case to the press and now it looks like he killed Nadine to protect them from her testimony. Is he just truly about survival or has he internalized the whole “blue line” culture that everyone espouses?