It was very hard for me to sit down and watch this week’s episode of American Crime Story, as I hope it was for all of you. It seems it has taken me 6 episodes to realize that the episodes tend to focus on one of the core characters. I guess I just spent too much time focusing on all the future reality stars. Joking aside this week’s episode was focused on Marcia Clark. I said it a few weeks ago that this show is not only going to be about racism, but about sexism as well. I also find it very ironic that the episode aired on International Women’s Day.
A few episodes back the jury expert told Marcia that people felt that she needed to soften her looks. I was very glad when Marcia stood her ground and decided to stick with what she felt comfortable in. However I knew this recurring obstacle for Marcia would pop up in future episodes and I hate to say it, but I was right her looks were discussed again this week.
Everyone talked about it. Talk shows even brought in style experts and they basically ripped her looks apart. You never saw them criticizing Shapiro or Kardashian and you want to know why that is? It’s because Marcia’s a woman and women’s looks are put under scrutiny daily. We’ve made some progress in recent years since the trial, but it’s still clear that women’s looks are judged more seriously than their male counterparts.
A pivotal scene is when Marcia looks in the mirror and starts playing with her hair. I’m sure they wanted the audience to think Marcia was getting this big makeover like in the movies and was giving up her fight to look the way she wanted. Yes she did get a makeover, but she did it in way that she still stayed true to herself. She got a perm and cut her hair shorter. This is not what society was expecting from her. This is why I love Marcia, because she showed that she was doing what was best for her and something she could be proud of at the end of the day. I’m assuming at the time her haircut was just as iconic as Rachel Green's (I just had to make a Friends joke, after all one of the stars from that show is starring in this series). After Marcia appeared in the courtroom the men gave her dirty looks and even the judge made a snide comment. This scene made me cry because I can totally relate. I know we’ve all been there at one point or another. Men and women have experienced what Marcia experienced throughout this episode, the need to fit in. We make changes to ourselves that we feel happy about it, but then someone discourages us and our insecurities come rushing back. The realization that I’ve come to is those people discouraging us are just as insecure, probably even more. This was proven with the defense team, they knew Marcia was kicking ass in court, so they decided to try and make her feel like she wasn’t good enough on the outside.
The defense team wants to paint a story of why the police went to Rockingham the night of the murder. Kudos to Johnnie he can spin any story he wants and turn it into a positive. He decides to chat up one of the detectives and gathers information on him in the process. He uses this information when questions the detective. He makes it seem like the detective was incompetent or trying to set O.J. up.
It seems like Johnnie and Shapiro are finally on the same page. They worked together to paint the story they wanted the jury to believe. I mean it’s nice, but I want the drama!!! I want to see Shapiro take a hissy fit like usual. Instead O.J. had another directed towards Shapiro.
I’m Glad to see that Marcia is finally giving Darden the encouragement he needs. This seems to make him more confident in in the courtroom. However I still get the sense that he wants to prove himself to Johnnie. He has this desire to gain his respect, which is stupid if you ask me, because Johnnie has no respect for the law or his counterparts.
Another shocking revelation from this episode is, Johnnie himself has a past with domestic violence and a reporter tells him he is going to run the story. Johnnie calls his ex and offers to pay her off. In return she needs to keep quiet. Why pay her off if you have nothing to hide Johnnie? The story never comes out and instead nude photos of Marcia are leaked. The pressure that she is facing becomes too much for her and she breaks down in court. The judge shows some human decency and calls a recess for that day.
The bright spot of the episode for me was those bonding moments between Marcia and Darden. I still am choosing to believe that they were involved in a romantic relationship on the side and kept it a secret for the sake of the case. If not then, I guess Sarah Paulson and K. Brown just have amazing chemistry with one another.
We had four witnesses this week, two were women and the other two were the detectives from the case. The prominent witness out of the two detectives was Mark Fuhrman. The two female witnesses were Nicole’s sister and Ms. Lopez a housekeeper that worked next-door. Nicole sister recounted a pretty distributing story of the way O.J. talked towards her sister. She recounted that O.J. made it clear numerous times that Nicole was his property.
Ms. Lopez was there to recount the exact time of when she saw the Bronco parked at O.J.’s house, but she wasn’t too reliable if you ask me. It seems as though Johnnie had bought her off or was holding something over her, because she was attempting to give the answers that he wanted to her say. In the end though she didn’t “remember" what time she saw the Bronco.
Marcia’s questioning of Fuhrman seemed strong and I think it definitely had to do with the pressure she had been facing within the courtroom and on the outside with the media. Lee could see that the their side was in trouble, so he decided to ask Fuhrman under oath if he had ever used racial slurs. This is sure to set the tone for the rest of the trial.
Marcia was so scrutinized throughout the trial and for no reason if you think about it, “spoiler alert” she didn’t even win the case. I’m not going to lie, I haven't seen too much of Paulson’s previous work, but if this episode is any indication of the performances she gives I might have to binge some of her movies this weekend. This is not the last we will be hearing of her performance in this episode and throughout the entire series, because I’m 100% sure this episode solidified her chances of being the frontrunner (at least in my books) to win an Emmy. So far this is my favorite episode of the series and my hope is that the viewers can learn and see how their words impact others. In honor of International Women’s Day, I think that we should all realize what a “hero” Marcia Clark really is/was to our society.
Do you think that Marcia and Darden were involved in a romantic relationship? Who’s worse in your opinion Johnnie, Shapiro, or Lee? Which has been your favorite episode so far? Come back next week to read my new review!
