The Fix - Revenge - Review + POLL

The Fix has an identity problem. There is a line in this episode where Maya declares race has nothing to do with the case. She's fundamentally wrong. In our current climate and the in-grained racist infrastructure of not only our government, but certainly the justice system, you can't just separate the fact Sevvy is a black man from the equation. The Fix is unwilling to to dig into that and becomes the weaker show for it.

Instead, Maya would rather whine and complain the world is against her because she's trying to persecute a black man. It's a little too on the nose from Marcia Clark's perspective, as if the writers truly didn't learn anything from the OJ Simpson case or the stark differences in how FX handled the case in American Crime Story versus how the The Fix is, essentially, trying to whitewash it here.

Photo Credit: Eric McCandless/ABC

Maya even goes so far as to complain when Ben Mitchell appears to be guilty because she wanted to put Sevvy behind bars. It makes for an uncomfortably out of touch protagonist. The problem is, we, as the audience, have no real reason to believe Sevvy is guilty yet, either of Jessica's murder or those in the past. We're being told he is but there hasn't been irrefutable proof presented yet on the show. So we have to just go off of Maya's word.

Even the self-tape of Jessica talking about her abuse never explicitly states it was Sevvy who did it, clearly this is for a reason. If the writers wanted us to know beyond a shadow of a doubt it was Sevvy who had hurt her, she would have said his name. But she doesn't. I'm guessing we're going to find out it was someone else who abused her. Could it be Gabe? Sevvy's son who is a little too eager to help his dad get rid of evidence?

Photo Credit: Eric McCandless/ABC

Then you have the character of Loni, a woman who betrays the prosecution because of a petty grievance against the white protagonist. It's not a great move for the series to paint one of its only woman of color as someone deceitful and underhanded in order to make Maya appear the saint and "good guy" in the situation. All in all, I thought this episode had several tacky moments. The Fix's refusal to actually address the elephant in the room and instead, skirt around it like a well-choreographed dance, makes it all the weaker of a show.

As for the case against Jessica, this week Ben Mitchell takes front and center as Ezra Wolf leads the charge against him. He publicly condemns him after video footage shows Mitchell disposing of Jessica's necklace.

Photo Credit: Eric McCandless/ABC

When approached by Maya and CJ, Ben admits he had the necklace from a training session and didn't get the chance to return it to Jessica before she died. He panicked when he realized he still had it in his position. But the truth is much deeper than that. Ben was essentially obsessed with Jessica and disheartened by the fact she refused to leave Sevvy for him despite everything he had done for her.

He even made a her a "go bag", with money, a burner phone, and keys to a car for her to make a fast escape. Then he left several incriminating texts to Jessica, telling her she "deserved what she got" before she died. Of course, this makes Ben look incredibly guilty, until a witness turns up.

The witness states he saw Ben show up to find Jessica after she was already dead. It's too late to tell Ben this though. He goes on live television to confess his sins, naming a litany of awful things he's done in the past but remaining adamant he never killed Jessica.

Before anyone can inform Ben they have a witness to clear his name, he jumps out the window and kills himself. I knew he was going to commit suicide from the beginning of the episode as he constantly fretted about how different his life has become with the press stalking his every move. This is a trick Proven Innocent did a few weeks ago too. You want to easily remove a suspect? Make them kill themselves, then you're free to add more players to the board.

In the aftermath of Ben's death, Sevvy takes a trip at night to visit the home of his, I'm guessing, mistress. He instantly pins her to the wall and asks if she was the one who killed Jessica. Thus the wild goose chase will continue next week with this latest discovery.

New episodes of The Fix air Monday nights on ABC.