Time To Move Forward
We begin episode 4 of For Life Season 2 with Wallace out running while thinking over Darius and what’s happened in the past. Back home, Jamal rings Aaron’s home phone and gets through to Marie. He thanks them for his help with Georgia, just as Wallace runs in the front door. It turns out the real purpose of this call comes from Davit who wants Wallace to help his cousin, Benjamin Terzian. He’s been jailed for witness tampering. This goes deeper than that though, especially given Jamal needs this deal to go through for his own sake to gain allies inside the prison. Marie is not so sure this is a good idea and his probation officer also exhibits the same concerns. He needs to see references but Wallace heads into court nonetheless to speak to his client. Ben doesn’t want anything to do with Davit but does agree to tell his side of the story. There was a brawl over a parking spot and their neighbour Monica was going to testify against a guy called Giovanni. He spoke to Monica to try and keep Gio out of trouble. Ben refuses to take a plea deal too, which causes Wallace quite the uphill battle. Still, he speaks his piece in front of the judge and instead manages to hustle up a $2500 bail. Davit is taken away but asks Wallace to speak to his Mother. He definitely doesn’t want money from Davit or his family though and seems worried, telling Wallace he doesn’t want to owe them. Wallace heads to his Mother’s where he meets a cagey and pretty shady Giovanni. Her Mother only has $400 but in order to get Davit out, they’re going to need more. Back at the office, Charlotte tries to drum up a new case about mental health and the death penalty for Wallace to deal with but Henry convinces her to wait. He wants to let Wallace adjust to his newfound situation. Aaron soon rings though and learns that because of the smaller bail, this was intentional to make it harder to hustle up the cash to make bail. Henry talks about the witnesses he’s managed to grab for Jamal’s case while also mentioning that they’d be in hot water if they tried to post the money themselves. Back home, Aaron’s parents return home but things are cagey between Barbara and Marie, especially when she mentions Darius. Marie hits back though, telling Barbara she hasn’t shown her face to Aaron for nearly 10 years so she’s not really in a position to take the moral high ground. As Aaron returns home, he hands over the docket regarding his case but Williams wants more information next time. Aaron eventually heads in and greets his Mother again, who warmly hugs him and talks about the progress he’s made and how he’s now a big-shot lawyer. Jazz and Marie however, remain wary. In the morning, Darius phones Wallace and asks for his number. He wants to try and put the past between them and promises to hit him up at some time. He lies about Darius phoning and tells Marie that it was Charlotte. The case with Ben becomes more difficult, especially given Wallace realizes he has nowhere else to go in this case now. However, he promised Jamal he’d help. Henry realizes that this loyalty he has to Belmont could cause him issues going forward. Eventually he tells Wallace that he’s clearly taking on too much. Wallace heads home and begins looking through Marie’s messages to Darius and how they expressed love to one another. This breaks his heart a little and worse, at Thanksgiving dinner he confronts Barbara about her leaving him to rot in Belmont for so long. She asks for his forgiveness and the two embrace again in a pretty emotional scene. Aaron manages to find a hole in his case though, coming in the form of speaking to the D.A. He decides to try and strike a deal; he wants to get Monica to testify against Giovanni but also to say Ben is a good guy. When he speaks to Monica about this, it turns out Giovanni was the one who actually threatened and paid her off. Monica comes clean and speaks to the DA about everything soon after, which sees Giovanni jailed instead. With the case all but wrapped up, Wallace decides to meet Darius again. He refuses to take a cheque regarding the lawyer fees though but eventually opens up and reveals exactly what he’s been keeping bottled up all this time. He’s not happy that Darius wrote him off and telling him to move forward cut him deeply. Darius breaks and apologizes, telling him he’s sorry for what happened. He asks who made the first move and admits that it was him. Given how long they’ve known each other, Darius apologizes and tells him to forgive Marie instead. Eventually he heads home and confronts Marie about getting with his best friend, even after knowing what happened with Michael. Aaron starts packing his things up, unable to stay in the same house with these ghosts floating around. Instead, he moves in to his office and starts pinning pictures up on the wall.
The Episode Review
With another episodic case interwoven around the larger issues with Jamal and Georgia, For Life continues to deliver decent drama across its second season. Unlike the first though, this year the show is tackling a lot more of the familial aftermath between Marie and Wallace. There’s some good acting on display through these moments too and seeing Darius and Wallace finally talking after all this time is definitely one of the the highlight here. There’s a lot of bad blood between the two and it’s clear that things aren’t going to be resolved any time soon. As Wallace leaves and moves into his office, For Life brings an interesting juxtaposition between the jail cell in Belmont and the office as our protagonist continues his case. Will Marie and Wallace be able to patch up their differences?
