This week on American Crime Story, we reach our inevitable end and learn "The Verdict". My thoughts on the season finale are after the jump.
I apologize if this review is a bit meandering. Now that it is all over, I am sort of at a loss for words. Everything that I needed to say has been said in past reviews and seeing it all end this way is kind of overwhelming to say the least.
We all knew how this case turned out. If you did not know that, where have you been and how did you not know? Regardless, we were all interested to see how Ryan Murphy would end this season. In my humble opinion, he stuck the landing in a big way. This was a powerful finale that checked every box that needed checked.
So, yes. O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the double homicide that it seemed like he committed. The evidence was stacked high against him, but as Garcetti said to the press after the verdict was revealed, it was an emotional decision rather than a reasonable one. The show has done an impeccable job of showing us what all these emotions were throughout the season. This was a nation discovering that there were still some deeply rooted problems in the way people were treated and viewed by others. It scared many people and it electrified many people. It is a very similar climate to what we have now in regards to these issues, except this case was a singular unifying event then that represented everything that people were thinking about and it became something that everyone was apart of.
To Cochran, I do think it truly mattered who it was who he was representing. When he sees President Clinton directly referencing events that he was a part of, he sees that as his victory. Race issues and police brutality were now getting a national spotlight. It is not even clear to me if Cochran even believed that O.J. was innocent. It was enough to him that a black man was given a chance to be proven innocent and walk free. This was unheard of in a case involving homicide. Though, as Darden makes clear for him, the victory may not be as long lived as he hoped. Race is definite issue that needs addressed, but it can also turn in on itself. The nation's sudden realization of injustice done to its citizens is making people jump to conclusions and it is resulting in more harm to others. This show does not have just one side to every issue. It embraces the fact that both sides were fighting for truth and justice in one or way or another. There was never going to be a truly satisfactory end to this case.
That is made most clear to Marcia Clarke and Chris Darden. Seeing Darden break down and falling into the arms of Ronald Goldman's parents in front of the press was an incredibly powerful scene, made all the more powerful once you realize that this truly did happen and the footage exists of it online. The final scene between Marcia and Chris was also a great one. It could have been easy for the showrunners to have Marcia give her speech about why she seeks vengeance right at the beginning of the show. That would have been the easy way to write her character. Placing that speech at the end after she has failed and is confiding to her friend was the most powerful way to close her character arc this season. Sarah Paulson did some extraordinary work as Marcia Clarke this season and she finishes her time on the show with an incredible showcase of her abilities. This show is a triumph for her as much as it was a triumph on a storytelling level. I'll be waiting for you at the Emmys Sarah.
We got time to see where every character ends up, but it was only natural that we spent the last 15 minutes of the show with O.J.. The show began with him and with him it had to end. I was interested to see if the show would take a true stance on if he was guilty or not, but I was pleased to see that it did not. It feels obvious that O.J. did it, but the show will not ever tell us. What it did show us was that O.J. was guilty of something. Regardless of if he committed the murders or not, the public learned a lot about him. This public includes his friends and family. Seeing him go from confident free man ready to party to broken vessel standing outside alone to mourn was a really great contemplative way to end the show. Even though he was free, he cannot deny anymore that nothing tragic happened and he will always be a part of it. He will always be guilty in some way.
The final shot reminding us of Nicole and Ron solidifies that. No matter what you believe happened, you cannot deny that tragedy occurred. The show never forgot that and it was all the better for it.
This was a brilliant and emotional finale to a season of television that will stand the test of the time and prove to be an important piece of pop culture art. This was one of the best seasons of television in years.
Grade: A+.
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