'The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story' Recap: Things Get Ugly

Few things are as emotionally confusing as competing against a friend. As Americans we are raised to win, win always, win forever. But then we are also taught to always be loyal to our friends, have each other’s backs, treat each other with respect, junk like that. So what happens when you walk into the octagon and you’re suddenly nose-to-nose with a beloved mentor? Can you truly beat a friend within an inch of his or her life and still expect to meet up for drinks at Ruby Tuesday’s afterward? Mixed emotions! 

Although almost any of the episodes could be titled this, “The Race Card” was this week’s episode of The People v. O.J. Simpson. Though we’ve all heard that phrase used to describe the courtroom tactic allegedly employed O.J. Simpson’s defense team, surprisingly it meant something different here. Was everyone aware of how vicious and race-based Johnnie Cochran’s relationship with former friend Chris Darden was? “The Race Card” continued to portray mid-’90s Los Angeles as an unsettled community and a hotbed of racist cops, but those concerns took a backseat to the inner struggle that Chris Darden seemed to be dealing with as a black man tasked to convict a black man whose defense had taken up a righteous cause against systemic racism. This case was never going to end in a beautifully eloquent, mind-changing monologue like something out of To Kill a Mockingbird, but this was the episode that things turned UGLY. But also real. Really real.

Let’s talk about it!

We began with a normal scene of a man being badgered by his daughters for a sweet treat. But it was all interrupted by a jerk on a motorcycle.

The jerk was a cop, and despite Flashback Johnnie Cochran’s calm, procedural-minded demeanor, the cop had him in handcuffs on the hood of his own car within SECONDS as dozens of Beverly Hills samaritans ate their fro-yo apathetically. An existential nightmare for anyone, but a chillingly commonplace one for Johnnie Cochran (and, you know, millions of other people).

I liked that Cochran tried to turn the moment into a teachable one for his daughters, but ultimately he only got out of this situation by politely asking the cop to read his business card… “Assistant District Attorney.” Yikes! THIS was the world and context that made the entire O.J. trial possible. The city’s Assistant District Attorney was regularly pulled over by police for no ostensible reason other than driving while black in Beverly Hills. So this flashback provided a good explanation for what motivated Johnnie Cochran to distrust the LAPD with such conviction, but it did not explain why he’d spend the rest of this episode being a total dick, pardon my French.