For the People recap: 5 big moments from the Season 2 premiere
By Mads Lennon
For the People finally returns to take its place in the TGIT line-up and the sophomore season premieres opens with the shocking murder of a US Senator.
The Shondaland show about beautiful, snarky lawyers is back! For the People kicks off season two with a piteous game of baseball between the defenders and prosecutors. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) their afternoon is interrupted by the shocking news of Senator Carson’s murder at the hands of the local police.
No one knows anything, a fact reiterated by Roger several times. At least, not until the person responsible for the death walks straight into the public defense office and requests an attorney.
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Julian is an avid gamer and when things in the online vortex got heated, he attempted a “swatting” (defined as a tactic used by trolls to get a SWAT team sent to someone’s house by false reporting a crime, often results in unsuspecting civilians being terrorized. The online world is a super sweet place isn’t it?)
The guy Julian was trying to swat was one step ahead of him and fed him the address of the Senator’s son’s home instead of his own, resulting in the accidental murder of Walter Carson.
So is Julian guilty of murder? Let’s take a look through the biggest moments in the premiere and find out!
1. Leonard returns and goes head-to-head with Sandra.
Kate was right. Leonard hates Texas. He’s doing a case on pickles when he should be dealing with the swatting case in New York! It’s a good thing Roger agrees since Leonard bails on his new gig and comes straight back to where he belongs, boosting Kate from the case since she didn’t agree with Roger’s trumped up charges against Julian.
Leonard walks right into the lion’s den as he faces off against Sandra. The show seamlessly transitions between their questioning tactics at trial. Leonard and Roger are attempting to prosecute Julian for having an intent to murder when he orchestrated the swatting that got Senator Carson killed. While on the defense team, Sandra is trying to prove his past swatting incidents (where no one was killed or even injured) indicate he wasn’t intending to cause harm.
Final Verdict:
- Murder for hire: Not Guilty
- False report to emergency services resulting in death to another: Guilty
- Conspiracy to make a false report resulting in death to another: Guilty
- Making a threat to interstate communications: Guilty
2. Roger and Jill are the victims of a swatting.
After Roger discusses how they’re going to file against Julian to Senator Carson’s son, he finds himself on the receiving end of a swatting. It’s a terrifying moment for both he and Jill (who was sleeping over) and it forces him to reconsider the severity of the charges in his case. The incident influences him to alter the plea deal and add the “murder for hire” charge.
Surprisingly, no one finds out Roger and Jill are in a relationship. I thought for sure the cat would be out of the bag in the aftermath. Even more surprisingly, we never find out who was responsible for the swatting. In my mind, the implication appears to be Senator Carson’s son. I doubt it was a random act, it had to be related to the case. The son had the best motive for wanting Roger to understand how frightening a swat situation could be so he would fight harder to get Julian imprisoned.