‘The Night Of’ Notepad

The devil is in the details

The Notepad is running parallel to weekly recaps originally posted on WEEI’s Not The Game.

8.7.16

Questions Heading Into Episode 5:

• Is Nas changing before our eyes, or is he playing right into Freddy’s hands? Can Nas actually trust anyone? Who actually is in this to help him?
• Why is John Stone so hell bent on helping Nas? What does Nas represent to him?
• Does Box actually think Nas did it, or is he too just pursuing the easiest outcome to clear this case?
• What does the crime scene tell us about the killer and the crime?

Theory Heat Check

• The Cat: Andrea’s cat 100% represents the truth of the situation. Hands down. Over the last few episodes, John has been keeping tabs on the case and continuing his work despite not being Naz’s actual lawyer. In “The Season of the Witch,” John adopts the cat and simultaneously gets officially brought onto the defense team, where is job is to LITERALLY search for the truth.
• The Backdoor Theory: John and Chandra bring in their own specialist to get some fresh eyes on the crime scene. The specialist finds the the back door doesn’t lock (something noticed by many and yet to be addressed in the show), may have found some additional evidence in the garden, and may have introduced reasonable doubt to the defense’s case. It couldn’t have come at a better time as Naz’s “Good Kid” defense has flown out the window.
• Occam’s Razor: Occam’s Razor suggests that, “Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.” Lots of things could have happened on the night in question. One possibility is that Naz killed Andrea and just doesn’t remember it. Naz took a ridiculous amount of substances, the combination of which could produce some nasty side effects. At this point all we know for certain is that Naz was definitely in the house when Andrea was murdered. Until new evidence is provided, the theory with the fewest assumptions is that Naz actually did it.

Suspect List

• Duane Reed
• Don Taylor
• Dude from the funeral

New Notes

• So Det. Box is smoking now? This is new. Does this show that the stress of the case is getting to him?
• We learned that Det. Box has filed his papers after 33 years on the job. Does this case now carry more weight for him as it could be his final one?
• Det. Box pouring over all the video surveillance footage shows that Naz was telling the truth on 10/24/14. What does this mean for where Box stands on the proceedings? Is there now a shadow of doubt in his mind?
• Stone listing off all of the ways the cocktail of drugs Naz took could fry his brain was scary. This lends a lot of credence to the “unreliable narrator” theory from a few weeks back; essentially we’re going off of Naz’s recollection of the night. We’re seeing what Naz REMEMBERS, but not necessarily what happened.
• Have we established that the knife found on Naz is the actual murder weapon?
• How could the amount of blood in the bedroom be all over the walls and the mattress, but NOT on Naz himself? His clothes should have been drenched. Will this be brought up in court?
• Who is Duane Reed and why is Trevor afraid of him?
• Where is creepy Step-Dad Don Taylor this week?
• Who is the man at the funeral Don was arguing with?

7.31.16

Questions heading into Episode 4

• What is Alison Crowe’s end game?
• At what point does John Stone force himself into the defense team?
• Is Freddy pulling Naz’s strings in prison? Did he set up the burning of Naz’s mattress?
• Does Box ACTUALLY think Naz committed this crime, or is he — like everyone else — just trying to close this case and move on?

New Notes

• John Stone, man. This guy is so consumed with guilt over what his life could have been, HBO could re-cut only his scenes into their own show and call it “The Telltale Eczematic Feet.”
• Is it me, or did the scratches on his neck look like they were done BY A CAT?

Courtesy: HBO

• The red-herring-cat theory is basically now the Shakespearian rat at the end of The Departed. I am now 100% convinced that it represents the truth about what happened in a Malcolm Gladwell “What The Dog Saw” sort of way. Mentions of the cat and allusions to the cat surrounding John is just a very literary nerd way of saying that he is closest to the truth and seeing things in a way that other characters refuse to.
• Ashley Thomas’ performance as Calvin — the guy over explaining life in prison to Naz like he was a personal Greek chorus — was staggeringly good. I think we all knew he was bad news (especially when explaining Chekhov’s baby oil) but he dragged it out over the course of the entire episode.
• There was a lot of foreshadowing in tonight’s episode, with the baby oil and scolding hot water being the best example. What I’m worried about is the rest of Calvin’s story means for Naz. He repeatedly told Naz about the real criminal — the man who shot his niece — being free while he — the true victim — is in jail. If we’re sure that Naz is not the killer and is the victim, than just like in Calvin’s story, we can assume the real perpetrator is poised to ultimately go free, which makes Calvin a harbinger casting a shadow from here to the debut of “Westworld.”
• Glenne Headly’s Alison Crowe pulling a prada suit & matching bag version of the same crisco & sandals ‘let’s make and take a plea deal’ that Johnny Boy did last week was a perfect example of how the wolves circling Naz only helped him answer the call of the wild by episode’s end.
• Every single person orbiting planet Nasir in this show is trying to play him like a puppet — John Stone, Alison Crowe, Det. Box, Freddy, the inmates, etc. They pull the strings and he dances up until someone — Crowe’s protege, Chandra — actually asks him what he wants to do. When Naz is asked to tell his version of the events of the October 24th in court it marks THE FIRST TIME IN THE SERIES that someone has let him finish telling the story. Everyone sees this as an open and shut case; absolutely no one has listened to him. Well — they’re all listening now.
• Next week’s episode, “The Season of the Witch,” looks like it is going to give us what we’ve been looking for: meticulous examination of clues, motives, and other TV sleuthing fixings. Let’s see if that helps me shake the feeling that this show ends with Naz being locked up for good and taking over for Freddy as the top dog in Rikers.

Suspect List

Step Dad Don Taylor; glad to see this creep is still around,

Courtesy: HBO

And glad to see he brought a friend.

Courtesy: HBO

7.24.16

Questions heading into Episode 3:

• Who does Naz meet in prison?
• How is Box & DA building the case against Naz? How is Stone building the defense?
• What does the crime scene tell us about the killer?

Theory Heat Check:

Don Taylor, the step-dad, is no good. Could his indifference towards Andrea’s behavior, his cold reaction to the events of The Night Of, and his reluctance to actually face Andrea’s body or evidence of the murder be masking a guilty conscious?

New Notes

• Lots of bargaining going on — nothing comes without a price. Family with Crowe, Naz with Freddy
• Freddy getting favors from the guards is probably not unique to the two guards he interacted with tonight. His entire setup in Riker’s could be built around payment for protection from other inmates, former inmates, and prison employees.
• That veal speech was definitely one he has given before. He has seen many cases like Naz’s and is reeling him in as a big fish. It’s nearly identical to what Allison Crowe is doing to Naz’s parents.
• Det. Box ripping into the two arresting officers was fantastic. Telling them to keep Officer Maldenado’s puking at the scene in the official report is a brilliant chess move — humanizing the officers, the victim, and putting the jury directly in the shoes of a ‘fresh out of the academy’ officer seeing his first dead body is genius. It’s also foreshadowing as to the picture that Allison Crowe is going to paint in Naz’s defense. I cannot wait for this.
• CROWE vs. STONE: I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase. Even more perfect because Michael K. Williams in part of this show now.

The cat theory is dead. The cat as a literary device is alive and well.

• The cat represents the truth and for the third week in a row is right under a character’s nose and just as quickly dismissed.
• Just give the truth a little attention and it will open itself up to you, just as the cat wrapped itself around Stone’s leg because he gave it some milk. Stone bringing the cat to the MSPCA — and almost assured death — is going to haunt Jack, metaphorically speaking.
• He sent the truth away in this instance, and is going to be searching for it from here on out.
• Stone, like Naz, is allergic to cats. He’s defending Naz because he sees himself in him — a young kid with a bright future scraping away in a city designed to destroy him. He is compelled to help Naz and give him the chance he didn’t fight to give himself.

7.17.16

Questions Heading Into Episode 2:

• What kind of kid is Naz?
• What does John Stone see in Naz? What drew him back to this kid?
• Of all the detectives in NYC, why call Box? What makes him so important?
• What does the crime scene tell us about the killer and the crime?

Theory Heat Check

The Cat: The cat is more than likely a red herring. The cat was a device to show:

• Andrea left the back door open after she put the cat out.
• Andrea putting out the cat was not shot from Andrea’s point of view; this could be a cinematic device showing that her putting out the cat and possibly leaving the door unlocked was seen by someone else/someone watching the house.
• The cat showing up in Queens at Naz’s house is to show that the answer is closer than we think and that the answer is in what the cat saw aka the truth will be revealed to the audience, not necessarily the characters.

Notes

• Could be something, could be nothing- a glimpse at the paperwork Box is working on while questioning Naz:

Courtesy: HBO

• The hazy, fuzzy sounding dialogue in the opening — that’s new information; we have not heard this part of the conversation between Andrea and Naz previously. He’s remembering things.
• There is blood on the deer head. How did it get there? It can’t be from from Naz sprinting out of the house; that blood is on the railing. Perhaps from the knife game? Perhaps from Andrea and Naz hooking up mid-walk up the stairs?
• The forensic scientist at the scene of the crime mentions the cat to Det. Box. I’m telling you, the cat is more than a red herring — it’s Chekhov’s cat.
• There is a tremendous amount of blood splatter on the walls of Andrea’s room. There is no way Naz could have killed her based on the the splatter alone. Naz wouldn’t be absolutely covered in blood when he came to in the kitchen.
• Don Taylor — the stepdad — is no good. He is almost certainly hiding something or at the very least, he is withholding crucial pieces of evidence.
• This is explicitly shown when called to ID the body. As next of kin, it is his word that can put the part of the case to rest and he withholds it until he would have to be confronted with seeing the body itself.
• Even if he isn’t the killer (BUT HE DID JUST SHOOT THE TOP OF MY SUSPECTS LIST), he is a character whose very presence on screen is screaming out that he feels under-appreciated for a bevy of reasons that double as motive.
• Also he lives in Queens and COULD HAVE TRANSPORTED THE CAT FROM MANHATTAN BACK TO HIS NEIGHBORHOOD WHICH ALSO JUST HAPPENS TO BE WHERE NAZ AND HIS FAMILY ARE FROM.
• I’m not letting this cat thing go.

7.10.16

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT NAZ?

• Naz is writing with his left hand on his math classŠ — seems inconsequential, but will most likely be important.
• Naz seems like a good kid, but is he? He takes a pill with a happy face on it and starts doing bumps of cocaine awful quick for a math tutor who lives at home with his parents and little brother.
• Due to the amount of substances that Naz took the night of, are we dealing with an unreliable narrator? Are we seeing his version of the story and only what he is able to remember?

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT ANDREA?

• How does Andrea (the victim) have her own brownstone on the Upper West Side of Manhattan?
• Theory: She’€™s the daughter of a 9/11 victim. She inherited the house, or received a settlement and was able to buy it. How else would a 22-year old live on 87th street by herself?

ESTABLISHING A TIMELINE

• The timeline will become very important. There are several time stamped events in Episode One-
• When Naz leaves Queens:

(Courtesy: HBO)

• Naz parks in front of a fire hydrant and gets a ticket. What time did he get the ticket? How long was he in the house?
• When Naz gets pulled over after fleeing the scene of the crime:

(Courtesy: HBO)

• When the police find the knife on Naz in the station, Detective Box asks the arresting officers what time they picked him up. The officers respond with, “at about oh-two-hundred,” or 2:00 a.m.
• The arresting officer listing the discovery of the body at 2:30 a.m.:

(Courtesy: HBO)

• How does this adding of time affect the overall timeline of the crime?

EXPANDED NAZ TIMELINE

The whole thing took place in less than five hours?

• Naz picks her up
• Takes a smiley face pill, does coke, shoots tequila
• Couples with Andrea
• Blacks out
• Murders Andrea
• Sleeps at the table
• Flees the scene

AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME

• How did Naz end up in the kitchen? And how is he not covered in blood?
• The knife and presumed murder weapon is on the coffee table where Naz and Andrea left it when they went upstairs.
• Coroner lists the fatal wounds on Andrea to be chest, stomach, and hands. Are the hand wounds defensive wounds or is it the wound from when she and Naz played the knife game from Alien and she lost incredibly badly?
• WHAT IS WITH THE CAT?!
• Andrea lets her cat out prior to she and Naz getting after it:

(Courtesy: HBO)

An eerily similar-looking cat stalks around Naz’€™s house the morning after all of these events take place:

(Courtesy: HBO)

This means:

1. The cat has gone from the Upper West Side of Manhattan/ The scene of the crime, to Queens/ The home of the prime suspect in approximately six hours.
2. A unknown party€Š — €ŠThe “Jay of The Night Of”‘€Š — €Šhas moved the cat on purpose.
3. The cat is a literary device to show that the truth is closer than you think/ under our noses the whole time/ it’€™s some sort of Malcolm Gladwell “What The Dog Saw” type of clue.