Summary
“Fool For Liv” proved a standout episode, as Lola presided over a celebrity’s murder trial and connections between the characters deepened.
This recap of All Rise Season 1, Episode 6, “Fool For Liv”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
All Rise Episode 6 was, as ever, divided between two cases. In the first, Lola (Simone Missick) presided over the murder trial of a celebrity influencer whose best friend, Olivia McLeland (Bianca Santos), had been accused of forcefully overdosing her on heroin. In a refreshing change of pace, her ally in “Fool For Liv” was Thomas Joy (Reggie Lee), prosecuting against the contemptible defense attorney Adam Pryce (a delightfully despicable Jere Burns, making a meal of it), who seemed determined to prejudice the jury.
Naturally, he clashed with Lola, who had no time for his antics, reining him in by drafting an official complaint. But he was able to make a circus of the courtroom beforehand, with Olivia’s legions of unearned followers — she was famous purely by virtue of being in close proximity to someone slightly more famous — lining up in the courthouse with placards and chants. The unsubtle critique of influencer culture and social media made for a nice, timely undercurrent to All Rise Episode 6, which rightly condemned the whole mess as a blight on traditional, fair justice.
Even the chronically underused Sara (Lindsay Mendez) got something to do in “Fool For Liv”, revealing YouTube stars and celebrity gossip to be her guilty pleasure, but learned the hard way that it’s only attractive to the self-obsessed. Her nemesis — she got a nemesis! — in All Rise Season 1, Episode 6 was Olivia’s brand-building stylist to the stars, who was leaking photos of the jury and made-up rumors whispered to her by Sara herself. Bringing her down must have been a lot more satisfying than transcribing the case, that’s for sure.
The leaking of Lola’s home address made for a highlight when she was forced to shack up with Sherri (Ruthie Ann Miles) for the night. Their relationship has continued to evolve throughout the season and reached a new understanding here, and Sherri gets my respect for having such a spotless crib. With the jury equally compromised and sequestered away, Luke (J. Alex Brinson) had no choice but to sacrifice his study time and chaperone a couple on their wedding anniversary, where Emily (Jessica Camacho) joined them for a kind of double date. Later, she set Luke up with his own little study space as a reward for being so selfless, and he even got a smooch to go with it. It’s about time.
Emily was teamed up with Mark (Wilson Bethel) this week on the case of a snitching robber and a psychopathic grandma; the case was what it was, but it was nice to see Mark and Emily interact since they usually don’t get to. Emily confessed to him that her ex-husband hit her, which shows a level of trust in him that she doesn’t seem to have with anyone else, even if he did later assume the revelation came with a cost.
This, I think, was All Rise at its best yet, finding some interesting new pairings for its cast and a relevant thematic undercurrent for its A-plot, and proving once again that the courtroom doesn’t have to be boring — unless it’s a courtroom on NBC, obviously.
