Summary
A morbid finale proves that crime doesn’t pay, even if it’s for the right reasons, as Michael’s attempts to protect Adam catch up with him.
This Your Honor season 1, episode 10 recap contains a detailed discussion of the Your Honor ending, which needless to say includes major spoilers.
There was never going to be a happy ending, was there? But the Your Honor ending pulled no punches in “Part Ten”, a rapidly spiraling calamity of an episode that proved not only does crime not pay, but it also leaves you in considerable debt. Sooner or later all debts have to be paid, and to close out Showtime’s very good drama, the bill came due for everyone, but Michael Desiato especially.
Your Honor episode 10 opened with Adam missing, having been told off-screen by Elizabeth about his mother’s affair, but this is a subplot that is glossed over so quickly and smoothly I have to wonder why they bothered to include it. A nice conversation between Michael and Adam about love and how sometimes keeping a secret can be symbolic of it notwithstanding, it was reiterating a theme that has already been woven throughout all ten episodes. We know Michael would cross virtually any line to protect Adam since we’ve seen him do nothing but ever since his son accidentally knocked down a gangster’s and fled the scene. There was no real reason to include any of this, especially since it was only introduced virtually out of nowhere in the penultimate episode.
The more pressing theme in “Part Ten” is everyone figuring out what Michael has been up to virtually all at once. One of those people is Lee, who visits with Big Mo and offers to keep quiet about Desire in exchange for the real identity of the driver who killed Rocco. When Big Mo confesses she doesn’t know, that confirms to Lee that it wasn’t Desire, which significantly narrows the suspect pool. When she later confronts Michael, she realizes rather quickly that he’s protecting Adam, with help from Eugene, who inadvertently gives Michael an alibi by mentioning that he came to his mother’s house. She doesn’t take it well, and finds his sympathetic act rightly offensive, and slaps him right across the face. She thinks that the only way to give his soul a second chance is to ensure justice is done and Carlo goes down, which includes letting Eugene testify as a witness. When it comes down to it, Michael can’t take the risk of reopening the prosecution, and Lee storms out, disgusted.
One down. Next is Nancy, who speaks with the homeless vet who hangs around the cemetery and learns through a horrifying story of his time in Vietnam the significance of a date. It was the tenth, not the ninth, that Michael was at the cemetery, which leads her straight back through the various holes in his various stories to the essential fact of the matter — he’s lying. Right after she confronts Michael, Charlie does too and reveals that he knows it was Adam who killed Rocco. Michael tells him that Carlo needs to be found not guilty, and Charlie puts the pieces together. However, it’s looking likely that Carlo will be sentenced to death, so Michael is willing to take the hit for Adam.
Charlie, needless to say, would rather avoid that, so he goes to Nancy in Your Honor season 1, episode 10 to offer her the support of the mayor’s office in order to help her clean up the deeply corrupt NOPD — just so long as she leaves Michael alone. She seems a little bit more pragmatic than Lee, a bit more willing to make an ethical compromise for the greater good, which doesn’t really position her too far apart from Michael himself. As it happens, none of this ends up mattering very much.
There are comparatively fewer court scenes in “Part Ten” than there have been the last few weeks, but they make the most of the time. Of particular note is Carlo’s testimony, which is prefaced by some advice from Jimmy about being a man capable of heading the family when the patriarch is no longer around and starts out pretty convincingly — at least until Carlo’s story falls apart and he calls the prosecutor a see-you-next-Tuesday. It hinges, all pun intended, on the cell door. Carlo insists that Kofi closing it made him fear for his life, but the obvious issue with prison doors is that they don’t open from the inside. If what he’s saying is true, Kofi would have never been able to walk out of his cell, which he claims he did. Showing the CCTV footage that proves the door never closed at all seems like overkill at that point.
This presents a larger issue: How on Earth does this jury find Carlo not guilty? He has priors for racist attacks, he’s obviously smug when he’s holding things together and openly threatening when he isn’t, and he’s the son of someone who everyone seems to know full well is a local crime boss. This should be open and shut. Michael finessing a way for him to play Rocco’s final moments so that he can narrate over them in a way that slightly implicates Kofi shouldn’t matter at this point — Carlo is clearly guilty. Although, there’s a secondary purpose for this, which is to give Adam, who’s present, an asthma attack. He goes outside to pump his inhaler at the exact same moment that Jimmy and Gina are also catching some air, so the penny ends up dropping for them. They know Adam killed Rocco and Michael is protecting him.
This is what leads directly into the Your Honor ending. Fia asks Adam to come to the hotel where the family is celebrating, and he does, which gives Jimmy the opportunity to call Michael and taunt him about what he’s going to do to him. Michael arrives on foot but can’t get into the building, so he’s forced to watch through the window as Jimmy menacingly hugs Adam, as Eugene arrives and is able to sneak inside, as Eugene fires a bullet meant for Carlo that misses completely and buries itself in Adam’s throat. In a sense, Your Honor season 1, episode 10 ends how it began, with a young man messily bleeding and choking to death on the floor. Jimmy pulls Fia away from him and holds her tight, watching as Adam expires and Michael sobs and sobs. I can’t be sure, but there might have been a smile on Jimmy’s face.
