"Release the tapes."
Full spoilers for The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story continue below.
Can The People v. O.J. Simpson manage to top how excellent it was in its second-to-last episode with whatever it delivers next week in the finale? After watching "Manna from Heaven" play out, I'm not sure I can handle it.
The fuse has been lit all season on American Crime Story as we saw how the prosecution lost a seemingly easy win in the trial of the century, and the bomb finally went off in the season's penultimate episode. The racial tensions, the sexism women face in the workplace, the way the defense is manipulating the story -- everything came together in a perfect drama that made it impossible to look away from the screen.
Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark on The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
It was clear all season that everything would tie back to Mark Fuhrman. The writers and directors were never subtle about that, from the way Peggy York (Judge Ito's wife) hesitated before signing to the affidavit to Fuhrman's collection of Nazi paraphernalia that only the audience was privy to seeing. But it's still strong storytelling that led us to this point, and the sequence of Fuhrman walking into the courtroom with both sides hating him, as F. Lee Bailey noted, sent chills up my arms.
If the glove was the tipping point for the case, the Fuhrman tapes were the point of no return. Sarah Paulson and Sterling K. Brown play Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden as if they know they've already lost the case. There's an exhaustion from all members of the trial -- except, perhaps, Johnnie Cochran -- that shows how much this long, long battle has weighed on them. The trial was a circus long before Fuhrman's racist comments were heard, but this was the argument that would put the beast to rest.
Both sides know it. It's why Courtney B. Vance plays Cochran with such desperate energy -- he knows that getting these tapes into the case and to the public not only will win him O.J.'s innocence, but also be proof of everything he's been fighting for with police corruption. On the other side, Clark literally begs these tapes not to be released because she knew the irreparable damage it would do to the prosecution's argument. Ultimately, she was right.
Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran on The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
Like the best moments in American Crime Story, "Manna from Heaven's" central conflict rang painfully true to today's world. Numerous areas of the country are still at the point of rioting over racism and brutality in the police force. Even though the characters in the show act like our country should have come farther than it had in 1995, the same could be said for 2016.
The People v. O.J. Simpson works on many levels, but it wouldn't succeed anywhere as much as it does without standout performances across the board. This is an ensemble cast, but it's Paulson, Vance and Brown who make this show. They all were top-notch in this episode -- a statement I feel like I've made every week of this season, but was especially true in "Manna from Heaven." From Cochran seeing how backwards parts of the country still can be to Darden's explosive comments across the courtroom to the final scene when Marcia realized she had full custody (a scene which legitimately made me teary-eyed at that one significant personal victory), these actors have made this show as outstanding as it is.
The Verdict
"Manna from Heaven" is The People v. O.J. Simpson at its best. The show is firing on all cylinders as it heads into its finale, dealing with a contentious subject that is sadly as newsworthy then as it is more than 20 years later. Everything about this episode worked, from the storytelling build up all season to the performances. The Fuhrman tapes mark the end of a battle hard-fought by both sides as American Crime Story comes close to finishing the reexamination of one of the most controversial cases in American judicial history.
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