O.J. Simpson (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) & Johnnie Cochran (Courtney B. Vance)Photo: Courtesy of FX.Alan Dershowitz (Evan Handler) is using a live feed of the O.J. Simpson trial to teach his law school students at Harvard. He comes to the conclusion that, "If there's gonna be a media circus, you better be the ringmaster!" In a flash of inspiration, Dershowitz sends Johnnie Cochran (Courtney B. Vance) a fax about a "Colombian necktie," which Cochran immediately asks Detective Tom Lange (Chris Bauer) about.
Lange doesn't know what that is. "It's a well-known technique employed by drug gangs. They slash a person's throat so viciously, they almost remove the victim's head," Cochran informs the detective. The jury looks horrified. Back in Cambridge, Dershowitz's law students applaud.
Why did Dershowitz have Cochran bring up Colombian neckties? To orchestrate another narrative for the jury to think about. Maybe Nicole Brown Simpson's friend Faye Resnick (Connie Britton) owed money to a drug cartel, and they killed Nicole as collateral. The prosecution can see what the defense is doing, and it's making them nervous. The defense is giving the jury too many alternate narratives to consider in the form of what Chris Darden (Sterling K. Brown) calls "razzle-dazzle moments." This is turning into a number straight out of Chicago.
The prosecution finds a receipt that proves Nicole bought the gloves found at the crime scene and Rockingham. "The gloves...the gloves are our conviction," Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson) says excitedly.
Robert Shapiro (John Travolta) is nervous about the glove receipts. Robert Kardashian (David Schwimmer) assures him there's no proof that they're the same gloves. Shapiro thinks that Kardashian is more involved with the situation than he's been letting on. Everyone saw Kardashian carry a bag out of Rockingham — there's even video. Kardashian insists it was a garment bag that belonged to Simpson (Cuba Gooding Jr.), but Shapiro thinks it contains the murder weapon. He thinks Kardashian should turn in the weapon so that, at most, he would be convicted of being an accessory to the murders after the fact and get five years in prison. Shapiro doesn't want to continue the conversation any further, as he believes it will be a conflict of interest. When Cochran and the rest of the team enter the room, Kardashian storms out, and Shapiro refuses to talk about what just happened.
Kardashian goes straight to Rockingham to open the garment bag in question with A.C. Cowlings (Malcolm-Jamal Warner). It's contains clothes and a Penthouse magazine. A.C. is pumped; he thinks this is confirmation that Simpson is innocent. Kardashian isn't nearly as jubilant. He's starting to doubt Simpson's innocence, and he's even less enthused about his own involvement in the trial. He says that his son is getting teased on the playground. Kardashian admits that he's really struggling with the details of that night. He's trying to remember everything possible about Nicole, who was a personal friend of Kardashian and his ex-wife, Kris Jenner (Selma Blair), and learn everything possible about Ron Goldman. Kardashian can't believe that with all the coverage and even all the conspiracy theorists, no other suspects have emerged. Pretty soon, it won't matter that there aren't any other suspects, though, because they've got those gloves.
Johnnie Cochran's personal life is going through a bit of a razzle-dazzle media moment, too. The press has uncovered his past double life: He was married to one woman and fathered a child with another. Now, they're both on A Current Affair. Court records also show that he assaulted his ex-wife Barbara Cochran (Angela Elayne Gibbs). His current wife, Sylvia Dale Mason, knew about all of this when they got married, but she's angry, because now her friends, pastor, and family members know all about it. It's in official court records. "You made the world your stage. You wanted the attention. Now you got it," Dale Mason (Keesha Sharp) tells him. Johnnie Cochran totally pulled an Alexander Hamilton with The Reynolds Pamphlet. He was so focused on preserving his own public legacy that he forgot the damage it would do his private life and relationship with his wife.
Darden invites Clark to Oakland for the weekend. It's his best friend from childhood's birthday. She hesitates before saying, "Gordon has the kids this weekend. You know what? Hell yes, count me in." They have a blast at his friend's birthday party, but everyone wants to talk about whether or not O.J. did it. "The cops framed his ass, anyway," Byron (Sam Sarpong), one of Darden's friends, says. "I think that cracker cop planted that glove, and they all did what they had to do to prove O.J. did it."
Clark does some intense schooling about the lengths to which Mark Fuhrman (Steven Pasquale) and the other detectives would have needed to go to frame O.J. Simpson for the murders. Darden's friends are impressed with her demonstration about why the whole "the LAPD framed him" theory doesn't hold up. "When this is over, you should go work for Cochran!" one of them says.
They also think tonight is the ideal night for Darden and Clark to sleep together. He argues that they're coworkers. Now, Marcia Clark and Chris Darden both insist that their relationship never turned romantic, but the show still leans heavily into their intense chemistry and how close they were during the trial.
When they reach her hotel room at the end of the night, there's a moment when they both clearly want to kiss one another. Darden finally says "goodnight" after an extremely long, lingering pause. After she goes into her room and shuts the door, he does the whole "lean against the door frame in regret" body language we know so well from movies and TV.
Once they're back at work, Darden comes to Clark with a bombshell idea. He phrases it in the form of "I think you and I should just go for it." That's not the best way to start after their sexual tension-filled weekend. What he means by "it," though, is having Simpson try on the gloves found at Bundy, the murder scene, and Rockingham (Simpson's house). Clark doesn't think it's a good idea at all. "We have his gloves with all the DNA, everybody's blood, the fibers...all of it. We have the receipt that proved he owned them. We're done! We've been dealt a king and a 10. I don't know why you want to ask the dealer for another card."
"Because I know it's an ace," Darden counters.
"No, you don't," Clark fires back. "You turn over control of a demonstration to an opponent, and you don't know what's going to happen, and certainly not to the defendant himself."
Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson) & Chris Darden (Sterling K. Brown)Photo: Courtesy of FX.We all know where this is going, but Darden is the one leading the glove testimony for the prosecution. Shapiro is handling it for the defense, and he tries on the gloves himself while the trial is in recess. The gloves are way too small for him, and when he compares his hands to Simpson's, Simpson's are even larger than Shapiro's. There's no way the gloves will fit Simpson, and the defense devises a plan to get the prosecution to present the idea of Simpson trying them on. This is going to be their downfall.
Darden tries one more time to get Clark to agree to the glove try-on. She reminds him that he works for her; that this is her case, and he needs to drop it. Immediately after Darden gets put in his place by Clark, F. Lee Bailey (Nathan Lane) walks over. "You, sir, have the balls of a stunned field mouse. If you don't ask him to try on the gloves, I will," Bailey tells Darden.
Darden completely disregards what Clark tells him and asks that Simpson try on the gloves. Simpson is given latex gloves to put on underneath the leather gloves from Bundy and Rockingham, which of course make his hands even larger. When he goes to don the leather gloves, he cannot get them on either hand. "These gloves are too small, too tight: won't fit," Simpson notes, holding his outstretched hands up for the jury to see.
Darden asks Simpson to make a fist and try grasping an object in his right hand. He has trouble doing so. The defense is overjoyed at the outcome of the demonstration. Shapiro and Cochran give each other a high five underneath the table. Over on the prosecution side, Darden tells Clark, "He was making them not fit." She's irate.
Later on in Darden's office, he calls Ron Goldman's family. He apologizes for the entire glove incident. "It's not over yet. We'll come back from this. We will," he says in the message he leaves on the answering machine.
Except, as we all know, they won't.
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