Sliding Floors
Episode 3 of All Rise Season 2 starts with the lawyers attending a Hawaiian party organized by DA Bravo. Mark makes a good impression with the DA who asks him to look into the TikTok case. This includes a lot of rich kids who have thrown big parties all over the summer. Meanwhile, Lola is busy building her crib on her own as Robin is still very much absent. The same morning, Luke video-calls his family to update them on his success at work while Emily does wall climbing with Joachim and vents her frustrations about the difficulties of her job. In the evening, Mark receives a letter containing pictures from an old case he worked on many years ago. He is confused by them as the man he convicted for pulling a gun on a cop doesn’t seem to hold a weapon in the picture. The next morning, he talks to Amy about it as he is now starting to doubt himself. As Lola gets into court, her first case of the day is for Maya Gage who was convicted of one count felony grand theft. Lola explains that she will hear from both sides before she rules on her sentence. At the same time, Benner is the judge on a similar case involving Tiara Gage, who’s also convicted of grand theft. Emily is her lawyer but she is a little stressed as she has just been given the case. Luke is working on both cases and discusses with Sam how both are similar but while well-off Maya gets to go home at night, Tiara goes back to jail. Bravo visits Mark in his office and tells him that he might be considering him to be his head deputy. Mark heads to the rooftop to meet Lola and explains how torn he feels about his old case, wondering if he should reopen as he may have sent an innocent man to jail. Lola knows he would do well but tells him to be careful as it would mean going against the sheriff. The difference between both Gage trials continue as we see Maya receiving many glowing character witness statements. Tiara is not happy though as she feels she has been prejudiced against and demands to be treated like a white man. In the evening, Luke looks into Tiara’s life and learns that she is a caregiver and doesn’t need to be in jail as she has turned her life around since her last conviction. He calls Emily, who is on a date with Joachin, and relays what he has found out as he wants to help her. Luke then calls Lola next and explains how he doesn’t feel that Tiara’s case is fair. Suddenly, Lola starts feeling some pain in her stomach and worries about her baby. Luke, Sherri, Mark and Benner arrive quickly one after another to make sure she is okay and to tell her she definitely needs to accept some help. The next day, Lola delivers her sentence for Maya’s case. Because of all the people surrounding and helping her, she is given her 3 years probation and 100 hours of community service. As we head into Tiara’s case, the outcome is not so positive. Emily has arranged a zoom call with Tiara’s patient but the video soon cuts off. Benner quickly agrees with the people’s suggested sentence, which is two years in custody for Tiara due to her past and behaviour in court. As she returns to her office, Emily finds even more case files dumped on her desk again. Frustrated, she speaks to everyone about the injustice and how they are treated. She claims that she will fight for them or she will just have to quit. As she walks out of court, Emily finds Luke upset. He explains how unhappy he is with Tiara’s sentence and wants things to change. She tells him that both of them are needed and changes will happen eventually. The episode ends with Mark seeking Tony’s help for his old case. He tells him it is doable but he will have to be very careful with it. Amy walks in the room and is not happy that he has chosen to reopen the case after he spoke to Lola. At the same time, Lola settles in for the night and talks to her baby, explaining that getting help is important and how happy they are to have a lot of people surrounding them.
The Episode Review
All Rise delivers another interesting episode as it shows the contrast between two very similar cases. While both could have been a victim of racism, it was Tiara that struggled the most because she was under-privileged, having no money and a tougher upbringing. It was quite the eye-opener again, which is something All Rise is usually quite good at showing through its cases. This is also backed up by some good editing throughout the episode, smoothly switching between both court cases. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Emily again as she is desperate to help her clients and do what is right. However, she’s inundated with work and receives very little support for her efforts. It looks like Luke is feeling the same way though after both his cases, and I can see that the two might get close again in the future. Lola seems to be doing a lot of her pregnancy alone and was determined to not accept any help until she finally realizes how important it is to admit that you can’t do everything on your own. All Rise may not be the perfect drama but it has enough character development and interesting cases to make this an enjoyable drama.
