Rahowa is the second episode of the first season of For the People.
Short Summary[]
The six young lawyers are even more determined to bring home wins and prove they are worthy of The Mother Court, as they tackle their second round of cases. Jay must set aside his personal feelings as he defends a client with controversial beliefs, and Sandra’s idealism leads to an important lesson from Ms. Krissman.
Full Summary[]
Jay's mother sees him off to work.
Sandra tries out several outfit combinations before choosing one and packing away the rest of her clothes.
Sandra says she's going to go in early, but Allison tells her to sit down because she knows Sandra is hungry. She knows Sandra feels weird, but it's her house, so she should eat the food. She grabs a box of cereal, but Allison says that's Seth's. They talk about Seth leaving after two years of dating and Allison says she's not sure if he's coming back.
Seth's alarm goes off and he fights his way through the curtain separating his bed from Ezra's. He's staying in an airbnb. He goes to the bathroom door and argues with Ezra about the terms of him staying there, but is ignored.
Seth washes his hair in a sink and then dries it with an automatic hair dryer.
Roger talks to the new AUSAs about their wins. They had one loss from Seth, who has just come in. Seth isn't sure they can call his case a loss, but they assure him it is one. Leonard's not surprised he and his girlfriend broke up. Roger interjects their conversation to tell Seth that while he's on probation, he's assisting Kate. Kate is shocked and asks what she did. Before Roger can answer, Douglas Delap, the U.S. Attorney, comes in and Roger introduces him. Douglas congratulates Leonard for winning his terrorist case, which Roger says was a team effort.
Douglas and Roger then enter Roger's office, which used to be Douglas's office when he ran criminal. He tells Roger to get a tall plant to draw eyes up because the office seems smaller now. Roger thinks Douglas is there to talk about Carl Wayne Clarke, who is accused of shooting an assemblywoman at a rally and says they have it handled. Douglas says that's not it. They have years of investigations into prescription-drug fraud, but no cases for three years. Roger said the cases are difficult to make. Douglas makes it clear that that's not an excuse and the president is worried about it, so Roger needs to worry about it. If he doesn't start filing charges, the office is going to start feeling smaller and smaller.
Seth goes to Kate's office to work with her. She tries to get him to wait outside, but before she can convince him to wait, Roger comes in with the prescription-drug files and passes them off to Seth and Kate. He also tells Kate to get a tall plant to draw the eyes up. Kate says she's ready for Seth now.
Jill congratulates the FPD's on their first cases. Several of them did well, but the bear claw goes to Allison for getting a full dismissal. She hands them their new cases and then calls Jay into her office. He asks Allison and Sandra if that sounds like he's being fired or she's calling him in to tell him he's her favorite. They agree it's not the second one.
Jay goes into Jill's office. She asks him how he's feeling about his job an the says he's feeling good. They talk about the fraud case. He negotiated a good deal, but he also made some huge mistakes. He tells her he won't do it again. She has the case of Carl Wayne Clarke, accused of shooting Assemblywoman McCray. She wants to give it to him, but it requires total commitment. He says he is totally committed. He didn't get off to a good start, but he wants her to know he's all in. Carl Wayne Clarke is his client.
Jay waits as Carl Wayne Clarke is brought in. He has several racist tattoos clearly visible on his face and head. He comments that the worst he thought he could get is a Jew and asks what Jay is supposed to be. Jay tells Carl that he's his lawyer.
Jay tells Jill that Carl is a Nazi and rants about how abhorrant he is. Jill knows, but it doesn't matter. She's defended people she knew were awful people, but that's the job.
Seth talks about the opioid cycle that's caused by doctors overprescribing and getting their patients addicted. All the work hasn't led to charges, but now they have to find one. Kate's upset with being stuck with him, but he says he's only there because he got sandbagged by his ex-girlfriend. She tells him she doesn't care about his girlfriend. She doesn't care about any of his cases except this one. Seth wants to find a new way in. Kate thinks it's a shortcut and wants to look for plaintiffs that have sued doctors.
Sandra asks Allison how her case went. Allison says it went well. They see Seth and Allison says they work in the same place so it's bound to happen. They make awkward small talk and then Sandra excuses herself. Seth explains where he's staying and Allison says she wants things to be less weird between them. It's not going well. They stumble over saying goodbye.
Leonard brings Kate lunch, but she already ate. Leonard also suggests that Kate can have lunch with him and his mother tomorrow, but she doesn't want that either. She wants him to leave, but he sits down. He's upset at being given such an easy case after a big win. Leonard thinks Roger is messing with him.
Anna Ledesma tells Tina she was on time. Tina remains steadfast that she won't accept the form. Sandra asks why, but Tina reminds her that if a case comes in, she'll e-mail her. Anna says she's going to be evicted. After Anna has walked away, Sandra questions Tina, but Tina just gives her a look and she walks away.
Sandra finds Anna in the elevator and asks her about her eviction. She says the other judge in housing court suggested she try filing for discrimination to stop her eviction. The papers were due by noon, but she couldn't get off her shift early and she had to take her son to physical therapy for his legs. She's not a lawyer and doesn't have one, but Sandra says she does now.
Kate says there was nothing in the work she was looking through and asks how Seth did. He admits that he didn't do as she asked and instead says he wants to search the doctors' homes, thinking they might have gotten careless about their homes. Seth wants to get a warrant now, but Kate says no. Kate finally agrees when Seth tells her how long it'll take to go through all the evidence. They'll be close friends by the end of that.
Kate and Seth are at Judge Byrne's house. He's not happy about them interrupting his dinner. He berates them and then says he's denying the request. Seth says they tried, but Kate is upset. She's a hard worker. This isn't her. She wants to do it her way now.
Sandra comes home and tells Allison about how she's going to fight Anna's eviction. She's using the Americans with Disabilities Act. There have been dozens of complaints against her landlord, but no one has tried using the ADA to go after him before. Sandra then notices her clothes hung up. Allison tells her she's welcome, but Sandra pulls them all out and puts them back in her bag. Allison says Seth is coming back. She thinks that because he's staying in an airbnb instead of getting an apartment. They've fought before, but Sandra thinks this was bigger. Allison questions Sandra about her putting her clothes back in the bag, but Sandra just says that's where she wants them. Allison says that's okay, even though she doesn't get it.
Jay and Tina watch a video of Carl ranting about McCray. Jay says he threatened her on camera and there are witnesses that put him at the scene. Tina says people like him get to rant like that and they defend him. Despite this, she says he should defend Carl anyway. Jay can't stop thinking about his parents having to watch their son defend a guy who thinks they're animals. Tina tells him to keep telling himself that when they go low, he should go high. Jay says this guy is very low. Tina says he knows he is. But he wasn't born that way and doesn't have to stay that way. When she met Jay, he was a dope-smoking bike messenger. Now he's a lawyer. Suddenly, Jay gets an idea.
Jay asks Jill about makeup. He wants makeup for Carl, to cover up his tattoos. With that tattoos, no defense he puts up will matter because the jury will decide based on that. He wants to level the field so people can hear him.
Seth apologizes to Kate and agrees to do it her way, which she already knew. Her plan is to look for another way to get in, find another thing to charge a doctor with. She went through the records for the doctors. All but one have housekeepers. He and his wife both work. They have kids and dogs and a huge house. She thinks he has an undocumented housekeeper. They can prosecute that or let him plead guilty for overprescribing instead. Now they have to go find out. So they have to go check it out for themselves, verify that they're right about the housekeeper.
Seth and Kate late outside the house. Seth tries to convince Kate he's a good lawyer, but she doesn't care. They see Margo Elata exit the house and know that's what they're looking for.
They have Margo in a conference room. They ask her about her employer. They inform her of the minimum wage law, but she says Dr. Rollins told her that law doesn't apply to her because she wasn't born in the US. Kate tells her it applies to everyone, regardless. They ask about her immigration status. She tells them she has a passport and the doctor will give it back once she's done paying him back for the money it took to bring her there. She's worked there for seventeen years, unable to leave.
Jill asks Sandra about her duty case. She says it's great. But then she admits she traded with someone else. She took a pro bono case, even though she's pretty sure they're not allowed to do that, but she explains the case to Jill and says she won't let anything else slide. Jill tells her it's okay.
Leonard introduces Roger to his mother, a US senator. She asks Roger not to show Leonard special favor because of her. She gives him her card and says they'll have dinner when he's next in DC. The senator knows she was being paraded around by her son. Leonard says he needs Roger to know he's an asset and he has power moves up his sleeve. She tells him calling his mother is never a power move.
Jay is putting backup on Carl and asks him what rahowa means. He says it's Racial Holy War, which they train and plan for. It's how they'll restore the white Christian state. They're prepared to kill everyone of another race.
Kate wants to use the human trafficking to get Dr. Rollins to plead guilty on the opioid charges, but Seth says human trafficking beats opioids. The FBI agent says Margo has no presence in the US after her arrival, but there's something weird.
Roger is shocked to learn that Margo is worth a lot of money, courtesy of the doctor using her name as CEO of shell companies overseas. Roger sees that it's bigger than they thought. One of the accounts is the Dutch West Indies, where a drug cartel stores its money. He's laundering money for them.
Carl and Jay sit down in court. He's decided to let Carl be Carl. Jill arrives and calls Jay out.
In the hallway, Jill asks Jay about his strategy. He explains that he had already found Carl guilty, but then backed up and rethought things. He realized that he had a case because there was enough reasonable doubt to get an acquittal. He can do it.
Jay questions the first witness, who says she saw Carl at the rally. She's sure it was him because his look stands out. Jay shows her photos of four men with similar looks and tattoos. The next witness admits that while he saw Carl running away, everyone else was also running away. Next witness is a woman who also publicly opposed McCray and owns a gun.
Sandra makes her case to the judge, saying that the property was violating the ADA. She was late to file her paperwork because she spend 20 minutes trying to convince her son they needed to keep moving because he was scared of the rats. She talks about the effects of eviction on the kids who end up getting used to not having anything except what they can carry away by themselves.
Allison and Seth run into each other. He says he has to file a big case and talk about it. He leaves, but she says one of them has to be the one, so she'll say it. She asks him to come back home. He says he's not mad, but everything is always on her terms. He doesn't want to play second fiddle to her. They're just done.
Jay gives his closing statement. He knows what Carl looks like, but the jury needs to look at the facts, not Carl's face.
Sandra gives Tina the winning judgment in her case. On time, which she knows Tina appreciates. Tina explains why she does her job the way she does. She has to do her job so the others can do their jobs. She can't let them bend the rules because there has to be a line. Sandra tries to get her the judgment again, but now it's late, so Tina tells her to come back tomorrow.
Roger joins Leonard on the elevator. Roger gave Leonard a new case. He figured Leonard could use a bigger challenge. It's tariff violations on imports. Roger sends his best to Leonard's mom as he exits the elevator.
Roger meets Jill at the top of the Subway stairs. No one's moving. He doesn't want to wait, so he suggests they get a drink and go later. They'll make it by the second inning. She agrees to that.
Allison walks by the subway station with a package.
In the bar, Jill and Roger watch Delap talk about the Rollins case on television. Roger is upset, but Jill says he dodged a bullet because Delap is the face of an unwinnable war. Jill's worried about what'll happen to Margo. Roger says they're working on it.
Byrne asks what they want, for him to support a visa for Margo. Kate and Seth say she actually wants to go home, but they want some of the money seized from Rollins to be allocated to Margo and they want his support. He says this would have been worth interrupting his dinner.
Jay hands over Mr. Lang's laundry. After he's gone, Jay tells his father about his day and the case he won. In response, his father tells the story of one of his mother's cousins, who was beaten and imprisoned without a trial due to government corruption. Jay won a trial because he had a trial to win.
Seth says it went well and Kate can admit now that he's a good lawyer. Kate says she's busy.
Back in his office, Seth finds a setup like Kate's, with the tabs and highlighters.
Sandra comes home and finds her clothes still in her bag, but on a stand that Allison bought for her, which makes her smile. She tucks her coat in.
Sandra joins Allison, who is eating Seth's cereal.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Hope Davis as Jill Carlan
- Ben Shenkman as Roger Gunn
- Jasmin Savoy Brown as Allison Adams
- Susannah Flood as Kate Littlejohn
- Wesam Keesh as Jay Simmons
- Regé-Jean Page as Leonard Knox
- Ben Rappaport as Seth Oliver
- Britt Robertson as Sandra Bell
- Anna Deavere Smith as Tina Krissman
- Vondie Curtis Hall as Judge Nicholas Byrne
Guest Stars[]
- Michael Beach as Douglas Delap
- Anne-Marie Johnson as Senator Melora Knox
- Anna Khaja as Vera Simmons
- Arthur Darbinyan as Sam Simmons
- Neil Hopkins as Carl Wayne Clarke
Co-Starring[]
- Elizabeth Pan as Margo Elata
- Joy DeMichelle as Anna Ledesma
- Alison Ball as Ms. Waldron
- Rosie Narasaki as Ms. Carter
- Robert Dominick Jones as Segal
- Christopher Cendana as Witness
- Ben Kliewer as Carlyle
- Glenndon Chatman as FBI Agent
- Evan Lai as Mr. Lang
- Lisa Temple as Judge Erin Engel
- Steve Kehela as Judge Lawrence Friedman
Legal Cases[]
The United States v Carl Wayne Clarke[]
Carl Wayne Clark was arrested and charged with shooting Assemblywoman McCray at a rally. His motivation was believed to be race. Initially, Jay wanted to cover up his Nazi-inspired tattoos to make him more presentable for court, but ultimately decided to let him appear as he was. They heard from witnesses who had been on the scene that day, but Jay demonstrated that they didn't make the case that he fired the weapon and there were multiple other people who resembled him at the rally. He was found not guilty.
Anna Ledesma v Mr. Carlyle[]
Sandra took the case of Anna Ledesma, who was in danger of being evicted from her home. Sandra learned that there were complaints against her landlord, but no one had tried to use an ADA violation before. The building didn't have ramps or an elevator, a violation of the ADA. There were rats and rotting stairs. Sandra impressed upon the court the conditions Anna and her son were living in. She ultimately won her discrimination suit.
The United States v Charles Rollins[]
While looking for an opioid overprescription case, Kate found a doctor who didn't have a housekeeper on payroll, despite having a full house and pets. She believed he was housing an undocumented immigrant and wanted to find her and use that as leverage to get him to plead guilty to overprescribing opioids. They went to his house and found his housekeeper, Margo Elata. They brought her in and asked her questions about how she was paid and asked if she had a green card or visa. She revealed that she only had a passport, which Rollins was keeping until she paid him back for the expense of bringing her to the US. He also lied and said minimum wage laws didn't apply to her because she was not born in the US. She wanted to go home, but he wouldn't let her leave. She'd been in the house working for them for seventeen years. They also learned she was the on-paper owner of some shell corporations, making her worth $150 million. He was using her information to launder money for a drug cartel. He was arrested. Kate and Seth appealed to Judge Byrne to support allocation of some of Rollins' seized money for Margo so she could go home and live comfortably. He agreed to lend his support.
Music[]
| Song | Performer | Scene |
|---|---|---|
| "Echoes of the Lost" | The Knux (feat. Yonas Michael) |
|
| "Real Deal" | Kil the Giant, Leo Soul |
|
| "Not Gonna Let You Walk Away" | Lolo |
|
Notes and Trivia[]
For The People 1x02 Promo "Rahowa" (HD) This Season On
- The episode scored 2.69 million viewers.
Gallery[]
Episode Stills[]
Behind the Scenes[]
Quotes[]
See Also[]
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A complete overview of this episode's crew can be found here. |
| Season 1 | |||
| #01 | "Pilot" | #06 | "Everybody's a Superhero" |
| #02 | "Rahowa" | #07 | "Have You Met Leonard Knox?" |
| #03 | "18 Miles Outside of Roanoke" | #08 | "Flippity-Flop" |
| #04 | "The Library Fountain" | #09 | "Extraordinary Circumstances" |
| #05 | "World's Greatest Judge" | #10 | "This is What I Wanted to Say" |
| Season 2 >> | |||