Have You Met Leonard Knox? is the seventh episode of the first season of For the People.
Short Summary[]
Leonard is forced to confront some longstanding insecurities when his new high-stakes case leads him to question what is right and what is wrong. Sandra goes head-to-head with Seth who files charges against a daring comedian accused of threatening a U.S. president’s life and Jay defends a tennis player accused of intentionally throwing a match to help his coach win a bet he placed against him.
Full Summary[]
Leonard is playing pool with some buddies. The Harvard Law annual New York alumni event is coming up and they need a speaker. Leonard volunteers, but his friends had other people in mind. Leonard wonders why he's being overlooked. They tell him he's doing awesome stuff, but he hasn't done a big and splashy case yet. Leonard concedes.
He lies awake in bed when his alarm goes off.
Leonard works out at the gym. A news report about the murdered sister of an FBI agent draws his attention. Christine Campbell was murdered by a target of her sister's task force. The killer had a roommate, Jared Nash, who was in the apartment when the murder happened, but he reportedly didn't take part in the murder since he was questioned and released.
Kate and Seth are watching the news report at work. Seth thinks it's insane that it happened, but Kate can only think about how difficult the defense would be. Roger hands out cases while in a very good mood because he finally got season Yankee tickets. Leonard asks about the Campbell case. Roger says the district attorney has the case since the state has a strong interest in the case. Seth mentions dual sovereignty.
Jay arrives at work with his bike, which is insane to Sandra and Allison. Jill tells him he's on duty. Jill assigns Sandra the case of Caz Murray, a comedian who posted a picture of herself pointing at a gun at a picture of the President. That was her way to provoke debate for gun control. She eventually got to yelling that she was locked and loaded and coming for the President. The Secret Service took her seriously, so she has been charged with threatening POTUS. Jill says the attorney's office isn't known for its humor.
Roger is laughing in his chair and then tells Seth no. He refuses to drop the case against Murray. It came straight from Washington so he won't do that. Roger agrees that, like Seth, Washington is humorless. Seth denies being humorless so Roger challenges him to tell a joke. He's saved by the phone.
Jill just found out about their season tickets. She's in. Roger will e-mail back to confirm the tickets and hangs up.
Leonard visits Kate's office. The Campbell is bothering him. He wants to try it in this district. She tells him to let it go as Roger was clear. He's glad she's back from the ATF stuff and asks about her experience. She says she learned a lot. He again tries to bring up the case, but she's not having it.
Jay arrives at the clerk counter at the court house. He's surprised to find a young woman there instead of Tina. He came by to say hi to Tina. The woman introduces herself as Lara. Lara hands him the file on his next case, Guy Watson. Tina comes up and makes Jay leave.
Jay is meeting Guy, who corrects his tennis terminology. Guy is being charged for bribery in a sporting event. He's suspected to throw a match against a lower-ranked player in exchange for money. Guy says he didn't. He was injured. Jay says his coach John paid him $20,000, but Guy explains that it was a loan since he was in debt. He had no knowledge that John was placing bets against him. His ankle was messed up so he almost forfaited, but given his opponent's rank, John convinced him to play. He didn't understand John was playing him. Guy has dreamed his entire life to play in the US Open and now he's finally qualified. Jay will do his best for him.
Leonard keeps getting distracted from his work by the news articles on the Campbell case. He finally makes a decision.
He goes to Roger's office and tells him he wants the case. Roger reminds him the DA has taken on the case, but Leonard says he doesn't want Hargrove. He wants to go after Jared Nash. He's convinced Jared did something and he's going to make him pay. Roger wants to know why. Leonard says Christine was kept in that apartment for 26 hours. She was beaten and raped and eventually had her smashed into the radiator. Jared Nash was in and out of that room. Nash was asked if he felt bad, but he wondered why since he didn't know Christine. He stated he just felt bad since he wouldn't get to see his best friend again. Roger then gives his okay.
Caz explains to Sandra that she meant her tongue was her weapon. It was no real threat. The problem is that Caz has a previous record of assault. She threw a toaster oven at a fellow comedian who stole her jokes. That combined with the fact that Caz actually owns a gun means that there's a solid case. Caz only bought the gun to take the picture. Caz wonders if there's going to be a trial. Sandra wants to go for a deal.
Allison hears from Sandra that she has to work with Seth to make a deal. Allison tells her to handle it like she would any other. They then hear grunts coming from Jay's office.
Allison finds him staring at his computer screen as well as two other screens. He clarifies he's watching tennis. His client was ranked too low for his match to be broadcast, so he's screening footage and interviews from other matches to find a limping Guy in the background somewhere. Allison comments on the match. She offers to help Jay as she's a tennis expert. Jay tells Allison about Lara. Since she sees he has written down her name a dozen times, she advises him to ask her out. Jay then finds Guy limping and leaning on his coach in the background of another interview. This proves the injury.
Leonard is interviewing the officer who questioned Nash and Hargrove. Hargrove confessed but there is no physical evidence to implicate Nash. There's also no evidence that he helped cover up the murder. Leonard wonders about the body, but the officer says that would be a question for the medical examiner.
The medical examiner tells him there's nothing to link Nash to the murder. All the wounds were inflicted from one angle and there was only DNA from Hargrove on Campbell's body.
Kate tells Leonard she told him it would be a bad idea. The last resort is to have Hargrove implicate Nash. Kate deems that useless, but Leonard has made up his mind.
Leonard meets with the district attorney and asks for help to build his case. Leonard says he'll take whatever he can get. He proposes Hargrove be incentived to testify against Nash. The DA likes him playing dirty, but they have done everything they can. Leonard says he has nowhere else to turn to, but the DA tells him to turn around. There's no prosecutor who hasn't been in this position.
Roger reminds Leonard that the murderer can't testify against anyone, but Leonard says he had no choice. Roger says he embarrassed this office. He took his shot but it's over now. Leonard has a new idea. He wants to charge Nash with misprision of a felony, meaning he did something to cover up the murder. Roger says a misprision case on its own is absurd. Roger forbids it.
Tina comes across Jill in the hallway and notices she looks happy. Jill tells her about her season tickets. Tina is a Mets fan but she appreciates Jill getting herself season tickets as a single woman. Jill says it's actually her and Roger. Tina says going in on tickets together is like marriage but bigger and more permanent. Tina did it with a good friend and it ended with them not speaking while she was still on the hook for tickets. But she's happy if Jill's happy.
Sandra and Seth are having a meeting. They agree it's weird. Sandra says the ironic absurdity of using a gun to ask for gun control is what makes the humerous context clear. Seth mentions the criminal history. Sandra asks if he actually believes Caz, a little person, is an actual threat to the President. Seth counters that Sandra's little and she's the scariest person he knows. Sandra says they're done here. He didn't need to make it personal. Seth says she's one to talk. She makes everything personal. When they first met, she attacked him for not liking California. He thinks she did it because she didn't like him being with Allison, but Sandra says she just didn't like him.
Jay is presenting his evidence of the injury to AUSA Celia Chavez. Celia is unimpressed because she has footage and witnesses of Guy at a charity event on the morning of his match, where he was running around and jumping with kids. She'll produce the discovery today. She's sorry he wasted so much time finding that video.
Kate checks in with Leonard. He admits he's not okay. He asks for her help. He wants her to talk to Roger since he respects her. Kate says Nash is already a pariah for the things he said in the news. If Leonard does this and loses, which he will, he'll have absolved Nash in a small way. Leonard says humiliation isn't justice. He refuses to let that be it. She speculates that this is so important to him because he fears people see him like he sees Nash: amoral, selfish, unfeeling. He says that is offensive. Leonard says Nash sat by and did nothing while someone was being killed. He actually wonders why nobody else seems bothered by him. Everyone is just sitting by and doing nothing, like Nash did.
Kate visits Roger to advocate for Leonard. If Leonard pulls this off, Roger has opened a whole new front of criminal liability because he approved it. Also, Kate points out there's probably not a lot of people who ever won by betting against Leonard Knox.
Leonard is interrogating a neighbor of Nash and Hargrove. He went to their apartment that night to complain about the loud music. He talked to Nash. He barely opened the door. Nicholas interrupts Leonard and asks counsel to approach. He wonders what Leonard's doing since he's not up to date on misprision of a felony. Leonard says Nash deliberately blocked the neighbor from being able to look into the apartment, and thereby helping to conceal Hargrove's crime. Nicholas allows it. The neighbor then confirms he couldn't see into the apartment. The opposing counsel says Nash also could've talked to the neighbor without opening the door, which is what he would have done had he been trying to conceal the crime.
Guy explains to Jay that he took a handful of painkillers to attend the charity. He couldn't take more before the match or he would've wound up in the ER. This was supposed to be his moment. Everything has been building up to this, but he can't reach out and grab it. Jay says they might have one more move.
Jill visits Roger with multiple contracts so they have everything properly arranged in case things don't work out. Jill says this has become a huge commitment, but Roger says it's just baseball. It's personal and emotional because it's the Yankees. They have been waiting for 8 years, so he wonders why she's doing this. If he can't bring himself to sign these, he'll have to find someone else for the tickets.
Allison comes home and Sandra tells her she and Seth are going to trial. Seth was unreasonable and insulting and condescending. Allison says that doesn't sound like Seth. Allison is trying to move beyond it and she wants Sandra to move past it, too. Sandra says she's loyal. Allison agrees, but she tells Sandra that she also demands absolute loyalty. That's hard sometimes. Sandra says she was always good to Seth. Allison says Seth doesn't feel that way. There's no beef here, so Sandra shouldn't let this get in the way of her client's best interests.
The next morning, Leonard is working out again. He's confronted with a news report on his unprecedented prosecution for bystander responsibility. He takes his earphones in and out, blocking the news report. That sparks an idea.
Leonard is interrogating the neighbor again. While the music itself wasn't unusual, the volume that night was. The nieghbor remembers the exact time: 1:13 AM.
Leonard is now interrogating the medical examiner. She states Christine Campbell died due to blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. She would estimate time of death between 1:30 and 2:30 AM. In her opinion, the injures were inflicted about 15 minutes before death. So the murder happened while Nash turned up the music.
Seth visits Kate's office and says he made a mistake in his case. She lists previous murders of Presidents and concludes threats are to be taken seriously. Seth says he let it get personal because he always felt like Sandra disapproved of him. Kate wants to focus on the case and asks if he has proof that Caz wanted to go to D.C. He says she was about to leave on tour and then remembers the auto summon. He runs out.
Seth and Sandra have another meeting. Seth says Caz is set to perform at Ann Arbor the day before the President is set to speak at the Michigan Convention Center as part of the auto summon. Sandra says that's a coincidence, but Seth says Caz booked a room in Detroit for both nights and she also entered a lottery to win front row tickets for the President's speech 47 times. Sandra asks what they're offering. Seth says no jail time, but a 3-year probation, travel restrictions, and a ban from following the President on social media. If she goes within 5 miles from the President, the Secret Service will apprehend her. Sandra then apologizes for what she said before. It wasn't Seth. She never gave him a fair chance. Seth says they both loved Allison.
Leonard is doing his closing argument. He tells the jury that people always remember where they were when something big happened, at a time where people needed help. He asks if they stood up and helped, or looked away. There is no law that says you have something to prevent a crime They wouldn't be here if Nash hadn't eaten cereal and watched the light in Christine Campbell's eyes go out. You don't have to help the victim, but you cannot help the perpetrator. That is why they are here, because that is what Nash did. Misprison of a felony is an old charge and it requires proof of 4 elements: that the perpetrator actually did the crime, that the defendant had full knowledge of that fact, that the defendant failed to notify authorities, and that he took an affirmative step to conceal the crime of the principal. The first three are undoubtedly true, but the fourth question is why they are here. The evidence is clear. At the exact time that Hargrove was beating Campbell to death, Nash turned up his music that nothing else could be heard. He asks the jury where they were when Christine Campbell was dying. Wherever they were, they didn't know so they couldn't help her, but they can help now. Christine needs them.
Sandra is informing Caz about the demands. Caz admits the photo was ill-advised and she let the trolls get to her temper, which is a problem sometimes. She wanted to go to the rally to hold up a sign and get publicity for herself and gun control, but this is better than she could have dreamed. POTUS has taken out a restraining order against her. She might get a cable special out of this.
Jay asks Celia about her success rate. She replies 98.7%. He admits that likely won't change, but he asks her to hear him out. Guy was 26 when he last that match with a winnng percentage of 65%. Guy's opponent was ranked lower, but his winning percentage was 74%. That doesn't make sense to him. The tennis ranking equation is complicated and neither them nor a jury will understand it, so they won't be able to say "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Guy took the bribe. He thinks the odds aren't looking good for either of them. Celia says she can go as low as 3 months. Jay has a condition.
Jay congratules Guy. He'll get to play in the US Open. 3 weeks after the start of the tournament, they'll enter the plea and he'll serve his sentence. He hopes Guy goes far. Guy thanks him for everything. Once Guy is gone, Allison reminds Jay about Lara. Jay is not planning on pursuing her since Tina won't like him dating a colleague of hers. Allison says that the whole point of his case was to never quit.
Jay finds Tina in an empty court room. He tells her he likes Lara. He wants to get to know her. Tina doesn't approve. He counters that she met Larry at work, but Tina says that was different because it was her. She wants to protect him and his career. She doesn't want him to add more obstacles to his success when he already has so many. He's a brown man without an Ivy League degree, which are already two strikes against him. He can't get distracted. He has to be the best and a relationship will distract him. Tina leaves to find a new hiding place.
Roger is making calls to find someone else who wants to split the tickets. He then sees a framed ticket.
He shows up at Jill's office and closes the door. She refuses to fight about this. He signed the contracts. It's been his dream to have season tickets with her. He wants to go to games with her. She thanks him. He reminds her of opening day and leaves.
Jay gathers his courage to approach Lara. Tina gives them some privacy. He brought tickets to a tennis match.
The jury foreperson reads the verdicht: guilty. Leonard can't hide his smile.
On the elevator, Leonard listens to a voice mail of a friend asking him to speak at the event tonight. He makes a call.
Allison heard about Sandra's case. Sandra tells her that Seth's a good lawyer. Allison knows that. She misses him sometimes. Sandra says she doesn't have many people who know her well. Sometimes, she thinks that's her fault. She worries that when she has someone, she could lose them, so she holds on. She doesn't let anyone else get between them, because it's scary to lose a person when you have none to lose. Allison assures Sandra she's never losing her.
Kate drops by Leonard's office. She'll make an exception to her rule about people going to jail and invites him to go celebrate. He would, but he has somewhere to be. She tells him not to feel bad about the publicity since he's earned. Leonard tells her he really doesn't know why he did this. He just has this image of Chrstine sitting there, looking at Jared. Kate says he does know why, then.
Leonard's cab pulls up at the alumni event, but he decides not to go in and asks the driver to keep going.
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[]
- Anthony Hill as Guy Watson
- Olivia Sandoval as Celia Chavez
- Casey Biggs as District Attorney
- Rae Gray as Lara Abkin
- Meryl Hathaway as Caz Murray
Co-Starring[]
- Adria Tennor as Susan Womack
- Jake Green as Alan Graves
- Shaun Clay as James Cook
- Brett Weinstock as Ethan Zimmerman
- Jennifer Field as Reporter #1
- Rahvaunia as Theresa Wood
- Lee Amir-Cohen as Franklin
- Kartik Chainani as Malik
- Brandon Marino as Heath
- Sally Shamrell as Reporter #2
- Ludwig Manukian as Taxi Driver
- Leo B. Ramsey as Jared Nash
- Jami Ferreira as Foreperson
Legal Cases[]
The United States v Jared Nash[]
Jared Nash was arrested and charged with misprision of a felony. He had gone in and out of the room while his roommate and best friend held a woman hostage and eventually killed her. He hadn't called the police or tried to help her at any point. Critically, he had turned up his music while his friend beat her to death, preventing anyone else from hearing what was happening in the apartment. He was found guilty.
The United States v Caz Murray[]
Caz Murray was arrested and charged with making threats against the president when she posted a picture of herself pointing a gun at a picture of the president. Then she later posted that she was locked and loaded and coming for the president. She claimed she meant with her tongue. Sandra and Seth met to try to make a deal, but the meeting was cut short. Seth uncovered that Caz had entered a lottery to get front-row tickets to see the president speak. Seth offered three years of probation, no longer tagging the president on social media, and not being allowed within five miles of the president. Caz happily accepted the deal.
The United States v Guy Watson[]
Guy Watson was being charged with bribery in a sporting event because it was believed that he threw a match to a lower-ranked player in order to help his coach win a bet against him. His coach had recently loaned him $20,000, which he said was to bail him out of debt. He said his ankle was injured and he'd wanted to forfeit, but since he was ranked so low, his coach believed Guy could still beat him. Jay worked out a deal for Guy to serve three months, but the plea wouldn't be entered until after he played in the U.S. Open, his dream.
Music[]
| Song | Performer | Scene |
|---|---|---|
| "Funky to Me" | Crush Effect |
|
| "Spit Fya" | Chaptabois |
|
| "" |
| |
| "Dig Deep" | Lxandra |
|
Notes and Trivia[]
For The People 1x07 Promo "Have You Met Leonard Knox?" (HD)
- This episode scored 2.18 million viewers.
- This is the first episode to have a character's name in the title.
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 >> | |||