Some people just need grace. Before arriving in a courtroom for a hearing, all defendants have been through stuff most people can never imagine. The purpose of a hearing is to determine whether a person is guilty of the crime they’ve been accused of by all fair means.
As Danny’s trial ended on The Crowded Room Season 1 Episode 10, his defense team pulled something short of a miracle.
Stan and Rya had avoided putting Danny on the stand because it is usually the smart thing to do.
When a counselor puts their client on the stand, they expose them to the other side, and there are very many ways that it can go wrong. If the client is truly guilty, they can expose themselves, and if the prosecution is really crafty, they might trip the client into incriminating themselves.
There was an extra layer to the Danny Sullivan case because they knew with almost certainty that if they put Danny on the stand, Jack would take that opportunity to sabotage their efforts. If not Jack, Jonny would do something wild.
The alters were concerned with preserving themselves, and in a psychiatric hospital, they knew they would be eliminated.
They would rather Danny die than they did.
Jonny was prepared to see that through when he stole the paper clip, but he didn’t need to do much because the sadness Danny felt from Candy’s testimony on The Crowded Room Season 1 Episode 9 was too big.
Splitting his wrists open was the most radical thing Danny had ever done as himself, apart from asking for help from Rya.
What is most loveable about how The Crowded Room approaches difficult topics is that they don’t sensationalize things. It could have been easy to make the show funny and dramatic, but that would defeat what they were trying to do.
Something like suicide is hard, and they portray the act without showing the act.
When I say Stan and Rya pulled something if I was superstitious, I would call it a real miracle; it is not hyperbole.
Every odd was stacked against them. It was a first-of-its-kind case. It dealt with something unseen, unheard, and untouchable, witnesses had dug them into a hole, and Danny was unlike any other defendant.
I was curious to see what trick they would pull in my The Crowded Room Season 1 Episode 9 review, and it seemed they pulled the only one they had. Calling Danny or whichever alter was in action currently.
Rya’s idea of convincing Danny that everything that happened to him as a child was not his fault didn’t make much sense. Even if they convinced him, what then?
What happened to Danny, what happened to Adam, none of it was Danny’s fault. But he doesn’t know that. His guilt, his shame, they’re keeping him from being able to see what what really happened. So we have to show him. That’s what works with Danny. He’s beautiful that way. He will fight you. But when you show him the truth, eventually he will believe you and he’ll be able to see what really happened. And so will the jury.
Rya
But when Stan executed the plan, it all finally made sense.
Danny had to confront the abuse under Marlin, see how it would have happened no matter what Danny did, and that it was not his fault.
It was pure luck that Danny was not in control because he got to hear the words from Jack, whose wisdom he trusted, and seeing Jack struggle to answer some questions gave him the kick he needed to dig deeper.
Stan: One more witness, Your Honor.
Judge: Alright, go ahead.
Stan: The defense calls Danny Sullivan to the stand. That’s you.
Bailiff: Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Jack: I do.
Stan: For the record, please state your full name and address.
Jack: Daniel Sullivan. 9 Elm Rd. Elbridge, NY.
Stan: Only that’s not true, is it?
Jack: I am fairly certain that that is my address.
Stan: Not your address, your name. Are you Danny Sullivan?
Jack: Of course, I am Danny Sullivan. Who else would I be?
Stan: Isn’t your name Jack?
Patricia: Objection. Whatever the defense is running at …
Stan: Danny Sullivan has the presumption of innocence. It is his right. And in this case, that requires that we at least consider that that is not Danny. I’d like to talk to Danny.
Jack: And that you are, Sir. In the flesh. I’m up here. I very much appreciate the chance to tell my side of the story, if that’s OK.
Judge: OK. Danny, go ahead.
Jack: I hated my stepfather. Before he came, it was just my Mama. When he did, he treated her terribly. I guess you could say he was abusive to her. I begged her to leave, but she was so scared. I was not just gonna sit, let him hurt her. I guess that’s why I stayed so close to home. The abuse never stopped. If anything, it only got worse. All I wanted was to scare him into leaving. I know what I did was wrong. And I take full responsibility.
Stan: Your Honor, I have a hostile witness.
Judge: That hostile witness is your client.
Stan: And as I said, I don’t believe he is. Really, I just need a little leeway if you’ll allow it. Your Honor, please.
Jack: Mr. Kimisu, you are embarrassing yourself.
In his head, that meant finding Adam in the flooded room, and if Adam was truly in that room, that meant he was never real, and everything Danny attributed to being Adam’s fault would mean it was his fault.
Hey, Dan.
Adam
That might not have been what Rya and Stan were aiming for, but when he recognized that it was his fault, it would allow him to accept that it happened.
But I’m not confident that it was what convinced the jury.
The jury saw that this man was not well. He acted like two different people, and his behavior was generally weird.
It allowed them to entertain the idea that Danny might have had Dissociative Identity Disorder and that condition might absolve him of responsibility for the crime he stood accused.
Hearing him recount Marlin’s sexual abuse hit them to the core, and even Patricia finally saw the broken boy. At that point, there was nothing much to be said.
They knew Danny had alters. Danny admitted that one of his alters was repeatedly abused as a child, and all the alters were an extension of Danny.
We, the jury, find the defendant, Mr. Sullivan, not guilty on all counts by reason of insanity.
Mr. Foreman
It didn’t make much sense, but that was the point. Danny was sick and had been traumatized beyond most people’s wildest idea.
With the trial over, it was time for people to confront their lives, and Rya realized she didn’t need to be a professor as much as she thought she wanted.
It was a purely academic interest that didn’t care about the real people they were supposed to be helping. She was guilty of this in her early interactions with Danny.
Sometimes we prioritize things that don’t need prioritizing, and as a result, people suffer.
Rya had refocused her efforts into therapy and, as a result, she was much happier and healthier. Also, Theo was getting proper breakfast now. The contrast from the Rya for The Crowded Room Season 1 Episode 6 was very clear.
Danny finally got the psychiatric help he should have gotten and won the war against the alters. The room was not so crowded anymore.
He allowed Candy to visit, and she said her piece.
As much as we feel the need to blame someone, some issues are systematic. Candy had never known independence. She belonged to someone her entire life, and it was no surprise predators could smell desperation reeking from her.
She was a single mom in the 20th century, feeling society’s pressure to find a man. She also craved it because she was hooked on male dependency for a long time.
You don’t remember your father. Your real father. Because I never really wanted to tell you. There wasn’t much good to tell. I was sixteen when I got pregnant. Seventeen when we got married. And when you were four, I came to understand that he… So I got us as far away from him as possible. But being on my own was more than I knew how to handle. So when, Marlin … he seemed so strong, so dependable, somebody who could take care of us. And we needed that. We needed taking care of. I needed it. I don’t think for a long time, I told myself. It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. I couldn’t have brought another man like that into our lives. But I did. And I’m sorry. What I let happen to you. Even if you never forgive me. And I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t because the parent is supposed to protect their child. I failed. I failed.
Candy
Some people are quite unlucky, and Danny Sullivan was one such person.
He was abused by his father from an age no one can tell, and then by his teacher, stepfather, and random drug dealers. What are the chances?
For a season finale, “Judgement” was a bit underwhelming. It lacked the flair season finales have, especially when they also serve as series finales.
It has a forty-minute runtime and tried to close all the open plots in less than fifteen minutes. While Rya and Danny did get some closure, other important characters didn’t.
We never got to know what happened to Stan. What about Marlin? Did he die a painful death?
What happened with Jerome? Did he visit?
It was no secret that something didn’t quite work with The Crowded Room, as discussed in our The Crowded Room series premiere review.
But if one good came out of it, it was the confirmation that Tom Holland is one of the greatest actors of this generation. The range he showed in this show is amazing.
I was not particularly keen on him as an actor because I don’t think superhero films can display much acting range, and most, if not all, of his movies have left something to be desired.
From Cherry to The Devil All the Time, Chaos Walking, and Uncharted, nothing was interesting there.
But The Crowded Room allowed him to bring his A-game as an actor and save a sinking ship.
And for that, Tom Holland has one more fan. This is the end … for now.
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Denis Kimathi is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on Twitter.