Critic’s Rating: 4.1 / 5.0
4.1
It seems Accused just delivered a triumph for domestic violence survivors, even if it was more fantasy than reality.
Keeping up with the theme of up and down installments to Accused Season 2 Episode 6 was a reasonably solid installment compared to its predecessor, Accused Season 2 Episode 5.
There was a focus on mutual trauma and a shared sisterhood between two unlikely individuals.
You can never go wrong with Cobie Smulders, and her portrayal of Val felt tailor-made for an actress who is adept at portraying wonderfully complex, flawed, and occasional hot mess characters.
In this case, Val wasn’t so much a “hot mess” as she was a domestic abuse survivor and single mother who was trying to get by while taking care of her son and ensuring that he would never end up like his father.
She spent much of the hour truly struggling, as it seemed like the system got stacked against her merely because her ex-husband was an emotional terrorist who not only managed to gaslight her but frequently charmed others so much that they didn’t see who he really was.
Trey was a classic narcissist, and he got off on the control and hurt Val however he could.
He didn’t take any responsibility for his actions, physically and emotionally abused her, and left her this emotionally damaged woman who turned to alcohol to cope and developed PTSD and Panic attacks.
And then he weaponized those things against her at will, including when he constantly threatened to take full custody of their child alongside his current wife, Jordan.
The groundwork for how evil a person he was preceded him, and viewers didn’t have to do much work to pick up exactly who and what Trey was and why Val suffered so much.
And the hour, predictably, saw her standing trial for his murder as the State of Oregon tried to build a case against the ex-wife who was mentally, financially, and emotionally “unstable” and had a motive to kill this man.
Trey’s death was an unexpected, awkward affair. One minute, we’re gritting our teeth over Val, sneaking back to his house to steal back the statue that belonged to her, and the next, she hears him hitting the floor.
Initially, it did seem like an accident, as if an electrical issue from his welding tool shocked him and stopped his heart.
Val didn’t kill him; she even did chest compressions on him and performed CPR for a few seconds before her Panic attack got the better of her. Flashbacks to all the ways he caused harm to her flooded her brain, and in no time, she was too busy trying to get out of there and cover her tracks instead of calling 911.
Given Val’s experiences and her mental health, it was reasonable that she had the reaction that she did, even though most of us would love to think that we’d call the emergency number and report the death.
In fact, the hour does a subtle but decent enough job of capturing some of the responses to trauma. When we first saw Val bracing herself to speak to Trey and ask him about the sculpture, she was so cautious and meek.
He was explosive, cruel, and mean toward her, and Val had the classic “freeze” reaction in the face of his ire. She practically trembled under his gaze, and when Jordan appeared shortly after, she fled.
And when he died, Val fled again, rushing to track down Oliver and take him home with her, knowing that she didn’t want her son to be near the house when whomever discovered Trey’s body.
Jordan was a great contrast to Val and a solid embodiment of the “Fawn” trauma response in trauma survivors. To many, it may have even appeared that she was genuinely ignorant about her husband’s explosive temper and abusive ways.
But Jordan’s way of dealing with Trey involved submission, appeasement, and being as agreeable as possible, except, ironically, when pushing his buttons regarding Val.
Jordan may not have seemed like an ally to Val upfront, but she was quietly one behind closed doors. She advocated for her because it was the right thing to do, and she genuinely loved Oliver and respected Val.
She also understood Val more than she let on, which must’ve come as a shock (pardon the pun) to Val when she spent much of the time intimidated by Jordan and Oliver’s relationship, resenting Jordan for “having it all together,” and generally being put off by the existence of this woman.
For Val, Jordan seemed to make her feel inadequate, and something specifically wrong with HER caused Trey to behave as he did.
She didn’t feel as though Jordan validated or supported her or had half the experiences that she did, and she bought into the picturesque lifestyle that Jordan and Trey seemed to have.
The irony of Val buying into the same facade that she put on when she was with Trey isn’t lost and speaks to how we tend to view abuse and how easily it can hide behind closed doors, even for those who know better.
It’s part of what made the real cause of Trey’s death such a solid twist. We saw the flashbacks of how things played out, so we knew Val didn’t do it, but we also could understand how she wound up on trial.
It looked less like an accident when they caught her sneaking into his house and then leaving shortly after, and she didn’t do herself any favors by not calling 911.
We were so caught up in knowing that it wasn’t murder that it was shocking to learn that it actually was and that Jordan was the one who orchestrated the whole thing.
The hour seemed to fly by, but even with that in consideration, it was a shock that Jordan got up on the stand and confessed everything without counsel, making it clear that Val had no part in anything.
It was a hell of a way to tank the prosecution’s case and embarrass the guy when they probably could’ve gone over all that before stepping into the courtroom.
Although, in many ways, it worked out better that way, if Jordan had told the truth before the trial, it’s possible that they still would’ve pinned something on Val, and both women would be in jail.
Initially, it seemed like Jodan was there to be the final nail in Val’s coffin.
Still, once we started following other parts of the timeline, you could tell that she genuinely felt bad about Val and that she could never live with herself if Val went to prison for something she did.
Jordan was a murderer, yes, but a genuinely good person. I went into his hour fully prepared for Cobie Smulders to captivate me, yet Dina Shihabi emerged as the standout and most compelling character of the hour.
We saw that Jordan was a woman on the edge, and as she outlined everything Trey did to her and how she executed his death after yet another beating, your heart went out to her.
She was sympathetic, even when we knew that her admission on the stand outlined something that operated outside of the scope of self-defense.
Much like Val, Jordan fell into the same habit of covering for Trey, and as a result, there was no physical evidence of his abuse. There were no records with the police, pictures of bruises, or anything else.
It’s not uncommon, sadly, which means that domestic violence survivors have the burden of trying to prove to everyone around them that this person poses a serious threat and is harmful.
But when you have someone with charm, power, and money like Trey, the outside world is simply another tool he can control and use to his advantage.
Both women loved Oliver so much that they were genuinely concerned about his well-being. Val feared her son had his father’s violent streak, and Jordan feared that Trey would hurt Oliver.
They were both protective moms trying to do what was best for Oliver, but they had different ways of doing that. Jordan’s method was permanent and more effective. She probably would’ve succeeded with it if Val didn’t show up at the house.
Val had to work on forgiving Jordan because not only did she kill the father of her child, but she was the reason that she was on trial for it. It was devastating because Val couldn’t process how Jordan could let things go on as long as she did.
But she came through in the end, and they were more alike than different. As she told Oliver, Jordan was family.
Understandably, Val wanted to do whatever she could to ensure that Jordan wouldn’t go to prison, too. However, that’s where the hour takes a turn that, while emotionally satisfying because we sympathize with these women, feels too unrealistic to work.
Val threatening to lie on the stand and tank the case against Jordan by confessing and thus evoking a double jeopardy situation was absurd. And the fact that it actually worked was absolutely ridiculous.
It’s sad to say that the law very seldom works in favor of domestic violence survivors, something that Val wanted to point out. Having her play Double Jeopardy like some sort of Uno Reverse card felt like it undermined the point and poignancy of what the episode was exploring.
I’m not saying that these women and this family don’t deserve a happy ending, only that it’s not typically the reality.
Accused typically does such a decent job of addressing the system’s complexities and pitfalls that tying things up with this implausible, neat bow feels inauthentic to what we’ve known and expected from this series.
Nevertheless, I should be content that these two women found peace and freedom in this fictional realm and that it’s a hopeful sentiment for those seeing this who may be in similar positions.
Over to you, Accused Fanatics.
How did you feel about the murder twist?
Do you feel like the ending was unrealistic?
Let’s hear all your thoughts in the comments below!
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