'Reasonable Doubt' Season 3 Episode 5 Recap: Were Alex And Monica Behind Wendy's Murder?

The biggest revelation made in Reasonable Doubt episode 4 was that Ozzie was physically abused by Monica, his manager. Ozzie hadn’t told Jax anything about it, but Daniel found his journal, and through it he got to know about everything that had happened. Daniel also got quite close to Kristin, and in episode 5 he did end up getting intimate with her, expressing the feelings he had towards her. So let’s find out what all happened in Reasonable Doubt episode 5 and if Jax was able to prove her client’s innocence in the court of law.

Spoiler Alert

What happened during the cross-examination? 

Chad Barnes, the prosecuting lawyer, had people who testified for him and told the court how they believed that Ozzie was the one who killed Wendy. But he was still finding it hard to overpower Jax’s narrative, as she was so good at finding logical flaws in the testimonies of the witnesses and making sure that a reasonable doubt was created in the mind of the jury. Detective Vic Moreno told the court how he’d found Wendy’s body in Ozzie’s cabin, as well as a gun that was registered in his name. Dr. Archie Golden told the jury that after examining the body of the deceased, she’d found rope burns and bruises on it. She said that, according to her, the victim was involved in some sort of altercation just before she was killed. But Jax was quick to point out that the evidence found at the crime scene and on the victim’s body couldn’t be linked directly to her client. Yes, the gun was registered in Ozzie’s name, but his fingerprints were not present on it. The cabin did belong to him, but there was no evidence to prove that he was present at the crime scene. Ozzie didn’t have a strong alibi, but that didn’t mean that the prosecutor had evidence to prove that he was present at the crime scene. As we know, the onus to prove that the defendant was guilty lay on the prosecutors, and not the other way round. That said, Jax knew that her work would become much easier and their case would become much stronger if anybody could testify that Ozzie was with them when the incident took place. Jax had a strong feeling that Ozzie wasn’t being completely honest with her, and her instincts were spot on. In the earlier episodes, it was shown that Ozzie had called Alex—a fellow actor, an acquaintance, and also his drug dealer. During that call, Alex had made it clear that he wouldn’t testify in Ozzie’s favor, saying he wanted him to suffer.

Later, Anil Keith, Ozzie’s ex-girlfriend, took the stand and testified that Ozzie had once assaulted her, attempting to paint him as someone with violent tendencies. However, Jax skillfully discredited her testimony by pointing out that Ozzie had already filed a restraining order against her. By being at his place, Anil was in fact breaking the law herself, which made her claims unreliable.

Another witness, John Cheng, Ozzie’s neighbor, appeared in court with CCTV footage that captured Ozzie and Wendy’s heated argument. Even Wendy’s assistant tried to ruin Ozzie’s reputation, but Jax managed to turn the situation around. She exposed that the assistant had her own hidden agenda—she was eyeing Wendy’s clients and wanted to take them over after Wendy’s death. Through her sharp reasoning and strategic defense, Jax managed to weaken every claim made against Ozzie, proving just how calculated and determined she was in protecting her client.

Why did Lewis want to track Eddie’s movements? 

In the previous episode of Reasonable Doubt, we saw that Lewis was extremely unhappy about the fact that Eddie, Jax’s father, had met their kids without them knowing about it. Lewis didn’t trust Eddie, as he was somebody whom his wife had had problems with for her entire life. Now suddenly he had decided to come back and declare that he had gotten his addiction under control. Lewis did not believe a word Eddie said, and he went to meet him in episode 4, but ended up having a huge argument with him. Eddie also didn’t hold back, and he almost went to the verge of threatening Lewis. When Jax came to know about it, she decided to deal with things by herself. She went to meet her mother, Mam Lu, and told her that it was not fair that she told Eddie everything about her family. Eddie was Jax’s father, but they didn’t share that kind of relationship. Jax wanted to take things slow, and then she didn’t want others to tell him about her personal life. Lewis, on the other hand, wanted to go a bit extreme, as he was sure that Eddie was still on drugs. He asked Daniel, Jax’s assistant, to help him get a tracker, and he planted it on Eddie’s car. At the end of episode 5, he saw Eddie meeting some old pals, and Lewis was convinced that the man was up to something. Also, Jax had no clue that he had gone behind her back, gotten in touch with her assistant, and planted a tracker on her father’s car. If she gets to know about it, I don’t think she is going to appreciate what he did and, moreover, how he didn’t trust her enough to keep her in the loop. 

Were Alex and Monica behind Wendy’s murder? 

Alex finally came to the forefront, and he decided to testify against Ozzie. Chad knew that Alex’s testimony could prove to be the final nail in the coffin for Ozzie, and so he wanted to make sure that everything went according to his plan. Alex told the court that he had driven Ozzie to his cabin the night that Wendy was killed. He said that he saw Ozzie and Wendy fighting in the cabin, and since he didn’t want to get involved in their mess, he decided to escape. Alex stated that he heard a gunshot just when he was about to leave, implying that Ozzie had killed Wendy. Ozzie told Jax that the man was blatantly lying, and Jax believed him. Jax somehow managed to discredit his testimony too. She told the jury how Alex was a drug dealer and he depended on stars like Ozie for his survival. She also tried to establish that Alex was somewhat jealous of Ozzie since the former had never been able to achieve the kind of success that her client had. 

Jax, in Reasonable Doubt episode 5, confronted Monica and told her that she knew about the abuse. Monica said in her defense that she had protected the boy from enablers and made sure that he built an empire for himself. In Monica’s eyes she had not done anything wrong by having physical relationships with him. At the end of the episode, something strange happened. We saw Monica disposing of a blood-stained hoodie, and she said that she was protecting Ozzie by doing so. Monica surely knows things about that night that she hasn’t revealed up until now. Maybe she is trying to save Ozzie, and Jax is probably wrong in her assumptions. Whatever the case was, one thing is for certain: keeping Jax in the dark will not help Ozzie’s cause. Maybe he still trusts Monica more as compared to Jax, or maybe he is too scared to tell the truth. It would be interesting to know what happens in the trial in the upcoming episodes and if Jax is able to find evidence to prove her client’s innocence. 

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