All Rise season 2, episode 7: Restoration or retribution?

“It was just a whisper, and now my conscience is shouting,” Luke Watkins (J. Alex Brinson) says in this week’s All Rise. “It’s all wrong. It has to change.”

In “Almost the Meteor,” the CBS drama presents two very different criminal justice philosophies in two prosecutions. What’s remarkable about the episode is that it takes no side—instead it shows that each can be applied in different situations, and that both approaches are also flawed.

This TV crime drama‘s strength has always been that there’s no one answer; it’s the most diverse series on TV, both in terms of representation and points of view. This episode is that in a nutshell, along with self-realizations for two characters.

Restorative justice…

Luke takes a big leap in “Almost the Meteor,” giving the episode its title as he advocates for a restorative approach to his armed robbery case after spending more time with ex-prosecutor turned activist August Fox (a returning Rick Fox).

Luke successfully makes an argument for his new idea, getting both his boss and Judge Lisa Benner (Marg Helgenberger) with a proposal that presents it within the traditional framework they’re used to. However, All Rise does a great job of showing that while restorative justice is an alternative and one that is worth considering, it doesn’t magically solve all the problems.

What follows is a bumpy ride where the first sit-down between Luke and Emily Lopez’s (Jessica Camacho) clients ends up in a confrontation, where Luke gets chewed out by EZ Driscoll (guest star Tom Gallop) for going over his head, and the legalities become an absolute mess. In the end, even though Emily’s defendant reaches a point of genuine remorse through the experience, the chaos means it doesn’t all work out.

Through the conversations between Luke and Darius Moore (guest star Coy Stewart) the show does explain the value of restorative justice and the way it can be a net positive to the community. However, it shows every single hurdle to making that aspirational dream a reality—including a moment where August seems to come down hard on Luke for botching it.

The truth is Luke doesn’t owe him or anyone else an apology. He doesn’t have to pick a side here. Advocating for restorative justice in this case or any other doesn’t mean he can’t be a prosecutor; that may have been August’s choice but it’s not an “either or.” What Luke is doing is trying to make one thing right in the best way he can see, and isn’t that what All Rise is about?

Especially on his first attempt, you can’t expect the guy not to stumble. It might be embarrassing, but there’s no shame in that.

The best scene of this episode is between Luke and Head DDA Thomas Choi (Reggie Lee), where Choi speaks to Luke about his experience as a Filipino prosecutor. What does it mean to see people who look like you on the other side of the aisle? It’s such a real, human moment between the two characters and it really resonates.

Though Luke’s first foray into restorative justice doesn’t work out the way he planned, he has to learn to marry that philosophy to the system he works with, as he himself says. You get the sense that he’s going to figure it out, but he’s still in a place where he’s learning these new ideas and also still figuring himself out. He has to take the journey to get what he wants.

…or retributive justice?

On the flip side, All Rise wraps up Mark Callan’s (Wilson Bethel) police-involved shooting case, but not before Mark almost gets himself fired. It wouldn’t be a true Mark story if he wasn’t ruffling a few feathers.

Peter Rashel (returning guest star Nick Wechsler) wants to cut a deal. Mark’s bosses don’t get why he’s not thrilled—Rashel pleads to a strike, can never serve in law enforcement again, and it’s an easy win in a high-profile situation. But Mark wants prison time. He wants punishment for the fact that Rashel paralyzed a man. Furthermore, he argues—maybe a little too much—that they’re not doing anything to address the larger problem of the cover-up.

Mark’s absolutely right. Restorative justice isn’t going to work in a situation where the defendant did irreparable harm to the victim’s life. Or when the victim isn’t open to the idea; Omar Aziz (guest star Gabriel Cordell) tells Mark he wants his “eye for an eye.” He wants Rashel to hurt, and you can’t blame him, because he has to live the rest of his life with what Rashel characterizes as “a terrible mistake.”

There are situations where punishment is part of being held accountable. There are people who are always going to want that retribution.

“I always knew that a reckoning was coming,” Rashel tells Mark shortly after agreeing to take a different deal that will send him to prison for three years.

The thing is, as Mark points out earlier in the episode, the reckoning is still out there. Holding one person accountable doesn’t realign the whole system. With Rashel’s case wrapped up thanks to the plea, it’ll be interesting to see if All Rise explores the systemic issue further—could Mark take on another police-involved case? Could he, as DA Louis Bravo (Ian Anthony Dale) points out, end up seeing some blowback from what just happened?

We’re barely scratching the surface here, and especially as Mark has now come to this point of reflection about his career, it would be wonderful to keep probing the subject matter. But at the same time, Mark has other things to do, and All Rise has other topics to cover, so there has to be some moving on.

The important thing is that he’s said out loud—even as it’s probably always been true—that he doesn’t want to be part of the problem. At the end of this season, we could be looking at this plot and saying this was a turning point for Mark Callan. Where will this experience lead him next?

All Rise airs Mondays at 9:00 p.m. on CBS.