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All Rise season 2, episode 13: Who’s telling the truth, or their truth?

By Brittany Frederick

“Love’s Illusion” – Lola returns to the Hall of Justice and presides over a case where Amy represents a young woman accused of a swatting incident that resulted in the Dean of a university being shot. Also, Amy and Rachel make up, and Amy brings her divorce papers to her dying husband, on ALL RISE, Monday, April 26 (9:00- 10:00 PM, ET/PT), on the CBS Television Network.Pictured (L-R): Lindsay Gort as Amy Quinn and Grace Powell as Marnie ForstallPhoto: Screen Grab/CBS ©2021 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
“Love’s Illusion” – Lola returns to the Hall of Justice and presides over a case where Amy represents a young woman accused of a swatting incident that resulted in the Dean of a university being shot. Also, Amy and Rachel make up, and Amy brings her divorce papers to her dying husband, on ALL RISE, Monday, April 26 (9:00- 10:00 PM, ET/PT), on the CBS Television Network.Pictured (L-R): Lindsay Gort as Amy Quinn and Grace Powell as Marnie ForstallPhoto: Screen Grab/CBS ©2021 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. /
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The latest All Rise saw Judge Lola Carmichael return to the courtroom, but that wasn’t the biggest story in the CBS drama’s new episode.

“Love’s Illusions” continued the plotline of our heroes delving into corruption at the sheriff’s department. Luke Watkins (J. Alex Brinson) and Mark Callan (Wilson Bethel) kept working on the list, and chipping away at Sheriff McCarthy. “Monster of corruption” is an understatement, but it’s great to see the show carrying on the momentum that started with the Rashel trial from earlier in the season.

Luke and Mark make a good team together, and it’s always entertaining to see them outside of the courtroom and doing their own investigative legwork. One of season 1’s best storylines came in “Maricela and the Desert,” when the two of them went to Las Vegas, and Luke discovering that he signed a fabricated statement for Sheriff McCarthy added another layer of moral complexity to an already well-developed plot.

Many TV crime dramas try for serialized storytelling, but few of them pull it off, and All Rise has done very well at carrying its discussion of police misconduct throughout season 2. The only part that’s uncertain has been the show breaking it up into different segments, but when it’s in the heat of the moment and driving that story, it’s been an unqualified success.

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The case of the week saw Head Deputy District Attorney Thomas Choi (Reggie Lee) and Samantha Powell (Audrey Corsa) square off against Amy Quinn (Lindsey Gort) as a college student was desperate to make a swatting charge “go away,” but not desperate enough to take a solid plea deal.

All Rise pivoted early by having Marnie (Grace Powell) confess to Amy that she was guilty, but had intended to target someone else who had nude photos of her and threatened to post them online. But then the episode got creepy by doubling back on its original plot and revealing the “ex” was the swatting victim—yes, the college dean was preying on students.

Where’s Nev Schulman when you need him?

The back and forth wanted to stir up a discussion about whether trauma mitigates criminal behavior—something that it wasn’t able to dive completely into given how many other stories took place in the episode, but All Rise once again did an excellent job of showcasing all of the differing points of view on the subject. Choi refusing to excuse Marnie’s behavior didn’t mean that he didn’t find Dean Heines (Larry Sullivan) reprehensible, and Lola empathizing with Marine didn’t give the young woman a free pass.

Meanwhile in the personal column, Emily Lopez (Jessica Camacho) confessed that she kissed Luke, ironically while Luke was just a few feet away, Sara Castillo (Lindsay Mendez) feared possible child abuse, and fans met Amy’s husband Collier Owens (Dallas alum Josh Henderson).

All of these are obviously ongoing plots—particularly the latter with Collier critically ill, which on first impression feels like making a bad situation even worse—and none were as important as the bigger issues on the table. But All Rise appears to be pushing several of its characters toward big personal decisions, which makes sense when TV shows are always looking for things to hang their proverbial hat on at the end of a season.

Character growth is critical to the success of any series, and that growth is about more than who someone is sleeping with or used to sleep with; that’s something that many programs lose sight of. Even the situation with Amy, Mark and Rachel Audubon (Ryan Michelle Bathe) could fall into that category, as Rachel kissing Mark really didn’t add anything to the series.

But for the most part All Rise is letting these characters truly be affected by the things they face, which is another reason this series desperately needs a season 3. There are plenty of issues that need to be explored and this group of protagonists is well suited to keep exploring them.

Next. All Rise star Lindsay Mendez talks season 2. dark

All Rise airs Mondays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. The season 2 finale will air Monday, May 24.

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