Accused Season 1 Episode 4 Review: Kendall’s Story

On Accused Season 1 Episode 4, “Kendall’s Story,” our title character faces an impossible decision that leads to his life being changed forever. 

Trigger warnings for this review include sexual assault and racism. 

“Kendall’s Story” is deeply heartbreaking for a multitude of reasons. After a man in a park sexually assaults Kendall’s daughter, Kendall’s friends find the man and beat him to death. 

Then, they blame Kendall, who wanted to come forward and confess to being a part of it, but they don’t blame the cause. The result is an incredibly contentious game of he-said-she-said that fails to give us a satisfactory ending. 

This unresolved ending does, however, seem to be intentional. 

While it’s nice and fictional to have everything wrapped in a neat bow at the end of a tragic tale, most times, the world doesn’t work like that.

Accused attempts, the best it can, to be realistic, even if that means unsatisfactory endings. Unfortunately, there’s little resolution to “Kendall’s Story” because sometimes that’s how life is. 

Especially in a courtroom, and especially when someone Black is accused of a crime against a white person. After all, in state prisons, Black Americans are incarcerated at nearly five times the rate of white Americans. 

“Kendall’s Story” is, thus far, the best episode of Accused. The acting is superb and even a little bit surprising. In addition, the story unravels so that it takes its time without having incorrect pacing. 

Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Karen LeBlanc command the screen when they’re shown; the chemistry they share as scene partners and on-screen husband and wife pops right out of the scene and into your heart. 

This episode debates the more ambiguous question of an eye for an eye and how far you’ll go for your family. It considers that just because something is lawful doesn’t mean it’s right. 

On the other end of the spectrum, just because something is illegal doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

While it’s not up to an average citizen to decide whether or not a pedophile lives, should a person still face the maximum amount of sentencing when charged with murder or assault?

Accused asks us to think about these questions, then ask the people around us, and explore the different viewpoints everyone has on these complex subjects.

The premise of this show has a way of encouraging conversation without taking sides itself. 

“Kendall’s Story” ends in ambiguity because, for many people in the justice system, ambiguity surrounds their world. It can be seen as an abrupt ending or, as intended, which is realistic and harrowing.

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Accused airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on FOX.

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