All Rise Season 3 Episode 12 Review: Guilt is a Bully
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
On All Rise Season 3 Episode 12, “Guilt is a Bully,” characters from both sides of the justice system delve into a case of organ trafficking that gets messy– though thankfully only in an emotional sense.
On one side, we have a man who wakes in a strange room in considerable pain to learn he’s missing a kidney. It’s a classic trafficking (and creepypasta) trope. On the other, we have a man months from death with no chance of getting a kidney off a transplant list.
The show has given actively unlikable clients to characters we care deeply for before, but in this case there are no true villains, even when we learn that the victim, represented by Sara and Maggie, did briefly agree to sell off his own organ.
In the end they, along with Amy as she represents the defense, agree to turn against the doctor responsible for setting everything up. Yet even she turns herself in before the police can come for her, defending the ethics of her choice if not how it plays out.
If anything is to be truly criticized here, it’s yet another of the many shortcomings of our medical system. Finding true justice is difficult in a world of desperate people taking desperate actions, but Lola does the best she can on behalf of everyone.
Speaking of Lola, she spends most of this episode in a holding pattern where her personal life is considered. Robin and Bailey are halfway across the country without her, leaving her to do little but wait for forgiveness over her slip with Dre.
Well, wait and get drunk. So she does, along with Mark, over karaoke that…well, at least it’s fun for us to watch. It is also some of the best LoMark content we’ve gotten in some time, a testament to how far they’ll go (and how hungover they’ll get) for each other.
More seriously, there’s something about hearing nothing from her husband apart from a couple of ambivalent texts that’s almost worse than the anger and pain he unleashed before his departure. We feel her own desperation and inability to make things right.
The relationship news from other parts of the hour is happily more uplifting. As Amy navigates her grief over Collier, she’s suddenly eager to be married to Mark. She initially suggests they elope, but he pushes for a wedding that I very much hope we’ll get to see before the series ends.
Fans might well be even happier about the next major development in this department. Luke and Emily are paired again for another case that is weightier than it seems. A girl accused of theft eventually turns out to be a long-term kleptomaniac.
In advocating for her to receive treatment over punishment, they work around the clock in and out of court. Let’s just say the after-hours re-connections go very successfully indeed, and I’m not just talking about their success in the trial.
Luke’s going to need that support. Our last major development of the episode brings Carl Brewer back into the fold and does so by leaving another woman dead. Though he tries to deny it to Mark, it’s clear he knows that’s not a coincidence.
I’m concerned about how having secured Carl’s release will affect him, especially after this. I’m more concerned about what it’s going to take to put this serial killer back where he belongs, assuming his guilt can even be proven.
The silver lining is that an uphill battle of this level could give us the chance to see Luke, Mark, and possibly everyone on the show working together instead of against each other. We have a lot of drama before the end. We deserve this win as well.
This episode is written by Lucy Luna and directed by Martina Lee.
What did you think of this episode of All Rise? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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All Rise airs Saturdays at 9/8c on OWN.
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Caitlin Wyneken
Caitlin is an elder millennial with an only slightly unhealthy dedication to a random selection of TV shows, from PBS Masterpiece dramas to some of the less popular series on popular networks. Outside of screen time, she's dedicated to the public sector and worthy nonprofits, working to make a difference in the world outside of media.