Criminal Record Season 1 Episode 7 Review: The Sixty-Twos

Hegarty comes clean on Criminal Record’s penultimate episode, Criminal Record Season 1 Episode 7, “The Sixty-Twos.”

The final moments of Criminal Record Season 1 Episode 6, “Beehive,” show June finally getting the upper hand on Hegarty. Out of ways to manipulate the situation, the episode ends with Hegarty agreeing to tell June everything. 

That’s exactly what he does on “The Sixty-Two.” Through flashbacks, “The Sixty-Twos” reveals how Hegarty got Errol to confess and the things he did to secure a conviction. 

For all the build-up to this moment, the truth about what happened seems much simpler than we were led to believe. It appears Hegarty was just under a lot of pressure to get a conviction on a high-profile case and dealing with a personal crisis.

That, combined with a violent incident in Errol’s past, was enough to convince Hegarty to ignore his own doubts and cross serious ethical and legal lines.

More than that, though, the episode tries – unsuccessfully — to paint Hegarty in a sympathetic light. The episode goes out of its way to differentiate Hagerty from his rabidly racist colleagues. It paints a picture of a man pushed to do what he did. Perhaps he even had good intentions since he genuinely saw Errol as a threat to Patrick.

We have to take everything on “The Sixty-Twos” with a grain of salt, though. The episode is from Hegarty’s perspective. It is revealing what he wants to reveal. It’s likely not the whole story. We’ll only know how forthright he’s being at the end of the finale.

I doubt the series will end without Hegarty facing any consequences, but I hope the series doesn’t ultimately try to absolve him of moral culpability or make excuses for him. Nothing on “The Sixity-Twos” justifies what he did to Errol or the ripple effects of damage he caused. A sympathetic villain is still a villain.

It is also a little suspicious that after so vehemently proclaiming his innocence, all it took to convince Errol to confess was listening to Patrick talk about a fight where Errol threatened to (but presumedly never did) hit Adalie.

Maybe he just saw the writing on the wall and knew Hegarty would use that to undermine his assertion that he would never hurt Adalie. Still, such a sudden change in his character is enough to give you whiplash. It can’t be just that, can it?

“The Sixty-Twos” isn’t a terrible episode. It’s fine. Much like “Beehive,” I would probably like the episode better if the series had done more to earn my investment earlier in the season. As it is, I’m curious about what will happen, but just kind of casually. 

There is one episode left of Criminal Record. The season still has time to finish strong with some compelling last-minute twists. It’s too late to turn things around completely. Still, whether the uneven series ends up being more good than bad depends on how it lands the plane. 

What did you think of this episode of Criminal Record? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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New episodes of Criminal Record stream Wednesdays on Apple TV+

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