"SLAM DUNK" Dark World February 24, 2001

by
Gordon Hom

In "Slam Dunk" we get the lawyer from Hell. Robert Saxon sets up his law firm partner to be killed, then falsely accuses a troubled young man with an extensive juvenile record of the murder, and finally pays off the shooter to go to jail for him. As if that weren't enough, Saxon is a politically connected lawyer who "is well regarded where it counts" according to the Deputy Chief. NASH World is a dark, corrupt place, with the law enforcement system barely holding onto a thin veneer of justice.

And it is Nash who is the seeming center of justice, not the legal system. Lawyers are foul immoral human beings, and the shooting of Robert Saxon at the end of "Slam Dunk" is just a culmination of all that NASH BRIDGES has shown of lawyers. Lawyer Ira Buxbaum, introduced this season, switches sides in the blink of an eye. Absent from "Slam Dunk" is a District Attorney figure, with Nash almost subsuming that role. In the first season, there was Stacy Bridges (remember her?), Nash's gay sister, who was an Assistant DA. But it's Nash who pleads with Hector Rodriguez not to cop to murder, as he says "I'm not doing it for you, it's just what I do." But what does he do? Nash is cop, lawyer, and judge all rolled into one. When Betty-Ann, the wacko witness who identifies the shooter, reveals her craziness (she works for the Serrabithians from the planet Zenar), Nash immediately dismisses her. "The jury would never believe her" lawyerly Nash proclaims.

So the killing of Robert Saxon appears, on the surface, to be a sort of political assassination. He's killed by a troubled young man. There is a rigid class system which is maintained - the respected, powerful lawyer is tragically killed, the loser gang member goes to prison. Prison is a place where Hector feels he belongs. As a life-long gang member (along with his father and brother), the implication is that Hector will thrive in the prison culture (a la AMERICAN ME), maybe even revered for killing a lawyer. Hector will probably die in prison also. The system stinks, but it goes on, intact.

For more, see synopsis for Episode 115

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