Warning: “Reasonable Doubt” Season 2 finale spoilers ahead.
“Reasonable Doubt” creator, executive producer and showrunner Raamla Mohamed unpacked the “raw” ending to Hulu/Onyx Collective’s hit legal drama’s second season, and the dramatic cliffhanger that sets up storylines for Season 3.
Fans can finally put their thumbs to rest and stop tweeting “free Shanelle,” as Jax Stewart’s (Emayatzy Corinealdi) bestie has officially been released from prison, thanks to District Attorney Lucy Wargo (Melissa Ponzio). Like last season, “Reasonable Doubt” didn’t hold back.
With domestic and intimate partner violence awareness being one of the focal points of Season 2’s messaging, trigger warnings were shown ahead of each episode. However, a much lengthier caution preceded Episode 10: “Encore,” which starts by showing the brutal altercation between Shanelle (Shannon Kane) and JT in its entirety for the first time: no music, just dialogue. The sequence closes out to reveal JT’s daughter Natasha murdered her father to save Shanelle from her father’s chokehold.
On top of the big reveal, Lucy’s husband was arrested after publicly attacking her, Sally’s husband CJ (Eugene Byrd) wants to separate from the marriage, Krystal Walters (Angela Grovey) passed her LSAT, Corey Cash’s (Morris Chestnut) client Isabella (Valerie LeBlanc) was granted clemency, and the biggest mouth drop of them all: Toni Holley (Tristan Cunningham), the mother of Lewis’ break baby Jaiden, is suing him and Jax over the child’s death.
In a conversation with TheWrap, Mohamed (“Scandal,” “Little Fires Everywhere”) opened up about Corey’s future at Jax’s firm, her reaction to being offered money in exchange for information on story plots, as well as Season 3 details, music selection, the song clearance that brought her to literal tears and more.
“Reasonable Doubt” Season 2 is currently streaming on Hulu.
These answers have been condensed for readability purposes.
In Episode 10, viewers get to see the full incident between JT and Shanelle. I noticed some creative and thoughtful decisions: no music and a lengthier trigger warning. Talk to me about crafting that opening into the season finale.
We have incredible composers, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and we have these spotting sessions where we talk through where it needs music, where it doesn’t. I knew that we were going to see this kind of moment a few times. I think up until those four episodes it’s kind of like, “Did she kill him? What happened? Did she know? Did she set him up?” To me, it was important that when we saw it for real, it was just real. It was raw. Even in the script, it was written, like, there’s no music. It’s raw. I’m not sugarcoating this, I’m not coating this in any kind of music or cinematic way. You’re just going to hear his last words to her and what happened. I really wanted the first time you heard that music [to be] when [Shanelle] hears him take a breath. That’s where the music starts, and suddenly it becomes a show again.
Was it always the plan to have Natasha be the killer?
Yeah, it was always the plan for it to be Natasha, even when I pitched out Season 2. I really don’t know who else she would go through all of this for if it wasn’t for her. Early on in this season, there was actually a scene we filmed in the flashback where Shanelle yelled at Natasha because Natasha came in and she’d gotten hit and she was trying to hide it. For me watching it, I was like, “It’s Natasha.” I took it out because it felt too obvious that it was going to be Natasha. We talked about maybe putting in some guilt that [Shanelle] had. Like, she either was jealous of Natasha or something in the past. But I started to feel like it was too much. We didn’t have room for it, and also, it felt really obvious.
I’m really happy that Lucy pulled through and ultimately helped Shanelle be released. Talk to me about her turnaround.
Lucy was someone who’s like, “I was in an abusive relationship. I got out of it. I’m thriving. Why can’t Shanelle do the same? Shanelle even had money.” She quickly [judged] Shanelle until the situation started to come back, and she’s like, “Oh, I can’t get out of this as easily as I thought.” So in the cafe, when the officer says, “Good thing you know the right people,” it makes her realize what Jax was saying. It’s an important line in the finale when Jax says, “You can’t be both the victor and the victim.” You want to win this case, but you also want people to feel sorry for you. You can’t be both; that’s what privilege is.
I wanted to have an arc where Lucy has to realize, “Me and Shanelle are the same,” and I also wanted to show that domestic violence, intimate partner violence, emotional abuse, it all looks different, it presents differently. [Lucy’s husband] walks in. He looks like a clean cut guy, he’s just as abusive as JT, a Black male who some people would be afraid of. The flip side is that JT, the charming football player who donates [money], smiles and seems lovable, is a monster.
The season is about kind of what all these women, Jax, Shanelle and Lucy, are going through and in different ways. It was important to me to show healing … I’m always thinking about the way people behave in real life. When you see these senators or congressman who are anti-gay or anti-abortion, and then it turns out they had a mistress who had two abortions, or they are gay themselves. There’s sometimes deep self-hate that motivates people to go hard.
Morris Chestnut’s character is finished with the case, but does he have a future in the “Reasonable Doubt” universe?
He’s done with the case. It remains to be seen, obviously when I have a third season pickup, it also remains to be seen how much of him we see. Same thing with Michael Ealy. I’m all about where is the story going to take us. If in the future Corey is an important part of the Season 3 case, or whatever it is, then great — love to have him in the same way I brought Michael Ealy back. For me, it’s always what is best for the characters. Jax and Lewis’ reversed love story and their healing, to me, is really the fabric of the show. They’re going to have challenges, but I really want people to be rooting for them to make it versus them to be toxic.
It felt like Jax found comfort in her hallucinations of Damon (Michael Ealy). Was this the result of PTSD?
“In the early half of the season, we see she’s kind of replaying the darkness, seeing him dead, in the first episode, her him, kidnapping her, that’s kind of like where her memory lives. And she starts to reflect on how she makes decisions, how she has to put aside her own personal feelings to now we raise this baby. She has to embrace empathy. She’s going through therapy, she’s healing, and she’s starting to learn empathy. Now she starts to look at Damon a little differently in the last few episodes, what was at stake for Damon. I think the questions that she’s asking Damon [in the finale is] really [her] asking herself, “Is this my fault that I got here? Here we are and here’s a baby, and I started this with you, and you killed yourself.”
There are plenty of people online who are like, “Jax is a problem,” and I don’t disagree. Season 1 Jax would act just recklessly, and it was what the therapist said, “You hurt me. I hurt you.” So rejecting Corey in that moment when she could have gotten her revenge, embracing Lewis, who’s sad about the side baby that they lost like, which takes another level of maturity and healing that she did not have. I really wanted to show that she has been doing the work.
“Reasonable Doubt” fans are serious about this show. Whether they love it or don’t, what’s it been like for you seeing people have such explosive reactions to your show?
It’s amazing. You have people who are like, “I will pay money for you just to tell me who killed JT’ and I’m like, “Oh, OK.” It does remind me a lot of being on “Scandal.” People really tapped into that show. Even “Little Fires Everywhere.” For me, not just as a writer, but now a creator, it’s very exciting. It’s very validating about my talent, and honestly, my love for TV. And people saying how they felt seen in the domestic violence storyline. I believe that TV should say something even as it’s entertaining. I’m very happy that people are shedding light on this issue. I’ve had people on the crew or staff relate to whether it’s domestic violence or the loss of a baby.
For a few of the episodes ABC and Hulu had a mental health person on set. The producers, it was important to us to have someone that not just the cast could talk to, but the crew because the cast was doing emotional scenes. The second thing that was validating was when I saw a Black therapist on Twitter post, “Not my Black clients coming in healed because they watch “Reasonable Doubt.”
[And] audiences are so smart. Like, if I put these glasses down in a scene, they’ll be like, “Why’d you put down those glasses with them?” If I think about about “Scandal” versus now, audiences are even smarter than they were then. So you really have to work really hard to hide things.
Someone online said the person who chooses the songs “need a damn raise.” Is that person you?
“Yeah, I pick all the songs. There’s probably like two the whole season that I didn’t pick. For instance “Ice Box” [by Omarion], that’s in the script. So then I work with music supervisors and they get the script and start clearing the songs as early as they can. Sometimes the song’s not available, so then I change out that song. Like Episode 8, I can’t remember what the original song was, but that wasn’t available. Then I found this Muni Long song, and I was like, ‘This song is beautiful. Sometimes what I’ll do is I’ll take the footage if I have the cut, I’ll mute and I’ll put the song on to see how it works. Even the H.E.R. and Bryson Tiller son. I was like, “When they turn to each other, I want to hear, ‘Damn.’ I love music so much, so it’s fun for me to pick the songs. “Ice Box,” I’m just going to be honest: I love “Ice Box.” I listened to that song and was like, “I forgot how good this song was.’ I realized it was perfect for Sally and Chris because they are going through it.
The song that stuck out to me was Beyoncé’s “Bigger.” I was like, “Oh, Beyoncé “Bigger”? OK!” I love that.”
I literally cried when I got the email! I cried. I cried real tears. I was like, “Did Beyoncé watch [‘Reasonable Doubt’]? Does she know? I was like, “I can’t believe it’s cleared. I had written it out, so the lines made sense all the way to the end. I even told the director, and I’m not trying to tell no director how to direct, but our director Anton Cropper, who did an amazing job with [Episodes] 1, 7 10, when we were shooting the very last shot, in the tone meeting I played it. And I was like, “she’s going to rise”‘ I was like, “I want a prank shot. I want to pull back on that.” That’s the last shot, so I was very committed. I was like, “This has to clear. I hope it clears.”
You ended Season 2 with another big cliffhanger: Toni is suing Jax and Lewis have over the death of Jaiden. Unpack that creative decision.
Similarly in the way in Season 1, where you saw little bits of the Shanelle-JT stuff, [this season it’s] Jax threatening [Toni], she has the [physical’ pain. Then at the end, when [Lewis] is not going to share his grief [with Toni] – they can’t share it together. That’s the motivation [for Toni]. Like, y’all not about to be playing Uno with your family.
Anything from Season 3 that you can preview? Any themes you’d like to explore?
I knew that ending in the same way, I knew that with Shanelle and Natasha, I knew that ending with Toni. I don’t have a plan that the Toni situation would be, like, the case for Season 3, it would just be an emotional, personal thing that they have to deal with. And then we have a new case that Jax would have. It’s important for me to always be saying something, whether it’s “spicy,” music, whatever. With [Dr. Brandy Michaels] in the courtroom scene, giving space for that and giving these statistics and letting people know the truth of it all. Corey Cash: the first time you meet him he’s dismissing this woman, having sex with this woman, and then the last time you see him he’s opening the car Dr. Brany, a woman who is on his level. It was important to show that arc of, like, even though he’s not with Jax, he’s been inspired to actually look at commitment and take it seriously.
“Reasonable Doubt” Season 2 is currently streaming on Hulu.
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