‘Showtrial’ Recap: ‘The Long Voyage’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the finale of ‘Showtrial’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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We are taught from a very early age, that searching for the truth will always result in closure. Sure, that closure might be sour in nature, but we will have the answers we seek none the less and we will be able to walk away from our quest, satisfied and content with the fact that we pushed against the odds and uncovered the facts. Which in turn motivates us to dig deep into the quest for truth when it presents itself to us, and it is then that we learn… that such advice isn’t exactly on point. Because chasing the truth is a messy and ugly business… one that rattles us when the truth we uncover is unsettling in nature and it is also one, that sometimes yields no results.
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Because sometimes, the answers we seek aren’t there. We just… come to the end of the search and are forced to come to our own conclusions on the matter and not once will we enjoy closure or satisfaction and well… that unfortunate aspect of searching for the truth is top of mind today, because it hung heavy over the finale of Showtrial on Sundance Now. For when we return to the courtroom in ‘The Long Voyage’, both sides were nearing the end of the case and that meant, the time had come for Dhillon and Talitha to take the stand. An act that should have brought forth the truth through and through. But alas, the mess that both sides created in getting here… yielded some odd results.

For instance, everything the prosecution threw at Dhillon, made him look guilty. Since he was broken and angry on the stand and defensive and well… appeared as though he was harboring some genuine guilt. Making it seems as though a similar strategy would do the trick with Talitha since she was easily rattled as well. But her time on the stand, where she was able to be herself and be honest for a change, left hearts and minds confused as to whether or not she was the broken and evil person that Vendler’s widow portrayed her to be. Instead, she was instead a flawed individual on that stand, with a checkered past and a lot of traumas, and that… combined with some revelations about DI Cassidy’s fumbling of evidence led to a shocking conclusion to the trial.

Wherein Dhillon was found guilty no problem, but Talitha was allowed to walk. While that verdict did indeed bring forth some measure of justice for Hannah Ellis in the end, it most certainly did not provide us with what we wanted the most… the truth. The truth about what happened that night and the truth about how and why Hannah died. But that is the nature of the quest sometimes and while that can be infuriating, that is quite the realistic ending. Since there are a great many trials that end in an incomplete manner such as this, where we still don’t have answers and well, kudos to the show for taking the time to offer up that kind of ending and for offering up so much commentary over the course of the season.

For this really is a show that took the time to put a magnifying glass up to the police and legal system and point out how the quest for justice in our world has become petty and egotistical and the cost of that pursuit. Since honesty has gone the wayside over viral moments and swaying people to a particular point of view. When the system was always supposed to be about justice. About peace for the fallen and the victimized and to teach others that fancy lawyers mean nothing. This process is only about the truth and nothing more and well… hopefully we all carry with us that messaging and begin to ask more of our system. So that showtrials such as this one, come to an end and the truth prevails above all else.

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