As the fourth episode of After The Verdict begins, Clara (Michelle Davidson) calls Margie (Magda Szubanski) to let her know she is going to see Paul since it might be their fault he is in there. Trish (Virginia Gay) asks Margie if she is going to drive her. When the call ends, Clara imagines Belinda (Raelee Hill) standing behind her until she disappears. Paul (Nicholas Brown) tells Clara that Heidi murdered his wife and they let her walk free. He asks why he’d murder Dean Walsh who was some nut job saying he killed his wife. Clara suggests he might’ve wanted to keep Dean quiet. Paul begins realizing that she put the cops onto his trail, but Clara insists she was only looking for answers for Belinda. She asks what Belinda was like. Paul says she was smart, funny, and trusting. They both trusted Heidi. Clara wants to put things right if she made a mistake, but Paul thinks it is too late since the murder weapon was found in his home with Dean’s blood all over it.

He is convinced Heidi put the weapon there. Ollie (Lincoln Younes) tries to sell a house to multiple clients. He admits to Eliza (Emma Diaz) that he has told multiple people the house is theirs. She asks if he has always been this morally bankrupt, but he says it isn’t his fault the property market is out of control. When he snaps a picture of them, Eliza says he can’t post that since she can’t be seen with a juror from one of her trials. Instead, they’d have to wait at least a year. Ollie takes that as her expecting they’re going to be together for at least a year. Rowena calls so Ollie tells her that he wants her to get the house, but she needs more money. Clara takes some of the kids’ belongings to Dom (Richard Brancatisano). She asks how long he is going to keep the kids from her.  Dom asks how long she is going to be friends with an accused killer. Clara insists she wants their kids to be safe so she isn’t going to see Heidi anymore.

Dom agrees to restart the old routine and let the kids spend time at Clara’s place. He allows Clara to drop them off. As they leave, Clara is surprised to see Heidi (Tess Haubrich) who is introduced to Mai and Jamie. Heidi invites Clara to lunch with her parents and brother because they’re grateful for the support she has given her. Clara tries her best to get out of it. After that, Clara meets with Margie next to her mother’s bed. It has been three years since her mom’s stroke. Clara wonders if she should go to lunch with Heidi because she might say something about Paul. Margie doesn’t like that idea and thinks they should let this go. Clara explains that she keeps seeing Belinda and she won’t let it go. Margie suggests she has lost it before getting a message from Daniel (Sullivan Stapleton). He calls Ollie to ask about the money since it has gone missing. Ollie, Margie, and Clara meet with Daniel while Ollie promises he didn’t take the money.

Daniel threatens to call the cops and tell them about the bribe. Clara tells him that turning himself in won’t help Paul, but Ollie isn’t sure why this is about Paul. He says they told Eliza who told the cops so it is over. Clara thinks he just doesn’t want to look stupid in front of his girlfriend though. Zoe (Coco Jack Gillies) arrives in a new car and reveals she bought it for 40 grand. She got a friend’s provisional driver’s license so she could drive it. Her friend let her borrow the ID for 30 bucks a day. Daniel wants to take the car back, but Zoe says no. She asks the others if they’re going to stop Daniel since he’ll go to jail. Margie thinks it would be best to discuss this calmly over tea. Ollie reminds everyone that he didn’t steal the 40 grand. Margie warns Daniel that a juror who took a bribe previously got six years. Clara says he’ll be the only one punished for it too, but they can get Heidi if they can connect the bribe to her too. Clara might be able to find out when meeting with Heidi and her parents.

Margie warns that her parents could make her disappear if they suspect she is up to something. When Zoe comes back out, Margie tells her that Daniel needs a little more time to think about going to the police. Ollie doesn’t think the guy is going to give their money back since he was shady enough to sell the car to a teenager in the first place. Margie believes Ollie can take care of it. Clara calls Heidi to tell her she’ll come with her after all. When she meets with Heidi, they contact her parents who didn’t know she was coming. Margie makes it home and finds Trish crushing ice in the kitchen. Trish got hurt at work so she has to ice her leg.

Margie claims she fell asleep while visiting her mother so she apologizes. Clara is stunned to see the parents’ house. Heidi is told the 7-year-old is still sleeping upstairs since it was a long flight. Angus (Akos Armont) comes down to join them moments later with Sienna (Deepka Ratra). Heidi introduces everyone to Clara. She tells her parents that she’ll always be grateful to Clara and the others jurors for seeing the truth. Then, she asks Robyn (Gail Knight) what they’re having for lunch. Daniel confronts the car salesman with Ollie and Zoe with him. When Daniel gets aggressive, Ollie steps in to calm things. He warns the salesman that they could create problems for him since he took 40 grand from a 16-year-old. Ollie goes on to say Daniel wants the money to give to the authorities. He suggests giving them back 38,000 and dropping it. After the salesman says 30,000, Ollie tells him he doesn’t want to rip Daniel off because he runs a fight club.

The man eventually agrees to take 37,000. Daniel yells for the man to make the check out to the Cancer Foundation. After Ollie leaves, Zoe hugs her father. Meanwhile, Angus asks about Clara being an actual juror on the trial and the fact that she is friends with Heidi now. Clara tells everyone she is a town planner for the local government. Heidi calls her an amazing mother too. Angus questions Clara who she thinks did it since she voted not guilty. Vincent (Michael Beckley) says that is enough. Heidi tells them about Paul being arrested for another murder so he could’ve killed Belinda too. Clara asks if they knew Paul, but they didn’t. Vincent asks about her job again before he begins talking about his business. Now, they’re the largest self-storage provider in Australia and Angus has made sure they’re doing well in the UK too. Heidi learns that Sienna and Angus are back for good since he is going to take an active role in the company while Vincent and Anita relax.

Angus mentions Ricardo (Shameer Birges) and it causes Heidi to get upset. They accuse her of throwing the toy at Angus’s son, but she says they’re overreacting. Clara stays quiet as Angus blows up at Heidi and leaves. Daniel takes Zoe to her friend’s house so she can give the license back. Ollie and Daniel argue over whether she should ask for a refund on the ID. Once she gets out, Ollie tells Daniel that his daughter is cool, gutsy, and her heart was in the right place. Daniel says she was a good kid when her mom was here, but he doesn’t know what to do with her now. Ollie tries to convince him that it’d be a bad idea to leave Zoe now before revealing he was raised by a single parent too. When he is asked about his dad, Ollie admits he wasn’t a dad although he was an a-hole. Daniel says that makes sense because Ollie spends so much time worrying he is an a-hole. Zoe gets back into the car and suggests they should celebrate. Daniel still contemplates confessing though.

Heidi apologizes to Clara and blames Angus for being a helicopter parent. She insists her mom invited them but forgot after having too many glasses of wine like usual. Once Clara asks about Ricardo, Heidi says he was the cook before Robyn who ended up stealing stuff. It somehow became Heidi’s fault because she caught him and told her father. She tells Clara that her support has meant the world to her since most of her old friends haven’t stuck around. Heidi hopes Clara can rely on her too. As Clara walks home, she researches Ricardo online and learns that he stabbed a teenage boy. She is surprised to see Daniel waiting for her. Clara doesn’t think Heidi’s family was part of the bribe or Melinda’s murder because they don’t seem to like her enough to do that.

She believes Heidi wanted to parade her in front of her family and to tell them they should think she is not guilty too. She tells him that something happened between Ricardo and Heidi’s brother way back. The cook stabbed the brother and ended up doing five years for it. Heidi’s story was different since it didn’t mention the stabbing. Daniel says they should look for Ricardo now that he is trying to avoid doing stupid things now. Clara tells him turning himself in would be one of the stupidest things he could do. She encourages him to stick around for his cool daughter. Daniel returns home to his daughter to say he isn’t going to leave her. Zoe thinks mom would be proud of him for giving the money to the charity regardless of where the money came from. Ollie spends the night with Eliza who realizes he is acting weird. Ollie explains that he might’ve made a mistake about Paul, but she doesn’t think the police would’ve charged him without sufficient evidence.

He goes on to tell her about Daniel and his wife dying. When she learns about Daniel taking a bribe, she admits she has an obligation to report that. They argue about it before Ollie says she owes him. After she refuses to cooperate, Ollie threatens to out them as a couple if she turns Daniel in. Clara and Daniel meet with Ricardo while Daniel pretends he is Oliver and a real estate agent. Clara says her brother went to school with Angus. She brings up the fact that Heidi was put on trial for murder and let off. Ricardo says he is grateful for Heidi. If she hadn’t been there and called the police that day, Angus might’ve bled to death. He confesses to doing it because he was going through a rough patch. They don’t think he’d be screaming that from the rooftops unless there was some kind of reward in it. Clara mentions that his house has to be worth three or four million. Daniel thinks her family could’ve paid for it to keep their daughter out of trouble, but Ricardo won’t confirm or deny it.

Clara calls Margie to tell her about Heidi possibly stabbing her brother. Margie has to change the subject when Trish comes. She gets into an argument with her before apologizing for lying to her about the jury duty thing. Margie says Heidi is out of control and this isn’t the first person she hurt. She confesses that she never stopped lying to her and doesn’t think she can. At home, Clara and Daniel go through their theory that Ricardo took the blame for Heidi. They talk about her kids before Daniel admits he told his daughter he isn’t going to turn himself in. She makes it clear that she dislikes Daniel who decides to leave. Ollie talks to his mom on the phone and admits there is no nice girl after all while Tamara (Vivienne Awosoga) works with him. He takes over the stick for Tamara since it is his sale. Rowena arrives and complains that Ollie sold the house to someone else even though he told her he wanted her to have the house.

She already sold her place so she doesn’t have a place to live. Ollie knows another place, but she’ll have to be more realistic with her budget. She dumps her drinks on him as Tamara admits that was new level a-hole even for him. Ollie goes to Daniel to complain that he had to break up with Eliza because of him. They scuffle briefly until Daniel hit him in the chest stopping him immediately. They sit down and fish as they talk about Daniel being Lebanese. Ollie says he wants to buy his mom a house one day since they’ve rented all their lives. Daniel admits he was right about Zoe so he will stick around. Clara goes back to Paul to say she is responsible for him being there, but she wants to make it right. They just need to prove that Heidi did it. Paul believes it is already over for him though. Clara leaves and confronts Angus about what happened between him and Heidi. She suggests Belinda could still be alive if Heidi hadn’t gotten away with what happened to him.

Clara wants him to promise that he won’t tell Heidi she was here because she wants to keep her kids safe. Angus approaches his father and tells him that they have to cut her off. When Heidi returns home, she notices that movers are taking her stuff to a van and her key fob is no longer working. All the accounts have been canceled and she is given an eviction notice. Her car keys are taken. Clara comes home with the kids. She shuts the door, but it swings back open. Heidi tries to get into her parents’ house to confront them while someone walks into Clara’s house. Margie puts her luggage down and agrees to play with the kids. They throw water balloons at one another outside. Heidi destroys the intercom system outside her parents’ house.

 

After The Verdict Review

The fourth episode of After the Verdict followed the same path as the third while pushing the characters one step further. Some of the characters have hit their limits with Margie likely moving out of the house with Trish and Ollie being forced to break up with Eliza. On the other hand, Daniel had to deal with Zoe after she took his 40 grand and bought a vehicle.

Clara made progress with Dom who allowed her to get the kids once again, but that could change pretty soon. Heidi’s family cut her off once Clara confronted Angus about his stabbing many years ago. The series has multiple issues, but it is a good time killer for viewers willing to overlook those issues. Obviously, the biggest issue is likely the believability of the story since this would likely never happen in real life.

Some of the characters can be a bit irritating at times as well, but some of this might be intentional. It probably could’ve been cut to four episodes without losing anything significant or hurting the flow of the series. At the very least, I am interested in seeing how things play out so it might grow on viewers willing to stick with it.

The series could’ve been more successful if it has taken itself more seriously though. The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of After the Verdict can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our work at this link.