'Criminal Records' Simmering Racial Tensions Boil Over in “Possession with Intent”

The racial tension has been there all along in Criminal Record: Chloe accusing June of not being black enough. Kim referring to June as “Megan Markle.” June’s husband Leo implying that she’s difficult. June’s mother talking about her husband’s awful treatment by the police. This has been the pulsating undercurrent of the show. 

But it all came to a head in the Criminal Record’s fifth episode, “Possession with Intent.” After doing yet more research on the computer (far too much time on this series is spent on montages of June intently looking at her computer screen), June questions Tony about whether he was a member of a neo-Nazi/far-right group known as Combat League. Tony gives June the Law & Order treatment— he doesn’t stop what he’s doing (packing up his car, loading his wheelchair)— while she is questioning him. But after she leaves, he totally freaks out.

The next day, June’s son Jacob is stopped and frisked by police officers while walking home from school with his friends. The arresting officer “finds” meth in his backpack and charges Jacob with possession with intent to supply. Jacob tries to reach June but can’t get through, so he calls his grandmother, who loves her grandson but isn’t capable of handling a situation of this gravity. Jacob’s arrest brings up bad memories for her of how her husband/June’s father was treated by the police. Finally, Jacob gets through to his dad Zac, who calls June. Interestingly, Jacob doesn’t call Leo, who is waiting for him on the soccer field.

The next day, June’s son Jacob is stopped and frisked by police officers while walking home from school with his friends. The arresting officer “finds” meth in his backpack and charges Jacob with possession with intent to supply. Jacob tries to reach June but can’t get through, so he calls his grandmother, who loves her grandson but isn’t capable of handling a situation of this gravity. Jacob’s arrest brings up bad memories for her of how her husband/June’s father was treated by the police. Finally, Jacob gets through to his dad Zac, who calls June. Interestingly, Jacob doesn’t call Leo, who is waiting for him on the soccer field. 

Hegarty, for his part, has had it with his buddies Kim and Tony. He’s livid that they’ve had Jacob arrested. “You decided a smart move was to plant drugs on a 12-year-old child?” he seethes.  

June is devastated. Now her son is in the system. His DNA has been taken. To June, it’s so obvious. “I go after one of his boys; he goes after my son,” she tells Leo. Sonya tells June the photos they took of Hegarty have him going in and out of the drug supply business fronting as a carpet store. “What is it with all the driving? What is he doing with all that extra cash? Finally, we have something,” she tells June. Before her son’s arrest, June hadn’t wanted to act on this new intel. But after Jacob has been in a holding cell, a furious June barges into the known drug house and arrests Miras Mansur, the man in charge, and brings him to meet Hegarty. Hegarty tells June she’s got it all wrong. Tony is undercover. Miras is a “trusted asset.” June isn’t buying any of this but lets Miras go.  

Later we see Hegarty preparing a syringe of heroin for Lisa(!!!). He gives it to her and later when she’s passed out in her room, removes the needle and covers her with a blanket. This means my initial suspicions that Hegarty is living with someone he has to take care of was correct. But I never thought he would be the one supplying his daughter with drugs. Is it because he wants to make sure she doesn’t buy drugs that are potentially laced with something even more dangerous? Has Lisa tried rehab, and it just hasn’t worked? Does Patrick know about his girlfriend’s addiction? I have so many questions. 

In the most heartbreaking moment of the episode, Leo asks Jacob if he thinks it’s possible that one of his friends put the meth in his backpack. This sends an already fragile June over the edge. “The one thing you do not do is blame him,” June says and questions whether Leo would have asked Jacob this if his friends were White. Leo then accuses her of being paranoid. “Mental health issues in your family, they’re not color-coded,” he says to her. Any couple will tell you that bringing your partner’s parents into a fight is definitely not fighting fair.

“Everything I say is under a fucking microscope,” Leo tells her. “Then! Say! Better! Stuff!” she fires back. It’s an ugly fight and one that has long been simmering under the surface.

At the end of the episode, June gives her son advice: “People make assumptions. Assumptions based on their own prejudices. They’ll see you as a black boy...  I just want you to know how to protect yourself in case they give you a hassle,” she tells him. 

Hegarty and what exactly he’s up to remain a mystery. Why, years later, does he still have access to the now abandoned apartment Adelaide and Patrick lived in? Why does he call in a favor to find Patrick a better flat? Is it guilt that makes him feel so protective towards Patrick?

The episode starts off on a more optimistic note. One of Leo’s colleagues explains to June that memories can be “repainted” in someone’s mind, so they would “only have access to the latest versions, not the original.” After the car accident, it would be hard for Errol to recover his memory of what happened the day Adelaide died. It’s entirely possible that his confession is all the information the police planted in his mind. The episode ends with June and Sonya playing the emergency call for Doris. This is a HUGE breach of protocol and could definitely be the end of June’s career. But now that her son has been compromised, June is done playing by the rules.