Reasonable Doubt Season 1 Recap: Created by Raamla Mohamed, Reasonable Doubt tells the story of Jax Stewart, a lawyer who takes on a high-profile case involving Brayden Miller, a businessman accused of killing his employee, Kaleesha Moore. On top of that, Jax is dealing with some serious issues in her marriage and is torn between trying to fix things with her husband or seeing what else is out there. She’s usually a lawyer who trusts her gut, but this time, she gets pulled into a trick she never saw coming. So, let’s dive into season 1 of Reasonable Doubt and see if Jax can get her client off the hook.
What went wrong between Jax and Lewis?
There were problems in their marriage that needed to be fixed, and Jax and Lewis had not lived together for a while. For a very long time, Lewis believed that Jax never gave him priority. Even though he was aware of how hard her job as a lawyer was, there were times when he wished she would just stop working and spend time with him. However, I suppose Jax was in a stage of her career where she was only able to think about the person or party she was representing.
After Jax had an affair with Will, the security guard, things got even more fuzzy. As bizarre as it may seem, Lewis used the cameras placed throughout the house to witness his wife having sex with another man. Jax never took Will seriously, but after Damon Cooke was released from prison and began seeing Jax frequently, things started to work out for her.
When Jax was a public defender (16 years ago), she represented Damon, but regrettably, she was unable to establish his innocence. Jax was the one who made Damon go through with the trial because she thought she could show in a court of law that he wasn’t the criminal he was charged with. An offer to enter a guilty plea and receive a less term was made to Damon, but his intuition prompted him to pay attention to what Jax had said.
During the trial, Damon and Jax grew fairly close to one another. They forged an odd friendship, and even Jax was taken aback by her ability to fall in love with her own client. Jax carried on with her life, got married, and gave birth to two children. In the meantime, Damon entered a guilty plea after almost ten years because the court was willing to reduce his term and grant him parole. All Damon wanted was to be released from prison after he had finished battling for justice and walking the moral high road.
I think it’s reasonable to assume that if Jax hadn’t given him the impression that they had something special going on, Damon would never have gotten close to her after coming out. Although Jax was in a stage of life when she desired to explore additional choices, Damon was aware of his limitations. Lewis discovered that his wife was seeing someone else over time. When he witnessed her holding hands and having a sexual encounter with Damon at a cafe, he became furious.
Jax couldn’t quite figure it out. Despite her desire for Lewis in her life and her inability to let go of him, she was still spending a lot of time with Damon. Lewis had already decided to end their relationship, but a series of events forced them to reevaluate their values.
Was Paul grooming Jax?
Ever since taking up Brayden Miller’s case, Jax has been overworked. That woman was intensely focused most of the time, but occasionally her painful history would resurface and haunt her. Paul, the spouse of her mother, had done some horrible things in the past, but he had persuaded himself that he wasn’t to blame. When Jax was approximately sixteen years old, Paul made moves towards her. Jax was initially uneasy with his touch, but she remained silent.
Giving someone the benefit of the doubt is something you do frequently, and Jax did the same. Her mother needed to be certain before accusing Paul of sexual harassment because he was her mother’s husband. However, things worsened and Paul entered the toilet a few times while Jax was using it. When Paul eventually showed up one day drunk and collapsed on the same bed as Jax, things spiralled out of control. Jax told her mother what had transpired that day, and she begged Paul to go with a sorrowful heart.
Mama Lu saw the night as a “one-time mistake,” so she and Paul made up. Paul also very cynically claimed that he was intoxicated. Jax failed to inform her mother that the man had been grooming her and that it wasn’t a one-time incident. However, Jax’s realisation that her daughter Naime was in the hospital with Paul was the turning moment for her. She knew he wasn’t feeling well physically and that it wasn’t the right time to have the conversation, but she still chose to confront him after seeing how the man caressed Naime’s hand.
Paul was told directly by Jax that he had “groomed” her and that he should avoid being around Naime. Paul said up until the very end that he never did anything on purpose, but he knew the truth in his heart. The instant Jax left the medical ward after having that talk, Paul’s vitals soared.
After Paul died, Jax went to Mama Lu and informed her that her husband was ill. Mama Lu, who was likewise in denial, argued in Paul’s support. Jax needed her mother to know that her accusations were true and that the entire experience had traumatised her, even though she didn’t blame her for not being there for her.
Why did Damon kill himself?
Damon became into an obsessive lover over time, and he was simply unwilling to part from Jax. Damon was simply not ready to listen to her, even after she made it clear to him in the first season of Reasonable Doubt that she wanted to mend their relationship with Lewis and that they would have to stop having an affair. Jax intended to take things slowly when he first started dating Damon after the former was released from prison.
She was content to occasionally meet Damon and enjoy herself with him. Damon, though, desired more. Jax came to the realisation that he would permanently leave her if she didn’t put her marriage first and mend her differences with Lewis. After meeting Damon, she informed him that they would no longer be able to see one another. Even though he didn’t express it at the time, Damon’s world had completely changed.
Afterwards, Damon abducted Jax and brought her to his office in season 1. He accused her of using him and questioned why, if she was so certain she wanted a relationship with Lewis, she had pursued it with him. There was a time when it seemed like Damon was going to kill Jax.
But in the end, he committed suicide. Jax was saved by Lewis and the law enforcement officials who arrived. Jax was shaken by the incident, and I have a good feeling that it will affect her going forward. She found it difficult to accept that a man had killed him in her place and blamed her for his eternal suffering.
Did Brayden murder Kaleesha Moore?
Although Jax had to deal with one of the most challenging cases of her career in Brayden’s case, she was certain from the start that he was innocent. Jax didn’t think Brayden was capable of killing someone, even though she had argued with him the first day they met over his request for an NDA from Kaleesha.
As the trial got underway, Brayden found out that Theo, a long-time friend and coworker, was plotting an assassination attempt on him. In order to have the business ready for sales, Theo had overpriced it. In addition, he had carried out numerous additional frauds that were long-secret.
It was revealed throughout the trial that Brayden’s prints were discovered on the shattered wine glass that Kaleesha had been stabbed with. However, partial fingerprints were also found on the other half of the glass, revealing that Theo, in addition to Brayden, had visited Kaleesha the night before she was killed. To save his own life, Brayden was the type of man who was willing to blame anybody and everything.
Brayden didn’t feel guilty about hurting his wife by having an extramarital affair with Kaleesha, even if Jax had questioned her intentions during the cross-examination. Essentially, Jax had to cast doubt on other people’s alibi in order to raise legitimate questions in the jury’s thinking. Even if the attack was not personal, any husband would have felt guilty or sorry for doubting his own wife’s sincerity. However, Brayden had no such feelings.
As Brayden had no motive to kill Kaleesha, Jax was certain from the start of Reasonable Doubt season 1 that he was not the murderer. After Kaleesha threatened to report Brayden for sexual assault, he was able to resolve the situation by getting an NDA from her. Ultimately, however, Jax discovered that Brayden had falsified Kaleesha’s signature and that she had never signed the NDA. When Jax faced Brayden, he was taken aback by her ability to discern the truth.
In addition to being a psychopath, I think Brayden had dissociative amnesia. He apparently managed to absolve himself of all his faults and didn’t feel bad about any of the crimes he had committed. Jax was furious when the jury found Brayden not guilty because she was her client and couldn’t stand up to him. Though Brayden thought he had defeated Jax, this was not the case. He had no way out of this scenario because of how viciously she had retaliated against him.
What’s next for Jax?
In the conclusion of Reasonable Doubt Season 1, Jax had some documents sent to Kaleesha’s sister, which allowed it to be established that Brayden had committed a variety of white-collar offences. Brayden was taken into custody by the police, and I think the judge will give him a minimum of ten years in prison. After some time, Lewis and Jax made the decision to try again and close the distance that had grown between them.
However, as her husband, Jamarian JT Tucker, lay on the ground in a pool of blood, Shenelle called Jax just when it seemed like the storm would let up and things would get less crazy. He had the impression that Shenelle was involved in his death. That will probably be Jax’s next case, and in season two, she’ll defend Shenelle and attempt to establish that she wasn’t involved in her husband’s killing. Because Jamarian was a well-known figure, there would be intense media attention, and Jax’s life will not be easy as usual.
