For Life – Season 2 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Never Stop Fighting

We begin episode 1 of For Life Season 2 moments after Maskins’ big offer, as Wallace tries to grapple with the powerful forces working against him. After threatening his friends and his wife, Wallace remains conflicted over what to do.

With Cyrus serving as the puppet while Maskins pulls the strings, the pair listen in to everything that happens as Wallace meets Henry. Henry believes the deal is a bluff but Aaron is not so sure. He’s seriously considering throwing in the towel to his law career in a bid to make it back home to his family.

Marie listens to all of this quietly before speaking her piece. She reminds her husband that he’s innocent and if he caves and takes their deal, all of his fighting will have been in vain.

Wallace does the rounds, speaking to Jamal about his prospects going forward. Despite being held up in a hospital bed, given he took out the pack leader his future looks relatively bright (or at least as bright as it could be inside prison). As they get talking, Wallace realizes that Huey was the one who set him up in the courtyard.

The big moment arrives and Dez shows his face before Wallace, who has the contract in front of him. With Henry sat by his side, Wallace thinks twice when Cyrus antagonizes him about pride and his name.

Sitting back in his chair, Aaron decides to take a few more days to think about his options instead. Only, that’s easier said than done given Wallace is a marked man inside prison right now.

Henry’s words certainly get through to Dez though, who heads back to visit Maskins. He’s angsty, to say the least; unsure whether this dangerous path is worth pursuing. He mentions Angelo Torres too, reminding Maskins that they helped him flee the country and right now the line between right and wrong is being blurred.

Meanwhile, an unemployed Safiya does her best to try and get her hands on the security footage from the gym. She meets an officer outside who’s worried she’ll lose her job if she agrees to this.

Well, Wallace receives a USB stick with crucial evidence under the pretense of helping a prisoner who was “roughed up” in the gym during the time frame he himself was talking to Maskins. When Maskins learns what’s happened, he’s obviously worried and does everything he can to stop this, phoning Cyrus and telling him to delete the footage.

Just before the retrial, Wallace has Marie film a video for Mikey pleading with him for help. Back at the prison, Jamal requests a meeting late at night to discuss the future of the prison. Unfortunately all of that is a front for Wallace being beaten down to the ground by the other inmates. This planned beat-down is a way of Wallace paying his debt back.

That debt comes from Huey too, who shows the security footage of the brawl to Cyrus as a way of coming out of this clean – coercing Cyrus to meet Wallace alone.

It turns out Wallace already has the footage of the meeting prior to Cyrus deleting the footage. Together with the “beat-down”, he strikes a deal to take down Maskins once and for all while saving face himself. There’s a stack of evidence against Maskins too, including a video confession of what happened from Mikey.

Attorney General Burke learns about all this, using this stacked evidence against Maskins. He’s irate and now that all the cards are stacked against him, Maskins has a choice of walking away with his head held high or face a grand jury and be disgraced.

He chooses the former of course, and because of that Aaron Wallace is free to go. The only thing he can’t be excused of is the minor misdemeanor which sees him on probation for 3 years. After signing, he reminds Dez that he has a chance to be better.

Afterward, Wallace promises to look at Jamal’s case on his way out, especially given he’s a lawyer now and he’s going to do his best to help those inside. After saying his goodbyes, Wallace walks out in one piece and on to whatever lies ahead. After a brief reunion with Marie, Wallace prepares for what lies ahead.

The Episode Review

So For Life goes the Titans Season 2 route and delivers its unofficial season finale as the opening episode to its follow-up season. This episode really wraps up a lot of the big plot points from last time, with Wallace finally free and Maskins getting his comeuppance for his underhanded tactics.

On a different note, I’m also glad they didn’t mention a certain virus going around. Especially this episode as well, which acts as a season finale of sorts. The final montage is a great inclusion too and it feels incredibly satisfying to see Wallace free after all this time.

So what next for our lawyer? It seems he’ll be working from the outside to help those inside, setting up a very promising season of crime drama to come.