‘The People v. O.J. Simpson’ Season 1 Episode 9 Recap: Tensions Rise With Release Of “The Fuhrman Tapes”

The pressure and tension grows as the court case is slowly coming to an end.

Johnnie Cochran (Courtney B. Vance) and the rest of the defense team believe that Fuhrman has made derogatory statements about African Americans on what they call “The Fuhrman Tapes.”

‘The People v. O.J. Simpson’ Season 1 Episode 9 Recap

Cochran and F. Lee Bailey (Nathan Lane) go to North Carolina to see the transcripts for these tapes. The transcripts are all that they hoped for with Fuhrman throwing the n-word around 30 times.

The defense and prosecutors listen to the tapes with similar reaction of disbelief.

Not only does Fuhrman hate Mexicans and African-Americans but Judge Ito’s wife Peggy who is one of the highest ranked in the LAPD.

There’s a high chance of a mistrial with Ito’s wife involved. Chris Darden (Sterling K. Brown) asks Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson) if they really want the risk of starting it all over.

Another judge comes into play to determine whether the court will go on with Ito as judge. Clark tells Darden that she doesn’t want a do-over and wants to “plow forward.”

Cochran proposes that they give Ito the tapes with a redacted section about his wife. The judge needs time to consider.

We see the prosecutors and defense attorney have separate meltdowns on an elevator. Robert Shapiro (John Travolta) yells at Cochran that the pressure is too high to crank it up further as Cochran requested. In another scene, we see Darden lose his mind about Fuhrman while in the elevator with Clark. Darden told Clark not to use him but she did anyway.

“You put me on this trial because you wanted a black face but the truth is you never wanted a black voice,” Darden said.

Cochran rallies local coalitions like the NAACP to urge the government to investigate these tapes beyond the O.J. Simpson case.

Ito doesn’t want to give the public an impression that the court is suppressing information. He believes the tapes “have become a matter of national concern” and wants them played in its entirety.

The father of Ron Goldman speaks to the media to share his frustration how the court room quickly turned into a Fuhrman trial rather than finding out who killed his son.

Clark apologizes to Darden in that she shouldn’t have depended on Fuhrman.

The defense team gets a wakeup call when Ito only allows two sentences out of the 13 hours of tape to be played for the jury.

Cochran gets Fuhrman back on the stand where he pleads the 5th for all questions asked even when asked if he planted evidence in this case.

Catch the finale of The People v. O.J. Simpson next Tuesday 10p.m. on FX.