Reasonable Doubt season 2 episode 1 ending explained: What happened to Shanelle?

Reasonable Doubt season 2 episode 1, titled Can I Live?, was released on Thursday, August 22, 2023. The show, created by Raamla Mogamed, stars Emayatzy Corinealdi as Jax Stewart, a corporate defense lawyer who navigates challenging high-profile cases.

In the new season, Jax is seen working on herself and focusing on her marriage. She has no plans to return to work, but she gets a call from her best friend, Shanelle, telling her that she killed her husband. Reasonable Doubt season 2 episode 1 covers the case details and how Jax jumps in to help her best friend.

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What happened at the end of Reasonable Doubt season 2 episode 1?

In season 2, Jax is seen working on herself and taking care of her family. She goes to therapy and couples therapy sessions with her husband, Lewis. She strives to create a better version of herself. She has taken some time away from work. She is dealing with her past trauma from Damon, an ex-con whom she fell for. Lewis supports her decision and is by her side.

Suddenly, she gets a call from her best friend Shanelle, who tells her that she has killed her husband, Jamarion Tucker, the famous football player. She quickly jumped into her work mode to be by Shanelle's side. She knew that Shanelle had acted in self-defense since Jamarion used to torture and abuse her.

Jax quickly went to the crime scene and saw how devasted Shanelle was after the incident. Shanelle had bruises all over her neck, head and face. Jax took control of the situation and immediately took Shanelle to the hospital for treatment.

She made sure that the police didn't ask her any questions. When she sees Shanelle, she is immediately reminded of what happened with Damon. She knew this would be an open-and-shut case since Shanelle acted in self-defense.

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Did Shanelle end up in prison in Reasonable Doubt season 2 episode 1?

Initially, everyone thought that Shanelle killed her husband in self-defense. But as the case unfolded and the post-mortem report came in, it was stated that Shanelle waited for two hours before calling anybody. Jax was the first person she called, which was one of the big mistakes she had made.

She made another mistake by moving Jamarion's body to check whether he had actually died. This made people think about how she could be calculative after killing her husband, even if it were in self-defense.

To defend her, Jax worked with public defender Mike, and they built her case around self-prevention. But as more details came out, this narrative became hard to stick to, and Jax could feel that she was losing control of the case.

Soon, Lucy Wargo, a new public defender, came in to take over the case. Lucy had previously worked with the LAPD; hence, when she got the case from Mike, she took Shanelle into custody and imprisoned her.

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What to expect in Reasonable Doubt season 2 episode 2?

In Reasonable Doubt season 2 episode 1, Shanelle was sent to prison and was charged with first-degree murder. She tried to defend herself, saying that her mind wasn't in the right place, but no one believed what she said. Since Jamarion was a celebrity, the case gained the spotlight and made it harder to plead her not guilty.

Jax couldn't deal with the pressure, and even though she had taken over the case initially, she soon realized that she wouldn't be able to handle it. Hence, she gave it to Corey, as she wanted to help Shanelle out as well. In the next few episodes, it will be seen how Corey handles the case and helps Shanelle out.

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Reasonable Doubt Season 2 has been streaming on Hulu since August 22, 2024.