Episode 109 Recap: "The Setup"

At the police station, Judge David Harrington is arguing with the dirty detective he hired to plant drugs in Candace Young's car. Behind the two-way mirror is Candace's brother, Benny, who was wrongfully arrested on drug possession just hours before.

"You arrested the wrong person," David growls.

"You gave me the make and model of the car. We planted the drugs," the detective says. "This was your idea."

David grows suspicious that the detective is wired. He starts to check for one, but the detective pushes him away. "Will you relax?" he says. "If you go down for this, I go down too."

David says he told the detective he was looking to catch a woman. The detective denies it. "What do you want us to do?" the detective asks.

"Drop the charges," David says.

"I can't do that," the detective says. "You said take this straight up to the DA's office...which I did. She has it. She looked at the case, and she says it's airtight."

David orders him to find a way to drop the charges. "You asked me to do this," the detective says. "It's done. I do. I don't undo. You deal with it."

The detective leaves as David gazes through the mirror at Candace and her mother, Hanna, as they wait to see Benny.

Finally, Benny is brought into the interrogation room in handcuffs. He's seated across from his mother and sister, who aren't allowed to even touch him. "Everything's all right, Mama," he says.

Benny explains to them that he was on his way to pick up his date when he was pulled over. He then tells his mother he was driving Candace's car.

Hanna is outraged. "Where'd you get the money to get a new car?" she says. "You selling drugs now?"

Candace says no. "I don't know how cocaine got in my car," she says.

Hanna accuses Candace of lying and tells Benny never to trust her. "Get on up from here and march on in there and tell them those were your drugs," she says to Candace. "You're going to let your brother go to jail?"

Candace maintains her innocence until Hanna slaps her across the face. "Don't you jump in my face no more. I have had it," Hanna says. "Everything you touch you ruin. You are the devil. You got your brother in this whole situation. Get out!"

Candace turns to leave, crying. "Benny, look at me," she says through tears. "I didn't know, but I will fix it."

After Candace leaves, Benny tells his mother he doesn't think she did it. Hanna won't hear it and asks what their next steps are. "They are getting me a public defender," he says.

Hanna says she'll hire a lawyer instead. "I'm not leaving you in here," she says.

Benny protests, but an officer says it's time to leave. Watching Benny leave from the other side of the glass, David is now intrigued. He's now realized that Hanna is the mother of Candace—the woman his gubernatorial running mate, Jim Cryer, is having an affair with. "Might not be such a bad mistake after all," he says.

The next day, Hanna arrives at the Cryer household late for work. Her fellow housekeeper Celine is still bitter about Hanna's new promotion to head of household and has hidden everything Hanna needs for Katheryn Cryer's favorite tea. "I have had enough of you," Hanna says.

She finds Katheryn, who is battling breast cancer, upstairs. "There you are. You've been here for a while now and have never been late once," Katheryn says. "Even in that storm we had."

Hanna apologizes, but Katheryn can sense something is very wrong. "What's the matter?" she asks.

"Mrs. Cryer, do you know a lawyer that I can hire?" Hanna asks. "I'm having family problems, and I need a lawyer." Hanna declines to say what kind of problems she's facing but tells Katheryn she needs a criminal lawyer.

Katheryn says she thinks she knows someone. "You have been there for me through this cancer," she says. "Let me be there for you."

Hanna is still hesitant. "This is an awkward situation, Mrs. Cryer," she says. "You're my boss, and I don't want any favors from you. I don't want to get these lines crossed."

Katheryn tells her to get real. "Lines are already crossed," she says. "You can't work like this. Obviously this is serious. We'll pay Jim a visit."

Back at the jail, Candace is visiting Benny without their mother. "Benny, you know I didn't do this," she says. "I'm so sorry."

Benny says he knows. "Where did you get that car from?" he asks.

"The guy that I was telling you about," she says. "He gave it to me."

Benny is concerned. "Are you sure he didn't set you up?" he asks. "How deep are you in this?"

"Pretty deep," she says. "And I'm about to get deeper."

Benny implores his sister to be careful. "Make sure you think before you do anything," he says. "Don't do nothing crazy. Don't be stupid."

"I love you," Candace says.

"I love you," Benny replies. "Be careful."

At the courthouse, Katheryn and Hanna make their way into Jim's office. "To what do I owe the pressure of your company?" he says.

Katheryn explains that Hanna has a serious issue and needs a criminal attorney. Jim asks Hanna what the situation is, and Hanna opens up. "My son is in trouble. He didn't do it," she says. "He was driving my daughter's car and got arrested [for drugs]."

Jim asks Hanna to step out while he talks to his wife. When she leaves, Jim turns on Katheryn. "Are we taking on projects now?" he asks. "This is a never-ending cycle. We help her once, it's going to happen over and over and over again. It's never going to stop."

"She's not that way," Katheryn says.

"I thought you and I had an understanding. We were going to keep the help at arm's length, especially after that other little incident," he says. "The one where you said the gardener was like family until I had to write him a check every month."

Katheryn says she just needs a lawyer. Jim calls David into the office with Hanna, who explains the situation again. "I know my son, and this is not him," she says. "It's my daughter. She has some kind of new sports car, and I don't know where she got it from, but they found drugs under the seat."

David says he's not a practicing attorney anymore but thinks he knows someone. Katheryn demands that he call right now. "I will as soon as I get back to my office," David says. "I need a few moments with your husband first."

Katheryn and Hanna leave, and Jim turns to David. "I want you to stand here and tell me you did not have a hand in this," he says. "Tell me you had nothing to do with it."

"I took care of our problem," David says. "But you have another one that I didn't see coming."

Jim gets upset. "Dammit, David, what did you do?"

David says he has a friend in narcotics who owed him a favor and planted evidence in Candace's car.

"Why in the hell would you do that?" Jim says.

"I would hope you would do the same for me," David says. "You're my friend, and I'm watching you fall apart, and I can't do it anymore. You're not the same since you turned 50. You're involved with a whore. In the past, you had the decency to keep your affairs discrete. What's gotten into you? You've lost it."

Jim says David should not have done what he did. "You framed an innocent kid," Jim says. "And you're proud of it."

David says he doesn't know who Jim is anymore. "You love her," David says. "Say it."

Jim denies that he has feelings for Candace.

"Then what the hell do you care about how I handled this situation?" David says. "They played you like a bad hand."

"Who is they?" Jim asks.

David can't believe Jim didn't see this coming. "Hanna, your maid, who works in your house. Her son was arrested in his sister's car for drugs. Candace's car," David says. "Hanna is Candace's mother. This was a family plan. They set you up."

Back at the Cryer house, Katheryn makes Hanna a cup of tea. "With our children, we should be drinking bourbon," Katheryn says.

"Praying—that's what we should be doing," Hanna says.

Katheryn asks how Benny got into this mess. "Well, as good as Benny is, my daughter is the exact opposite," Hanna says. "She got him into it. And I don't know where I went wrong with her."

Katheryn says it might not be Hanna that's the problem. "I did everything by the book with Wyatt," she says.

Hanna asks if she ever took him to church. Katheryn, growing quieter, says that's where the trouble started. "The priest was having a retreat for the boys of the parish, and Wyatt didn't want to go. He didn't..." Katheryn trails off. "Enough of that. If the cancer doesn't kill me, the memory of that will. He was out of my sight for one summer, and everything changed."

Watch part of this scene unfold

Hanna asks what happened, but Katheryn says it's still too painful to talk about. Changing the subject, she asks if Hanna ever tried talking to her daughter. "I mean, really talking to her. And you should know that listening is just as important as talking," Katheryn says. "You'd be surprised by the things people tell you when they're trying not to tell you too much."

Hanna says she can't stand to be around her daughter right now. "She lies when the truth will do," Hanna says.

"Well, when you're ready," Katheryn says. "And you're going to need to be ready soon because you are going to need to know all you can from her to help your son."

Hanna leaves for the night, and Katheryn finds Jim in the living room. "How long have you been here?" she asks.

"Long enough," he says.

Katheryn thanks Jim for helping Hanna, but Jim wants to know just how well she knows Hanna. "As well as you could know a person in a short amount of time," she says. "She's good-hearted."

"You never asked me what I thought about her," he says.

"Well, when have you ever cared about the staff—or should I say staff that's over 30?" Katheryn says.

"I resent that," Jim says.

"You walked right into that darling" Katheryn says. "I wasn't the one sleeping with the pool man's daughter."

Jim changes the subject. "What you need to do in the future is you need to run a thorough background check on anyone that you invite into this house," he says.

Katheryn says she checked Hanna out. "Why all this interest in who I hire?" she asks. "I know you, Jim. You don't shoot unless there's a deer. What is it?"

"What you do is you get attached to these people, and these people become problems," Jim says. "You're getting too close to her."

"Don't you tell me who I'm getting too close to," she says.

"And don't you ‘don't' me," he replies. "She is going to be a problem."

"Well, I look forward to it," Katheryn says. "It'll just be one more problem I have to deal with in this family. Good night."

Across town, there's a knock at Hanna's door. It's Candace. "Come on in," Hanna says.

Hanna begins by apologizing for hitting Candace at the station. "I've just been really upset," Hanna says.

Candace says she has too—and is shocked when Hanna asks why. "Benny is in jail. What do you think?" Candace says. "He's the only family that loves me."

Hanna looks away. "You don't have to say it, so stop thinking about it," Candace says.

"Thinking about what?" Hanna asks.

"How to say you love me and make it sound real," Candace says.

Hanna says she does love her. "But I can't say I really like you right now," Hanna says. "And I swear I can't stand your ways."

Candace says that makes two of them. "If you live for the Lord, just do it," she says. "You don't go around showing everyone you have a Bible. You think that hides who you really are?"

Hanna asks Candace who she thinks Hanna is. Candace says she knows. "I know that my father was a one-night stand. You met him at a club. He was a bartender," she says. "Benny's father? He was married. You tried to steal him from his wife, but he wouldn't go. And the slew of other married men that you slept with."

Hanna says some of that is true but not all. Since then, she says, she's repented. "But you? You don't repent," Hanna says. "You intend to do this over and over and over again."

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Hanna continues: "See, that's what you've been doing since you were 7 years old, when you first started stealing. When you were 13, you stole my mortgage money to buy a computer and some shoes and a dress. And you lied to me and said you didn't do it, just so you could fit in at school. And when you were 17, you ran away to shack up with some pimp in Memphis. And you called me, crying. I took the bus down there to get you. Brought you back home when he threatened to kill you. Brought you back home when he threatened to kill all of us. I worried about that every day till somebody ended up killing him. And you got pregnant. You had that beautiful baby. My grandbaby that you let me raise and love, and I loved that baby. Three years that baby was here. And then you took him. I ain't seen him since."

Candace, emotional, cuts to the chase. "Why am I here?"

Hanna makes one more plea to her daughter. "Please, please, I beg of you. Do the right thing for once in your life," she says. "Tell those people the truth so that your brother can get out of jail."

Again, Candace says she had nothing to do with the drugs. "I'm out of here," she says.

"Candace, there is a lot to forgive you for, daughter. But I think I just run out of room for it," Hanna says. "If you don't help your brother, you are dead to me."

Candace tears up. "That's what you've always wanted. You always made me feel like you would rather me be dead; now you've said it. You said it," she says. "You think I'm the devil? You have no idea the hell I can rain down."

Back at the Cryer house, there's a banging on the door. Jim opens it, and Candace pushes her way in. "So you set me up?" she asks angrily.

Jim says no. "Keep your voice down," he says. "My wife is upstairs asleep."

Candace says she doesn't give a damn. "You brought this on yourself," she says. "You want a war? Here it is."

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Candace pushes her way up the stairs. Jim tries to physically stop her. "So you buy that car to set me up?" she says. "You don't get it. I will ruin you."

Jim maintains his innocence, but Candace doesn't believe him. "My brother is in jail because of you, so let's make this fair," she says.

Candace begins screaming Katheryn's name and bursts into her bedroom. Katheryn puts down her book to look at both Jim and Candace. "What is going on?"