[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Reasonable Doubt, Season 3 Episode 3, “Run This Town.”]
Reasonable Doubt‘s Season 3 drama is ramping up at Jax Stewart’s (Emayatzy Corinealdi) LA law firm as associate Bill (Joseph Sikora) becomes more involved in the case surrounding child star Ozzie Edwards (Kyle Bary), accused of murdering his girlfriend Wendy (Rumer Willis).
Introduced in the first two episodes, Bill is eager to make partner at the firm, but Jax took issue that he’d put less time in than she had to in order to achieve that level. Despite her qualms, Jax heard Bill out, as he invited her out to lunch and explained that he was married to a Black woman, and tried to reason that he understood the adversity she faced.
That won Jax over enough to have him join her team for this defense case, but could Bill pose a bigger threat than she realizes? It became clear in the latest episode, “Run This Town,” that some colleagues of Jax are questioning her choices, and things got heated in the conference room when one member of the team questioned Jax’s authority.
Disney / Parrish Lewis
Jax rightfully called them out, and the matter was sent to HR, but higher-ups approached Bill separately and asked him to keep an eye on Jax and report on what actions were being taken with Ozzie’s case. While Bill wasn’t sure where he stood with Jax, he learned that she considered him an active member of the team and noted that it was their case to handle, not the firm’s.
Could that level of trust inadvertently win Bill over to Jax’s side, unaware that a line of division has been drawn? Only time will tell. But the picture Bill painted during lunch was certainly shattered in the tense interactions with his wife, making us also question his trustworthiness. “When Bill does come into the fray, played by Joseph Sikora, initially, it’s another colleague who’s here, but then to realize that he aspires to be [in a] position without having put in the work, or so she believes, that’s a little difficult for her to navigate,” Corinealdi tells TV Insider.
“Ultimately, Jax realizes, I think that I could be of help to you, only to then question, have I made a mistake?” Corindealdi teases. “Can I actually trust you? And then she realizes all eyes are on her… That’s when things start to get a little interesting for Jax professionally.”
Meanwhile, Sikora, who joins the series for Season 3, says, “Bill will try to accomplish his partnership by any means necessary because he thinks it’s coming from a very honorable place.”
As for whether Bill could fully win over Jax’s trust, Sikora admits that “Bill is definitely using that to his advantage that he’s married to a Black woman. But then there’s also truth there… So yeah, Bill is maybe not to be trusted, but are any of us to be trusted? Because we all make mistakes, and we all do things for ourselves,” Sikora points out.
When it comes to the mystery behind Bill’s tension with his wife, Sikora teases, “Bill is definitely thinking, ‘if I just do this thing, it’ll help my marriage,’ rather than just helping the marriage. And I think that that’s another really human thing of not actually dealing with the problem that’s right in front of us, which is not unlike Jax.” Touché.
Stay tuned to see how their workplace dynamic unfolds in Season 3, and let us know what you think of Bill and Jax’s team-up in the comments section below.
Reasonable Doubt, Season 3, Thursdays, Hulu