The morning after meeting Theo on the Riverwalk, Kendrick Whitaker goes straight from his night shift to the district attorney’s office to speak with Derrick Prentiss, the state’s counsel handling Mr. Mateo Mendez’s case. While waiting, Kendrick replays two images in his mind: Lamisha’s suffering after the crash and Mr. Mendez’s frightened, weary face. He also recalls Grandmother Whitaker’s advice to choose mercy when uncertain.

In Derrick’s office, Derrick expresses sympathy for Kendrick and Lamisha and explains that vehicular homicide is a serious state charge, while immigration consequences involve laws outside the office’s control. Kendrick listens to the sentencing options, then calmly gives his view: he no longer wants harsh punishment because he believes the wreck was an accident and that Mr. Mendez has already paid dearly, including being separated from his own daughter. Kendrick adds that Lamisha feels the same.

Derrick calls Kendrick’s position generous, and Kendrick challenges Derrick to imagine being a parent desperate to get to a child. Kendrick frames his stance as treating others the way he would want to be treated. Derrick agrees to pass Kendrick’s comments along when making a recommendation and to update Kendrick about sentencing.

Before leaving, Kendrick confronts Derrick with something personal: Derrick prosecuted Kendrick about eighteen months earlier, and Kendrick spent nearly a year in jail for something Kendrick says he did not do because he was too poor to defend himself properly. Kendrick explains that the deeper issue was being unseen—by prosecutors and overworked appointed counsel—and urges Derrick to look at people’s faces and recognize the “real people” behind cases.

Kendrick describes what changed his own heart in court: truly looking at Mr. Mendez’s tearful face and seeing a fearful man with a soul and a child. He credits Theo, who once gave Kendrick a portrait, with teaching him that faces help people see each other better. Kendrick tells Derrick he once hated him but believes Derrick is a good man capable of goodness. Derrick apologizes for not looking at Kendrick before, they shake hands while meeting each other’s eyes, and Kendrick rides bus 37 home and falls asleep.