‘For Life’ Episode 4: Is Darius posing as Marie’s knight in shining armor only to gaslight her? 

The latest episode of ABC’s ‘For Life’ named after its titular character Marie Wallace (Joy Bryant), was undeniably one of most intense so far as it reveals the reason behind Marie’s marriage to Aaron Wallace failing and how she coped with his incarceration. It traces what she went through when he chose to take up the trial saying “it’s my life” and refused the plea deal which could have reduced his sentence. 

Apart from everything that went down in their marriage, we also saw what enabled Marie and Darius Johnson’s (Brandon J.Dirden) relationship, which came across as highly questionable, considering the latter and Aaron were best friends who trusted each other with their lives. 

However, throughout the episode, Darius’s involvement in Aaron’s case and Marie’s life following her husband’s conviction seemed well-planned and structured. Although he made himself look like a friend who only dearly cared for his best friend’s family, the few things he stated were indicative of the fact that there’s more to him than meets the eye. 

For instance, Aaron had asked Darius to install security cameras in the club only days before the drug bust. When Marie asked him about the same, he conveniently washed his hands of the matter saying Aaron couldn’t afford them, hence they never got surveillance cameras. 

It’s understandable that Aaron’s imprisonment put Marie in a tough spot. Although she tried to make their marriage work for years, she let go of even the last strand of hope she was tightly holding on after realizing that the chances of her husband returning had begun to slim down by the day, owing to his determination to fight his own case. 

Meanwhile, Darius, who took a swing at Michael in the courtroom for testifying against Aaron and lent a shoulder for Marie to lean on when she turned a damsel in distress, is now seen resisting Marie’s decision to free Aaron.

In the previous episode, when Marie is interrogated for taking a letter from Aaron during one of her visitations, Darius suddenly turned against his best friend and accused him of trying to frame Marie for his benefit. It would rather be unfair to validate Darius so soon since the series is yet to reveal a lot about his persona. We need to wait to see if his concerns for Marie are genuine or if he has a bigger role to play in Aaron’s conviction. 

‘For Life’ airs on Tuesdays on ABC.