‘Call Her King’ Ending Explained: Does Judge Jaeda King Save the Day?

Welcome to the Ending Explained for ‘Call Her King,’ a new BET production written and directed by Wes Miller. The film stars Naturi Naughton, Jason Mitchell, Johnny Messner, Nicholas Turturro, and Lance Gross. The film is a mixture of an action movie and a court drama, but it never really manages to excel at these cases. This is a shame because you can definitely see that the actors and crew are doing their best. Sadly, the script is quite bad, lacking subtlety and nuance while creating some incoherent and cringe-worthy moments. Any potential the film could have is wasted on a script like this.

The premise itself is quite ridiculous, and at many points during the film, you will be asking yourself, Where is this going? How is this happening? But not out of a sense of intrigue but because many parts of the story simply don’t make sense, including the entire heist the movie uses as its core.

The actors are also chewing the scene, and thanks to the weak script, most of the lines come off as unintended parodies. There are many movies out there nowadays, and there is no scarcity of content, but there is definitely a lot of bad content out there, and sadly, this movie forms part of that group.

The following paragraphs contain spoilers for ‘Call Her King.’ Read at your own risk.

Why is the trial being hijacked?

‘Call Her King’ introduces our main character, Judge Jaeda King. We see her training with her father. She is learning martial arts, but she is weak. She cannot land a hit on the old man. And so, she feels useless and incapable. Later, we see her at home getting ready for her day, and she is clearly stressed out. Her husband approaches her, but she rejects him, and they get into a fight.

It seems her husband is not working right now. This puts all the financial responsibilities on her, and she doesn’t like it. She basically says she doesn’t love her husband anymore. It’s a bit rough, but she goes off to work without resolving the issue.

We learn that King is about to judge a man named Sean Samuels. Sean swears he has never killed anybody, but all evidence suggests the opposite. However, King has also been handling the case in not the most professional of ways. She has been manipulated step by step by Duke Hawkings, the prosecutor, who has known King since they were in law school together.

They were also in a relationship many years ago, and Duke has also been pursuing her since then, even though she is now married. He has been whispering in her ear, and he will surely put Sean behind bars if King doesn’t realize that there is something off with how the prosecution has handled the case.

King arrives late at the courthouse, but everyone else is ready, including Stryker, the sheriff in command, Sean, the defendant, and his lawyer, Jerry. Something catches Stryker’s attention when he sees that Jerry is more nervous than usual. King later arrives, and the trial starts.

Duke presents the evidence, and Sean keeps proclaiming he didn’t do anything. King avoids cross-examining the evidence, and it seems like Sean’s fate has already been decided. At that moment, without their knowledge, a team of people are getting inside the building. We see an army of armed goons arriving in the middle of the night, although it is supposed to be early in the morning.

These people get ready to execute a hijacking. The team kills the security guards and takes command of the building just as if this were a bank heist. King, Stryker, Jerry, and Sean hid inside her room. Here, we are introduced to another main character, Gabriel, also known as Black Caesar, Sean’s brother. Sean doesn’t seem to know what is happening with his brother or his goal, but Gabriel is clear about what he wants: he wants his brother. He will start killing people if he doesn’t get his brother. He makes an example of a judge in court that day, killing him by shooting him in the head. Gabriel is not playing games.

Does Judge Jaeda King save the day?

Gabriel has killed his first victim, so he threatens the judge to kill more if they don’t release Sean to him. Stryker manages to get everyone out of the room using a backdoor, and they plan to escape. Gabriel sends his goons to find him, but in the meantime, he will put Duke on trial for his crimes.

It seems Duke has not been the best prosecutor he can be, and he has tampered with and hidden evidence that could change the course of cases. His relationship with King also comes to light, which is a clear conflict of interests. During the trial, every time Duke lies, Gabriel kills the hostage. The situation is quickly going out of control.

Meanwhile, King and the others start a shootout with Gabriel’s forces. Selima, a friend of Sean and Gabriel’s partner, gets killed trying to get to him. They separate in the chaos, and King is left alone with Sean. Sean pleads for his freedom, as he did nothing.

King explains the hardships of being judged. Early in her career, he left a criminal go free, someone who was guilty, and she has sworn never to do it again. However, she has lost her past, and she believes putting someone in jail, even if they are innocent, is preferable to taking the risk of freeing a guilty person. Sean convinces her that he is innocent and that her way is wrong, as he has the right to live his life.

Sean explains that his brother is quite smart and that their father was jailed for a crime he didn’t commit. Since then, Gabriel has sworn to stick it to the man somehow, and it seems like Sean’s trial has become the perfect excuse. Meanwhile, Gabriel continues to put Duke through the wringer, explaining how corrupt the justice system is, especially when dealing with black people.

Jerry is revealed to be a traitor and kills Stryker. He later tries to turn on King and Sean, but King kills him. She later uses him to throw a bomb and interrupt Duke’s trial. A shootout ensues, with Judge King shooting criminals dead, left and right.

It is all chaos and quite a dissonant move, as it seems that the real killer in the movie is King herself. In the middle of the chaos, Sean and Gabriel escape. Gabriel explains to his brother that this was always part of the plan; he will sacrifice so that Sean can escape, continue their work, and fight against the system’s injustice.

Gabriel dies while escaping, and King realizes that Sean was part of the plan all along. At home, King’s marital problems seem to be resolved somehow, but she swears that she will find and capture Sean one day. The movie ends with Sean free and recruiting more people for his cause. He has now taken on Gabriel’s role as a freedom fighter.