Celebrity drama always dominates news headlines, but it’s rare to get a first-hand look at it instead of settling for gossip from a source close to the stars. Inevitably, as Hollywood actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard go through a fully televised post-divorce trial, complete with severed fingers and feces intentionally placed in bed, the world can’t help but watch.

In December of 2018, Amber Heard published an article in the Washington Post where she called herself “a public figure representing domestic abuse” and alleged she was beaten by an ex-spouse she did not name. It was clear from context and the timeframe, though, that she was referring to Johnny Depp. Because of this, the actor alleges he was let go from some of his best roles, including parts in Pirates of the Caribbean and Fantastic Beasts, and labeled a “wife-beater”. Depp soon filed a defamation lawsuit for $50 million, claiming not only that he’d never laid a hand on his ex-wife or any of his other partners, but that Amber was actually the one abusing him. The trial began on April 22nd of this year and will continue until May 27th.

The evidence brought before the jury has been overwhelmingly in support of Depp. His all-star team of lawyers, lead by Camille Vasquez and Ben Chew, both of whom rose to fame overnight because of the trial, has dominated the courtroom since day one. Over the past six weeks, they have presented audio tapes where Heard clearly states she “wasn’t punching [Depp, she] was hitting him”, photos of the fecal matter she left in his bed before going off to a music festival and accounts of her admitting it, photos of Depp’s severed finger from a Vodka bottle she threw at him, extensive witness testimony and much more. In addition, Depp’s charisma has allowed him the support of the audience and by logical extent, the jury. Heard’s case, on the other hand, was always doomed to fail. She has been detained as a domestic abuser in a previous relationship, failed to donate the money she promised to childrens’ medical organizations from her divorce settlement, and there is evidence of her infidelity. In the courtroom, both her legal team and the expert witnesses they have invited have exhibited extreme unprofessionalism. Her attorneys seem incapable of forming questions that are permissible under courtroom etiquette, even objecting to themselves, and a slew of medical experts, one of whom uncannily resembles Doc Brown from Back to the Future in both mannerism and appearance, have violated ethical conduct and provided blatantly false testimony. Heard herself has been crying without shedding a tear (as an actress, you’d think she’d be able to act convincing), which has gotten a lot of her testimony struck from the record as that of an unreliable witness.

With the trial wrapping up, it seems obvious Johnny Depp is to be believed, and, oh, would it be nice if everything was as simple as that. Defamation is a civil case, not a criminal one, and thus whether the abuse actually did take place is not the subject of the matter. In order to win the case, all Amber Heard’s team must do is prove the article she wrote had no malice or falsehood. This is much easier to prove as the article, titled “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”, mainly focused on the events that followed the abuse allegations, not the claims themselves. Johnny may very well lose this suit. But that doesn’t matter to him. At the very beginning of the trial, Depp was asked why he was going through all this legal trouble. He replied he wanted to “clear his name” so that his children could go around this world knowing their father wasn’t a “wife-beater”. In truth, the actor won this trial long before the jury’s verdict as he is not after Amber’s demise and legal fee-induced poverty, but redemption. He won when fans rallied outside the courtroom with #justiceforjohnny posters, when recordings of his witty remarks to lawyers went viral on social media and people all over the world saw him once again as the lovable Captain Jack Sparrow. He’s showing casting directors he can still win people’s hearts over for himself and for any movie they could put him in. Even if he is found liable, he has claimed the solid victory he came for.