Critic’s Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
3.5
Like many episodes, Presumed Innocent Season 1 Episode 6 ended on a cliffhanger, with Raymond (Bill Camp) collapsing in the courtroom at a crucial moment of Rusty’s trial.
As the episode gets underway, this legal drama looks more like a medical drama like ER. Raymond is wheeled into the hospital on a gurney.
Rusty and Barbara have a phone call. Outside the hospital, Rusty informs her that Raymond is still in surgery. He says, “I love you,” before hanging up; she doesn’t.
You’re probably wondering what Raymond’s collapse and uncertain medical status mean for the trial, and you’re not alone. We see the local news, and then Rusty’s kids speculate about whether there will be a mistrial.
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Tommy is a surprising face at the hospital. He comforts Raymond’s wife (Elizabeth Marvel), who, let’s not forget, believes strongly in Rusty’s guilt. Then, the doctor informs everyone that Raymond has survived, albeit with a pacemaker.
Post-court conference
After that, Tommy and Nico are in the car together, and Nico declares that because the jury witnessed Rusty “go all hero” in trying to save his lawyer’s life, they should ask for a mistrial. Tommy disagrees, believing that they’re “winning.”
The lawyers then discuss what to do in the trial in the judge’s chambers, with Mya (Gabby Beans) now appearing to represent Rusty. Once Mya says she’s now Rusty’s lawyer, Nico abandons his mistrial idea and wishes to proceed, at which point Rusty declares he wants to represent himself.
Defendants in the American court system have the right not to take the stand. But the judge clarifies that if Rusty “gives a version of events,” he will require Rusty to become a witness. She also invokes the old adage about an attorney who represents himself having “a fool for a client.”
A contentious cross-examination
Unhappy with this development is the father of Carolyn’s son, Michael, who argues that Michael will be cross-examined by the man who he believes murdered his mother.
On his first day as his own attorney, Rusty enters the courtroom in the rain. Then, he runs into Tommy in the men’s room, with Tommy having nothing to say besides “I’ll see you in there.”
Questioning Michael, Rusty begins by expressing his condolences, but he interrupts with “you killed my mother.” Rusty implies that Michael must be angry at his mother for being kept out of her life. But then he retorts, “Not enough to kill her.”
Then, the show cuts to Raymond in the hospital, watching the trial on his laptop. This is the show’s first time implying that the trial is televised gavel-to-gavel. However, Raymond may have access to some special courtroom feed.
Rusty continues to imply with his questions that Michael was especially angry at Carolyn, with Michael repeatedly accusing Rusty of killing her.
Related: Presumed Innocent Episode 4 Review: The Burden
With Raymond urging him from the hospital to ease up, Rusty starts yelling. Rusty even accuses Michael harshly enough that Michael’s father charges at him and is restrained.
A tense car ride
After court, we see Rusty and Barbara in the car together — have they been riding to court together every day, and we didn’t see it? — but they say nothing to each other.
Nico and Tommy discuss what just happened. While Rusty comes off as angry, Nico acknowledges that he did introduce some evidence indicating that either Michael or his father could be guilty. They declare their intention to call “Rigo” (Nana Mensah), the female cop who helped Rusty in the early episodes.
Next, Rusty is in the car with Eugenia (Virginia Kull), Carolyn’s friend, who suggests that Carolyn had told Rusty on the night of the murder that she was planning to keep the baby, thus implying that Rusty killed her for that reason. He calmly but firmly kicks her out of the car.
Rigo speaks
On the stand, Tommy asks “Rigo” about Rusty’s visit to Liam Reynolds in prison. The lawyer plays a recording in which Rusty promises him a reduced sentence in exchange for testifying- which Nico implies was a bribe. Raymond, watching in the hospital, realizes instantly how bad this sounds.
Cross-examining the witness, Rusty gets the her to agree that Rusty always maintained his innocence.
Back at home, Rusty and Barbara talk to each other, which they didn’t do when we last saw them together. She confronts him about using a pill and acts upset that he didn’t tell her. (A later scene reveals the pills are Ritalin, which Rusty has taken in the past “for big trials.”)
Tommy looks up at a board with evidence of the crime as ominous music plays. In a flashback, we see him trying to kiss Carolyn as part of some celebration, at which point she pulls away.
A fool for a client
Back in court, Tommy announces that he is calling Rusty as a witness. The lawyers immediately return to the judge’s chambers to discuss the matter. The judge makes Rusty choose a mistrial or testifying. Mya advises him to take the mistrial, but he says he’ll take the stand.
The lawyer then yells at him for doing that and ignoring her. It’s a darkly comic scene where the elevator repeatedly closes on him. Mya then declares that she’s “done,” presumably with working for him.
Related: Presumed Innocent Series Premiere Review: Meet Rusty Sabich (Again)
As Rusty prepares for court, Mya calls early in the morning, offering good luck and advice, such as not letting the opposing lawyers rattle him.
Then, seemingly days after suffering a cardiac event in court, Raymond shows up, declaring that “you need me.”
A lawyer takes the stand
Rusty is sworn in as a witness. As he arrives, Mya sits next to Raymond at the defense table.
Tommy starts by asking why Rusty didn’t tell authorities right away, either that Carolyn was his lover or that he was at her home the night of the murder. Tommy then shares a series of Rusty’s texts from the day of the murder.
Rusty responds by also accusing Tommy of obsession, and declaring that he has no evidence. Then Tommy has Ratzer — the man Rusty beat up — stand up in the courtroom.
He then shows a video of Rusty beating him. Tommy also brings up that Rusty tried to “strangle” Kumagai, the medical examiner.
In the car afterward, Nico declares “that was extraordinary” about Tommy’s examination.
Next, we see a flashback to Rusty and Carolyn before we see Rusty and Barbara talking. She brings up his text to Carolyn about wanting to spend “the rest of my life” with her.
Tommy comes home… only to discuss a surprising object on his table. It’s a fireplace poker, implicitly the murder weapon, and it comes with a note with an expletive written on it. Does this indicate that the actual murderer is taunting Tommy- or that he is the murderer, and somebody knows it?
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Innocent thoughts
- There’s now just one episode left, and we’ll presumably get the answer of who killed Carolyn. Rusty looks like the most likely suspect, but don’t sleep on Tommy.
- Rusty does not, at any point, represent himself in earlier versions of this story.
- Ritalin was undoubtedly a prominent drug at the time of the Presumed Innocent book and movie, but I don’t remember it figuring in either.
- Once Raymond went down, I thought maybe the show would trot out Sandy Stern, the lawyer character in the novel, movie, and other Scott Turow novels, who we know from a line of dialogue exists in this show’s universe. However, it doesn’t appear that’s the case. However, maybe we’ll be seeing him again in future seasons.
- And that leads us to pretty shocking news this week. Presumed Innocent, based on a novel and movie about a single case and presented as a limited series, has been renewed by Apple for a second season.
How could that possibly work? Will another of Rusty’s mistresses be murdered? Will he (and a host of other people) once again be accused of the crime?
Apple says the second season will focus on a different case, so they’re possibly going the anthology route. That would make sense; while independent statistics are elusive, Apple has touted Presumed Innocent as a ratings success.
