Presumed Innocent – Season 1 Episode 7 Recap & Review

Episode 7 Recap – The Witness

The recap of Presumed Innocent Episode 7 starts with Raymond Horgan being rushed to the hospital. Rusty and the others wait outside while Barbara waits at home with the kids. The doctor finally comes out and says it wasn’t a heart attack but a neurological issue. Raymond has a pacemaker now and is going to be okay!

Later, Nico tells Tommy that they should move for a mistrial but Tommy disagrees. When the core legal team meets with the judge again, Rusty makes the bold declaration that he’s going to represent himself. Judge Lyttle seems to think it’s a bad idea, as does Mya, who will serve as his second.

The court sessions begin again and Michael Polhemus is called to the stand. Rusty questions him about feeling angry towards his mother for cutting him out. He also proves that Michael told his father that he saw Rusty go to Carolyn’s house. But Rusty’s emotions take over and he loses control, blaming Michael and his father for Carolyn’s death with no basis of proof.

Afterwards, Nico suggests they call Rigo to testify. Rusty hears about it and asks Eugenia about it. But she has no information and the discussion instead moves to Carolyn, with Eugenia suggesting that Carolyn wanted to keep the baby and told Rusty as much on the night she was killed. Rusty gets upset and tells her to leave.

At court the next day, Nico questions Rigo. He plays a recording of Rusty’s conversation with Liam Reynolds at the prison. Nico also shows that Rusty asked Rigo to hand the case evidence only to him but Rusty proves that this process is not unusual for a prosecutor.

Back home, Barbara realises Rusty is using pills to focus his mind and says that he should have told her. At the prosecutor’s office, Tommy takes a paper commemorating one of Carolyn’s wins and keeps it to himself.

At court, Tommy says that Rusty introduced his own testimony during his questioning of Rigo. This allows the court to put him in the witness chair. Judge Lyttle offers a mistrial but Rusty chooses to testify instead. Mya, angry with Rusty for ignoring her advice, says she’s done with this case and leaves.

At home, Rusty’s kids find out he’s taking Ritalin (pills meant for ADHD) and both of them disapprove. Rusty comes home and practices what he’s going to say. The morning arrives and Mya calls to tell Rusty that he shouldn’t let Tommy rile him up. Raymond makes a surprise return to the courtroom, cleared by his doctors. Mya joins as well.

Tommy begins questioning Rusty. He shows that Rusty sent frustrated texts to Carolyn and that he also showed violence by beating up Ratzer and holding Doctor Kumagai by the collar. Despite Rusty’s calm demeanour, Tommy proves that during all of these moments, he just snapped. And could have easily done so with Carolyn as well. Nico is pleased. Tommy is pretty happy with himself but he reaches home to find the place in a mess. The Episode 7 recap ends with Tommy finding a fire poker on his desk, with a note that reads, “Go fuck yourself.”


Episode 7 Review

As the Episode 7 recap shows, this one is an oddly structured episode and there are several things that beg investigation into this show’s writer’s room. Raymond’s hospitalisation was random and unnecessary. I understand that they meant to use his absence for Rusty to be able to represent himself but even that was such a short stint that it barely made any difference. All we got was seeing Rusty lose his cool in a courtroom with his first witness — kind of a stretch for someone who is an accomplished prosecutor.

The legal part of the story also doesn’t move the case any forward. As a whole, the episode feels narratively scattered, interspersed with shots of Rusty’s disappointed family. It comes together at the end though, during the intense and well-executed scene of Tommy questioning Rusty. While Rusty does indeed hold his ground, Tommy’s arguments are well written and the “You just snapped” lands very effectively. Although, this would be one of the very few redeeming points of the episode.

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Read our Season 1 review of Presumed Innocent here!

  • Episode Rating
    (2.5)
2.5

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