The Rules of Professional Conduct
Episode 1 of The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 begins with Mickey Haller getting the life beaten out of him in a parking garage at night. If you remember season 1, he doesn’t always have the best memories of parking lots. Well! How did he end up in this situation again?
We go back to a few weeks before the incident. Mickey is enjoying his newly found fame as the hottest attorney in L.A. It seems his client’s death only served to shoot him into the public limelight more. He has been doing interviews left, right and centre and the law firm is finally taking off.
This is excellent news but Lorna finds it overwhelming to juggle everything. She calls Mickey to give him his schedule for the day. She also informs him of a new client, Russell Lawson who was arrested for burglary and indecent exposure. Russell heard about Mickey from the Trevor Elliot case and paid the legal fees upfront because he wanted to be represented by the best.
She also asks if she can return the Jesús Menendez file to storage but Mickey asks her not to. He is worried that the prosecution will bring up charges again. He gets another call, this time from Maggie asking about their dinner plans that night. He tells her he has made a reservation and will text her the address.
Later Izzy picks him up from his interview and drives him to court. Izzy lets him know that she has been doing some dancing gigs after work. Mickey is not ecstatic to learn that she has been working with her ex, Ray. He asks her to be careful even though Ray has turned a new leaf and gotten sober.
Izzy points out that he might want to take his advice since he has been letting his newfound fame get to his head. Mickey argues that he has to strike when the iron is hot but promises to focus.
Lorna calls him back to remind him that she is overwhelmed and needs help at the office. Mickey asks why Cisco can’t help and Lorna says that Cisco is working on a case which Mickey finds surprising. He offers to pay Izzy more money if she is willing to help Lorna. With that settled, Lorna texts Cisco asking him where he is.
Mickey meets with Russell who is still being held at the police station. Russell explains that he works in finance. The night of the arrest he was to meet with a friend but the friend cancelled. He decided to have a few drinks and called an Uber. He doesn’t remember what happened next, but he was arrested for breaking a window and passing out on the couch of a strange woman.
The police are charging him with felony burglary and if convicted, he faces six years imprisonment. Mickey realizes that Russell accidentally broke into the house because he thought it was his. His house is just down the street. Russell is new to the neighbourhood and was drunk. Mickey promises to work on the case and calls Cisco but is unable to reach him.
On his way out, he meets Briggs who informs him that the police and the DEA are feeling salty over what went down with the Menedez case. The DEA is formally reopening the case and Briggs has been assigned. Mickey asks him to find the tattooed man, Glory Days identified as the culprit.
The problem is the tattooed man is looking more like a myth and Briggs asks Mickey to bring in Menedez the next day. Of course, Mickey is not jazzed about the idea of bringing his client to the lion’s den but it has to be done.
Night rolls by and Mickey meets with Maggie for dinner. She is feeling blue because she has been having a tough time at her new job. She thinks that her new case might be poached. As they talk, Mickey keeps getting messages from a reporter and Maggie teases him about being a big hotshot.
They talk about Hayley and how she is fairing in her new school. The conversation leads up to some new guy Maggie is dating. Mickey is a bit jealous but she reminds him that he can date too. The dinner goes smoothly until Mickey mentions that he can pay for the horseriding classes that Hayley wants.
Maggie thinks that he is throwing his newfound success in her face and starts to blame him for how she lost her previous job. The fight escalates when a waiter brings them some free food thanks to Mickey’s popularity. Maggie gets angry and walks away. Later, the chef and owner of the restaurant, Lisa Trammell stops by to check how Mickey likes the food. They end up flirting and sleeping together.
Elsewhere, Cisco lies to Lorna about where he has been. She doesn’t pick up on his lies as she has a lot on her plate. She is working full-time, attending law school and planning her upcoming wedding.
The next morning, Lisa serves breakfast and tells Mickey about her ongoing problems with a building developer, Mitchell Bondurant. She hates that Mitchell wants to gentrify the community and has been trying to fight it. Mickey promises to see if he can get a real-estate lawyer to help her out. They promise to call each other later and Mickey leaves.
He heads home to find Izzy waiting for him. She assumes that Mickey’s dinner with Maggie went well and is happy for him. He doesn’t tell her the truth and they head to the office. At the office, Cisco updates him about his findings on the Menendez case. Cisco has been unable to find the tattooed man or Glory Days. Mickey then asks him about the Russell case. Cisco talked to the Uber driver and took some photos of both houses.
Meanwhile, Maggie is bummed to learn that her case was poached. She calls her friend, Andy to ask for advice. As the day wears on, Lisa visits Mickey at his office and informs him that Bondurant has filed a restraining order against her. Bondurant is trying to intimidate Lisa from leading any more protests against his company.
Mickey assures her that he will represent her and Lisa is glad but explains she has no funds to pay him at the moment. As soon as Lisa leaves, Lorna interrogates Mickey about his relationship with her. Lorna teases him for accepting the case pro-bono because he is sleeping with Lisa. Mickey quickly escapes the office and orders Lorna to get a tox screen for Russell.
In the meantime, Cisco picks up an old friend, Kaz who has been released from prison. Andy feels bad for Maggie but can’t help. She suggests that Maggie go private or find another office. Maggie thinks it is a bad idea to leave town for a new job but Andy advises her to figure out something soon.
Mickey meets with Jesús and takes him for his interrogation with Briggs. It seems that Briggs has found some disturbing evidence that might prove Jesús killed Martha. According to Jesús’ old roommate, he used to have a hunting knife similar to the murder weapon. The roommate told the police that he saw Jesús discard the knife the night of the murder. Mickey shuts down that interview and lashes out at Jesús for lying to him.
Mickey promises to figure it out and sends Jesús home. Later that night, Mickey spends the night with his daughter and they talk about the case. She reminds him to focus on what is in front of him to find a break in his case. This inspires Mickey to try a new defense scheme and he is lucky enough to get Russell’s case dropped.
After the hearing, Mickey runs into Maggie at the court house and she tells him about her case being poached. She apologizes for her behaviour at the dinner and he tells her that he is cool with her dating and wishes her the best.
On the other side of town, Lorna goes to her classes and is supposed to fill out a form for the Criminal Practice Clinic. Since she is being mentored by Mickey who is not on the list of approved mentors, she needs the signature of the Academic Dean by Friday. However, the name of the Academic Dean seems to throw her off and she hurries out.
On her way out, she gets a call from Cisco asking her not to wait up. He lies that he is trying to track down Glory Days but he is taking Kaz to visit the biker gang.
At the end of the day, Mickey heads home and on his way, he gets a call from Izzy. She informs him that Russell stopped by and paid 5,000 as a retainer. Mickey finds it odd but ignores it. Izzy also brings up why Mickey lied about spending the night with Lisa. She asks him to be honest. Mickey gets home and is surprised to find Russell inside.
In an exhilarating twist, Russell turns out to be the tattooed man who killed Martha. He schemed to hire Mickey as his lawyer so he can get the privilege of confidentiality. Mickey is caught between a rock and a hard place. He can’t turn in Russell at the risk of getting disbarred. He can’t defend Jesús because of conflict of interest and there is also the subtle threat that Russell makes to his family.
The Episode Review
The twist at the end of episode 1 of The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 seems like the perfect way to whet our appetite for what’s to come this season. As always, Mickey has got himself into another dilemma and he will need to figure out how to come out standing after the mess goes down.
As expected, season 2 picks up where the last season ended and the episodic structure and the narrative remain the same. We just have a few new players but the game is ultimately the same but this is not a bad thing. We love consistency and so far, we look forward to seeing the rest of the episodes.
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Episode Rating
(3.5)
Hi Richard. The real estate agent was also having an affair with the same man sleeping with Elliott’s wife. She felt Elliott had gotten away with murder and wanted revenge.
Why did real estate agent kill Mickeys client at end of season 1?