Pregame – The episode begins with Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal) attempting to explain to Barbara Sabich (Ruth Negga) why Brian Ratzer  (Marco Rodriguez) came to their house so mad. After practically telling her that he was harassing him because he thought he was involved in the Bunny Davis case, she fears that Brian will go to the police. Rusty assures her that won’t be the case.

Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard) is going over Michael Caldwell’s (Tate Birchmore) surveillance footage when Eugenia (Virginia Kull) interrupts to express her displeasure with being named as a witness. He chalks it up as a move to eliminate the defenses’ claims of prosecutorial bias. Once she affirms that she isn’t going to treat Rusty as a murderer, he all but accuses her of being hot for him. In not so many words, he also tells her that he and Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle) have been doing a lot of restructuring around the office and loyalty is playing a major role in that.

Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp) has another nightmare where his head spontaneously combusts. When he later discusses this with Lorraine Horgan (Elizabeth Marvel) over breakfast, she claims that it’s a clear sign of Rusty’s guilt. Raymond maintains the belief that Rusty is innocent.

Rusty attempts to burn some of his pent-up energy by spending some time on the treadmill. After one such session, he visits Brain and convinces him to come into the office to speak with him and Raymond. Raymond already isn’t happy with Rusty visiting Brian and learning that Rusty has scheduled an impromptu meeting without his knowledge only makes matters worse. Mya Winslow (Gabby Beans) backs Raymond’s opinion while also pointing out that Brian has absolutely nothing to do with his case.

Jaden Sabich (Chase Infiniti) appears to be having her own doubts about Rusty’s innocence and discusses this with Barbara. Barbara tells her that Rusty might have a lot of anger and might be a lot of things but he isn’t a killer. Later that evening while discussing the case with Rusty, Jaden admits to being scared for him.

While working late at the office, Tommy has a brief memory of the time he confronted Carolyn Polhemus (Rente Reinsve) about not wanting to work with him. She claims that she only said he preferred to first chair her own cases and if she had a second chair, she would prefer it to be Rusty. Either way, Tommy appears to have taken this as an insult. The memory is soon interrupted by the arrival of Nico, who wants to discuss the possibility of Liam Reynolds’s (Mark Harelik) involvement in Carolyn’s death, even though he was locked up at the time of her death. Tommy doesn’t even want to entertain the ideal.

Barbara explores her relationship with Clifton (Sarunas J. Jackson) but doesn’t appear to go any further than flirting and kissing him. During their date at what looks similar to a life-sized lava lamp art exhibit, he immediately makes it known that he isn’t going to make the first move because he doesn’t want to feel like he pushed her into something she wasn’t ready for.

Mya is delegated to question Brain when he comes into the offices. He openly admits to seeing several prostitutes because of Laura Ratzer’s (Eileen Alvarez) loss of sex drive after four children. He also claims to love her very much and maintains the claim that he had nothing to do with Carolyn’s death. At the courthouse at nearly the same time, Tommy is hounded by reporters (Bridget Oberlin), with rumors about a plea deal. Tommy takes this personally and not only assures her that there will be no pleas offered but goes off on a tangent about reassuring the American people that the affluent can’t get away with whatever they want.

Tommy appears to be coming apart at the seams when Nico confronts him about the episode at the courthouse. Tommy tells Nico that he is grateful for the case but Nico’s constant questioning is beginning to make him look incompetent. Nico appears to be disturbed by Tommy’s behavior as he rants on about him establishing respect and goodwill with the people.

Things appear a bit hectic the following morning at the Sabich house but Rusty takes the time to briefly comment on Barbara’s outfit. She jokingly tells him that Dr. Liz Rush (Lily Rabe) likes her to look pretty. Despite leaving in a good mood, this ends the moment Rusty steps outside and notices that Kyle Sabich’s bike has been discarded like trash. Merely seconds later, Kyle claims that it is trash now that the gears are shot. This time when Rusty leaves, he takes the bike with him.

It doesn’t take long for Clifton to become the topic of discussion at Barbara’s therapy session. This is where Barbara reveals that she and Clifton didn’t go further than the kissing stage. Despite that, she says the encounter was extremely romantic and felt nice to be desired. Much later that same day, Raymond assures Rusty that he can win the case and only deems it necessary to prove the evidence doesn’t point to Rusty. Rusty believes the opposite, but the discussion segues into whether or not Barbara thinks he’s guilty. Rusty says that she doesn’t just believe he’s innocent, she ‘knows’ he’s innocent. Raymond says that’s good because the case could come down to her.

The next few scenes slowly show a brief lead-up to the start of the trial. Raymond is shown making a final check of notes while both Rusty and Barbara appear to have trouble sleeping. The media is a circus the following morning at Rusty’s house as well as the courthouse. Rusty holds Kyle and Jaden’s hands as they approach the courthouse.

The episode ends with Tommy giving his opening statement and it goes as perfectly as could be expected. Whatever doubts Nico may have had about him go out the window. Rusty realizes this as well and cusses under his breath.

 

Presumed Innocent Review

I was worried about the eight episodes and unfortunately, this episode affirmed those worries. It wasn’t that the episode was completely horrible because it wasn’t. The last few minutes were incredible as was Tommy’s opening statement. It was also a smart move to wait this far in to begin the trial because people will have developed emotional attachments to the characters. Other than this, nothing really important happened. It looks like Rusty’s fight with Brain isn’t going to go anywhere. It was, however, a bit nice to learn more about Tommy’s insecurities and his confrontation with Carolyn. I’d have to give the episode a 5 out of 10.

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