Mickey must think fast after Lisa Trammell is arrested in The Lincoln Lawyer S2E3.
The Lincoln Lawyer: Case File for season 2 episode 3
‘Conflicts’
Written by Dailyn Rodriguez
Directed by Kate Woods
Lisa Trammell has been arrested for the murder of nemesis Mitchell Bondurant. She wants Mickey to represent her. Lorna is not keen on the idea. Lorna also grows more suspicious of Cisco’s whereabouts.
Mickey must go up against Andrea Freeman in Lisa’s case. The two attorneys try to stay one step ahead of each other to maintain the advantage for their respective clients.
Maggie and Mickey have some flirtatious moments, but Maggie becomes disenchanted when Mickey uses information from Hayley to gain advantage in his case.
Let us investigate further our case file for The Lincoln Lawyer S2E3 ‘Conflicts’.
Refresh your memory:
- Andrea Freeman (Andy) is a fellow prosecutor that Maggie knows from the downtown office and yoga.
- Dean Wheaton is the torts professor who made inappropriate advances at Lorna as student the first time she went to law school. She recently confronted him on his abhorrent behavior when she needed his signature on her practice clinic form.
Need to see my client
Mickey works his usual magic to get in quickly to see Lisa before she is moved to the county jail. A threat here or an offer there, Mickey uses his tricks to get faster service from the front desk officer and ultimately the chance to see Lisa’s original interrogation footage.
Mickey rebuffs Lisa’s initial hug as their relationship must be strictly professional at this point. Lisa claims no wrongdoing when Mickey asks about her morning. Mickey asks about the detective saying she made admissions in her interview. She passionately denies any such thing and insists she is not a murderer.
Lisa is not happy about having to stay in jail overnight, but Mickey informs her that her arraignment is the next day, and they will ask for bail. Lisa is still discouraged because she does not have money for bail. Mickey sends a clear message to Lisa that she must speak to no one about her case. That includes other prisoners and no phone calls.
Lesson time
Lorna calls Mickey when he leaves the police station. She wants to know if he will be representing Lisa. He tells her that he is not sure. Lorna reminds Mickey about Hayley’s riding lesson. He pretends to remember, then makes an abrupt turn to head towards Griffith Park for the lesson.
Maggie joins Mickey at the fence to watch Hayley, who is in the initial stages of lessons and first building a relationship with the horse. Maggie shares that Hayley has enjoyed hearing from Mickey’s mom about his riding acumen. Speaking of Mickey’s impressive skills, Maggie talks about the amazing way Mickey worked to get two innocent clients released and the guilty one arrested all while maintaining his ethical obligations to them all.
The former spouses talk briefly about their dating lives. Both indicate that the situations are complicated.
Interrogation review
Mickey settles on the couch at home with dinner and the recording of Lisa’s interrogation with Detective O’Brien.
Lisa tells Detective O’Brien that she passed Bondurant’s office on her way to pick up her fish order. She stopped at Maurice’s coffee shop on the way back. She denies any notion of stopping at his office. Interestingly, she does confirm that she saw Bondurant that morning, however.
Bondurant joined the long line at the coffee shop. But as soon as Lisa spotted him, she left. She denies attacking him but claims to understand why someone would. She points out what a horrible person Bondurant is. O’Brien asks if she hates the building developer enough to murder him. Lisa says nothing more, only asking for her lawyer, Mickey Haller.
Lorna’s suspicions
Lorna is receiving alerts on her phone about purchases on an account she presumably shares with Cisco. She gets multiple notifications from Sunland gas station. The first time she sees it, Cisco says he is in Glendale, which is about a half hour away from the alert notification location.
When it happens again the next day for the same gas station, Lorna confides in Izzy. Izzy says it could be someone using the card fraudulently. But Lorna wonders if Cisco could be cheating on her? Izzy scoffs at the absurdity of such an idea.
Lorna decides to map the Sunland location and sees that it is near “The Patch”, a bar frequented by the Road Saints. Lorna fears Cisco could be involved with the motorcycle club and its criminal activities again.
Izzy reminds her that Cisco might be doing Road Saints work for Mickey since he does work for the club. Finally, Izzy advises Lorna to just ask Cisco what’s going on. The two ladies decide to go out for dinner together.
Arraignment arrival
Mickey arrives to the courthouse for Lisa’s arraignment. Andrea Freeman joins him in the elevator, and he learns that she is the DA assigned to Lisa’s case. The two share a little smack talk as Andrea reminds Mickey of her winning record against him. She also gives him a hard time, accusing him of being responsible for Maggie’s transfer to Van Nuys. Andrea says Mickey loves the attention of high-profile cases. Mickey teases Andrea saying he must be on her mind a lot if she talks to Maggie about him.
The pair exit the elevator and are met with an onslaught of media attention. A reporter asks Mickey if he is Lisa’s attorney. He confirms that he is.
Judge Medina is back
Everyone gets settled into the courtroom. We learn that Judge Teresa Medina is assigned to Lisa’s case. You may recall Judge Medina and her funny sarcastic tone when she heard charges against Kym Wagstaff last season.
(It was the case where Mickey cleverly pointed out Kym Wagstaff was basically forced into the offense when officers ordered her out of the water when she was not wearing a bathing suit top. The case was dismissed.)
Judge Medina asks Andrea to give the charges against Lisa. Andrea replies that it is a murder charge with the special circumstance of lying in wait. Andrea claims that the special circumstance precludes the offer of bail. Mickey points out the crowd of supporters there for Lisa and how she runs a restaurant where employees rely on her.
The judge hears both sides on the bail issue and decides to offer bail at 2 million. Lisa is distraught because she cannot afford to put her restaurant up for collateral or come up with 10% for a bail bond. She sheepishly begins to ask if Mickey could pay for it. He reminds her that would be a serious conflict of interest.
Mickey recommends Lisa sell her life rights to her story. As power of attorney, he can put a lien on the contract proceeds assuring that he gets paid when the story is sold. Lisa is handcuffed and will be taken back to jail.
Octopus dumplings
Mickey closes out his evening with a stop at the food trucks at Echo Park. He orders some beef curry and octopus dumplings, but someone has just scooped up the last available dumplings. Maggie appears to pick up her order of octopus dumplings.
Mickey and Maggie chuckle about the dumplings. We learn that Maggie is eating solo tonight while Hayley is with a friend. Mickey offers to join her at the park and Maggie offers one of her dumplings. A text message interrupts their time together. Jim, the guy Maggie is dating, has finished up unexpectedly early for the evening. Maggie feels obligated to meet Jim and Mickey stays to pick up his order.
Office events
The next day the office, Cisco has a report for Mickey. His investigative prowess has resulted in some important information. He learned that Bondurant’s body was found by his car in the parking garage of his office. A circular wound was identified on the top of his head. Mickey asks about possible murder weapon at the site, but Cisco reports only an empty coffee cup and a shard of mirrored glass. Cisco points out that neither of the side mirrors on Bondurant’s car were damaged.
Additionally, Cisco learned of an eyewitness who claims to have seen Lisa at the garage. The eyewitness is Margo Schafer. Lorna, Izzy, Mickey and Cisco talk about the pros and cons of no murder weapon. Not having one is only good for the defense if it never shows up.
Lorna pieces it together that Mickey wants to compel discovery from the prosecution. She is eager to take on the task of writing the motion for Mickey.
Surprise
A surprise guest arrives to the office. It is Lisa Trammell. She is far from being locked up at county. Mickey rushes to the entrance to find out what is going on.
Lisa introduces Henry Dahl, a podcast producer who previously interviewed her about her protest efforts against Bondurant. Henry paid for the bail bond to get Lisa out of lockup. Henry plans to use the old interview footage to build a true crime docuseries. Mickey looks skeptical and asks to speak to Henry privately.
Mickey takes Henry to the parking garage where his files are in the back of the Lincoln. He pulls out the contractual paperwork for the sale of Lisa’s life rights and the lien against the proceeds. Mickey suggests that Henry is a con man and insists that Mickey is the one who controls how Lisa’s story is told.
Furthermore, he tells Henry that he is not allowed to film or record Lisa.
Time with Hayley
Mickey attends another one of Hayley’s riding lessons. While there he notices a short rider struggling to get on a horse. This sparks something in his mind, and he calls Lorna with a question. Mickey asks how tall Mitchell Bondurant was. Lorna examines some photos and estimates that Bondurant was about 6 foot 3 inches tall.
Later that evening, Mickey and Hayley talk over dinner. Hayley mentions Andrea Freeman being friends with her mom and how she has heard them talking about her dad’s new case. Again, something is triggered in Mickey’s mind, and he calls Lorna again.
Mickey asks Lorna to prepare several more motions for the Trammell case. He wants motions for a variety of things like return of her cellphone, plus interview and evidence suppression. Lorna complies and begins a long night of legal paperwork.
Cisco comes clean
Lorna is awakened on the office couch by Winston licking her face. Cisco is also on hand with coffee.
Lorna decides to ask Cisco about his recent suspicious behavior. Her fiancé opens up about his time with the Road Saints. Cisco explains that he wants to fulfill his debt to the club rather than Mickey providing free legal services for the club.
Cisco explains his history with Road Saints member Kaz aka Pete Kazinski. The investigator followed Kaz to Los Angeles and joined the Road Saints like his friend. At one point, Kaz and Cisco were scheduled to make a delivery together. Cisco did not even want to know what was being delivered. Kaz ended up giving Cisco the wrong address, which kept Cisco from being arrested.
Cisco tells Lorna that Kaz received parole 3 years into an 8-year sentence. Teddy is worried that Kaz made a deal as an informant in exchange for early release. Teddy assigned Cisco to keep tabs on Kaz, so that is why Cisco has been at The Patch lately.
Lorna listens patiently but assures Cisco that she will leave him if there are any more lies from him. She also decides to tell him about Dean Wheaton making advances on her the first time she was in law school.
Lorna and Cisco cuddle on the couch.
Discovery deadline
Andy confronts Mickey about the large volume of motions he just filed for the case. He has filed one more by himself without Lorna’s help. Mickey asks the judge to dismiss Andrea as the DA for the case. He notes a conflict of interest based on Andrea talking to Maggie about the case with his daughter in the room.
The judge decides not to dismiss Andy, but she does throw a bone to the defense as well and insists that the prosecution provide discovery expeditiously. Mickey and Andrea agree to a deadline.
Evening events
Mickey arrives back at the office that evening to find Ray there with Izzy. Izzy assumed he would not be back and that she would need a ride, so she called her girlfriend. Mickey takes a moment alone with Ray to tell her that he will see that she does not get any more second chances if she hurts Izzy again. She understands and assures him that she wants Izzy to be happy.
Meanwhile, Cisco has a little threatening conversation with Dean Wheaton. Cisco waits in the dark on Wheaton’s front porch. He appears after Wheaton tinkers with the light. He tells Wheaton he knows what he did and reminds him to be careful when coming home because you never know who might be there waiting. Wheaton looks sufficiently scared and assures Cisco there will be no more problems. Back at home, Lorna tells Cisco she knows what he did, but she seems to be fine with it.
Maggie’s mad
Uh-oh! Mickey is in trouble with Maggie again. Maggie arrives at Mickey’s office upset that he involved Hayley in his case shenanigans. She insists that she and Andy were not discussing the Trammell case. The topic merely came up and that is what Hayley heard.
Maggie begins to wonder about Mickey’s stake in this case. She first assumes he was taken in by the flattery of free food at the restaurant, but then she surmises that Mickey slept with Lisa. Maggie insinuates that Mickey is jealous of her seeing Jim, which she denies.
Maggie makes the final cut by telling Mickey that seeing him at the food truck made her think about the Mickey she’s always been fond of. Now she is disappointed and demands that he leave Hayley out of his work.
Heading home
Lisa texts Mickey that she wants to talk to him. She arrives to Mickey’s house and apologizes about Henry. But she explains that jail was not something she could do.
She tempts him with food she has brought and leans in for some affection. Mickey stops her and reminds her that it is business only between them currently.
Lisa again implores him to believe her that she is innocent. Mickey says okay and Lisa leaves. From a distance, we see Henry Dahl watching from his car.
Sidebar:
At the police station, Mickey greases the wheels with Detective O’Brien by recommending a good lawyer to help O’Brien’s brother-in-law. The referral is for Dan Daly, who just happens to be the name of a real life attorney who helped inspire the Mickey Haller character. Learn more in this piece from Megan Hemenway at Screenrant.com.
Closing Argument:
Matters of trust are important elements in episode S2E3. Unfortunately, it’s not always clear who or what Mickey can trust.
Stay tuned for ongoing coverage including interviews, recaps, and all new episodes of our podcast Lincoln Law Pod on SoManyShows.com.
Next up: The Lincoln Lawyer: Investigating case file S2E4 ‘Discovery’ – So Many Shows!
Stay connected with So Many Shows: