The Lincoln Lawyer grows frustrated with client Trevor Elliott who refuses a continuance.
The Lincoln Lawyer: Case File for season 1 Episode 2
‘The Magic Bullet’
Written by Ted Humphrey
Directed by Erin Feeley
Mickey continues to struggle with understanding how Jerry Vincent could possibly be ready to go to trial next week in the Trevor Elliott case. What is he missing? While the sense of urgency in the Elliott case weighs upon him, Mickey must juggle the rest of his caseload, too.
More details emerge about Jerry Vincent, some helpful, some concerning. Hayley gets an opportunity to see her father shine.
Let us investigate further our case file for The Lincoln Lawyer S1E2.
Refresh your memory:
- Defense attorney Mickey Haller is just returning to work after a surfing accident and subsequent addiction to pain killers. He is now in recovery.
- Mickey’s return is prompted by the murder of Jerry Vincent, a fellow defense attorney who leaves his practice to Mickey in his will.
- Detective Griggs is investigating Jerry Vincent’s murder.
- Judge Holder presides over the transfer of cases from Jerry to Mickey.
- Mickey has inherited many different cases, the most high-profile one being the Trevor Elliott case. Elliott, a very wealthy tech guru, is accused of murdering his wife and her lover.
- Haller usually works out of the backseat of his Lincoln vehicles, but now also has Jerry’s physical office space.
- Mickey is divorced from prosecutor Maggie McPherson with whom he shares daughter Hayley.
- Lorna is Mickey’s second ex-wife as well as his practice manager. Lorna is engaged to Mickey’s investigator Cisco.
- Izzy Letts is Mickey’s new driver, a recent client and fellow recovering drug addict.
- Jan Rilz was murdered alongside Lara Elliott. Jan was a yoga instructor. He and Lara were having an affair.
Izzy meets the team
We left off in episode 1 with Mickey’s vehicle being followed. Izzy offers to do what she can to evade the SUV following them. She makes a few swift turns in the spirit of the video game Grand Theft Auto. It seems to work, for now.
Upon returning to the office, Mickey introduces Izzy to Lorna and Cisco. Then she goes downstairs until Mickey needs his next ride.
Lorna expresses concern that Mickey just met Izzy and wonders if he can trust her. He reminds her that he is a good judge of character.
Case updates
Mickey asks Cisco for the list of people from Jerry’s cases that might pose a threat to the Lincoln Lawyer. Mickey will ask Judge Holder for permission to share those names with Detective Griggs in hopes of avoiding the same fate as Jerry.
With Mickey’s next conference with Judge Holder just a couple of days away, Lorna proposes that Mickey ask for a continuance in the Elliott case. Mickey insists that his client will not allow it. Cisco reminds Mickey that there is very little in the Elliott file they have. They wonder if Jerry’s stolen laptop holds the key to the defense plan.
Lorna will continue working on figuring out Jerry’s calendar. Next up on that calendar is a court appearance for a client in Inglewood. Meanwhile, Lorna’s dog Winston continues to hang out in the office much to Mickey’s dismay.
Terrell Coleman
Izzy drives Mickey to the courthouse in Inglewood. Mickey meets with his client Terrell Coleman who is accused of striking a police officer. He does admit that he was selling unlicensed USC merchandise at a game on the day of the alleged incident. Terrell did not hit Officer Maurice Grainger, however. He says Grainger pushed him.
Terrell explains that he won the affections of the Maurice’s girlfriend Chanel back in high school. Coleman claims that the officer simply pushed him because Terrell mentioned Chanel.
Mickey secures a continuance of one day on Terrell’s case after seeing a note in the file about the officer’s body cam not being available.
Bending Maggie’s ear
Both Mickey and Jeff Golantz, the prosecutor in the Trevor Elliott case, ask Maggie what to expect from each other. Maggie remains neutral and professional. She tells both men that their opposing counsel is very capable and recommends they be prepared.
We also learn that Golantz and Maggie have dated briefly but nothing serious according to Maggie.
Maggie’s boss asks about her current case. Maggie is utilizing grand jury testimony hoping not to tip off Soto, the accused. Soto is accused of using human trafficking in his elder care business.
Feeling threatened
Mickey meets with Judge Holder about the status of Jerry’s cases. She signs off on a request for access to Jerry’s business accounts. She is not so easily convinced when Mickey asks for her approval to share some names from Jerry’s cases with Detective Griggs.
Mickey refers to a special scenario that can override the restrictions of client confidentiality. If an attorney is in danger, information can be shared with the police. Mickey wants to give Detective Griggs the list of names from Jerry’s cases that might pose a threat to Mickey. If Jerry was targeted regarding a case, Mickey could now be a target as well. Judge Holder signs the order but hopes there are no actual threats.
Coming home one evening, Mickey sees an SUV across the street and feels like someone inside is watching him. He walks toward the vehicle, but the driver pulls away. Mickey later tells Cisco that it could be the same SUV that was following him before on the road. He was not able to catch the license plate.
Mickey gives the list to Griggs. They antagonize each other a little bit about who has more insight into who could be a possible threat. Mickey asks Griggs about GPS data from Jerry’s car. Is there anything that might be helpful? Griggs reports that Jerry spent time at home, his office and the Athena’s Temple Casino in South Los Angeles. Griggs has not discovered anything from the casino that might be helpful to the murder case.
A chat with Bruce Carlin
Cisco goes to the home of Bruce Carlin who has been working as an investigator for Jerry Vincent. Carlin was formerly with the LAPD. When Cisco arrives, he watches from his motorcycle as Raymond Griggs leaves Bruce Carlin’s home.
Carlin is working on his vintage Corvette. Cisco walks up and compliments the car. He tells Carlin that he works for Mickey. Carlin does not know Mickey but did know of Mickey’s father. Cisco asks Carlin about his time working for Jerry.
Carlin shares that he was only briefly asked to work on the Trevor Elliott Case. Jerry then kept most of his information about that case close to the vest. Carlin also reports that Jerry seemed nervous for the last few weeks prior to his murder.
Coming up empty
Lorna shows Mickey that Jerry had already spent almost the entire retainer he received from Trevor Elliott. Interestingly, he spent it on personal things like rent and salary advances.
Cisco and Mickey talk about some video footage in the Elliott file. The video shows Trevor Elliott being cuffed behind his back by a sheriff’s deputy at his Malibu home the day of the murder. Neither Mickey nor Cisco understand the importance of this video.
Also, Mickey wonders why Jerry included so many different sheriff’s deputies in the list of witnesses. The witness list also includes a ballistics expert, Dr. Arslanian. Lorna interrupts to say that Dr. Arslanian refused to cooperate without reviewing details of the case. At the time of Jerry’s murder, he had not yet sent Dr. Arslanian the information.
The team keeps coming up empty on the case. How in the world could Jerry be ready to defend Trevor in a week?
Cisco tries to be helpful by telling Mickey that he can only defend Trevor Elliott with the information available. After all, you cannot win them all. Mickey explains that having a high-profile case is only good if you win. That is what people will remember.
Hayley makes a request
It is almost time for Mickey to be back in court to represent Terrell Coleman. He gets a call from Maggie asking if he can pick up Hayley from school. Mickey happily obliges, feeling like Maggie’s trust in him is growing.
Hayley joins Mickey and Izzy in the Lincoln. Mickey’s case files are on the seat. Hayley picks up the photo of murdered Jan Rilz. Mickey snatches it away worried for her to see the gruesome photos. Hayley suggests it is not a big deal. Her mom brings work information home.
In lieu of waiting at the office, Hayley requests to join her father in court. Mickey agrees but gets very nervous about it. His daughter has never seen him at trial before. While Hayley is in the restroom, Mickey confides in Izzy telling her that a year ago, he would have used pills to calm his nerves. She understands.
Terrell Coleman goes home
Hayley and Izzy sit in the gallery while Mickey goes to work. Jerry proposed that Terrell settle in court by accepting the charges but taking a shorter sentence. The judge asks about the plea agreement. Mickey announces there will be no plea agreement. Terrell is ready to go to trial.
Mickey tells the judge that he understands the officer’s body cam was supposedly not working the day of the alleged incident. He says there is a security camera across the street. He holds a flash drive in the air and asks to play it.
Mr. Choi the prosecutor agrees, but his client Officer Grainger does not want to. The attorney and client confer and ultimately decline. Instead, they offer a settlement of prison time already served. Mickey requests that the assault charge also be dropped leaving only the bootleg selling charge. The plaintiff’s table agrees.
Clearly, Officer Grainger made up the assault charge and thought Mickey was about to prove that he lied. Terrell thanks Mickey and is thrilled to be able to go home and see his daughter. When Terrell comments on the damning video, Mickey tells him there was only music on the flash drive. Mickey told the truth about their being a camera across the street, but he never actually said he obtained the footage.
Lorna undercover, sort of
Lorna attends a yoga class on the beach with an instructor named Krisha Gold who worked with Jan Rilz. She asks Krisha some questions after class. Unable to pull off the whole undercover vibe, Lorna simply identifies herself and tells her that she is working on the Trevor Elliott case.
Krisha gets angry and reveals that Jerry Vincent also approached her, but she does not know anything. Then Lorna tells her that someone murdered Jerry. This makes Krisha a little more sympathetic and cooperative.
Lorna learns that Jan may have been sleeping with other married clients, not just Lara Elliott. This could give Mickey another motive to research in defense of Trevor.
Mickey and Maggie
Mickey and Maggie chat for a bit when Mickey brings Hayley home. At first, Maggie stashes her glass of wine when Mickey arrives. He tells her that she does not need to do that just because he is in recovery.
They joke around a bit about dating profiles and Mickey asks her who she went out with the other night while Hayley was with him. Maggie tells him she attended a parent teacher conference. She was not on a date.
Mickey is frustrated that she would not include him in that. She admits she is still nervous about letting go of the reins with custody, but she does want him to keep getting more involved in Hayley’s life again.
Trevor will not budge
Mickey attends a case conference with Trevor, Judge Stanton and prosecutor Jeff Golantz. The judge assumes Mickey will want a continuance. Golantz agrees and suggests that Mickey could use more time getting up to speed after his bout with drug addiction.
Mickey is livid and points out the irrelevance of his time away from practice. The judge admonishes Golantz and strikes his comments from the record.
Mickey asks to speak with Trevor privately. The two men talk outside the chambers. Mickey implores Trevor to tell him why he still insists on going to trial next week. Is there something he is not telling Mickey?
Trevor tells Mickey that he has lost his wife. He does not want to lose his professional reputation. Trevor says there is a deal on the table for his company to be purchased along with licensing of his proprietary technology. If Trevor does not get his name cleared soon, he fears the deal may not go through.
They return to chambers and Mickey denies the offer of a continuance. Much to his dismay, they will go to trial next week.
The casino
Izzy and Mickey drive to the Athena’s Temple Casino. As they stand outside leaning against the Lincoln, Mickey wonders about Jerry spending through the large retainer from Trevor Elliott.
He asks Izzy if Jerry might have been a gambling addict. Could the Elliott case just have been a money grab that allowed him to support his habit?
If memory serves
Lorna discovers that the office copier has a memory function allowing her to see the last thing Jerry printed. It turns out Jerry was indeed going to file a continuance after all.
The paperwork is missing from the file. So, Mickey and team assume it was on his laptop that was stolen the night of his murder, the night before he was going to file.
Wren reveal
Jerry’s personal assistant is back in town after visiting her mother. She is devastated about Jerry’s death. She admits that she and Jerry were in a personal relationship.
While she mostly filed documents and fielded calls, she does remember Jerry saying something one night at home. Jerry told Wren that he had found a “magic bullet”. Wren does not know what that means. She collects her things and says goodbye.
Mickey tells Lorna and Cisco that a magic bullet is “the thing that’s gonna blow the prosecution’s case wide open”! Mickey rushes out the door claiming his mind works best while riding in the car. He must find the magic bullet.
Listening in
Mickey is charged and ready to work while Izzy drives. He gives her the flash drive of music. As she starts the music, the screen pans in to show that a bug has been planted in the car.
The screen shifts to an SUV parked in a garage. The driver has surveillance equipment playing the audio from inside the Lincoln. Mickey is being followed and recorded.
Sidebar:
It is fun watching Mickey and Izzy working together. Sometimes it is all business and sometimes Mickey uses Izzy as a sounding board to work through his thought. I think their shared recovery from drugs adds another level of trust between them.
Closing Argument:
Mickey has a dedicated team behind him. Cisco, Lorna, and now Izzy care about more than just the work. They care about Mickey, too. As excited as I am for renewed hope in the Trevor Elliott case, I cannot help but be fearful for Mickey. Who is this person monitoring his every move?
Stay tuned for ongoing coverage including interviews, recaps, and all new episodes of our Lincoln Law Pod podcast episodes on SoManyShows.com.
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