Nostalgia abounds in The Lincoln Lawyer season 3 premiere.
The Lincoln Lawyer: Case File for season 3 episode 1 ‘Culebra’
Written by Ted Humphrey and Dailyn Rodriguez
Directed by Alonso Alvarez-Barreda
Let’s get into episode 1 of The Lincoln Lawyer season 3.
Refresh your memory:
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- Cisco and Lorna have tied the knot and left for their honeymoon.
- Mickey’s mentor and dear friend Legal Siegle is undergoing tests on his heart.
- Mickey has just learned of the murder of longtime client Gloria Dayton aka Glory Days.
- Julian La Cosse, an acquaintance of Giselle Dallinger (aka Glory Days), has been charged with her murder and reaches out to Mickey for representation.
- Izzy opened her dance studio but has been covering the desk at Haller and Associates while Lorna goes on her honeymoon.
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Family Ties
The episode kicks off with a flashback of Mickey finishing up his morning surf in Malibu. Maggie surprises him at the beach since she has a later start at the office that day. The then married couple learn that little Hayley’s nanny Esperanza is sick, and Mickey will need to pick up Hayley from daycare after his preliminary court date for a client named Barnett Woodsen.
In better news, Maggie gets a message that Esperanza’s son Eddie can babysit for their upcoming date night. Mickey jokes about Eddie’s small stature suggesting that little Hayley might be able to overpower him.
We get a healthy dose of nostalgia as the flashback continues with Mickey spotting the blue convertible Lincoln Continental for sale on a lot. We know he will end up with that car! Mickey pauses to admire the classic vehicle and then proceeds to court.
*Funny Bone* Did you notice that the car lot is on Lincoln Blvd? Look at the shot from behind the Lincoln convertible where you can see Mickey’s car stopped in the street. Keeping looking past Mickey’s car and you will see the street sign in the background. How fitting that the Lincoln is on Lincoln Blvd!
In the courtroom
The flashback to a younger Mickey continues with him arguing for a dismissal in the Woodsen case. In perfect Mickey fashion, the clever attorney finds a discrepancy with the search warrant used to recover a gun from Woodsen’s trunk.
We meet Detective Bishop who performed the search. Bishop insists that the search was performed per protocol. Mickey catches him in a lie when he shows rain on the bumper of Woodsen’s car from the search photos. Bishop said the car was in a garage attached to Woodsen’s home. The rain on the bumper would prove otherwise. Furthermore, the search warrant only covered the house and attached garage. An exterior search was not covered under the warrant and the evidence is deemed inadmissible.
Detective Bishop later accosts Mickey in the restroom warning him that his clever defense tactics will result in someone else’s murder at the hands of a criminal.
*Blast from the past* The prosecuting attorney in the Woodsen case is none other than a younger Jerry Vincent with a full head of hair.
Breaking News
As we shift to present day, Bishop’s admonishment haunts Mickey as he recalls using his clever tactics to secure Glory’s release on a prostitution and drug charge the prior year when he surmised that the client who gave Glory the drugs is a cartel boss named Hector Moya. Mickey found a way to offer up Moya instead of Glory. A year later, Mickey now worries that Hector Moya may be behind Glory’s murder as an act of revenge.
Mickey meets with Julian to go over the case against him. We learn that Glory was one of Julian’s clients but not in the usual sense. Julian works as a “facilitator” for Glory and other prostitutes using his computer skills to manage their clientele and do security checks before their “dates”. He takes a 20% cut of payments and was visiting Glory the night of her murder to collect his percentage. The two argued because Glory did not have the expected payment for Julian. She insisted that the second client of the evening did not show up. Julian is skeptical, however, because Glory had been using drugs. Julian was arrested after the police learned that Glory’s next-door neighbor heard yelling from Glory’s place that night.
The client meeting is interrupted when Mickey receives a call that Legal Siegle is in the hospital. Mickey rushes to his side and learns that Legal received some abnormal heart test results. Despite Mickey’s focus on Legal’s health, Legal insists that Mickey distract him with details of his newest case. Mickey tells Legal about Glory’s murder and shares that he thinks Glory has been in Los Angeles this entire time and not in Hawaii. He explains that the “Aloha” postcard Glory sent him actually had a Van Nuys postmark rather than Hawaii. Legal warns Mickey that Moya could go after Mickey, too.
Check with my office
Mickey goes to the office and Izzy shows him that Julian’s life partner, David, paid Mickey’s fee with an actual bar of gold. Suddenly, Lorna and Cisco arrive having left their honeymoon early due to rain ruining their visit to Los Cabos.
Mickey shares the news about Glory with the staff. We learn that Hector Moya is not actually in the state’s records. The team wonders if Moya perhaps snitched on someone else to get released. Mickey thinks the Feds may have charged him on something instead. All this talk of murder and drug lords has Lorna considering additional life insurance, not for her new husband, but to secure her pug Winston’s care if she dies.
Mickey gets called away because Hayley informs him that Eddie Rojas, the former babysitter, is now full grown and arrested on carjacking charges in Beverly Hills. Hayley insists that Eddie is innocent and implores her dad to go help him.
Lorna agrees to review a contract for one of Izzy’s dance friends named Cat who just accepted a television choreography gig. When she reviews it the next day, she sees several concerns and agrees to help the dancer. Cat thanks Izzy, but Lorna notices something off with Izzy. Izzy admits she is kind of jealous of Cat’s success and tells Lorna that she is struggling to cover costs at the studio.
Lorna gets a visit from Julian’s partner David who is worried about Julian’s safety in prison. Lorna sympathizes with David but reminds him that accused murders rarely get an opportunity at bail. She asks about the gold bars. David explains that it helps shield Julian’s suspect income from the IRS.
Meanwhile, Cisco interviews Glory Days’ neighbor who heard the fighting the night of her murder. Cisco questions the neighbor’s narrative as she consumes gummies that “take the edge off’. The neighbor confirms that she was not consuming any substances that night because she was working . . . as a weed delivery person. But the biggest surprise in the conversation is the neighbor’s mention of the fire at Glory’s place that night. This is news to Cisco.
Back to the courtroom . . . and the office
Mickey manages to rescue Eddie Rojas who is older now and very physically capable being a health food enthusiast and black belt in judo.
The Lincoln Lawyer uses his clever observations and instincts to catch the cheating husband plaintiff in a lie. In an obvious racial profiling move, the plaintiff assumed Eddie was the valet when he was outside a fancy restaurant to meet a friend. Offended, Eddie decides to take the Lamborghini for a little ride anyway but then safely leaves the sports car near the restaurant.
Mickey cleverly uncovers that Schwartz made up the whole carjacking story as a reason for his car gone missing. He did not want to tell his wife that he was actually at a fancy restaurant with his mistress.
Everyone celebrates the courtroom victory back at the office. Eddie insists on finding a way to pay Mickey for his services. Izzy suggests that Eddie take over the driving duties. Now Mickey has a new driver and a little protection as well.
*Funny Bone* Lorna snickers audibly when Eddie asks Mickey if he works out. With only tennis and surfing in his regimen, Eddie recommends weight training and some diet management. Lorna and Izzy share their excitement with this new arrangement.
Client meeting
Eddie picks up Mickey in the morning with a healthy smoothie and reminder to wear his seatbelt.
Mickey meets with Julian again and shares Cisco’s findings from the autopsy. Glory’s hyoid bone was broken indicating strangulation. The smoke from the fire killed her first, however.
Julian gives Mickey the names of the two hotels that Glory visited the night of her murder. One date was at the Peninsula and the second scheduled for the Roosevelt. Glory insisted that the second client was not there despite Julian verifying reservations with the front desk.
Mickey is ready to let the case go when he finds out that Julian did grab Glory around her neck that night. Julian swears she was okay when he left. He begs Mickey to stay on the case especially since Glory sent Julian to Mickey. This catches Mickey’s attention and he asks Julian to explain further. Julian shares that Gloria had told him that if anything happened to her that he should contact Mickey because he would know what to do.
Mickey agrees to take Julian’s case.
The road ahead
Mickey sees the former Detective Bishop with a file in his hands at the courthouse. Bishop reminds Mickey that his courtroom performance years ago had a negative effect on his career. But Bishop insists that it all worked out because now he is an investigator for the District Attorney’s office. The label on the file in his hands reads “Julian La Cosse”. The two men will be on opposite sides of a case once again.
Mickey and Lorna wait for Julian to arrive for his arraignment. Instead, David arrives in a panic. Julian has been hospitalized after a claustrophobia induced panic attack on the transport bus. David hopes the arraignment can proceed without Julian but that is not the case. David is fearful about Julian having to stay in prison waiting for the rescheduled arraignment.
As Eddie drives Mickey home, the lawyer recalls a memory of sitting on the couch with Maggie after the Woodsen hearing shown earlier. Maggie warns him to be careful about retaliation from Bishop. They talk about getting a house with a yard for Hayley. Money is tight, but Mickey considers going into private practice like Jerry Vincent. Maggie agrees but once again warns Mickey to be careful.
Eddie pulls into Mickey’s driveway, but before leaving Mickey calls him to the front door. Someone has ransacked his home. The two men carefully search the house. Mickey hears a noise beneath a bed pillow. He lifts the pillow and is startled by the hiss of a rattlesnake. Eddie acts swiftly to stop the rattlesnake. Was this orchestrated by Hector Moya?
Fittingly, the episode’s title ‘Culebra’ is Spanish for “snake”.
Episodes 1 – 10 of The Lincoln Lawyer season 3 are currently available on Netflix.
Stay tuned for ongoing coverage of The Lincoln Lawyer including interviews, recaps, and all new episodes of our podcast Lincoln Law Pod on SoManyShows.com.
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