If you cheat, you never find the truth.
Then on the stand, all of a sudden, Julia was a perfect witness. She was self-disparaging about her own personality faults yet determined in her professionalism. Her testimony was persuasive enough to also make her more likable to the audience. As Marissa told Bull, the jury wanted to believe her.
There seemed to be a disconnect somewhere. Where did this change come from?
Between witness prep and Julia taking the stand, something more was needed to explain Julia’s abrupt about-face. Benny’s comment that Chunk was better than he thought wasn’t enough to explain the reversal. It felt like there were two different people (no, not another twin thing again). There needed to be something more in-between to transition from witness prep to testimony.
Okay, $60,000 question.
With an emphasis on the case, I thought there would be more scenes with the TAC team. Instead, it felt like there was less. I’m not sure why though.
The supporting cast was scaled down to one-liners tossed in every so often to remind us there are other people besides Benny, Bull and Julia.
It’s a hazard in any ensemble cast: someone will eventually get lost in the many arcs and storylines of the season. Someone was bound to get shunted down to just a tag line of “hailing frequencies are open, ca—” oops, I mean, “Jury looks green.”
Something not clicking for you?
Be that as it may, I wasn’t expecting it to be all of them in this episode.
Danny had one scene where she poked around the labs. Marissa and Taylor were left to monitor the computers, pull up records and regurgitate what we see on the screens. And Chunk, asides from the one great scene with Julia, was demoted to single line commentary. Later on, they apparently worked the case unseen in the background,
It’s a shame. I get that as the defense, Benny would have more screen time with Bull and the client. However, the cast interaction of late was missing in this episode. The lack was glaring considering the past few episodes, we got some great moments with the entire cast.
There’s no way to allow everyone a major scene given the time constraints. But it felt like the cast could have been given more to do or a chance to interact with Julia. I would have like to see what they thought of their client as well. It would have added richness to the episode.
You are missed.
I hope this episode is just a one-off and that the lack of cast was because they wanted to focus on the mystery instead. And it was a good mystery, but the episode needed more than just the, “and the killer is” climax.
One last thing that bothered me was the tiny scenes of Bull texting Diana Lindsay. This episode was fresh off Diana’s return in “Flesh and Blood.” We’re supposed to assume the two have been texting each other since then.
The scenes that bookended the episode, though, was with seemingly no impetus. Why show us this now? Are they’re hinting something for the latter part of the season?
The scenes were too long to be just for continuity, yet not long enough to hint at anything or be satisfying. Bull’s reaction to Diana’s “only if you mean it” response was intriguing, but then we faded into the black before we could digest its significance.
All in all, this week’s episode has its merits. And its faults. The mystery was well thought out compared to others in the past. But most of the characters were pigeonholed into their functional roles and didn’t contribute much else on screen.
Julia Martin, on the witness stand, admitted she wasn’t good with people. The Bull cast was: with their clients and with each other.
It’s a shame the show seemed to have forgotten that this week.
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