The Lincoln Lawyer recap: 'Case File' for season 2 episode 9

August 3, 2023 by Tracey Phillipps Leave a Comment

The Lincoln Lawyer: Case File for season 2 episode 9 ‘The Fifth Witness’

Written by Katy Erin

Directed by Ted Humphrey

Let us investigate our case file for The Lincoln Lawyer S2E9 ‘The Fifth Witness’.

Mickey has made the bold decision to call Lisa Trammel as the first witness for the defense. Other witnesses will include Dr. Arslenian and her mannequin, Manny, plus Lisa’s restaurant manager Rene. And, finally, he gets his alternate suspect Alex Grant on the stand.

After the defense rests, however, Mickey learns some pivotal new information, but the person of interest has gone missing.

Mickey’s mother is excited about an upcoming audition but becomes disheartened when she receives some difficult news.

Izzy drives Mickey to court and his mother Elena to her audition. Elena is putting on her false eyelashes in the backseat while Mickey warns her about any bump in the road. We suspect Mickey grew up providing this service to his mother. What a gentleman! Izzy asks Mickey if he is nervous about Lisa’s cross examination. Mama Elena assumes Izzy is talking about her audition and replies before Mickey can finish his answer. Mama Elena is sweet but certainly seems to feel as though the world revolves around her.

Elena is not shy about asking for Izzy’s help. Izzy ends up driving Mama Elena to several more places beyond her audition. When Elena gets some bad news, Izzy complies with her request to pick up wine, but Izzy draws the line at driving Elena to get more Botox.

Cisco is busy making sure witnesses get to the courthouse. One arrives in a large box. That’s “Manny”. Lorna remains faithfully by Mickey’s side as second chair at the defense table.

Mickey returns home to dramatic whispers inside the house. It is Mama Elena practicing for her audition. Elena complains that the production is actually making her read for the part instead of just offering it to her up front. Elena’s dramatic air in all things brings some good humor to the seriousness of Mickey’s work on the trial.

When Elena convinces Izzy to take her other places after her audition, it keeps Izzy from being able to pick up Mickey on time. It is pretty funny watching Mickey arrive home in an Uber ride now that Elena has commandeered Izzy’s driving services for herself. Izzy does make a quick exit, however, as soon as Mickey arrives home. Elena is very distraught.

We learn that Mama Elena’s agent let her go. Elena is all gloom and doom about her career. She suddenly shifts gears and tells Mickey that this must be a good time for her to put her energy into her family instead. Mickey, being the ever-faithful son, invites Mama Elena to come watch him in court the next day. This elevates Elena’s mood.

The defense is ready to begin presenting their case. Lisa is the first witness called to the stand.

Defense interview: Mickey asks Lisa to about her history with the property. She grew up living there alongside her father’s cabinet making business. Lisa followed in his footsteps starting her restaurant there 11 years ago. The chef shares that she and her ex Jeff “grew apart” when she became focused on starting the restaurant.

Mickey asks Lisa about the damning audio from podcaster Henry Dahl. She explains that what the jury heard was after several takes with Henry prompting her to sound more dramatic each time. Lisa also explains her knowledge of Bondurant’s car by sharing the magazine photo of him posing in the garage with his high-end vehicle. She assures that she has never been inside the garage but merely knew the car from the photo.

At recess, Mickey and Lisa talk at an iconic L.A. location, the funicular railway Angels Flight. Lisa recalls memories of being there with her dad as a child. The weekend is upon them, and it is time to prepare for Andy’s cross-examination.

Cross-examination: Andy comes out swinging on cross. She asks Lisa about the 23 protests noted on the temporary restraining order. Lisa denies leaving threatening messages or participating in a raw egg throwing incident. Then Andy reveals that Lisa is not legally divorced from Jeff. She probes hard about how often they fought and why Jeff left her. As to his whereabouts, Lisa says she believes he is in Mexico. When Andy makes a comment about Jeff wanting to get far away from Lisa, the chef snaps back saying, “That piece of sh-t was lucky to have me!” Andy ends the interview after the angry response from Lisa.

Defense Redirect: Mickey only has one follow-up question. He asks Lisa if she killed Bondurant, to which she replies “no”.

Defense interview: Mickey’s interview with René focuses on how René sees Lisa as a mentor. René also shares that Lisa was the one who deescalated the restaurant staff’s frustration when they were confronted with Bondurant’s bullying tactics like noise and construction dust that would interfere with their service.

Cross-examination: Andy provides social media posts where René complains of Lisa and quits the restaurant. Another poster cites that this is not the only time René has complained of Lisa. René quit but came back not long after. Andy asks René what prompted his exit. He explains that Lisa snapped at him with a customer there. Andy makes a point of painting Lisa as someone with a bad temper.

Defense interview: The Lincoln Lawyer allows Dr. Arslenian to attempt to simulate the attack on Bondurant using her mannequin Manny. Lorna (at Lisa’s height with her heels) comes up behind “Manny” and tries to strike him on the top of the head with the hammer. Dr. Arslenian stops Lorna short pointing out that Lorna can only reach the back of Manny’s head, not the top where the fatal blow occurred.

Cross-examination: Andy counters the simulation with her own. She pulls Manny’s head back as if he is looking skyward and drops her high heels to match Lisa’s height. At this angle, Andy can easily strike the top of the mannequin’s head. Dr. Arslenian downplays the possibility of Bondurant looking up in the garage, but Andy points out that something as simple as seeing a spider nearby might cause somehow to look up.

Legal will vet Lorna’s criminal practice clinic presentation during the recess after the next witness, Alex Grant, testifies. We see a series of flashbacks describing The Lincoln Lawyer team’s strategy for Grant.

While Legal is impressed with the outcome, he reminds Mickey that he could get in real trouble for not warning the court that he believes a witness might plead the Fifth. Sure enough, Judge Medina calls Mickey into chambers warning him that he will be reported if there is any evidence that action was premeditated. Mickey says there is no way he could know especially since Grant did not plead the fifth when things became suspicious during the motion to quash the subpoena.

Mickey then calls Cisco to the stand. Cisco puts the nail in the coffin of suspicion when he shows that Eagle Couriers (the business Grant shares with his uncle) was parked outside Bondurant’s office building during the time that the medical examiner believes Bondurant was murdered.

Legal gives out grades to the team: Lorna’s presentation (A), Mickey’s legal ethics (D-) and Mickey’s strategy (A+). Legal’s last question is how Mickey thought so quickly on his feet. Lorna then refers to Mickey’s original decision to include the press at the hearing to quash the subpoena. Mickey had hoped the press would keep Grant from pleading the Fifth at the hearing so he could get him to do it in front of the jury instead. So, not really “on the fly” after all.

FBI Agent Vasquez approaches Mickey during the recess. He is not happy with Mickey engineering the Fifth Amendment plea. The FBI shared the letter with the expectation that Grant would fully testify, not cut things short by pleading the Fifth. Vasquez subtly threatens Mickey telling him the FBI will not forget about this.

Cross-examination: Andy has no questions for Cisco and says that the defense rests.

The defense also rests, and no rebuttal witnesses are called.

Mickey wants the jury to leave for the day remembering Alex Grant pleading the Fifth Amendment. Prosecutor Andrea Freeman is not having that. She announces that the prosecution is ready to make their closing statement and that it will only require the minutes.

Andy likens the defense to a magician trying to deceive them. She cautions them to not fall for Mickey’s “tricks”. Andy revisits the strong evidence against Lisa citing motive, means and opportunity.

Court ends for the day. Lisa becomes upset thinking about the possibility of going to jail. Mickey tries to comfort her. Lorna knocks on the door of the Attorney Meeting Room and reminds Mickey that they need to begin preparing for their own closing statement tomorrow.

Elysian restaurant René arrives to Haller & Associates with food from Lisa. Seeing a photo on the table of Walter Kim, René asks about his involvement in the case. They tell René that Kim is a building inspector. René disputes this saying Walter Kim is a health inspector.

René reports that Walter Kim performed a surprise health inspection at Elysian the day before Lisa was arrested for Bondurant’s murder. Mickey asks if Walter Kim visited Lisa’s garage. René says Walter had to visit the garage due to a fuel line running through it. But here’s the worst part. Kim visited the garage unescorted because the restaurant was so busy. This gave Walter Kim the opportunity to steal Lisa’s hammer.

A quick review of the Terrazzo building inspections reveals that Kim was the inspector who gave the approvals. The team surmises that Grant was paying the bribes to Walter Kim. So, when Bondurant threatened to report any suspicious activity by Grant, Kim’s signatures on the inspections made him vulnerable to prosecution as well. Motive, means, opportunity.

Cisco cannot find a lead on Walter Kim who has been missing for two days. Mickey fears that the case cannot be reopened without Walter Kim.

In other news, is Mama Elena really going to give up acting in favor of family time?

Tune in for the season 2 finale episode to see what happens next.

Sidebar: The writer of episode 9, Katy Erin, played Trevor Elliott’s wife, Lara, in The Lincoln Lawyer season 1.

Closing argument: This episode was chock full of time in the courtroom. While Mickey used clever strategy, some might say, the long-con, to get Grant to plead the Fifth, who knew that his best defense for Lisa would come from information learned after the defense rested??

Episodes 1 – 10 of The Lincoln Lawyer are currently available on Netflix.

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Filed Under: Articles, Recaps Tagged With: Angus Sampson, Becki Newton, Jazz Raycole, Lana Parrilla, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Netflix, Netflix Original Series, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Lincoln Lawyer recap, The Lincoln Lawyer season 2