Warning: Deep spoilers for The Lincoln Lawyer’s season-three finale lie ahead.
Oh, Lincoln Lawyer fans (what do we call ourselves? Lincoln Logs? I’m workshopping that), are we served up a juicy little case for Mickey Haller’s third outing or what? Season two of David E. Kelley and Ted Humphrey’s adaptation of Michael Connelly’s Lincoln Lawyer novels ended with our favorite L.A. criminal-defense attorney and owner of several Lincoln-branded vehicles getting a call from a man named Julian LaCosse. He was just charged for a murder he swears he did not commit, and it was Gloria Dayton — a.k.a. Glory Days, the sex worker Mickey has represented and grown quite fond of (as, like, a brother type) — who told him to call Haller if he was ever in trouble. The unfortunate snag here: Gloria Dayton is also the victim.
See, Julian was a manager of sorts for escorts, providing them with a secure website and other security checks. Glory told him a client was a no-show so she couldn’t pay him, but Julian had confirmed with the guy ahead of time, so he went over to her place to make sure she hadn’t taken the money she owed him and spent it on drugs. Glory was found strangled to death with her apartment set on fire an hour later.
It becomes pretty clear early on that Julian is innocent — he left before she died — and that Glory’s death is tied to the fact that she once snitched on a high-ranking member of the Tijuana cartel named Hector Moya (we saw her do this in season two) and now Hector, who was put away for life by the DEA, is trying to get his sentence overturned. A week before she died, Glory was subpoenaed as a witness in Moya’s case. Moya needs Glory Days for his appeal — he wouldn’t kill her. And as Mickey discovers, the more he unravels Glory’s murder, the deeper he finds himself mixed up with some shady, shady members of law enforcement. But not even a rattlesnake left in his bed will stop ol’ Mickey Haller from getting justice, okay?
Things get twisty, but in true Lincoln Lawyer fashion, the truth comes out by season’s end. How does Mickey do it this time? Below, we answer all of your burning questions about how season three of The Lincoln Lawyer wraps up — and what’s to come should court be reconvened for a season four.
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So if Hector Moya didn’t have Glory Days killed, who did? And why? And who is this shady, shady law-enforcement officer you’re talking about? And —
Okay, slow down there, bud. All will be answered. Everything goes back to a DEA agent named James De Marco. De Marco is the officer who put Moya away for life. But, as Mickey learns, Moya is right about believing he was set up to get that life sentence. De Marco, who had arrested Glory Days a number of times, struck a deal with her to plant a gun in Moya’s home the next time Moya hired her, and then instructed her to use Mickey to make it look like snitching on Moya was Mickey’s big plan back in season two; it was De Marco’s plan all along. Apparently, the guy had it out for Hector Moya and would do whatever it took to get him permanently behind bars.
You may be thinking, Hmm, this guy sounds like a complicated man trying to get justice on the cartel any way he can. But De Marco is not complicated. As Mickey and Cisco uncover by season’s end, De Marco is secretly working for the Juarez cartel — the rivals of Moya’s Tijuana cartel. You see where this is going? When Glory Days was subpoenaed, De Marco had the most to lose if she were to testify that he forced her into planting evidence. That’s what we call motive, baby.
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Oh, you’re right, this is twisty. Does the truth about De Marco come out in court?
Does it ever. It takes Mickey awhile to get all the dots connected; in fact, Mickey suffers more losses in court than usual, and things look bleak for Julian — especially when De Marco uses another associate with the Juarez cartel to try to murder the poor guy in prison. (Julian is basically a nerdy IT guy; he cannot survive in these conditions! His sweet partner, David, is suffering! Protect David at all costs!) Mickey also suffers losses outside of court when De Marco attempts to silence Mickey and winds up killing Mickey’s lovely new driver Eddie Rojas. The kid just wanted to drink his green juice and crochet scarves live on the internet and also be somewhat inexplicably buff. RIP to that man!
The break in Mickey’s bad luck comes from the unlikeliest of sources: Neil Bishop (oh, okay Holt McCallany!), the investigator for the prosecution. Bishop is a retired cop whose career was derailed 15 years ago when, what do you know, Mickey Haller caught him lying on the stand and messing with evidence. Suffice it to say Bishop hates Mickey and he’s also in cahoots with De Marco. Mickey and the team have security-camera footage of the two together. When Bishop learns this, he knows he’s cooked. Instead of letting things play out, though (the prosecutor is quite capable), he has been eaten away by guilt and wants to come clean about his relationship with De Marco. Bishop takes the stand.
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Agh! This is getting good. What does Neil Bishop confess to?
Ten years ago, De Marco bribed Bishop with a ton of money to bury a murder case linked to the Juarez cartel, and he’s owned the former detective ever since. He’s used him over and over again to do his bidding throughout the years, including getting information on Gloria Dayton. He tailed her the night of her murder. He gave De Marco her address. He watched De Marco go into her house after Julian had already left and then, under De Marco’s orders, he made sure to be made lead investigator for the prosecution on this case. On the stand, Bishop is a broken man. He tells Mickey that De Marco told him Glory was already dead. “Did you believe him?” Mickey asks. “I wanted to,” Bishop says, tears welling up. “Did you believe him?” Mickey asks again. “No, I did not.”
Mickey’s questioning ends and Bishop, crying, doubles over. Suddenly, he pulls a gun from his ankle, asks them to tell his son he loves him, and shoots himself in the head.
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That is wild. So, what happens to Julian LaCosse? What happens to James De Marco?!
The charges against Julian are dropped. He is a free man. He’s also a very rich man: Mickey helps Julian get a massive settlement from the city of L.A., the LAPD, and the DEA. It is a huge win for Julian and for Mickey (and his team, who all get bonuses).
Once Bishop takes the stand and starts spilling, one of De Marco’s goons who had been in the courtroom warns his boss, and De Marco flees the city (after a motorcycle chase with Cisco, of course). It seems like De Marco may never pay for his crimes … until one day when Izzy opens a package sent to Mickey’s office with a pair of sunglasses that look suspiciously like the ones we’ve seen De Marco sport and an envelope with a photo of a dead De Marco draped in a rattlesnake. It’s not long before Mickey gets a phone call: Hector Moya is out of prison, and he owes Mickey one. De Marco won’t be bothering either of them anymore, and Mickey doesn’t need to worry about blowback from the Juarez cartel — Moya’s got them covered, too. Maybe it’ll pay off down the road to have friends in low places?
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I’m over all this legal stuff. Is there any kissing I should know about?
I’m so glad you asked. Yes, there is kissing. Not enough by most standards, but some. Mickey Haller and Andy Freeman finally make good on all that chemistry they have, and they find themselves in a full-blown relationship. Unfortunately, their respective cases and the drama surrounding those cases get in the way, and they’re broken up before the end of the season. Still, I have hope for these two! Although what’s Andy going to think when she hears that Mickey just got arrested when a traffic cop found a dead body in the trunk of his car? She won’t be thrilled, of that I am sure.
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Whoa, whoa, whoa: What’s this about a dead body in Mickey Haller’s trunk?
You read that right. In season four, Mickey might become known as the Lincoln Lawyer for a new reason — driving around L.A. with the dead body of a client in his trunk. I mean, it is a nice little advertisement for the ample storage space in those things, but it’s not a great situation for our favorite criminal-defense attorney. He’s on a high leaving that celebratory dinner with the crew after Julian’s settlement comes in, but things take a wild turn when a cop pulls Mickey over for a missing license plate and then arrests him when he notices what looks to be blood dripping onto the street. Mickey points out that the cop has no legal right to open the trunk, which you know is going to come up next season, but it doesn’t matter — he pops the trunk and Mickey is aghast when he finds Sam Scales’s body inside.
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Wait, who is Sam Scales again?
He’s popped up on the show several times: He’s one of the clients Mickey inherited when Jerry Vincent left him his practice back in season one. He dabbles in fraud and definitely cannot pay his fees on any sort of timetable, but he has been game to assist the team when they’ve needed backup for their own fraud-lite schemes. And yes, he is very, very dead and was very much planted in the back of the Lincoln.
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Okay, so what does this all mean for a potential season four?
If The Lincoln Lawyer gets picked up for another season, you can be sure the fallout from this arrest will color the entire thing. You can look to Michael Connelly’s sixth Mickey Haller novel, The Law of Innocence, as a roadmap if you are so inclined. While the Netflix series isn’t shy about changing things up from the events of the novels, The Law of Innocence does find Mickey charged for this murder, representing himself, and working the case from inside a prison cell. If that doesn’t scream “made for TV,” I don’t know what does. I’m already starting to feel bad for the guy because (1) he was clearly framed and (2) our little L.A. foodie is really going to hate what they’re serving up at the prison cafeteria.