Netflix The Lincoln Lawyer season 1 recap guide: Episodes 1 to 10

The Lincoln Lawyer episode 4 recap: Chaos Theory

Picking up from that crazy episode 3 ending, The Lincoln Lawyer episode 4 kicks off with Mickey arming himself with Cisco’s gun as the guy from the parking garage bangs on the office doors. Luckily, Griggs arrives seconds later and between the two of them, they scare him off. Mickey invites Griggs out for a steak to discuss things. It looks like the ice between them is (slowly) starting to thaw.

But during dinner, Mickey realizes that Griggs was behind the almost-attack. It was a set-up to spook Mickey and ensure he wasn’t holding out on any valuable information regarding Jerry’s death. Griggs never stopped by with the photo for a good reason and Cisco’s LAPD source ghosted him because he knew it was an in-house situation. Griggs waited outside the office building until Mickey turned his lights off, then cued the guy up to intimidate him. Griggs comes clean.

At least now he truly believes Mickey is telling the truth. In return for the scare, Griggs tells Mickey some more info about Jerry’s death. The feds were contacting Jerry despite him not having any federal cases. And why did Bruce Carlin vanish?

Griggs thinks Jerry was killed because he knew something he shouldn’t. He proposes they use Mickey as bait, have them go on live television and say that Jerry backed everything up on an external hard drive, so now Mickey knows whatever Jerry knew. It might draw out the attacker. In the meantime, Griggs assures Mickey he’ll assign surveillance on him at all times in case the real attacker does try to kill him.

Besides his big case and Jerry’s murder, Mickey also has to defend Sam Scales, a man accused of soliciting donations to a fake charity and Maggie attends the bail hearing for Soto. The judge sentences him to a multi-million dollar bail and an ankle monitor as he’s determined a flight risk but not an immediate danger to the community.

Bruce Carlin finally reappears after he sees the interview Mickey gave. They both know Jerry didn’t back up any files. Bruce claims Jerry’s murder and the Trevor Elliott case are connected, but it’s too dicey to speak over the phone. Bruce tells Mickey to meet him that night, but he has to come alone—meaning he needs to lose his security detail.

With a little help from Cisco and Izzy, Mickey manages to get to the meeting place alone. But Bruce doesn’t show. He says Mickey did not come alone after all. Spooked, he disappears again. That’s when Mickey and Cisco finally realize the Lincoln has been bugged and whoever was listening in probably showed up early to ensure Bruce wouldn’t speak with Mickey. But instead of taking it out of the car, Mickey opts to leave it so he doesn’t tip off whoever is listening in on him.

Elsewhere, Maggie meets with her star witness on the Soto case. David is already getting nervous about testifying in a grand jury case. He’s concerned for his family’s welfare and wants assurances from Maggie that she can help keep him and his loved ones protected.

At Hayley’s soccer game, Mickey talks to the coach, who also happens to be the prosecutor on the Eli Wyms case. Eli refuses to talk to Mickey until Mickey can get him out of the hospital.

Mickey speaks with her about a plea deal, playing into the military industrial complex and how he can drag out a lengthy trial if she refuses. He gets his other client, Sam, who is a wheelchair-bound veteran, to assist him by showing up at the game to signify one of many soldiers he can have testify on Eli’s behalf. It works.

Cisco and Lorna dig further into the Bruce Carlin situation and learn he worked with Jerry to steal someone else’s ID, a guy named Wayne Banks.

At the hospital, Eli finally talks to Mickey after Mickey got the charges dropped down. Mickey wants to know if Eli knows anything about Lara or Jan since Eli was there just nine hours before. But Eli claims he doesn’t know anything about it. Mickey is confused since he doesn’t see why Jerry would have taken Eli’s case otherwise.

The end of The Lincoln Lawyer episode 4 has a lot of big things happening simultaneously. Maggie’s witness, David Loresca, gets shot and dies. Unfortunately, Maggie was with Hayley when she got the call so Hayley ends up seeing a man die on the ambulance gurney.

Elsewhere, Cisco follows Bruce and sees him get pulled over by a pair of cops. Cisco calls Mickey who calls Griggs who contacts the cops and tells them that his name is Bruce (Bruce used his fake ID for Wayne Banks) and that they need dot be careful because Bruce is part of a murder investigation and they need him alive.

Well unfortunately, when Bruce gets out of the car, he backs up into the street and gets hit by a passing car, dying instantly. Bruce was the only one who took Griggs and Mickey’s bait. Now he’s dead. They’re basically back to square one.

After what happened with David, Mickey goes to Maggie’s offer some comfort. Maggie is distressed because Hayley saw it. She and Mickey share an intimate hug and come close to kissing, Hayley sees them together.

The episode ends with Mickey taking Izzy’s advice and joining her for a group meeting at AA.