The Lincoln Lawyer season 1 ending explained: Who killed Jerry Vincent?

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 is officially streaming on Netflix and it’s an absolute must-watch in our books.

In just 10 episodes, Netflix managed to serve up one of the best new shows of the year with the series becoming a sleeper hit in 2022. It’s no surprise the show was quickly renewed for a second season (the first part of which is streaming now on Netflix) or that audiences have been captivated by the series from start to finish.

With the arrival of the new season, many fans have found themselves asking about the events of the first season which featured a series of compelling cases including the double-murder trial that plays out across the first season of the series.

While there is a lot to unpack from the first season of the show, today, we’re here to help break down the final episode of the season and the burning questions the episode answered. From a shocking death to even more shocking revelations about the person behind Jerry Vincent’s death, we’re breaking The Lincoln Lawyer season 1 finale with your spoiler-filled ending explained takeaways.

Warning: Spoilers from the season 1 finale of The Lincoln Lawyer ahead 

Who attacked Mickey in The Lincoln Lawyer season 1 finale?

After being lured out to the middle of nowhere under false pretenses, Mickey is attacked by Glenn McSweeney aka Juror No. 7 from the Trevor Elliott case. Yes, the same juror who was a plant designed to help win the case for Trevor.

Upon arriving at the destination thinking Izzy was in danger, Glenn attacked Mickey and things weren’t looking good for him. However, Mickey put up a good fight and was able to fend off Glenn… who fell off the cliff after losing his balance during his exchange with Mickey.

Griggs and the cops arrive and assure Mickey that Izzy is safe, having been at an AA meeting the whole time thus confirming she was never in any danger but rather used as bait to get Mickey alone.

Does Trevor die in The Lincoln Lawyer?

Following his attack, Mickey is convinced that Trevor was behind it and wastes no time confronting him over the matter. While Mickey believes that Trevor attempted to have him killed to protect his secret — the fact that he had in fact murdered his wife and her lover — Trevor is adamant that he did not have anything to do with it.

After brushing Mickey off, Trevor makes his way outside where a crowd is gathering to hear about his company’s merger. In a shocking turn of events, Trevor is shot by Carol DuBois, the woman with a close connection to the yoga instructor Trevor killed.

While it’s left unknown whether he survived in the moment, we later learn that Trevor had indeed died from the attack.

Is Lankford a dirty cop in The Lincoln Lawyer?

As the season comes to a close, we finally get the chance to meet Glory Days who comes to town just in time to testify in Jesus Menendez’s case. While she initially was skeptical, Lorna is able to convince her to come forward which is when she reveals that she only fled town before the original trial because she was threatened by Detective Linda Perez.

During the initial trial, Detective Perez told Glory Days if she testified that she would charge her with possession. When Mickey learns this, he becomes convinced that someone must have pressured Detective Perez into intimidating Glory Days as Perez had no reason to be as involved as she was

This was when Mickey and his team became suspicious that someone else made Perez confront Glory Days. While we were initially led to believe that person was Detective Kyle Winters, it turned out to be his supervisor: Detective Lankford! In exchange for helping make Glory Days disappear before she could testify in the original trial, Lankford gave Perez the promotion to detective she had been longing for.

Does Maggie win the Soto case?

Unfortunately, Maggie hits a series of snags that lead to her losing the chance ever to prosecute the case before the season ends so we don’t get to see if she wins the case before the season ends.

It all starts to go downhill after the footage from the wire Tonya was wearing was deemed too garbled to use making her case dependent upon the testimony of Lankford. That’s all well and good… until Lankford is exposed as a dirty cop in Mickey’s trial. This makes his testimony worthless which is enough for Robert Cardone to not only pull Maggie off the case but she’s getting sent off to Van Nuys.

Considering Maggie decides to go over Cardone’s head by contacting the feds and US Marshals, there is a chance we could see the case finally taken to trial in season 2. However, Maggie does not win the case before the end of season 1.

Who killed Jerry Vincent in The Lincoln Lawyer?

As for the biggest mystery of the season regarding who killed Jerry Vincent? Well, we finally get some answers to the season’s slow-burning mystery in the finale’s final act in the form of a major twist that reveals it was Judge Holder who ordered the hit.

You see, Judge Holder had been running a side hustle using her position as a judge to rig juries for a significant amount of money with help from her husband. When Jerry found out about the judge’s illegal jury tampering, she decided there was no way to protect herself other than to take Jerry out for good.

Unfortunately for her, Mickey put the pieces together and turned the evidence over leading to Judge Holder’s arrest in the finale.

The Lincoln Lawyer is streaming now on Netflix.