Netflix The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 recap guide: All episodes explained

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 episode 5 recap: Suspicious Minds

With Andrea pulling the plea deal, Mickey is concerned about what she might have found. He presses Lisa on her ex-husband, Jeff, hoping she’ll find a way to connect with him. If Jeff testifies for the prosecution, it could sink them. But, if their divorce really was friendly, Jeff could make a good character witness. Lisa snaps at Mickey to back off. Jeff is clearly a sore subject. But then she apologizes and offers to reach out to one of Jeff’s co-workers to see if they still talk.

Mickey needs Andrea to show the ace up her sleeve so they can figure out how to counter it. To do that, he has to make it seem like the defense can win the preliminary hearing and get the charges dropped. If Andrea thinks Mickey can win, she’ll have to reveal whatever she’s holding onto. Mickey has a plan that involves taking a crack at Margot Schaffer and Detective O’Brien’s partner, who will be testifying on O’Brien’s behalf while he’s on medical leave.

While suit shopping, Izzy gives Mickey a bit of bad news. Henry has released the first episode of his new podcast, “Gentrify and Die,” on the Bondurant case, and he’s using Lisa’s old interviews. Mickey confronts Lisa over this, who confirms it’s only old stuff, nothing new. It doesn’t matter right now.  Anything released on a podcast like that can be used by the prosecution, it’s not a good look.

Fearing Mickey might not be as invested in her case if he’s not getting paid, Lisa agreed to it in exchange for a cut of Henry’s advertising money. Mickey assures her he’s invested and reiterates that Henry isn’t in this for the right reasons. That podcast cannot come out until the trial is over. On the plus side, Lisa says she got Jeff’s email address and reached out to him with Mickey’s phone number.

Jeff does contact Mickey, but he doesn’t want anything to do with Lisa or the trial. He doesn’t give Mickey anything useful, and to be honest, I have a feeling that might not have been the real Jeff. There’s something sketchy going on there.

On the car ride back to the office, Izzy and Mickey get to talking about Izzy’s planned dance studio. Ray keeps coming up short on her half of the deposit. Izzy assures Mickey that her girlfriend isn’t using again, she’s just not used to the extra responsibility yet. Izzy changes the subject back to Lisa. What if releasing the podcast now is the smart move? It could make people empathetic to Lisa’s cause. It’s something to consider.

During the preliminary hearing, Mickey gets an entire line of testimony struck on grounds of hearsay after O’Brien’s partner admits she wasn’t in the room while O’Brien questioned Margot Schafer (who is the eyewitness that alleges she saw Lisa leaving Bondurant’s office after the murder), and only learned about it by watching the interview footage.

Andrea offers to get Margot to the courtroom the following morning to testify herself, which Mickey agrees to since that was his plan all along, with his goal being to get Margot’s testimony thrown out, too, and see what else Andrea has up her sleeve.

On their way out of the courthouse, Mickey and Lisa are confronted by a pissed-off Henry, who is angry Mickey filed an injunction to get the podcast stopped. Henry offers to let Mickey vet anything they put out to ensure it’s not incriminating, but Mickey refuses. He wants Henry to stay out of the way. Lisa is a little upset with Mickey for interfering, as she told him she would handle it.

That night, ATF raids the Road Saints’ bar. They come up empty-handed. It turns out Cisco had already intervened and taken all the incriminating weapons out of the bar. Cisco and Teddy meet on a barren stretch of road, where Cisco hands over the real guns. Cisco informs Teddy that all of this ends today. Cisco assures him that Kaz is gone, and Teddy will never hear from him again.

“Kaz saved your ass, this is you saving his. Seems fair to me.” Teddy confirms he and Cisco are good. Cisco should be free of the Road Saints now, but I don’t trust Teddy, so we’ll see!

At the preliminary hearing, Mickey does what he does best and gets Andrea’s witness testimony thrown out. With some assistance from Lorna and some cleverly taken photographs, Mickey is able to prove that Margot Schaffer didn’t have the unprecedented vantage point she claimed to when she supposedly saw Lisa Trammel leaving Bondurant’s office.

The whole thing ends up sounding like Margot saw a blurry brunette on the sidewalk, and then her confirmation bias made her think it was Lisa after she got to the office and saw the photo of Lisa on the desk (placed there as a reminder to call someone if they saw her there, violating the TRO). The judge strikes her testimony.

Now, Andrea has to find something else to prove Lisa had probable cause, or the charges will be dropped. As Mickey puts it, they called her bluff. Now she has to put up or shut up, and they’ll find out what trump card she has stashed away.

Lisa is newly optimistic in the aftermath of the hearing. She apologizes to Mickey about Henry and assures him he won’t be a problem anymore. But then Lisa admits she really was in front of Bondurant’s building that morning. All Mickey did was question Margot’s ability to see her, he didn’t actually say Lisa wasn’t there, so it shouldn’t be a problem. However, Mickey reiterates that Lisa needs to tell him everything from this point forward.

Outside the courthouse, Cisco informs Mickey they might have a problem finding Alex Grant. He also assures Mickey that his debt to the Road Saints is paid and he can start charging them again.

Well, when Mickey does finally get Andrea to show her cards, he’s not happy with the hand he’s dealt. Andrea delivers a forensic crime analyst named Hannah Gates, who reports her findings. She found a small amount of Mitchell Boundurant’s blood on Lisa’s gardening gloves.

Based on this, the judge rules that the People have delivered the appropriate burden of proof, and the case will move forward to trial. Given the severity of this find, Mickey and Lisa get into a tense argument in the elevator. Mickey is clearly starting to think Lisa is guilty, which doesn’t actually matter since he represents guilty and innocent people all the time, but it matters to Lisa. She storms off in a huff.

This episode also appears to wrap up Cisco’s Road Saints storyline. Cisco and Lorna pay Kaz one final visit to give him a passport and new identification. He’s going to be on the run from the gang for the rest of his life, but Lorna makes it clear he shouldn’t return to town. Cisco felt he owed Kaz, and now he’s done.

As for Lisa, apparently, things aren’t as handled with Henry as she suggested. Izzy forwards Mickey a link to a recent article. Henry just made a deal to turn his podcast into a limited series. Not sure how that’s going to work, given that Mickey has the power of attorney over Lisa’s life rights….right?

Well, about that. Mickey can’t find the contract Lisa signed. He takes out his anger on Lorna via a phone call that quickly turns nasty and ends with a big “f**k you, Haller,” from Lorna. She calls him out on being preoccupied ever since he met Lisa, and Lorna told him from the beginning that this case was too messy. Mickey blames Lorna for misplacing the contract, but it sounds to me like someone might have taken it, and without it, Mickey can’t sue Henry.

Mickey goes to the parking garage to look in his Lincoln for the contract and runs directly into two big goons who give him the brutal beatdown we saw foreshadowed in the season 2 premiere. It’s unclear who they’re from, but I guess we’ll have to wait until part 2 to find out!

Written by Maddy Lennon