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

The Lincoln Lawyer is back! Both the series and its titular lawyer have finally returned with new episodes in the two-part second season. The first part of The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 premiered on July 6, and the second part arrived on Aug; 3 for a summer full of Mickey Haller.

In the new season, the legal drama picks up with Mickey riding the high of his big win in season 1, but he’s soon taking on another complicated case, this time with a love interest turned client. Will Mickey be able to do what he does best once again?

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 episode guide: Complete recaps for episodes 1-10

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The following article contains major SPOILERS from the The Lincoln Lawyer, so keep that in mind while you’re reading. We’re breaking down each episode of the show’s second season, so if you have questions or want to learn more about season 2, jump right in!

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 episode 1 recap: The Rules of Professional Conduct

In the opening scene of season 2, Mickey’s getting beat up in the parking garage again, which he pokes fun at in narration. It’s a stark contrast to what he’s up to in the present tense: smiling for photoshoots with major publications after his big court win last season.

He’s booked, busy, and in high demand, but he’s taking on a new client named Russell Lawson, who was arrested for burglary and indecent exposure. Mickey meets with Russell in jail and tells him to put on a poker face, which he’s having trouble with since they confiscated his inhaler.

While talking about the case, Russell explains that he doesn’t remember what happened after ordering an Uber from a night out getting drinks with friends. It’s alleged that he broke a window to enter someone’s house, made a sandwich, and took off his pants. The woman who owns the home found him asleep on the couch. Oddly, the house he broke into is just a few doors down from his own home. Russell has to be patient for Mickey to work his magic.

Detective Griggs confers with Mickey about the Jesús Menendez case and informs him that the case is being reopened. He’s leading the reinvestigation, which annoys Mickey because he doesn’t believe Jesús committed the crime and insists on finding the tattooed man. Griggs offers Mickey a deal to bring Jesús in and he’ll see if he can “short-circuit” the case reopening before charges come down.

Mickey and Maggie meet for dinner and make small talk about work before she playfully gives him a hard time about being the “hottest defense attorney in LA.” When Mickey asks about Hayley’s new school, Maggie casually makes a reference to the man she’s been seeing (Jim, not Tim), which seems to make Mickey a bit jealous. Money and Maggie’s demotion comes up and that strikes a chord, releasing the tension like a pressure cooker.

After Maggie abruptly leaves the restaurant, Mickey continues eating and meets the chef, Lisa (Lana Parrilla), and they hit it off while lightly flirting on a tour of the restaurant. One thing leads to another and they end up back at Lisa’s house, having what very well could become the world’s most complicated one-night stand. But we’ll have to see how things shake out for Mickey’s luck on this one. He wakes up in Lisa’s house, overhearing the loud noise of nearby construction. She makes him breakfast while they talk about the construction developer Mitchell Bondurant and his efforts in gentrification. Before driving off, Mickey notices Lisa bringing food to protestors outside the construction site down the block.

Later that day, Lisa comes to Mickey’s office for help with a temporary restraining order from Mitchell Bondurant. She explains that she’s talked about him a lot on social media and led some protests outside Bondurant’s office, but she maintains that she hasn’t harassed him as the TRO alleges. He offers to represent her pro bono to get the restraining order thrown out, which raises Izzy and Lorna’s eyebrows. Lorna gives him some well-earned grief.

Mickey brings in Jesús to talk with Griggs, who presses him to admit that he owns a knife similar to the one assumed to be the murder weapon used on Martha. Suddenly, it’s looking bad for Jesús, and that makes Mickey angry. He ends the meeting and confronts Jesús about not telling him about the knife. Mickey instructs him to stay home and not talk to anyone about the case.

Following a frustration at work, Maggie has a drink with her fellow lawyer friend Andy (Yaya DaCosta), who asks her about career options, such as going private or moving to another office. Andy suggests an office in San Francisco, where her friend is looking for lawyers at their practice. Maggie’s torn because of Hayley settling in at her new school and making friends, but she knows she needs to make a change for the sake of her career.

During Russell’s hearing, Mickey brings the identical photos of Russell’s house and the house he broke into, claiming that since they’re so similar, the break-in was merely a mistake while under the influence. Mickey furthers the intimidation tactics by suggesting Russell’s incoming toxicology report would indicate that he had been roofied. A few more wise words from Mickey has the case settled in less than a minute, without even word from the judge. He’s good!

While Cisco and Lorna seem to be keeping some things from each other (Cisco with the Road Saints, Lorna with her law classes), Izzy informs Mickey that Russell paid $5K to keep him on retainer. That’s weird to Mickey, but he doesn’t think much of it. When he enters his home, he finds Russell on his patio. He’s not wearing glasses and his meek demeanor has turned bombastic. Russell uses his retainer fee and confidentiality agreement to hang over Mickey’s head, just as Mickey clocks the tattoo on Russell’s arm.

It all becomes clear to Mickey: Russell has been the “tattoo guy” this whole time. He admits to killing Martha with zero remorse, and he orchestrated this whole situation so Mickey would represent him. Russell even roofied himself to seal the deal. The kicker? Mickey can’t use this information or tell anyone without severe repercussions—Russell threatens as much. What will Mickey do now?

Written by Reed Gaudens

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 episode 2 recap: Obligations

Mickey meets up with his pal David Siegel (Elliott Gould) for some thinly veiled advice for himself. He claims it’s a hypothetical situation, but he lays out the exact circumstances of his current predicament with Jesús’ case and Russell’s revelation. David suggests the “lawyer” should drop out on representing the innocent client (Jesús), but Mickey wants a loophole. We don’t know what he suggests yet, but David seems to have Mickey’s golden ticket.

Lorna informs Mickey that Glory Days called on their help after getting busted for solicitation and cocaine possession. She also tells him that Russell’s currently standing in his office waiting for him and/or snooping. When Mickey arrives at his office, Russell brings a him ticket he received for running a stop sign and refreshes his memory on his “obligations.” Everyone notices he’s on edge after Russell leaves, and he asks them to stand down on working on the Menendez case.

Mickey meets with Glory Days to get the details of her arrest. It’s not looking good, and it’s adding to Mickey’s current stress level. She says a well-dressed man named Hector Moya gave her the drugs, but because she’s not a “rat,” she’s not immediately on board with Mickey’s plan to nab the potential dealer to secure her release. She relents, giving him the address.

Lorna worries Cisco’s getting cold feet about the wedding, but little does she know, he’s still keeping his latest interactions and deals with the Road Saints from her. While there’s a lot going unsaid between those two, Mickey’s also being slightly cagey in his attempts to keep all these plates spinning. Apart from his cases, Mickey’s also skeptical of Izzy’s intention to open a dance space with Ray, who he doesn’t find reliable.

Cisco discovers that Hector Moya, or Hector Moreno, is a “major player” in the Tijuana cartel who’s suspected of killing three rival cartel members. Mickey got his smoking gun, and he brings some information to Maggie over coffee in order to help her get her cases back. Maggie agrees to help in spite of her reservations, putting the bigger plan into motion.

Later that night, Mickey meets with Lisa at her restaurant, but it feels like much more of a date than a meeting about her case as they swap short stories about their upbringing. She doesn’t understand the terms of the restraining order, since the distance seems to hinder her ability to move about her own neighborhood with his office in such close proximity to her work and home. Mickey assures her that she can exist as normal in her neighborhood, though she does point out an interesting inconsistency from a supposed witness.

Maggie text messages Mickey telling him they have a deal, which now makes the plan official. Mickey leaves a manila envelope on his desk for Russell, tells Griggs he’s off the Menendez case, and hits some tennis balls. Griggs questions Glory Days, and she tells him everything she can remember. After his tennis afternoon, Mickey speaks with Griggs, who knows he’s hiding something from him. Meanwhile, Glory Days is released from custody and returns to her home. After she gets out of the shower, she’s nervous upon opening the door for a food delivery.

And… she’s right to have been nervous. When she closes the door after grabbing her food, Russell’s on the other side, inside her apartment. He grabs her and holds her at knifepoint. There’s a slight struggle before the cops barge into her house and arrest Russell. She recognizes him as the man who killed Martha. Cisco watches from across the street and calls Mickey, telling him it’s not Hector Moya but Russell Lawson, which Mickey of course already knows.

Finally, there’s a flashback to what David told Mickey at the beginning of the episode about how to hack this complicated situation. In order to get Russell, Mickey needed Glory Days to identify him, which is why he worked to get her released and made sure Russell knew she was released, by placing her documents right next to his manila envelope (he’s a known snoop, after all). Like David said, Mickey pointed Griggs in the right direction but stayed out of the way.

After bidding Glory Days farewell as she intends to leave LA for Hawaii, Mickey meets with Russell in jail, telling him to plead guilty. Russell knows he was played, but there’s nothing he can do about it. Mickey maintains that he didn’t break any ethical rules because, in fact, Russell set himself up. A true showman, Mickey’s parting words are a deserved thinly veiled threat. Keeping the good times rolling, Mickey delivers the good news to Jesús Menendez that his case has been dismissed.

But don’t think it’s smooth sailing for Mickey from here on out. While taking a victory drive in his convertible, he receives a phone call from Lisa. She’s been arrested for the murder of Mitchell Bondurant. Here we go again…

Written by Reed Gaudens

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 episode 3 recap: Conflicts

Fresh off her arrest for the murder of Mitchell Bondurant, Lisa insists to Mickey that she didn’t do it and denies making any admissions. She worries about bail money and paying Mickey, but he assures her not to worry, that they’ll get through the bail hearing. When he pulls his hands away from hers, she takes note. He’s adamant that she doesn’t speak to anyone about the case, and it doesn’t matter if she’s innocent.

Mickey and Maggie talk during Hayley’s horseback riding lesson. She connected the dots on the miracle Mickey pulled off on the Jesús Menendez case, but the part she played worked out in her favor; she got her case back. Later, Mickey watches the video of Lisa’s initial questioning at the jail. She tells the detective that she saw him in line at a coffee shop that day, but once she saw him, she left. She then goes on to call him a “pathological f—ing liar, a “pig,” and an “all-around sh-tty human.” When the detective asks if she hates him enough to kill him, she’s silent for a few seconds before asking for her lawyer. Suspicious.

In the courthouse elevator, Mickey and Andy have a playfully competitive back and forth since she’s the DA on the Bondurant case. She makes it pretty obvious that she doesn’t like him and warns him about taking this case. Surely, part of that makes him want to take the case even more. Press meets Mickey when he exits the elevator and, in that moment, tells the press he’s taking the case. Well, that settles that.

The courtroom is packed with both press and Lisa’s supporters. After Andy announces the charges from the People, Mickey announces that Lisa’s pleading not guilty and fights for a preliminary hearing as well as for bail. The judge agrees to the hearing and sets the bail at $2 million. Fearing that she doesn’t have the money for bail, much less 10% for a bail bondsman, Mickey intends to sell her life rights to a production company. She signs over power of attorney to Mickey, and now the hard part begins for Mickey.

In the midst of this messy case, Lorna worries over two odd credit charges in Sunland on her shared credit card with Cisco. While talking it over with Izzy, they assume the charges are fraud since they don’t align with what Cisco has been telling Lorna. Still, Lorna fears he could be cheating on her, but when she searches for the gas station on the charge, she finds its connection to the Road Saints. She caught him in a lie. They later talk, and he comes clean about keeping things from her. She tells him no more secrets or she’s out.

Mickey buys dinner at a food truck and runs into Maggie, who got the last of the octopus dumplings. They sit down together and share the dumplings, having a conversation that feels as if there could be hope for their relationship. Jim text messages Maggie, prompting her to cut their impromptu dinner date short. But Mickey watches her leave with a big smile on his face.

Cisco shares with Mickey that Bondurant was found next to his car in the parking garage of his office and the cause of death was hemorrhaging from blunt force trauma on the top of his head. No murder weapon was found, but there was a coffee cup and a shard of glass on the scene. Cisco also drops the bomb that a witness claims to have seen Lisa walking away from Bondurant’s office building. Lisa arrives at the office with her friend Henry Dahl, a true crime podcast producer. He put up her bond, but he seems like money is his priority.

Mickey talks with Henry at the trunk of his car, showing the contract Lisa signed giving Mickey power of attorney to negotiate the sale of her life rights along with a lien on that income. It’s his way of saying “back off” and Henry insists he just wants to help Lisa and make podcasts. Sorry, Henry, but Mickey’s right to have his suspicions. Later, Mickey asks Lorna to check the crime scene photos for Bondurant’s height. She estimates 6 feet 3 inches.

While talking with Hayley after her horseback riding lesson, Mickey learns that she knows Andy from Maggie’s friendship with her and heard Andy talking about the case with Maggie. With that knowledge, Mickey calls Lorna back and asks her to write more motions: one for Lisa’s phone to be returned, another for the personal items seized from her house, and another to suppress her police interview and evidence.

Andy’s none too pleased about all the new motions, including a surprise motion to have her dismissed from the case due to a conflict of interest. He drops it on her that he knows she discussed with case with Maggie, his ex-wife, in front of their daughter. Now they’re playing hardball. Andy offers to have discovery to him sooner than later in exchange for the motions to be withdrawn. He agrees. Lisa watches on with an unreadable expression as Lorna gives Mickey a hard time about all of the motions.

Catching up on work at the office late that night, Maggie drops in to confront Mickey about using a conversation he had with Hayley to further himself in the courtroom. He’s standing on shaky ground when he throws it back at her for discussing the case with Andy in front of Hayley. She’s not quite done with him yet because she realizes that he slept with Lisa, throwing the “conflict of interest” right back in his face. Well, there goes their octopus dumpling truce.

The hits don’t stop coming for Mickey. Lisa asks if they can talk, so she brings food to his house and apologizes about the Henry situation. He thinks Henry’s trying to take advantage of Lisa and her situation. Regardless, she attempts to step over an ethical boundary, but he pumps the brakes. She wants to pick up where they left off when the trail ends. Again, she brings up the fact that she needs Mickey to say he thinks she’s innocent, and he does. When she drives away, it’s revealed Henry was across the street watching them.

Written by Reed Gaudens

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 episode 4 recap: Discovery

Andrea follows through on her new agreement with Mickey to send him all of the prosecution’s discovery. Given the discovery is like 80 boxes of stuff, it’s basically a middle finger to the defense. It will take them ages to dig through it all and find something useful.

Elsewhere, Lorna visits a coffee shop when she gets a call from Izzy to hurry back to the office. Before leaving, Lorna asks a woman to read the menu for her, claiming she can’t see it for herself. We’ll circle back to that in a minute.

Mickey sits his team down to go over Lisa’s case. They need to start considering all angles, even one that has Lisa being guilty. Lorna argues that oftentimes the simplest answer is the correct one. Everyone has been walking on eggshells since Mickey isn’t exactly unbiased in this case. He assures them that Lisa is his client, nothing more and nothing less.

So, is Lisa guilty? She and Mitchell Bondurant were enemies, which wasn’t a secret to anyone. But Bondurant was a rich and egotistical developer who surely had many enemies. The problem is, his secretary, Margot Schaffer, is a witness who can put Lisa at the scene on the day of Bondurant’s murder.

They can’t find anything shady in Margot’s past to use against her. Circling back to the coffee shop interlude, we learn the reason Lorna went there was to test Margot’s eyesight, to see if they could challenge her perception from the day of the murder. Nope, Margot is as eagle-eyed as they come, though Lorna realizes she might need glasses (join the club, girl.)

What about the murder weapon? Based on the circular wound on the top of Bondurant’s head, he was probably bludgeoned with a hammer. Well, Izzy pulls out a photograph of a 150-piece toolset found in Lisa’s garage that happens to be missing one item. Guess what it is? A hammer.

When Mickey confronts Lisa about this, she claims many employees are in and out of the garage all the time. Anyone could have taken it. Plus, the set didn’t even belong to her but her ex-husband, Jeff, who she no longer speaks to, though she assures Mickey their divorce was as normal as it could be and nothing bad went down between them.

Shortly after chatting with Lisa, Mickey gets a call from Terrell Coleman, the guy from season 1 who was falsely accused of pushing a police officer. His daughter, Angelica, is being threatened with a felony vandalism charge by a wealthy business owner named Karen Foster (they really named her Karen, a bit on the nose, isn’t it?).

Terrell is concerned that if he can’t get the charges dropped, his ex will use it as an excuse to come for custody since Angelica was with him when she did it. All Angelica did was paint the wall of Karen’s store, Lux, black in honor of the Off-White designer Virgil Abloh, who passed away in 2021. Lux sells his designs in-store. Considering all Angelica did was repaint the wall, Mickey asks Karen’s lawyer to drop the case, but he says Karen has been the target of a lot of vandalism lately, and she wants to make an example out of Angelica.

The prosecutor on Lisa’s case, Andrea Freeman, contacts Mickey with a surprising offer. She wants to give him a plea deal despite previously saying that was out of the question. The plea deal would let Lisa plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, taking her sentence down to six years, probably less than five, with good behavior.

But he only has until the next day before the deal is off the table. Lisa isn’t happy with the news since now it means she either pleads guilty or she faces the possibility of losing at trial and getting life in prison without parole. Mickey tells her to give him the night to find something, as he believes Andrea offered the plea deal because she and her team found something in discovery that could damage their case, and she doesn’t want to lose publicly to Mickey. Mickey and his team need to find out what it is ASAP.

We pivot to Cisco, who received a text message from Kaz earlier in the episode saying the meeting with his parole officer was canceled, so he no longer needs a ride. Suspicious, Cisco follows Kaz and photographs him meeting with some guy.

Once his Saints work is done, Cisco visits Walter Kim, the witness from the temporary restraining order Bondurant filed against Lisa. Walter is the only person so far who supposedly saw Lisa get violent with Bondurant. He shows Cisco photographic proof showing Lisa striking the developer during an anti-gentrification protest. Now we know why the TRO was granted.

Lisa being violent is not good for the defense, so they redouble their efforts to find something in discovery. Lorna learns Bondurant was bleeding money. He lost over $200 million the previous year, mostly in connection to an unfinished apartment building called The Terrazo. It has been sitting empty, bleeding him dry.

That night, Mickey has Haley for dinner, and she gives him some insight into his case with Angelica that could help him get the charges dropped. Haley says the black wall looks like a cool new spot to take a selfie, which gives Mickey an idea of how to use it for his case.

He calls Terrell, who connects him to one a Los Angeles Lakers team member. Mickey sets up a photo shoot with the player and a Lux employee, who then shares the post on Instagram, advertising the store. Then, Mickey files to copyright Angelica’s artwork, meaning now Lux has used her work for advertising purposes without her permission.

In court, Mickey brings all of this to Karen’s attorney. Lux receives a huge boost in sales thanks to the Instagram post, so now Karen no longer wants to have the wall repainted. Mickey convinces her to drop the charges and pay Angelica 3% royalties for using her work.

It’s not looking good for Cisco and Kaz. Cisco confronts Kaz in his hotel room that night after seeing him take a meeting earlier that day. We find out that Kaz has snitched on the Saints to the Feds to get him out of a serious situation in Corcoran where he would have been charged with murder. Kaz intends to run from the Saints, but he can’t hide from the Feds.

He tells Cisco it’ll be fine because he pinned it on another guy, but the thing is, Teddy already suspects Kaz. So if the Saints get raided by the ATF, he’ll know Kaz was responsible, and, by extension, Cisco, since he vouched for Kaz.

Back to Lisa’s case, after extensive digging, they find a possible new suspect they could use to create reasonable doubt. A man named Alex Grant was working as the contractor on The Terrazo and, apparently, Bondurant hadn’t paid him yet. Further sleuthing shows Alex’s real name is Alex Kazarian. He and his sister are the children of Sasha Kazarian, the head of one of the biggest Armenian crime families on the west coast.

Bondurant was bleeding money from The Terrazo and basically tried to extort Alex Grant. That’s a great motive for murder. Andrea was trying to hide this, as Grant could become the perfect way to exonerate Lisa.

Mickey calls Lisa to tell her they found something solid, so she decides to go to trial and fight. When Mickey meets with Andrea to reject the offer, she tells him the offer was already rescinded that morning. Circumstances have changed. That’s a bad sign for Mickey and co. because it means she’s not afraid anymore. The prosecution found something else. Something could blow Mickey’s case out of the water.

Written by Maddy Lennon

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

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 episode 6 recap: Withdrawal

As bad as Mickey’s beatdown was in the previous episode, I think we all knew he wasn’t actually going to die, right? Still, he’s certainly looking worse for the wear, and the goons who beat him up left him with some broken ribs and countless other contusions.

Everyone visits Mickey at the hospital, including Lorna, Maggie, Haley, Izzy, and even Lisa. Lorna and Mickey quickly patch things up after that last ugly phone call. Both apologize to the other for saying things they shouldn’t have. But it’s Izzy who is the most distraught. She realizes her girlfriend Ray stole Lisa’s power of attorney contract, and Henry Dahl likely hired her to do it.

Izzy became suspicious when Ray finally showed up with her half of the rental deposit for their dance studio. She tells Mickey she doesn’t want to keep the money, but Mickey tells her to hang onto it for now. It probably has Henry’s fingerprints, and he might need it later.

Mickey deduces that Henry Dahl might have a connection to the construction contractor Alex Grant, the powerful businessman from the Kazarian crime family who was previously working with Bondurant on The Terrazzo. Mickey hasn’t been shy about wanting to subpoena Grant, so perhaps Grant hired the muscle to scare Mickey off.

Getting the subpoena into Grant’s hands has been challenging as he’s a particularly slippery fellow and knows how to stay off the grid. Thanks to Lorna’s sleuthing, the team learns that Grant is an avid art collector, and he’s particularly interested in purchasing the final piece from an elusive artist named Tinto.

With some help from Mickey’s former client, Sam Scales (Christopher Thornton), the slippery scam artist from season 1, Mickey’s team lures Alex Grant out under the guise of providing private access to Tinto’s fabled final piece. In reality, the big unveiling serves Grant with the subpoena papers. He’s pissed and says his attorney will squash it at the hearing.

However, at the hearing, Mickey has a few tricks up his sleeve to ensure Grant testifies. They play to Grant’s ego by ensuring tons of press are present at the courthouse. Grant’s construction firm is up for a prestigious bid: building the Athlete’s Village at the 2028 Olympics. He doesn’t want to lose the contract, and if he publicly tries to back out of testifying, it will look like he’s hiding something. That’s why he wants to get the subpoena squashed altogether.

But Mickey’s clever questioning and framing backs Grant into a corner, and against his attorney’s wishes, Grant agrees to withdraw his motion to quash the subpoena, making him a witness for the defense.

Mickey pointedly asks Grant what “suspicious activity” Bondurant was referring to in his email. We know that Grant has been accepting bribes and doing all sorts of shady things on the low, but Grant wants to keep all that hidden. Mickey playing to his ego in the public eye makes him think he can circumnavigate all of this during the trial.

In the judge’s chambers, she clarifies to Mickey that he needs to find a better way to make Grant relevant to his case because his reasoning for having Alex there is still pretty thin. All Mickey has right now is a vaguely threatening email sent from Bondurant to Grant suggesting he’ll go to the feds if they can’t agree on terms regarding their realty contract.

It helps that Mickey later flips Henry Dahl, who had been working as an inside man for Grant, feeding him info on the trial. Cisco learns that one of Henry’s podcast producers, David Webber, also works as an executive at one of Grant’s S-corporations.

Webber gave Henry the $200k for Lisa’s bail and the money to pay Ray to steal the contract. Henry admits to stealing the agreement, though he assures Mickey he didn’t have anything to do with him getting beat up. Regardless of whether or not Henry is telling the truth, Mickey has him now due to his fingerprints on the cash Ray gave Izzy. He tells Henry he works for him now if he doesn’t want Mickey to use his discovery against him.

Throughout the episode, Mickey battles with his former painkiller addiction. He has the hospital staff take him off morphine ASAP to prevent him from falling back into dangerous old habits. Mickey would rather be in pain than get addicted again. Once checked out, he puts Izzy in control of managing his prescription medication outside the hospital to remove any temptation.

This episode also wraps up the dangling romantic thread between Mickey and Maggie. Maggie and Haley temporarily move in with Mickey to help him recover from the beatdown, and it doesn’t take long for the two exes to rekindle things.

They spend a passionate night together, but Maggie’s bags are packed the following day. She tells Mickey she’s accepted a new job in major crimes in San Diego. She thinks they’ll end up stuck in the same vicious cycle if she stays. The only way to break it is for one of them to move on. Haley already knows, and Maggie’s move won’t change things too much for her.

Haley can still go to the same school and keep up her riding lessons. Mickey can see her whenever she wants. Maggie wants to move somewhere new and get a fresh start. Mickey doesn’t love it, but he understands her decision. It looks like it’s the end of the road for their romance, at least for now.

Written by Maddy Lennon

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 episode 7 recap: Cui Bono

Mickey gets a couple of interesting pieces of mail in the seventh episode of The Lincoln Lawyer season 2. Someone leaves a copy of an FBI target letter on his doorstep. The letter states that his alternate suspect, Alex Grant, is under investigation, meaning Bondurant’s email now carries more weight—if the letter is genuine. Mickey takes it to Legal for advice.

The first thing Mickey needs to do is to get clarification on whether or not this letter is the real deal or if someone is trying to screw Mickey over. Enter Cisco. Cisco has a contact who can find out if the letter is real, but in exchange, she wants backstage passes to the upcoming Def Leppard/Motley Crue concert.

Thus starts a suspenseful interlude throughout the episode as Mickey and the prosecutor, Andy Freeman, give their opening statements to start the trial and begin questioning the first witness, the homicide detective assigned to the case, Howard O’Brien.

O’Brien is an experienced detective who will be challenging to misdirect on cross. He connects the bloodstained gloves and the missing hammer to Lisa. However, he also points out that they found a coffee cup from Bondurant’s favorite place at the crime scene (the parking garage where Bondurant frequently parked his car) and a piece of glass that appeared to be from a broken side-view mirror.

Mickey points out that they cannot confirm the coffee cup was Lisa’s and her car doesn’t have a broken side-view mirror. He also notes that the prosecution has yet to present the murder weapon. From there, Mickey has to ask O’Brien many pointless questions regarding the chain of custody for the evidence and other minor details to stall for time so Cisco can figure out the truth.

Ultimately, Mickey is forced to take a gamble because Cisco’s contact doesn’t show, but the FBI agent who signed off on the letter, Felix Vasquez, arrives instead. He cannot confirm or deny the letter’s veracity, but Mickey takes that as proof enough and presents the letter in court.

He uses it to cast doubt on whether or not O’Brien did his due diligence to investigate every possible suspect or if he just focused on Lisa specifically. O’Brien didn’t know the feds were investigating Grant, so it begs the question, would he have looked deeper into him if he did?

During a break in court where the prosecution is given a chance to confirm the letter themselves, Mickey revisits Henry Dahl with an assignment. He needs Henry to lure Grant into a false sense of security, making him think Mickey has nothing on him.

That shouldn’t be hard since Henry has been feeding the contractor information all along. This will pay off in a future episode as part of a risky strategy Mickey is lining up. Remember, Mickey’s endgame here is to create reasonable doubt. His best way to do that is to make it look like the cops failed to investigate all potential suspects—namely, Alex Grant.

Back in the courtroom, Mickey’s gamble about the letter is correct. The prosecution has confirmed that the letter is genuine and called FBI agent Felix Vasquez himself to the stand. Andy’s goal is to make the letter appear inconsequential to the current case, to say that these target letters often go nowhere.

During cross-examination, Mickey gets Vasquez to admit that while FBI target letters don’t necessarily mean the recipient is guilty, the FBI doesn’t just send them out on a whim. And Vasquez has to remain coy because the investigation into Grant is ongoing. That word “ongoing” is all Mickey needs the jury to hear.

Afterward, Vasquez and Mickey meet briefly in the restroom, where Vasquez vaguely implies he left the letter on Mickey’s doorstep himself. Mickey realizes the feds are using this case to draw out Grant and see if he slips up or reveals anything incriminating when he eventually takes the stand.

However, the episode ends with a big reveal that could seriously hurt Lisa’s defense. Detective O’Brien and his team have found the murder weapon: the bloody hammer from Lisa’s toolkit.

Written by Maddy Lennon

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 episode 8 recap: Covenants and Stipulations

The next day, things are tense at trial as Lisa presses Mickey to let her take the stand. He doesn’t want to do that as he fears she’ll make herself look worse under cross-examination.

In the meantime, Mickey keeps cutting Andy off when she tries to present evidence, like the bloody gloves and the murder weapon. He’s prepared to stipulate that these two things belonged to Lisa and can enter into evidence uncontested.

It’s a way to prevent Andy from detailing the evidence to the jury. This way, yes, it can be used against Lisa, but now the jury doesn’t get to hear Andy going on and on about it. Plus, it fits with Mickey’s case anyway. He never said the gloves or hammer weren’t Lisa’s, just that someone else intentionally planted those items to frame her.

Today’s prosecutorial witness is the gardener who found the hammer. Mickey tries to point out that it’s suspicious timing that the hammer suddenly shows up right after the trial starts. He reiterates this point to O’Brien, too. Either O’Brien didn’t investigate very well at the start and missed something as glaring as the murder weapon, or it appeared at a very convenient time and place, lending credence to the possibility Lisa was framed.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Lisa’s ex, Jeff, shows up at the courthouse. Suddenly he’s eager to take the stand and help clear Lisa’s name, but only in exchange for a cut of the podcast money. He insinuates that Mickey can have him lie on the stand if he wants, so long as he gets paid. Mickey tells him, in no uncertain terms, to f*ck off.

In court, Andy calls her next witness, Walter Kim, who helped Bondurant get the temporary restraining order. Walter is the one who said Lisa got violent toward Bondurant at a protest, and he brings photographic proof that does appear to show Lisa getting in Bondurant’s face.

Mickey used Cisco to dig around and found someone else in attendance that day, a biker wearing a camera on his helmet. That footage shows a different angle of the incident that makes it clear Bondurant got in Lisa’s face first, and she was defending herself.

But Andy’s last witness is a real doozy. It’s Henry Dahl. Mickey can’t do anything to stop it because Henry has raw interview footage from his time spent with Lisa, and Andy believes one of Lisa’s statements is damning. Considering it’s the defendant’s own words, the judge must let things proceed accordingly, even if it blindsides Mickey.

The tape Andy plays has Lisa saying she learned everything there was to know about Bondurant, including where he got his coffee and parked his car. It proves Lisa knew where Bondurant would be because she knew the parking garage he used and his regular spot. It’s not looking good for Lisa now, so, in a desperate move, Mickey decides to put her on the stand.

The subplots in this episode are mainly about Izzy and the arrival of Mickey’s mother, Elena. Elena is an actress invited to town for Mickey’s birthday, a day he hates celebrating. Once there, she decides to stay with Mickey to audition for a new show. Something goes wrong at the audition, and Elena’s agent drops her. As for Izzy, she’s getting railroaded out of her new dance studio because the landlord is suddenly trying to charge her way more for the security deposit than they initially agreed.

With Lorna’s help, they prove he was discriminating against Izzy, hiking up the price for her but offering Lorna the place for much less, unaware the two are friends. Lorna and Izzy take their grievance straight to the owner and threaten legal action if she doesn’t make things right. Izzy finally gets her dance studio, which means she’ll soon leave Mickey to focus on her dream.

Written by Maddy Lennon

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 episode 9 recap: The Fifth Witness

The penultimate episode of The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 begins with Lisa taking the stand as the defense begins presenting their case. She tells her side of the story well and appeals to the jury’s emotions. Lisa admits she hated Bondurant but only wanted to do right by her community. After, she and Mickey spend the weekend preparing her for cross-examination.

Their next witness is one of Lisa’s employees, René, who has nothing but nice things to say about Lisa. During cross, Andy brings up an old social media post she found. In the post, René ranted about how he had gotten sick of Lisa and wanted to quit his job. René says it was a one-time incident, but his comments on the post say otherwise, and ultimately, he does what Andy wants: he admits Lisa had a temper and could be hard to work with at times.

Next is a doctor who brings in a big mannequin to show the size difference between Lisa and Bondurant. Based on the physical demonstration, with Lorna acting as a stand-in for Lisa, there is no way that Lisa could have bludgeoned Bondurant with enough force to kill him from behind because she isn’t tall enough to reach him. But then Andy steps up and swiftly proves that if Bondurant was looking up at the ceiling with his head tilted back, Lisa could have done it.

But Mickey’s most significant play comes when Alex Grant finally takes the stand. Mickey gets him to admit to changing his last name from Kazarian to Grant and draws the connections between him and his crime syndicate family. His father and uncle are, or have, served time in prison.

Mickey then brings out the big guns, proof showing that Alex regularly visits his dad in jail and then would always go straight to his uncle’s bakery right after, insinuating that Alex is spreading information to and from his father in jail. Ultimately, Mickey asks Alex Grant if he is a participant in the Kazarian criminal organization.

Since Mickey had gotten Alex off-guard by having Henry tell him they had nothing, Alex is very off-balance on the stand and has to plead the fifth. It’s a big deal because now the jury will believe Alex is hiding something and stew on it until closing. It could make them feel there is enough reasonable doubt in the case to find Lisa not guilty.

The judge calls both attorneys into her office after. Andy is pissed since if a lawyer thinks a witness could plead the fifth, they’re not supposed to let them on the stand. The testimony will be stricken, but it’s too late to unring that particular bell. The jury heard it, and they will wonder. Mickey is adamant that he didn’t know, or at least there’s nothing to prove it was his plan even though we know it was his goal all along.

Then Mickey follows up with the real kicker by putting Cisco on the stand so he can testify to a photo he took that shows an Eagle Couriers truck parked outside Bondurant’s parking garage during the same timeframe the murder reportedly occurred. Alex Grant is one of Eagle Couriers’ leading investors. Mickey has done his job of painting Grant as a possible alternate suspect. Now we have to see if the jury agrees.

Andy can’t do anything about it, but she can give the jury something else to think about. Instead of waiting, she interjects that she’s ready for her closing argument now and delivers an excellent one, so the jury leaves with her closing argument as the last thing on their minds rather than Grant pleading the fifth. Mickey will have to pull out all of the stops for his closing.

But that evening, Mickey gets a surprising new break in the case. René, the employee from Lisa’s restaurant, stops by with some food. He notices a photo of Walter Kim on the table and asks Mickey about his connection to the case. René claims Walter is a health inspector and stopped by the restaurant the day before Lisa was arrested.

He would have had access to Lisa’s garage, too. Mickey rushes to look at the files on The Terrazzo and sees Kim signed off on them. So Walter’s real job is being a building inspector, but he masqueraded as a health inspector to get into Lisa’s garage and frame her for Bondurant’s murder.

Alex Grant was paying bribes to Walter Kim, and when Bondurant sent that threatening email, he was threatening Walter Kim, too. Walter also took a picture of Lisa at the protest, so he knew Lisa was the perfect person to frame. Walter might not have killed Bondurant of his own accord, but maybe Grant put him up to it. Either way, it’s an important discovery.

And unlike Alex Grant, Walter didn’t have any protections, so he would have lost everything if the feds got involved. That’s the motive right there! Mickey tells Cisco to go and find Walter; they might have a shot at reopening the case.

Unfortunately, it won’t be that easy. Cisco says Walter’s wife reported him missing two days ago when he never came home from work. The defense and prosecution have already rested their cases, so they have no hope of reopening anything without Walter. Cisco promises to keep looking and to find out what he can.

Written by Maddy Lennon

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 episode 10 recap: Bury Your Past

The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 finale begins with everyone prepping for the final day of trial. Lorna gives Mickey a little pep talk on their elevator ride to the courtroom. It’s time for his closing statement.

Unfortunately, Cisco is unable to track down Walter Kim. It’s not looking good for Walter. Not only is Walter MIA, but his car has been abandoned. We don’t know that Walter killed Bondurant, but we do know that Alex Grant was paying him bribes. Walter is the only one who could have pointed a finger at Grant, meaning he’s a sticky loose end for the businessman.

Cisco thinks Walter is dead, and I’m inclined to agree. What does that mean for Lisa? Well, without Walter, they can reopen the case. They’ll have to win on the defense they’ve laid out already. Lucky for Lisa, Mickey is an excellent attorney.

During his closing argument, Mickey points out how weird it would be for Lisa to keep the gloves and murder weapon so close by if she did kill Bondurant. He also highlights Grant as an alternate suspect and points out why Lisa would make an excellent patsy. Despite everything, Mickey’s argument is strong enough to win the case. The jury doesn’t take long to deliberate, and they find Lisa not guilty!

Mickey, Lorna, Izzy, and Cisco return to the office to pop champagne (sparkling cider for Mickey and Izzy) and celebrate their big win. Mickey’s mom, Elena, is also there, and she gets some good news: she got the part she auditioned for! Her agent will be begging to take her back. Her new job is taking her to Calgary in Canada, so she has to leave to start packing ASAP.

Cisco calls Lorna and Mickey into the conference room to show them his findings on Walter Kim. He got the police photos showing what they found in Walter’s abandoned car. The most interesting thing is a broken inspection mirror. Remember that curved piece of glass found at the crime scene? Looks like it could belong to this mirror.

As for how Walter could have pulled off the murder, Cisco uses Lorna’s compact mirror to demonstrate. Walter likely used the inspection mirror to reflect sunlight on the roof of the parking garage, making Bondurant look up. As we saw during the court demonstration, someone of Lisa’s height, like Walter, could have bludgeoned Bondurant to death had his head been tilted toward the ceiling. It all seems to fit. Walter Kim killed Mitchell Bondurant. But, as Mickey points out, their part is over. Now it’s up to the police to figure it out.

Lorna’s happy bubble gets popped when she receives a call from the wedding venue. Somehow, they double-booked Lorna and Cisco’s reservation, and they won’t have another opening until October…of next year. Lorna wonders if she and Cisco’s wedding is cursed because they keep hitting these speed bumps. However, Cisco and Izzy share a knowing look over Lorna’s head. They might have a backup plan!

Lisa stops by Mickey’s house to bring him food from her post-trial neighborhood celebration that night. Now that the trial is over, they’re free to rekindle their romance, but Mickey has Lisa verbally fire him to ensure all of their bases are covered. They spend the night together. Mickey got over Maggie pretty quickly, huh?

The next day, Mickey is surprised to find a FedEx envelope from Henry Dahl at the office. He came through with a check from the podcast earnings, after all. Even more surprising is Andy showing up with a little gift. She and Mickey exchange some teasing barbs about Mickey’s win, but they clearly respect one another. Andy gives Mickey a mug that says “number one lawyer.” Cute. I hope she returns next season.

Andy also tells Mickey what the police have found on Walter Kim. Even though Walter is presumed dead, they found traces of Bondurant’s blood on his boots, and, like we thought, the broken glass is a perfect match for the inspection mirror in Walter’s car. For once, Andy snarks, Mickey’s client actually didn’t do it! As for Alex Grant, the feds are all over him for construction fraud.

Later, Mickey and Haley spend the day together on Venice Beach. They pass by a street musician and some people working out when Mickey realizes something. The sounds he hears are familiar. He remembers hearing the same ambiance during his one phone call with Lisa’s ex, Jeff, earlier this season, meaning Jeff was in Venice Beach the whole time.

After digging through Facebook, Mickey finds an old photo of Lisa’s staff on René’s profile. In it is the guy who claimed to be “Jeff” at the courthouse. Turns out, he’s a former employee of Lisa’s. An out-of-work actor she must have hired to pretend to be her husband. But why would she do all of that? Mickey confronts Lisa about his findings at her restaurant, and the truth comes out.

Even though Lisa didn’t kill Bondurant, she did kill Jeff, and his body is likely buried in her cilantro garden since Jeff hated cilantro. Cisco found an old petition for divorce, but it was never filed. If Jeff had gotten his wish, he could have taken half of everything, meaning Lisa would have lost her restaurant, and she was willing to do whatever it took to keep it, even murder.

Mickey always felt something was off with Lisa’s story but never suspected the severity of her actions. He makes it clear to Lisa he knows what she did, and when he leaves, he slides back into his car with Lorna in the passenger’s seat. Lorna always suspected something was off about Lisa, though she feels terrible for Mickey.

Lorna also took the initiative to call the police, specifically Detective Raymond Griggs, to tell him their suspicions about Lisa having a body on her property. It looks like she’s going to end up behind bars after all!

We pivot to something more lighthearted than murder: marriage! Cisco and Lorna finally bite the bullet and get married at the courthouse. Then Cisco surprises Lorna by taking her to Izzy’s dance studio, where he’s worked hard to create a beautiful reception for Lorna, complete with live music, flowers, and all of their friends. It’s super sweet.

Speaking of Izzy, she and Mickey share a tender farewell, though she’ll stay part-time to earn extra cash for her business. Later,  Lorna pulls Izzy aside to share her new theory. She thinks Lisa might have been the one to hire the goons that beat up Mickey.

It didn’t make sense for it to be Alex Grant after he jumped through all those hoops to appear like a typical, law-abiding businessman. But when Lisa realized Mickey was planning to use Grant as a straw man, she could have hired those guys to help keep Mickey on that path. For now, Lorna decides not to tell Mickey her hunch; he’s already upset enough. But she and Izzy agree that Lisa is certifiably insane.

However, The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 doesn’t exactly end on a happy note. Mickey meets up with Legal that night to discuss the end of the case, and Legal mentions that Alex Grant lost his bid to build the Athlete’s Village for the Olympics. He warns Mickey that the guy clearly has a vengeful streak, and when Mickey leaves, a car tries to run him down. He narrowly avoids it.

Afterward, he calls Izzy to confirm what kind of car Grant drives. She tells him he has a new client in jail and wonders if he can visit him that night. Mickey decides to do it even though it’s late and meets Julian Lacosse, accused of killing his friend, Giselle Dallinger. Julian says Giselle spoke highly of him, but Mickey doesn’t recognize the name.

He goes to identify the body, and when the technician pulls back the sheet to reveal it, Mickey is shocked to discover that it’s Gloria Dayton or Glory Days! Mickey recalls receiving the postcard from her and wonders what happened. Did she never make it to Hawaii? Did she return to LA? Either way, it’s sad that someone murdered her, but we know what the next season will be about!

Written by Maddy Lennon