The Lincoln Lawyer Season 2 Episode 6 Review: Withdrawal
Denis Kimathi
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When a show has a split release format, it must always conform to the regular TV standards of crafting a cliffhanger or a mini cliffhanger to keep people excited so they might consider returning.
It happened on The Lincoln Lawyer Season 1 Episode 5 when unknown assailants attacked Mickey and beat him properly.
But a short while before the beating, a frustrated Mickey said some awful things to Lorna, making for an additional cliffhanger.
They should have been enough to explore for at least two episodes if both were important enough to mark the midseason.
Izzy found Mickey in time and had him rushed to the hospital, where he recovered from his injuries nicely.
But he didn't have the luxury of sitting around waiting on his body, not when his mind was sharp and he had a case to win.
The Lincoln Lawyer Season 2 Episode 6 found Mickey trying to figure out who stole the agreement, attacked him, and how it might be connected to the Lisa Trammel case, if at all.
It was not lost on Mickey just how much work he had to do because Andrea introduced an expert witness to court who testified to some damning forensic evidence. As Mickey said, many people have watched a CSI show or two, and forensic evidence is always damning.
Alex: The fuck is this?
Lorna: Alex Grant, you have been served. Your fingerprints are all over this glass and the gallery cameras have caught everything.
Alex: You sure your boss wants to do this? This is entrapment.
Cisco: Entrapment only applies to the police.
His strategy was to point the jury in another direction so they could consider that there were more suspects in the murder of Mitchel Bondurant and, with sufficient evidence, maybe give the jury enough reasonable doubt to let Lisa go.
But Alex Grant was not going down that easy. He had enough resources to keep him out of reach for a long time. Long after the jury had reached a verdict, and Lisa was convicted.
Izzy and Mickey figured that it must have been Ray who stole the agreement under instructions from Henry. You've got to give it to Henry that he'd do anything for a payday.
Ray was a mysterious woman we had seen once and not again. She seemed very important to the story as she came up in conversation a lot, but we barely knew anything about her to care about her motivation.
When she was scapegoated for the loss of the document, it didn't feel particularly interesting because she was out of sight, out of mind. Was it wrong for her to betray her girlfriend like that? Absolutely. But the studio space was not going to rent itself.
The mystery of who attacked Mickey still existed, but he had a rough idea. People, especially the rich, will do anything to avoid legal proceedings. Hearings can be mentally and economically taxing, and when you've got something to hide, the more reason to avoid prosecution.
Since Alex Grant must have learned he was a person of interest in Michel Bondurant's murder, he must have sent the message to Mickey to keep Alex's name out of his mouth.
And then, when Cisco found a connection between Henry and Alex, everything fell into place. Henry was above his station with the podcast, but it's LA; you do what you must, or you'll be homeless tomorrow.
Cisco: How'd it go?
Mickey: I won the battle, but if I can't come up with something else, we might lose the war.
Cisco: Yeah, well, maybe this will help. You
were right. There is a connection between Henry Dahl and Alex Grant.
Mickey: What did you find?
Cisco: Well, you know, Grant has all those shell companies. One of them is an S Corp named Pan Media, mainly invest in entertainment projects. This guy is the president of that company, David Webber. Mickey: Who's David Weber.
Cisco: He's the executive producer of Henry Dahl's last podcast. Something called Skid Romance.
Mickey: Great work, Cisco.
I was willing to bet he was in financial trouble, and seeing where he lived, it made sense.
Lorna was working for Mickey again, but why?
Mickey said some very hurtful stuff to her, and he didn't deserve a pass just because he had a few broken ribs.
Lorna has always been a great asset to the office, and it would have been interesting to see how Mickey would fair without her and her brilliant mind.
Lorna had been married to Mickey, and I'm sure she knows all his flaws, but she has never allowed him to appreciate her post-divorce.
She kept that office functioning and did duties above her job description.
She should have let him stay in limbo a little longer, even if she was planning on returning eventually, but a few stitches and broken ribs, and she was back.
Come on, Lorna! What happened to Mickey going to f*ck himself?
Court was back in session, and Mickey had a not-so-small task of proving that Alex Grant should have been considered a person of interest in Mitchel's murder.
You can count on nothing going past her in Judge Medina's courtroom. Yes, Mickey had reasonable evidence that Mitchel was blackmailing Alex Grant over some wrongdoing, but there was no definitive proof of any wrongdoing.
A business email with terse language barely indicated guilt, and Judge Medina was open with her take.
My point, Mr. Haller, is that while one email may have been enough to goad Mr. Grant into testifying, it is not enough to prove he is relevant to this case. And before Miss Freemann sucks any more air out of the room, let me just say that I will be inclined to agree with her objections to this witness at trial unless you connect the dots more thoroughly.
Judge Medina
Mickey still needed to prove why Alex should be considered important in this case; otherwise, Mickey was just wasting everyone's time. Time wastage was not something that thrilled Judge Medina.
Mickey and Maggie will always be connected to each other through Hailey, but it would be disingenuous to say they didn't have feelings for each other; however different those feelings might have been.
But it was out of character for Maggie to allow herself to be pulled back into the Mickey Haller orbit. It was surprising when they had sex, but it finally made sense after her revelation the following morning.
Maggie: I've been offered a job, Mickey. Mickey: You're leaving the DA's office?
Maggie: No, not exactly. It's with the DA's office in San Diego. Head of Major Crimes. It's a really big opportunity for me, I've been putting them off for weeks, but it's too good to pass up.
Mickey: I don't understand. San Diego? Last night Maggie ...
Maggie: ... was good. Wonderful. Yeah, I know. That's why I have to leave.
Maggie had been less prominent for most of The Lincoln Lawyer Season 2, which didn't affect the story.
Her exit was not significant at all. Who will miss Her's and Mickey's constant arguments? Not me.
Mickey had beat the odds. He had healed up nicely and did not fall back into his opioid addiction. He was ready to represent Lisa.
"Withdrawal" was not particularly strong as a midseason premiere as it rushed into things too quickly, but one advantage was that we would begin Lisa's trial.
What did you think? Let us know in the comments section.
Denis Kimathi was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on X.
