Proven Innocent Season 1 Episode 6 Review: A CinderHella Story
Jack Ori
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It had to happen sooner or later.
Defending the wrongfully convicted always meant risking that a guilty person would be found innocent.
Proven Innocent Season 1 Episode 6 resulted in just that but was Maddie wrong to pursue this case?
There certainly was enough evidence for reasonable doubt!
Before Kaufman showed up on the scene, Maddie and her team had uncovered prosecutorial misconduct, caught an eyewitness in a major lie, and found a few other suspects that the cops never bothered to look at.
A significant part of the case against Adele was that she had bruises on her wrists, but a psychiatrist testified that she got those in the psych ward after the murder and that the cops weren't interested in hearing that particular truth.
Adele's original lawyer thought the cops were suffering from a severe case of confirmation bias, and Maddie's investigation seemed to back that up. So it was understandable that she believed Adele.
Related: Proven Innocent Season 1 Episode 5 Review
However, she and her team should have been more suspicious of Kaufman. I certainly was!
This guy came out of nowhere right when Maddie and Easy had hit a dead end. They were talking about how they needed a viable suspect and all of a sudden this dude was there with a magic formula to help prove this was the work of a serial killer.
It was too good to be true, and considering that Bellows so often plays dirty, Maddie and Easy should have been far more skeptical of Kaufman and his claims than they were.
Wrongful conviction lawyers do double duty as storytellers. They have to destroy the prosecution's story and replace it with another one.
Violet
At the very least, Violet should have questioned this "evidence" more than she did. She is often the most critical-minded of the group and had her doubts about Adele's innocence all along.
Just because Adele was "Cinderhella" didn't mean that Kaufman should have gotten treated like a fairy godfather who came out of the clear blue sky to grant the lawyers' wish for a suspect!
Related: Proven Innocent Season 1 Episode 4 Review
In retrospect, Maddie might have been biased by how closely Adele's case resembled her own. She, too, had witnesses who were lying as well as a dubious 911 call that helped get her locked up for 10 years.
She even ended up defending Adele against another prisoner who got impatient and tried to start a fight.
After learning about Adele's deception, I had to wonder how much of that was orchestrated to get Maddie's sympathy.
What on earth was going on with Bellows?
Maddie taking Adele's case should have been a dream come true for him. He needs Maddie to start getting guilty suspects off so that he can paint her as the enemy of justice and promote his tough-on-crime stance.
He tried to warn her that Adele's case was not what it seemed.
The system's failing. Corruption is rampant. Honest and hardworking people are missing out on what makes this country great. And I want to fix that.
Bellows
It goes to show that Bellows is sincere in his beliefs and his moral code, even if there are few lines he won't cross in the name of what he believes is justice.
He believes that all the innocent people he's locked up are worth it if he can also get the guilty off the streets, and he relies on his gut feelings about who's guilty of what.
That's why he keeps going after Maddie so hard -- he truly believes she got away with murder and can't fathom the possibility that he's wrong.
That's also why he tried to warn Maddie about Adele.
Even though she's his worst enemy, politically speaking, he saw stopping her from making this mistake as a win-win. She wouldn't get a reputation for being on the side of the bad guys, and he'd get a victory in his quest to keep the guilty behind bars.
Of course, Bellows is also a particularly cunning politician, and he might have realized Maddie would never listen to him. That gave him the advantage of being able to say he tried to tell her at the same time as he shatters her reputation later.
Bellows' interactions with the wealthy lobbyist who wants to bankroll his campaign were equally of interest.
From a political perspective, I'm thrilled that Proven Innocent is addressing the issue of corporate money in politics.
Rick's plan to get a quid pro quo from Bellows shows how dangerous it can be for a candidate to be beholden to stakeholders with a particular agenda, and Bellows' plan to break his promises to this guy after he's elected is not likely to work out the way he plans, either.
We live in a post Citizens United world, my friend. I can give you whatever money you need.
Zon
Bellows is probably going to get in deeper and deeper with Rick. It is already going the direction of legalized blackmail, with Rick wanting a date with Isabel. Rick can demand anything he wants because Bellows' career literally depends on his money.
Bellows has already compromised what few morals he has to get Rick's financial backing. By the time he gets into office, it's going to be difficult to break those promises without scandals getting leaked that could put him in danger of being removed from the position he worked so hard to get.
Speaking of things getting leaked to the press, I knew Maddie and Dylan's relationship wasn't going to end well, but I didn't expect it to be this bad!
I wish Dylan had stood up to his boss sooner, like any time before the guy decided to screw Dylan over and put his name on a smear campaign against Maddie.
Now Maddie will likely never learn that Dylan grew a backbone in the end and did not plan to run the story -- not that that makes his original plan to seduce his way into a headline any better.
As satisfying as it was for her to beat up Dylan, I think she'd better watch her temper from now on, too. Bellows is out to get her and would love a second chance to arrest her for murder. She got into two fistfights during this episode -- surely that could help Bellows' case against her if he gets wind of it!
We got a new clue in the Rosemary Lynch story, but I have no idea what it means.
Linda almost overdosed and warned Maddie more people would die if she didn't back off. I'm pretty sure Toby's suicide was on-screen, but I still questioned whether he was murdered or somehow forced him to hang himself to keep Maddie from the truth.
What scared Linda? And why was she the only person at the funeral who didn't seem to think that Levi and Maddie were guilty despite their exoneration?
We'd better get some more answers soon because these crumbs we're getting are not satisfying at all.
Your turn, Proven Innocent fanatics!
How quickly did you realize something was fishy about Kaufman? Were you surprised by Bellows' reluctance to help a donor with a possibly dangerous drug? And what did you make out of Linda's statements?
Watch Proven Innocent online and then hit the comments with your thoughts.
Proven Innocent continues to air on Fridays at 9 EST/PST on FOX.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.
