‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 4 Episode 8 Recap: Life By The Drop
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Make up your mind, Lincoln Lawyer. Mickey Haller began Season 4 in lockup, then bailed his way out, then voluntarily returned to the Klaxon Zone, and now in Episode 8 (“Confirmation Bias”), he has so broken the facility’s ability to barrierize his Mickey Haller-ness, it has triggered a special meeting in Judge Stone’s chambers to determine his status and safety. Maggie and Lorna are there for the defense, Dana Berg is loudly representing the People, and a Sheriff’s department rep from the jail brought his own legal counsel. After all, it was his deputies who eavesdropped on Mickey’s phone calls and coordinated the “riot” that landed Haller a beating and a berth in a special housing unit (SHU). “And your department is trying to avoid a lawsuit,” Maggie perceives, “which is exactly what you’ll get if anything happens to him inside.” Judge Lionel Stone wrings his hands. He’s probably wishing he was somewhere else. “This is a cluster-”
Mickey’s free again! Under house arrest, because Dana. But free! And the latest fight in court involves Maggie McPherson clobbering all of Dana’s witnesses. When a ballistics expert tries to say neighbors wouldn’t hear Mickey shooting Sam to death in his garage because the pistol was suppressed, Maggie uses a simple floorplan diagram to show the jury how Mickey might not hear the gunshot, either. Berg next puts Jessica Westfeldt (Angie Campbell) on the stand, who had a cup of coffee as an intern at Haller & Associates during Lincoln Lawyer Season 3. A quick flashback to a random back-and-forth recalled by Jessica, who swears she felt threatened. Mickey, outside court with Sam Scales, saying “If you don’t pay us, you’re dead.” Lorna with the assist, who confirms Jessica was fired, and then McFierce actually eats this poor woman alive, right there in the courtroom. “Are you testifying today in retaliation?”
On house arrest at home, in his midcentury hovel, Mickey reminds Maggie of his seasoned streetlevel knowledge of the Los Angeles restaurant scene, gleaned from years of mobile-lawyering. It’s jerk chicken they’re enjoying, as the view of nighttime LA unspools from every direction and they congratulate each other on mostly clowning Dana Berg’s witnesses. In some ways, it seemed too easy. The ex-intern’s gripes could’ve been bowled over by a first-year law student. Maggie suggests Dana Berg must have something juicy she has yet to deploy. “Any more skeletons in your closet I should know about?”
The whole time she was showering her ex-husband with compliments about his casework and resto knowledge, he was quietly shifting closer to her in front of the couch. “Do you miss the food or my charming company?” Mickey’s caressing Maggie’s cheek, and she is letting him, when her phone lights up. It’s Jack. She moves to the patio as if to take her boyfriend’s call, but ends it instead. The Maggie-and-Mickey maybe train continues to pick up speed.
Cisco has pursued Alex Gazarian and his girlfriend Jeanine from her boat in the marina, to their poolside bungalow at the Chateau Marmont, through two Armenian heavies beating him down, and onward to watching the couple lay low at a resort in Palm Springs. He’s apologized to Lorna for commandeering her bright yellow Mini, in order to stay “inconspicuous.” And he’s stayed close to their quarry, because waiting for the right time to serve Gazarian papers was crucial to Mickey’s case.
But when Cisco does finally drop the subpoena, Gazarian basically shits on it. And anyway, they might have waited just a few minutes too long. It seems Gazarian wasn’t worried about the Haller team’s investigation so much as he was running from the same thugs who jumped Cisco. And those guys catch up to him at the resort in Palm Springs.
It’s not a good look when you’re on trial, fighting for your life, and a key figure in your defense drops nine stories to his death. With Alex Gazarian dead, it will be more difficult to draw out links in court between him, Biogreen, Sam Scales, and the FBI. Since he was clearly targeted, it could still play into what Mickey’s case looks like out on the streets. But the courtroom wins from earlier in this episode are now looking flimsy. Is this the development Dana Berg was hiding? With Sergeant Drucker on the stand, Mickey helps the prosecutor out. His line of questioning offers her an opening, and Iceberg seizes it, entering into evidence a brochure from one of Sam’s long cons, a fake charity. Mickey Haller’s name and likeness appears inside. It was discovered on the email server for Haller & Associates. And it could spell out the financial gain circumstance the prosecutor defined in her new murder charges. Well, Maggie says, at least Berg revealed her big surprise. But Mickey is mad that his mistake locked it in. “What a load of bullshit. And the jury bought it, too. She laid a trap and I stepped right into it.”
The case of Carter Gates, which Lorna took on via Mickey’s jailhouse lawyering, has reached an impasse. Did an eyewitness place Carter at the scene of a liquor store shooting through “confirmation bias,” or because Lorna’s client really was the doer?
Evidently the signature burger at Father’s Office in Santa Monica is so fantastic, it gets written by name into a food-forward series like The Lincoln Lawyer. Lorna offers to buy Izzy an “Office Burger” in exchange for a ride to Culver City.
Was Jeanine Ferrigno not just a figurehead at Biogreen, but the one actually playing Alex Gazarian this whole time? Minutes before he’s thrown out of a window to his death, Jeanine seems most interested in lounging by the pool.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.
