The Lincoln Lawyer delivered another compelling murder trial in Season 3 that proved incredibly personal and deeply dangerous for Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and the team.
In the third season of Netflix‘s legal drama — adapted from Michael Connelly’s best-selling series — it seemed as if Mickey may have met his match with William Forsythe (John Pirruccello), that he’d be unable to get justice for Gloria Dayton’s (Fiona Rene) murder, and that he might not convince the jury of Julian La Cosse’s (Devon Graye) innocence. In the finale, however, all the pieces fell into place — but not without sacrifice.
The official synopsis for The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3, Episode 10, “The Gods Of Guilt,” is as follows: “In a shocking twist, the missing pieces of Gloria’s murder come together on the witness stand — but one last surprise leaves the entire courtroom shaken.” On top of that, Season 3 ends with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger that perfectly tees up Mickey’s next case and a gripping Season 4 storyline.
So how did The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 end? Did Mickey win the case? Did Julian survive his prison stabbing and go free? What happened to Neil Bishop (Holy McCallany) and Agent James de Marco (Michael Irby)? And what the heck was that last-minute finale twist all about?!
Decider’s Season 3, Episode 10 recap has you covered. Just be mindful, The Lincoln Lawyer spoilers lie ahead.
The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 Ending Explained: Season 3, Episode 10 Recap
As “Best Day of My Life” by American Authors played, The Lincoln Lawyer‘s Season 3 finale flashed back 10 years to what was likely the worst day of Neil Bishop’s life. He was sitting alone in a burger joint arguing with his wife about custody of their son on the phone. After she hung up on him, Agent de Marco approached, flashed his badge, and sat down uninvited to steal some fries. Next thing Bishop knew, de Marco was interrogating him about a double homicide he and his partner were investigating on Montgomery Avenue. At first, Bishop blew de Marco off. But when the DEA agent stressed it was in his best interest to hear him out and offered to pay him money for a lawyer that could help him win custody of his son, Bishop reluctantly agreed to keep the case unsolved, thereby selling his soul to the compromised agent.
In present-day, following the intense Episode 9 exchange between Bishop and Mickey (where Haller showed him security footage of him and de Marco at Peter Sterghos’ house), Bishop willingly took the stand and was sworn in. As Mickey questioned him before the jury, he admitted that he requested to work as an investigator on Gloria Dayton’s case because de Marco told him to. As Mickey clocked one of de Marco’s guy’s furiously texting updates from the back of the court room, he reached out to Cisco (Angus Sampson) and told him to keep eyes on the DEA agent. Then, Bishop spilled everything Mickey needed to set Julian free.
After confirming Gloria was de Marco’s informant, Bishop revealed that he’s the one who booked a date with her, disguised himself with a hat in the hotel lobby, and was following her per orders from de Marco. Once Gloria got back to her apartment, Bishop let de Marco know, and an hour later he saw the DEA agent evade security cameras to sneak inside and “talk to her.” Following the damning revelations, Judge Turner (Merrin Dungey) called a brief recess to ask Bishop if he wanted to have his own council present. Bishop assured her he wanted to continue testifying and “committed no crime,” but she made him surrender his firearm for the duration just to be safe. Meanwhile, Cisco was still tailing de Marco, who was now on the move…
When the jury returned, Bishop told the court he saw Julian enter Gloria’s apartment at 10:45 p.m. the night she died and leave 15 minutes later. De Marco arrived 10 minutes after that, and though Bishop didn’t know for sure what the DEA agent would do, an hour later Gloria was dead. De Marco claimed he just wanted to talk to Gloria because she called him a week earlier from a blocked number freaking out over a subpoena.
With tensions rising and Bishop spilling more ruinous information about de Marco every second, Cisco’s pursuit heated up and the DEA agent successfully lost him on the road. Back in court, Bishop revealed that de Marco had a hold on him. He came clean about taking the offer in the burger joint 10 years earlier when he was still a detective working that double homicide case, and since then, he said de Marco owned him. “My son was only nine years old. He needed his father. I couldn’t lose him,” Bishop explained.
When Mickey asked if he ever found out what happened to Gloria, Bishop said, “I asked point blank if he killed her. He said when he went into her apartment, she was already dead. He said he set the fire because he didn’t know if she had anything that could link him to her, and he didn’t want it coming back on him.” With tears in his eyes, Bishop then admitted he didn’t believe de Marco, and in the words of Lorna (Becki Newton), “Holy shit.”
As everyone in the room processed the game-changing information, Bishop reached down to his ankle, grabbed a second hidden firearm, and said, “Tell my son I’m sorry.” He fatally shot himself in court, leaving Mickey and the rest of the room shaken to their cores. Later that night, as Andy (Yaya DaCosta) checked up on Mickey, he told her he worried that he pushed Bishop too far and was to blame for the tragic event. Andy assured him he was just doing his job, and that Bishop planned the move before he even entered the court room. She said the system was “fucked” and he couldn’t blame himself. And to further prove her point, she shared that her mentee, Vanessa (Chelsea M. Davis), was running the Deborah Glass’ (Rebekah Kennedy) murder case and her boss Adam Suarez (Philip Anthony-Rodriquez) was being appointed District Attorney.
Though Julian spent the episode in the ICU, when Mickey headed to the hospital to tell him and David the charges were officially dismissed and Julian was a free man, it was clear he was on the road to recovery. As for recourse, Mickey said they could likely get a cash offer, but they may have to go to trial for it. Julian was sure he’d never want to step foot in a court room again, but Mickey urged him not to give up on the possibility just yet.
After a major rough stretch, The Lincoln Lawyer characters made serious efforts to move forward and reclaim control of their lives. Tired of all the “purgatory bullshit,” Andy marched into Suarez’s office and told him if he didn’t want his first official duty as DA to be losing the Scott Glass case he’d put her back on it. Though Mickey was admittedly ready to quit, his daughter Hayley (Krista Warner) visited him after learning he saved an innocent man and told him he had to keep going. The two made amends and she even said she wanted to follow in his footsteps and go to law school one day. (Sorry, Mickey! She wants to be a prosecutor!)
Before The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 wrapped, we traveled forward in time four months, where Cisco was presenting his findings to a board room of powerful people, including DA Suarez, in hopes of getting Julian money all for the pain he endured. He was able to establish a link between three separate instances — all of which featured cocaine from the Juárez cartel, the same one responsible for double homicide that de Marco paid Bishop not to solve. After Suarez pushed back on Mickey, the Lincoln Lawyer gave a compelling speech to fight for Gloria and Julian, who were let down by decades of corruption. “All of you are gonna pay for this, cause I’m gonna make you,” he said. “I didn’t want to take this case to trial — didn’t know if i had it in me anymore. But now I’m itching…”
As the finale winded down, Suarez agreed to pay Julian more than he expected, Lorna took lead on the divorce case of the wife of the guy who thought Eddie was a valet driver, and Mickey got in even deeper with the cartel. A photo of a murdered de Marco with a rattlesnake around his neck arrived at the office, and he received a call from Hector Moya (Arturo Del Puerto) thanking him for his help and promising he’d handle the rival cartel for him. To celebrate their wins, the team took the day off and grabbed lunch together. Mickey said they were all bonuses, and though he was finally going to take a vacation, he wasn’t ready to quit. The team toasted to “The Gods of Guilt, the ones we carry around with us” and on his way out of the restaurant, Mickey saw final visions of Gloria, Eddie, and his dad. The Lincoln Lawyer hopped in his car and drove away in good spirits, only to get pulled over by a cop.
Was the cop crooked? Were the police after him because of the Gloria Dayton case? Nope! Turns out he was mysteriously missing a license plate. A perplexed Mickey said it must have been stolen when he parked downtown and agreed to take a ticket, but before the cop let him off the hook, he noticed what appeared to be blood dripping from the back of his vehicle. The officer ordered Mickey to open the trunk, and when he refused, he was cuffed and moved to the side. Against Mickey’s orders, the cop popped the trunk and uncovered a man’s bloody body inside, which had Mickey baffled and horrified. On top of the fact that he had no idea how the body got there, the deceased was his former client, Sam Scales (Christopher Thornton), who owed the firm a lot of money. YIKES!
With such a suspenseful cliffhanger, fans will surely be hoping for a Season 4, so read on for everything we know about the future of the Netflix series.
While we await more news on The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4, the first three seasons are currently streaming on Netflix.
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