Previously on Apple TV’s Presumed Innocent, Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal) decided to represent himself in the murder trial of Carolyn Pohlemus (Renate Reinsive) after Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp) had a heart attack. Rusty questions Carolyn’s son, Michael (Tate Birchmore), which results in a slight altercation with Michael’s dad, Dalton (Matthew Alan), who yells at Rusty in the courtroom. Then, Rusty decides to testify in court, and on the day of, Mya (Gabby Beans) and Raymond both represent him in the trial against Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard) and Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle).
It’s now time for the series finale. The previous episode ended with Tommy finding out someone broke into his home, leaving a note and a pit poker on his kitchen counter. Now, the police are investigating the evidence in his home. Tommy believes it was Rusty, but Nico thinks otherwise.
Rusty gets a call the next morning about what happened at Tommy’s place. They all meet with Judge Lyttle (Noma Dumezweni). She says she’ll declare a mistrial if that’s what they want, but Nico says that they should continue the trial. Raymond and Mya pull Rusty out of the room as he gets angry with Tommy. Raymond mentions that Tommy could have planted the weapon to make Rusty look guilty.
The next witness on the stand is a medical examiner who says that there was no food in Carolyn’s stomach when she died. She says that Kumagai (James Hiroyuki Liao) was untrue about Carolyn’s time of death. While Kumagai stated that Carolyn died around 10 p.m. The examiner says that the time of death was around 2-3 a.m.
After that, Rusty and Barbara are with Mya and Raymond. Raymond says they need an alibi for Rusty being home at the time of Carolyn’s death. Barbara says she can vouch for him, but Mya doesn’t think it’s a good idea to have her on the stand because she’s biased. They all agree to not put her as the witness and Rusty believes he should close the trial because his life depends on it.
As Rusty is practicing his closing in the shed, Jaden (Chase Infiniti) comes in. She tells him that she could help him with the closing. Even though it’s not said verbally, Jaden doesn’t want Rusty to do the closing, she’s scared. He tells her not to worry.
It’s officially time for the last day of the trial for the jury. Jaden and Kyle (Kingston Rumi Southwick) join Barbara in the courtroom to support Rusty.
Rusty is the first to state his closing. He has a strong closing statement. He points out that there isn’t any evidence good enough to prove that he murdered Carolyn. He mentions that he loves and misses her and that Tommy has been on a “mission” to put him in prison for something he didn’t do. He tells the jury that this case is about them. It’s their decision on whether he is guilty or not. As Rusty mentions his family, he gets emotional.
Tommy’s statement focuses on the idea that Rusty had an obsession with Carolyn. He points out Rusty’s violent nature in the past and the text messages he sent to Carolyn on the night of the murder. He shows the jury the pictures of the murder scene again as a reminder that Rusty is the killer.
Later, we see Nico going to Tommy’s office. He asks Tommy how much he loved Carolyn. Tommy is surprised by the question. Before he can answer, Eugenia (Virginia Kull) comes in saying that the jury has made their verdict.
Everyone goes back to the courtroom and the verdict begins. Judge Lyttle reads the documents. Rusty stands up from his seat, along with Raymond. The jury finds Rusty not guilty of murder, which makes the audience gasp out of shock. His family is relieved, while Tommy is upset. While everyone is reacting, Rusty doesn’t show any reaction on his face.
After it’s all done, Rusty makes a statement to the press. He still wants to find the murderer because he wants there to be justice for Carolyn.
On the next day, Nico comes back to Tommy’s office. Nico tells Tommy that he needs to move on from Carolyn and Rusty. Nico says that he tried his best to win the case, but it’s all over now.
It’s now nighttime and Rusty goes to the bedroom, seeing a suitcase packed with Barbara’s clothes. He goes to her and mentions it. Rusty then begins to say he knew something was going on with Barbara the day after the murder. He said he went back that night to cover it up, to tie up Carolyn’s body.
The scene then transitions to what took place that night when Rusty came back a second time. He walked into the house finding her body on the floor.
Rusty tells Barbara that he didn’t call 911 because he wanted to protect her from getting caught. She tells him that he’s wrong, but he says that he tracked her car after the night with the bartender. He knows that she planted the poker in Tommy’s house. As he says that, Jaden steps in saying she was the one who planted it. She thought he was going to be convicted, so she did that to protect him.
Jaden tells her parents that on the night of the murder, she went to Carolyn’s home to tell her that she needs to stay away from Rusty. Carolyn told Jaden that she was pregnant. Jaden was the one who killed her with the poker.
Rusty tells Jaden and Barbara that they will never speak of this. He says that if it does come up, it was self-defense on Jaden’s end and it was because of him.
As time goes by, everyone resumes to their lives, living happily.
Overall, this series was very good. The plot twist with Jaden was very unexpected and it makes sense if we think about it, seeing as though Jaden was very scared throughout the entire case, not wanting her father to be found guilty by the jury. Jake Gyllenhaal did great in the role of Rusty, along with Ruth Negga, Peter Sarsgaard, and everyone else. This was a very talented cast. Every episode was intriguing and kept viewers on their toes as to figuring out who killed Carolyn Pohlemus.
Rating: 10/10