The Lincoln Lawyer. (L to R) Becki Newton as Lorna Crane, Devon Graye as Julian La Cosse, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller in episode 306 of The Lincoln Lawyer. Cr. Lara Solanki/Netflix © 2024

Did Mickey Haller kill someone?

Spoiler alert: The next incorporates particulars from Season 3 of “The Lincoln Lawyer,” streaming now on Netflix. Beware if you have not seen it and do not wish to know.

The final time we noticed Mickey Haller, he was en route in his Lincoln convertible to the morgue. This time, the useless physique was nearer than he imagined.

Season 3 of “The Lincoln Lawyer” picks up after Mickey (Manuel García-Rulfo) receives a name from a brand new consumer who’s being held on a homicide cost for the demise of Gloria Dayton, aka Gloria Days (Fiona Rene), a former consumer turned shut buddy of Mickey. Now, we’re seeing Mickey’s quest to defend an harmless man and avenge the demise of Days whereas exposing a corrupt justice system.

“The stakes are a lot higher this season as a result of Mickey is making an attempt to resolve the demise of anyone he actually cared about which is a big distinction from previous seasons,” showrunner Ted Humphrey (“The Triangle,” “Thick As Thieves”) tells USA TODAY. “You begin to understand and Mickey begins to appreciate, did he have one thing to do with this? He feels on the hook, doubtlessly, for having led Gloria Days down this path. So it’s totally private for him.”

The stakes do not get a lot greater than in Episode 10 as Mickey’s future as a lawyer is examined when police discover an unlikely companion using in his Lincoln. “It is actually designed to be the most important one which we have achieved up to now as a result of what might be larger than anyone you care about being murdered and you’re feeling you are accountable ultimately and that you might want to resolve that? How do you high that?” Humphrey says. “Nicely, it is a useless physique in your trunk.”

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However first, who killed Gloria Days?

Julian La Cosse, who labored with Gloria Days and different intercourse employees, maintained all through Season 3 that he had nothing to do along with her demise. After plenty of digging, and some harmful and life-threatening encounters with a brand new large dangerous launched this season − the Mexican cartel − Mickey and his crew show her precise assassin was a corrupt Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent named James De Marco (Michael Irby).

In cahoots along with his non-public investigator, Neil Bishop (Holt McCallany), De Marco discovers Glorida’s deal with and units her residence on fireplace shortly after Julian leaves.

However what was De Marco’s motive? He was working with the Juárez cartel to cowl up their mess and after getting Gloria for prostitution and drug possession, he held that over her head. When one in every of Gloria’s shoppers occurs to be rival Tijuana cartel boss Hector Moya (Arturo Del Puerto), De Marco makes use of the filth he has on Gloria to coerce her into planning a gun on Moya − who will get despatched to jail for all times after the weapon is revealed to be related to a triple murder.

Which e-book is ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 3 primarily based on?

Season 3 relies on Michael Connelly’s “The Gods of Guilt,” the fifth e-book within the “Lincoln Lawyer” collection.

“In Mickey’s world, the ‘Gods of guilt’ is a phrase we have used earlier than that usually refers back to the jury,” Humphrey explains. “However very particularly on this story, Mickey begins to appreciate his personal private Gods of guilt lengthen past any specific case aren’t a jury, it is all of the folks in your life that matter and for whom you do issues.”

Mickey Haller can not help himself − a brand new love curiosity is launched

As a substitute of sleeping with shoppers, Mickey is now sleeping with colleagues.

“On the subject of romance and love, he is the worst. As a substitute of going for a waitress or a physician, he goes after a lawyer,” says García-Rulfo about Mickey’s love curiosity this season, his courtroom opponent Andrea Freeman (Yaya DaCosta). “To not point out, she’s greatest buddies along with his ex-wife Maggie.”

Nonetheless, García-Rulfo finds the pairing in Season 3 attention-grabbing “particularly as a result of they’re opposites. She’s very robust, beautiful, and by the e-book whereas Mickey is pushed by his instincts.”

Like Mickey, Andrea can be guilt-ridden after she fails to tell a consumer named Deborah Glass that her abusive ex-husband might be briefly let loose of jail, which leads to her homicide. “As we have been rising the stakes on Mickey, we needed to concurrently improve the stakes on Andrea, in order that they discovered themselves on this corresponding place with one another,” Humphrey says.

Who dies in ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 3? Mickey grapples with two main deaths

Season 3 of “The Lincoln Lawyer” has the best physique depend of any season so far.

In Episode 3, “Rearview Blind Spots,” Andrea receives information that her consumer was murdered by her ex-husband. In Episode 5, “What Occurs in Victorville,” Mickey and his new driver Eddie Rojas (Allyn Moriyon) get in a tragic accident arrange by De Marco (who additionally finally ends up useless by the tip of the season), and Eddie does not make it out alive. This one particularly hurts as Eddie is a household buddy who used to babysit Mickey’s daughter Hayley. “So what occurs to him creates ripples that reach past simply the case,” Humphrey says.

García-Rulfo says Eddie’s demise “simply breaks him,” including that it is a turning level for Mickey, too.

“He is like, ‘It doesn’t matter what, I’ll go discover the reality and justice.’ He is aware of that every little thing is at stake, his household is in peril however that is why I feel the ghosts are there,” García-Rulfo says, referring to Mickey’s character imagining the ghosts of Gloria, Eddie and his father within the closing scenes of Episode 10. “It is his conscience not letting him go till he goes all the best way. But it surely’s unhappy, poor Eddie, he is so candy.”

Then early within the closing episode, “The Gods of Guilt,” Neil Bishop (Holt McCallany) who has been working with De Marco, dies by suicide capturing himself after testifying. “The climax of Season 3, which is de facto Bishop’s testimony, is among the most indelible moments of any of Michael Connelly’s ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ books,” Humphrey says. “To some extent, the entire present has been constructing to that second.”

In the event you or somebody you realize wants psychological well being sources and assist, please name, textual content or chat with the 988 Suicide & Disaster Lifeline or go to 988lifeline.org for twenty-four/7 entry to free and confidential companies.

‘Lincoln Lawyer’ finale: Who framed Mickey Haller for the demise of Sam Scales?

You would possibly must rewatch that closing scene of Episode 10 just a few instances to actually soak up what’s occurring.

After Mickey proves Julian’s innocence − at the price of Bishop capturing himself and Julian nearly not surviving jail following a stabbing − the gang goes out for a celebratory dinner the place he pronounces he’ll be taking a much-needed trip.

However earlier than turning on his out of workplace message, he would possibly must show his personal innocence. After Mickey leaves the restaurant, he takes a drive by the streets of LA in his modern Lincoln Continental and is later suspiciously pulled over by an officer. The 2 travel when the officer informs him his license plate lacking − however as the 2 look to the bumper of the automobile, blood drips out of the trunk.

As soon as the officer pops open the trunk, Mickey is confronted with the physique of Sam Scales (Christopher Thornton), a former consumer of Mickey and Lorna’s first after she passes the bar examination. The “hope is that individuals freeze body and look carefully as a result of you may truly see his wheelchair, and that provides you a little bit clue,” Humphrey says.

“The top is simply one other large hook,” García-Rulfo says. “Mickey is all the time fighting one thing and it’s totally pleasing, as a viewer and as an actor, to see the hero going by all these obstacles once you nonetheless wish to see him succeed.”

The wrestle could be actual for the Los Angeles-based lawyer, “However I can guarantee you, Mickey Haller isn’t taking place with no battle,” Humphrey says, “and neither is Lorna or anyone else.”