Presumed Innocent Penultimate Episode
There are two exciting things surrounding Presumed Innocent. The first is that the next episode will be the climactic finale. Episode 7 ended with a big cliff hanger and the question remains, will the show somehow wrap itself up in a fun and entertaining manner? Apple also announced that Presumed Innocent has been renewed for a season 2 with a new case, not much more is known about it but hopefully they are following the White Lotus precedent and each season is a new case with new characters, with maybe one or two pieces of connective tissue.
Episode seven was a highlight of the season. With Bill Camp’s Raymond in the hospital, Rusty decides to represent himself. In an unhinged spectacle he rips apart the son of Carolyn Polhemus and ends up straight asking him, “Did you kill your mother?” However, when cross examining detective Rodriguez, Rusty revealed too much of his own perspective and opened himself up for questioning. His other representative, Mya, played by Gabby Beans, is rightfully pissed at him, and Raymond comes back from the hospital to support his friend. But as we’ve seen, that isn’t good enough, because Tommy Molto absolutely eviscerates Rusty on the stand. He finds the hole in his testimony, as Rusty tries to assert how he is a nonviolent person. Molto brings up his assault on Mr. Ratzer on his front porch, and how Rusty grabbed the forensic specialist by his collar earlier in the season as well. And as Tommy gets in the car, Nico Della Guardia looks at him shocked and amazed as the two are basically kicking their feet at how well Tommy examined him.
That is until we get to the end of the episode, where Tommy gets home to find a window open in his kitchen, and a fire poker on his counter with a sticky note that has, “Go Fuck Yourself,” printed on it. So, what’s the deal with fire poker? Who left it? And what does it mean?
There are two potential answers. We know there is a fire poker involved in the case because it was missing from Carolyn’s house. They have been assuming that the fire poker is what was used to kill her, and that’s why it’s missing. This could be that poker, scrubbed down and removed of any evidence, or just a random one dropped off in Tommy’s house to intimidate him.
If it was used to intimidate him there’s a couple options I’ve come up with. All of the evidence that has been pointed at Tommy is true, and he really did kill her that night, he’s been manipulating evidence ever since and this is the real weapon that someone else found, or that someone had a good hunch it was in fact Tommy who did it, so they left the fake one. If this is the case and it’s another red herring to throw us off the track, people will want to assume it was Rusty. We just took an entire episode talking about how he snaps under violent pressure. My better guess is that it was Michael or his father Dalton. The last thing Dalton tells the lawyers, was that they were supposed to protect his son, instead he was eviscerated by Rusty on the stand early in the episode. If Tommy really is the one who did it, it very well could be Rusty, but something tells me that both of those theories aren’t true. However, the most damning evidence against Tommy is that his cat scratch is missing a rope – the rope Carolyn was tied up in had a mysterious carpet fiber that hasn’t matched any evidence yet. Could it be from Molto’s house?
The other best bet I have, is in Barbara. This lies in two things, one that I feel confident she was involved in it somehow. Did she get Tommy involved and the two killed her? Or, did she do it alone and later tell Rusty? That would explain some of the very strange communication they’ve been having. Barbara isn’t acting like somebody racked with grief, but considering Rusty just blew up on her the episode before, gripping her by the arm, why would she stay with him? She could go off with that art PhD man. But she stays with her volatile and maybe abusive husband? On the stand Molto pointed out texts that Rusty sent Carolyn, including, “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” A wife would find this pretty tough to look at probably. The “Go Fuck Yourself,” printed on a post it note also just feels like an inherently female thing to do. It’s clean, without evidence, and organized. Would Barbara go as far to break into Molto’s house though?
My best bet still lies in Barbara. If Rusty found out somehow between the act and now, it would explain a lot. Tommy just feels too obvious, but there’s just something off about how his character is being presented, it feels as if he has to have something going on, because as a character that is both deeply disliked, and deeply dislikes himself, there are too many things being pointed toward him to be avoided. If he wasn’t involved in the murder, maybe something else will come out about him and Carolyn. It’ll all be revealed soon enough, and hopefully, it will be told in such a pleasing fashion viewers will want to rewatch the whole series with the knowledge of who did it.