This Guide to Episode Five of Presumed Innocent: Pregame on Apple TV will include an episode summary, and my thoughts about this Apple TV adaptation compared to the 1987 book and the 1990 movie adaptation. Spoilers will be marked or protected!
Episode Four of Presumed Innocent on Apple TV: Pregame
Are you joining me mid-series? Here are links to my prior Presumed Innocent Episode Guides in order:
Introduction to Presumed Innocent on Apple TV
Spoilers and Plot Summary for the book Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
Episode One of Presumed Innocent on Apple TV: Bases Loaded
Episode Two of Presumed Innocent on Apple: People vs. Rozat Sabich
Episode Three of Presumed Innocent on Apple: Discovery
Episode Four of Presumed Innocent on Apple: The Burden
- Character List is here OR download a free PDF here by putting in your email address. The benefit to the emailed version is that you can get a new version of the list as I update it against future episodes.
- Summary of Events of Presumed Innocent Episode Five
- My Thoughts on Presumed Innocent Episode Five
Summary of Episode Five of Presumed Innocent: Pregame
Rusty’s family pulls him off Brian and Barbara says, “Rusty, you could have killed him.” Hmmmm
Molto examines Michael’s photos from the night of Carolyn’s murder and seems to dwell on the person on the bike and also on Carolyn, who is wearing just a t-shirt that skims the top of her thighs
Raymond dreams he’s having heart attack symptoms and then his head explodes. He claims to be convinced of Rusty’s innocence
Rusty continues his high-risk behavior by stalking Brian’s house. He tells Brian he just wants to talk. Raymond is appalled. This is not the Rusty he knows. Well, maybe he didn’t know Rusty that well.
Rusty insists that Liam Reynolds is the best suspect. He had a huge grudge against Carolyn and threatened her. In what is to me the BEST piece of evidence, Rusty believes that Carolyn deliberately suppressed the “inconclusive” sperm sample in the Bunny Davis case. But why?
In a flashback, Molto confronts Carolyn about not wanting to work with him. He could definitely be the person Carolyn told her son was “scaring her” at work.
Nico asks Molto about the possibility of a Liam connection to Carolyn’s murder, and Molto shuts that down. Again, very interesting.
Barbara is back to day drinking at Clifton’s bar. He invites her over to see some sort of art installation and they kiss.
Rusty’s defense team questions Brian, who admits to employing sex workers and probably Bunny. Brian swears he has no idea who Liam Reynolds is and that he had nothing to do with Carolyn’s murder.
Nico is again not happy with Molto’s handling of the case, in particular his speech about powerful people facing justice. Hmmmmm….
When Rusty sees Kyle’s bike in the trash, he takes it out and puts it in his trunk.
At Dr. Rush’s office, Barbara discusses her flirtation with Clifton and the fact that Jaden would be proud of her. Barbara seems to feel defensive about staying with Rusty.
Rusty and Raymond have a discussion about trial strategy. Raymond says the whole point is to cast reasonable doubt on the prosecutions’s case, not to solve it by producing an alternate suspect. Rusty clearly wants to be innocent, not just “not guilty.” This seems like a callback to the opening of episode one.
The trial begins.
My Thoughts on Presumed Innocent Episode Five
A lot of people on the Presumed Innocent Reddit thought this episode felt like filler, and I agree that eight episodes of pre-trial might have been too many. But I feel like we got some interesting information:
- Carolyn clearly didn’t like Tommy Molto at all. He could very well be the man at work who was scaring her.
- It’s weird that Nico is letting Tommy handle this case as EVERYONE seems to think he’s incompetent. Does Nico want Rusty to get off for some reason? It’s odd.
- Tommy also shuts down the Liam Reynolds question from Nico HARD. I’m wondering if Tommy had something to do with Bunny’s case, which has to have some significance.
- Tommy’s grandstanding speech was also interesting to me. Is his anger directed at Rusty, or someone else? Nico? Raymond?
- The discussion between Raymond and Rusty got me worried that we won’t find out who did it, or, as in the book, that person won’t face justice.
Who are your top suspects?
I’m going to try to do a post on all the suspects so we can try to figure this out.