Is Rusty Sabich responsible of the homicide of his former mistress Carolyn, or is he, as was as soon as written about Congressman Gary Condit, “the Unluckiest Adulterer Who Ever Lived”?
By three episodes, that seems to be the central query of the Apple TV+ model of Presumed Harmless. I predict the sequence will debate that query fairly a couple of occasions.
Rusty (Jake Gyllenhaal) is definitely responsible of adultery, dishonesty, and numerous levels of unethical and unsavory private {and professional} habits. However is he a assassin?
The third episode of the sequence, “Discovery,” doesn’t convey us a lot additional in direction of resolving that query.
And it additionally begins to lift doubts over whether or not it was clever to stretch this thriller — beforehand a novel after which a characteristic movie — into an eight-part mini-series. In spite of everything, there can solely be so many crimson herrings.
Associated: Presumed Harmless Collection Premiere Overview: Meet Rusty Sabich (Once more)
The episode begins because the second episode ended, with Rusty receiving a textual content message—’YOU WERE THERE—I SAW YOU’ —from a mysterious quantity. However it’s not a blocked quantity; an precise quantity is listed.
Rusty known as the quantity again however obtained no response. He then admits to Barbara (Ruth Negga) that he was, in reality, at Carolyn’s home the night time of the homicide however swears that “I wasn’t there to kill her.”
It was all a dream
Then, there is a little bit of misdirection: We see a scene of Rusty and Carolyn arguing, and he seems to be about to strike her with a weapon.
Nevertheless, we then see a blood-covered Rusty declare, “Get up, Raymond,” and uncover that this was a dream by Raymond Horgan (Invoice Camp), clearly feeling anxious that his buddy and consumer could also be responsible of the homicide.
He discusses this on the kitchen desk along with his spouse (Elizabeth Marvel), who confides that she’s fearful in regards to the “glare” that comes with such a high-profile case.
Raymond additionally tells his spouse that he believes his buddy is innocent- however that is earlier than he learns Rusty was at Carolyn’s the night time she died.
About that textual content
Rusty ultimately will get a response to that textual content and decides to fulfill his textual content correspondent within the typical location of a spooky, rain-soaked warehouse.
Associated: The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3: Every little thing We Know So Far
It seems to be… Carolyn’s teenage son Michael (Tate Birchmore), whose existence Rusty was unaware of earlier than her loss of life.
Michael reveals he has photos and movies of Rusty on the night time of the homicide, that he noticed nobody else there that night time, and that he has shared them with the prosecutors.
On this scene, neither of them acts as if they’re the assassin.
Paparazzi
The episode additionally makes clear that the homicide fees, together with information vans parked outdoors, are taking their toll on the Sabich household.
Barbara is advised by her boss at an artwork gallery to “take a step again.” After that, she flirts with a bartender, though she stops wanting pursuing an affair with him.
Their children are additionally not all proper, with the couple’s daughter demanding to know the energy of the proof.
Prosecutorial intrigue
There’s additionally quite a bit happening with the prosecution facet of the present, during which Nico (O-T Fagbenle) and Tommy (Peter Sarsgaard) are working to place Rusty away.
We see them interrogating Rodriguez (Nana Mensah), the detective serving to Rusty. This continues to be an odd blind spot within the sequence since, at one level, she means that Tommy would possibly hearth her, and Nico removes her from the case.
Would not she work for the police? How might a prosecutor have the facility to fireside her?
Associated: The Courtroom Crusaders: TV Attorneys You’d Need in Your Nook
This additionally got here up within the first episode when, for some purpose, the district legal professional, not the cops, was below hearth for the dearth of an arrest as much as that time.
Regardless of that, whether or not Nico and Tommy are working the case professionally or looking for to destroy their former workplace enemy is likely one of the present’s extra compelling strands to date.
Within the new episode, we see them strategizing, with Tommy denying the implication that he “hates” Rusty.
The homicide trial, with Rusty, the profession prosecutor now on the opposite facet of the courtroom, was an enormous a part of the unique Presumed Harmless.
A personality says the trial is “ten weeks” away, though it is unclear what number of episodes the present has to go till the beginning of the trial.
Nevertheless, we get one pretrial listening to scene, which takes place in a courtroom.
An affair to recollect
The present nonetheless has but to indicate us a lot of Carolyn as a personality outdoors of the context of her affair with Rusty.
Within the third episode, we get a few flashbacks to the 2 collectively, together with Rusty explaining that the “tenderness” she confirmed with somewhat lady who had been assaulted was what first drew him to her.
Later, we hear outdated conversations between the 2 after issues went wrong- as we watch Tommy hearken to them and put together his authorized arguments.
Just a few ‘Harmless’ observations
Whereas Scott Turow, the e-book’s creator, is a Chicago native, the e-book and authentic film had been extra obscure about geography. The Apple present, nonetheless, emphasizes Chicago coloration, full with seems at downtown and the L Prepare.
Associated: Homicide in a Small City Season 1: Every little thing We Know So Far
It has been reported, particularly after the film Knives Out, that Apple doesn’t permit villains to make use of iPhones or different merchandise in films or exhibits.
It is unclear whether or not that may clarify whether or not Rusty, who makes use of an iPhone, is the killer. On the finish of the episode, we see him proof on an iPad.
However, characters in Apple TV+ exhibits, good and evil alike, have a tendency at all times to make use of iPhones and Macs.
The character of Sandy Stern, who represented Rusty within the e-book and film and in addition appeared in different works by creator Scott Turow, is just not Rusty’s lawyer within the Apple model.
Nevertheless, a dialogue line establishes that Sandy nonetheless exists on this universe when Raymond Horgan says a brand new lawyer on the group, Maya, previously labored at “Sandy Stern’s.”
In the long run, the third episode strikes some items round, though I get the sense there will likely be many extra — probably too many extra — earlier than we’re carried out.
And that is even earlier than we get the reveal, within the episode’s last shot, of ano
Stephen Silver is a workers author for TV Fanatic. You possibly can observe extra of his work on his Substack The SS Ben Hecht, by Stephen Silver.You possibly can observe him on X.
