Bull has delivered a solid procedural for eleven episodes. It’s time to blow up its premise for a tense thriller about a mock jury orientation gone wrong.
Ever since the pilot, I’ve been wondering about the mock jury process. The show finally explains it in an episode that starts from the point of view of one of the lucky focus-group chosen ones.
Our first hint that the episode will be different than usual is the transition with the talking heads. Instead of segueing into a vignette about our helpless victim or innocent client, the talking heads transition into an interview with Bull himself. He muses on the nature of high-stress situations. A gun to your head causes you to focus on what truly matters.
We should keep that in mind as we follow nervous mock juror Laurel Guthrie through Chunk’s guided tour. She listens to Marissa’s and Benny’s banter to put the jurors at ease. She even offers one of her fellow jurors the last of her coffee. Then, she sets off a bomb that rocks the team’s headquarters. Maybe this mock juror isn’t as predictable as Marissa likes them.
Bull spots Laurel’s anxiety right before the bomb goes off, but can’t get anyone out in time. Laurel takes over the mock courtroom to conduct a trial with very real consequences.
How else was she supposed to get his attention? He wouldn’t take her calls.
Earlier, Bull and Danny were talking about cases like Laurel’s. Danny gripes about TAC’s latest client in the case of scumbag CEO vs. scumbag COO. Bull tells her that they take these big corporate cases to have the money to help the little people. The show immediately proves him wrong. Laurel didn’t have the resources to access someone of Bull’s caliber when her husband was convicted of killing his supposed drug-dealer rival. Her case wasn’t interesting enough to snag his attention. She certainly has it now.
Laurel’s husband, the bookish, quiet Gordon Guthrie, was convicted of killing the drug dealer Tommy Vega. The DA’s theory was that Gordon was a competitor and killed Tommy to take over his turf. Gordon pleaded guilty, which means that the only way his sentence can be overturned is through the DA’s office. Now, after five years of his fifteen-year sentence, he’s being transferred to the same prison holding Tommy’s brother. Laurel knows Gordon is as good as dead.
The main problem was the confidential informant who witnessed the shooting. The FBI protected their undercover agent and Gordon was never given the chance to face his accuser in open court. Laurel intends to change that. The agent involved in the shooting was Special Agent Danielle James. Laurel blames Danny for her husband’s conviction, and seems to be confused as to whether she wants the truth or just revenge.
Bull quickly refocuses her, points out that her 3D-printed gun probably wouldn’t work, and tells her he’ll hear her case.
I’ll admit, given the stunts Bull has pulled in the past, I wondered for a bit if this was some kind of elaborate hoax on Bull’s part. The response of the SWAT team changed that theory. Cable, the only one outside of the closed courtroom, is happy to see a friendly face. The SWAT team leader took Bull’s weekend seminar on alternative negotiation techniques. It’s refreshing to see a SWAT team captain who isn’t clichéd and aggressive. He knows enough to let Bull take the lead and focuses on getting the team and the jurors out of the building safely and calmly.
When Bull finds out that they have to wait an hour for rescue, he decides to use it to his advantage. Now that Laurel is no longer a threat, he feels sorry for her. Benny doesn’t believe it. He is very much against helping the distraught hostage taker. Bull tells his friend that the trial won’t simply be about discovering the truth, but helping both the jurors and the team cope with the aftermath of a traumatic event. Everyone will feel useful and it’s not like they have anything better to do.
Bull assigns himself as the defense attorney for Gordon Guthrie. Benny is prosecution. Chunk gets to be the judge. Enough jurors are persuaded to participate after an extra $1,000 of hazard pay. In voir dire, Benny gets rid of anyone who doesn’t trust the police. The prosecution’s case hinges on Danny’s testimony of the shooting. Bull gets rid of the one guy who remembers that there was only one explosion. He wants people with untrustworthy memories. They’re more likely to see that trait in others.
Marissa discovers something interesting when she connects with the original DA, Weinsbach. The reason he pushed for a plea deal instead of putting Danny on the stand was that he was afraid Danny’s testimony had been compromised. He suspected that she had gone so deep undercover that she was on drugs herself. The team defends Danny, but there’s no denying that she looks extremely uncomfortable acting as a witness. That may have something to do with the bomb that just went off, or it might have something to do with Danny’s guilt about the case.
Danny feels more than a little betrayed by Bull. She did her job well and now her boss wants to listen to an unhinged bomber over her. As Benny points out when Bull begins provoking Danny, “If this is you as a lawyer, it’s not hard to see why you hate lawyers.” Bull might think this is some kind of twisted therapy, but he takes it too far with Danny on the witness stand. He gets her to admit she was on hallucinogens on the night of the murder and insinuates that it tanked her career at the FBI. Danny points out how ridiculous it is that he’s defending Laurel at the expense of his own team and storms out of the courtroom. No wonder the mock jurors wanted to be in the trial. It’s better than theater.
Benny gives his closing argument as the SWAT team’s robot digs a way out for everyone. The jury foreman declares Gordon not guilty. The jury is about to leave, but stays for Bull’s final argument. It isn’t in favor of Gordon. Instead, it proves that Danny knows exactly what she’s talking about. When Danny describes the scene perfectly, a horrified Laurel is forced to admit her husband killed Tommy Vega. In a final twist, we see him do the same thing to Tommy’s brother in prison. Gordon wasn’t the one we should have been worried about.
The jury is finally dismissed and the team celebrates. Bull has one final conversation with Danny and assures her that he will always believe her story.
This episode was a great breather from the rote case-of-the-week episodes. It featured some interesting twists and turns and added depth to a character that desperately needed it. Now, we have a better understanding of Danny’s motivations and her need to do good in the world.
Juror of the Week: This was a tough one, but I’ll go with the lone holdout who was sure he only heard one explosion. I also enjoyed the jurors playing the expert witnesses. They attacked their roles with gusto.
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Let me know in the comments!
