🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

Holler, Haller fans! With Los Angeles’ most driven lawyer all set to return for another installment of the legal drama, we figured you might like a memory refresh on all things Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and The Lincoln Lawyer Season 1. 

You may remember the important plot points: Mickey’s big comeback case defending tech billionaire Trevor Elliott (Christopher Gorham), who’d been accused of killing his wife, Lara (Katy Erin), and her yoga instructor-turned-lover, Jan Rilz (Johann Urb); the murder of Jerry Vincent (Paul Urcioli), Trevor’s original lawyer and an old friend of Mickey’s; a season-long “will-they-won’t-they” between Mick and his first ex-wife (more on District Attorney Maggie “McFierce” McPherson later); and all the delicious LA street food Mickey eats. 

But if you’re fuzzy on the details, we don’t blame you. The show’s ability to pull off convincing misdirections and seemingly last-minute twists, only to reveal that the breadcrumb trail — or taco crumb trail, in Mick’s case — was there all along is what makes it so much fun. We ultimately recommend a rewatch so you can appreciate the way everything comes together at the end. But in the meantime, we’re here to maneuver you through all those turns, plus a few loose threads we’re hoping wrap up in Season 2 (Part 1 launches July 6). Let’s roll!

First off, why did Mickey stop being a lawyer?

We meet Mickey sitting on a shore, an untouched surfboard beside him. He’s staring out at the ocean reliving a surfing accident from 18 months ago — one that resulted in multiple surgeries, a painkiller addiction and a six-month stint in rehab. Mick’s been unable to dive back in — to both the water and his defense attorney work — for over a year. Partly, he fears relapse. Mostly, he’s wrecked with guilt over the case of Jesus Menendez (Saul Huezo), a wrongly convicted former client of his who ended up in prison when their star witness, Gloria Dayton aka Glory Days (Fiona Rene), disappeared right before she was supposed to testify. The desire to numb that pain was the real reason he became an addict.

Suddenly, “Second Wife” calls. Lorna (Becki Newton) still runs Mickey’s law practice, and although divorced, they remain close friends. She tells Mick that the very important Judge Mary Holder (LisaGay Hamilton) wants to see him. When they meet, Judge Holder informs Mick that Jerry Vincent was shot dead in his car the previous night. But nine days prior to that, Jerry had filed a motion with the court that upon his death or incapacitation, his entire law practice should transfer to Haller, which means a new office and a full caseload — including the Trevor Elliott trial. 

Why is Mickey called  “The Lincoln Lawyer?”

Mickey has a fleet of Lincolns (all with cheeky license plates like, “NTGUILTY” and “DISMISSD”), and he’s known for preferring to work out of them as opposed to an office. When he’s not driving his blue Lincoln Continental convertible around, he relies on former clients to chauffeur him in Lincoln Navigator SUVs as a sort of payment plan for their legal fees. Mickey’s newest driver is Izzy Letts (Jazz Raycole), a former Jerry client, dancer and fellow recovering addict, whose case Haller gets dismissed in full. 

 “I think better on the road,” Mick tells Izzy. “One of the things about this job is you can’t just look at something once. You have to keep looking until you understand every possible thing it could mean. Being in motion helps me do that.” 

Lara Solanki/Netflix

Who is Neve Campbell in The Lincoln Lawyer?

That would be Maggie — Mickey’s first wife and mother of their teenage daughter, Hayley (Krista Warner). As a deputy district attorney during an election year, Maggie’s under a lot of pressure to keep her cases “airtight,” so her boss doesn’t lose the DA seat. 

Working with Detective Lankford (Jamie McShane) –– the same detective who put Menendez away in Mickey’s case –– she’s pressing charges against Angelo Soto (Reggie Lee), the owner of a senior facility accused of human trafficking and slave labor. After Soto has her key witness killed, Maggie appeals to his pregnant, forced-to-be girlfriend, Tanya Cruz (Katrina Rosita). Maggie sets Tanya up with Mickey as her lawyer, and he negotiates relocation and a year’s worth of money for her to start over with her baby. But before Tanya can skip town, she must help the DA’s office bring down Soto. Lankford tries some shady police tactics, but it ultimately comes down to Tanya being asked to wear a wire and coax a confession out of Soto.

As for Mick’s and Mags’ romance, it’s clear the drugs and their shared addiction to their work caused some issues, but something is still going on there. Maggie is worried about Mickey’s return to the job, especially with such a high-profile trial up against hot-shot prosecutor Jeff Golantz (Michael Graziadei), who’s never lost a case. But as Lorna tells her, “The only thing Mickey loves more than a fight, is a fight with one hand tied behind his back.” 

Why did Lorna quit law school?

Everyone from former classmates to Hayley are asking her that. Lorna was set to graduate top of her class until a law professor sexually assaulted her and she dropped out. But she still proves invaluable for Mickey and his big case.

Oh yeah, the case! Did Trevor kill his wife Lara and yogi Jan? Or, is Trevor found not guilty?

YES, but also yes. Trevor lies to Mickey from the jump, but Mick doesn’t piece everything together and uncover Trevor’s guilt until after he wins him a “not guilty” verdict. 

Mickey’s winning argument is simple: tunnel vision. The police failed to consider that Jan could’ve been the primary target, not Lara, as Jan was having affairs with multiple married clients. These included the deeply devoted Carol Dubois (Heather Mazur), who attended the trial in its entirety, and Neema Shavar (Melanie Benz), whose violent ex-husband threatened Jan to the point that Jan filed a restraining order. Why didn’t authorities look into him, Mick asks. And then there was the “magic bullet.”

Lara Solanki/Netflix

What’s the “magic bullet” again?

The thing that blows a prosecutor’s case wide open, that’s what. In this instance, it’s an explanation for why forensics found gunshot residue (GSR) all over Trevor. In a pure stroke of luck, Trevor was put in an uncleaned police car that had also carried Eli Wyms (Mikal Vega), a veteran who’d fired over 90 rounds of ammunition at the police, in the wee hours of that morning. 

A freelance videographer caught both Trevor and Eli’s incidents in the same footage, so Jerry — and eventually Mickey — made the connection. Haller also convinces the jury that Trevor simply didn’t have enough time to stash bloody clothes and a gun before the cops arrived. But he later discovers Trevor used a drone to fly and drop those items into the ocean. He is a tech billionaire after all.

Dang. Why did Trevor do it? 

Turns out Lara was the brilliant coder who figured out how to make their video games very lifelike and, therefore, lucrative. But, she was working for a competitor at the time and they would’ve retained ownership of the IP. Trevor convinced her to give him credit and then join him in starting their own company, Parallax Games. Next, he proceeded to cheat on her and just be an all-around fame-chasing douchebag. Lara was done living the lie and contacted an old co-worker, Sonia Patel (Puja Mohindra), with plans to meet up and confess. 

Trevor realized a divorce with their lack of a prenup would mean Lara got half of everything, plus he’d be revealed as a total fraud, so she never made it to lunch with Sonia. 

What else did Trevor lie about?

At one point, he claims to have a mob boss billionaire investor (the father of his college roommate) threatening his life over Parallax Games’ impending acquisition. Trevor gives this reason for refusing a “continuance” or a postponement of his trial. If he isn’t found innocent ASAP, the deal won’t go through and his investor will kill him, Trevor stresses to Mick. In reality, Trevor has bribed a juror — (un?)lucky juror #7, Glenn McSweeney (Mike McColl) — and a later court date would mean a new jury pool.

Lara Solanki/Netflix

Wait. How did Trevor bribe a juror? Aren’t there, like, systems to prevent that?

Great question. He had inside help. Remember Judge Holder, the one who gave Mickey this case? She and her husband, a defense attorney named Mitch Lester, respectively used their judicial power and client list of willing criminals to run a jury-rigging side hustle for six figures a pop.

Detective Griggs (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), the guy heading up the investigation into Jerry Vincent’s death, gives Mickey a heads-up that Jerry had received calls from the feds regarding suspected juror bribes. They deduce that the feds would only be looking into this if a pattern had been established. 

When Mickey’s private investigator Dennis “Cisco” Wojciechowski (Angus Sampson) finds out McSweeney was one of Lester’s former clients, the feds have due cause to wiretap Judge Holder’s phone and gather the evidence they need. But McSweeney wasn’t just a hired juror; he was also a hired hitman. Which brings us to…

Who killed Jerry?

Poor Jerry. When he suspected Trevor had bribed a juror, he attempted to file for a continuance, without informing his client, in order to get a second jury selection that would exclude the planted McSweeney. But when Judge Holder realized his intentions, she sent McSweeney to kill Jerry and steal his briefcase with the necessary paperwork inside.

Mickey and Cisco also figure out juror #7 isn’t who he says he is, so Mick tips off the honorable Judge James P. Stanton (Lamont Thompson), who’s presiding over Trevor’s case, with an anonymous note. When Stanton shares said note with his boss Holder for advice on what to do, she alerts McSweeney not to return to court the next day.

Why did Jerry leave his practice to Mick?

Jerry Vincent used to be a prosecutor who went up against Mick frequently, then he switched sides to become a defense attorney, too. Mickey’s unsure if Jerry truly thought he was the best lawyer around, or if he thought Mick would need a comeback case so badly, he’d go along with a bribed juror. 

Lara Solanki/Netflix

And what happened to juror #7?

He falls off a cliff. Seriously. 

Judge Holder told Mickey she’d be monitoring him when she first handed over Jerry’s practice and she was true to her word — hiring a shady PI firm to follow Mickey around and bug one of his Lincolns. In doing so, she finds out about Izzy’s addiction issues. With this knowledge, she has McSweeney lure Mick to an ambush under the pretense that Izzy has relapsed and needs his help. 

When Haller arrives, juror #7 is waiting to attack him. Fortunately, everyone’s following Mickey these days! Detective Griggs and the LAPD arrive to save the day, and McSweeney takes one too many steps backward… 

What about Trevor? Does he just get away with murder?

Not exactly. During a press conference not long after his declared innocence, a hysterical Carol Dubois shows up, still unable to accept the loss of her beloved Jan, and guns Trevor down.

Detective Griggs describes this vigilante justice as a brass verdict — “when someone gets off but then gets what they had coming to them on the street.”

Speaking of streets, what’s the deal with Cisco’s old motorcycle gang the Road Saints?

The gang has been enjoying the legal services of Mickey Haller pro bono. Mick’s made a deal for Cisco walking away, and has also asked them to keep an eye on Maggie and Hayley given all the danger surrounding the Trevor Elliott trial. 

Lara Solanki/Netflix

Do Mickey and Maggie get back together?

So close! But alas, work gets in the way. 

Stay with us here: Cisco tracks down the old witness Glory Days, then Lorna helps convince Gloria to testify by sharing her own story of sexual assault by a former law professor, which caused her to drop out. Gloria reveals on the stand that she was attacked by a man with a Japanese tattoo on his forearm –– not Menendez. She also says that the cops threatened to ruin her life if she testified for Mick, and it comes out that Detective Lankford was behind the whole thing.

Regrettably, Maggie needs Lankford to testify in her case when Soto’s recorded wire confession is garbled. Once Mickey reveals in court that Lankford’s corrupt, his testimony becomes worthless. Mickey offers Maggie a vague hint, but doesn’t trust her with the full truth out of “a duty to [his] client” and a fear she’d tell Lankford of his plans to expose him. Mick and Mags both accuse the other of putting their clients before each other. “I can’t get past this,” Maggie says. “Maybe someday. Not today.” When Mickey says he’ll wait, she responds, “Please don’t.” Sigh.

Why did Detective Lankford want to stop Glory Days from testifying? 

That’s one of those loose ends we’re hoping to learn about in Season 2. But given Lankford’s sketchy behavior throughout this season, it seems likely he prefers to close a case by any means necessary, rather than actually dole out justice.

So, how did Season 1 of The Lincoln Lawyer end? 

Well, Trevor is dead, the feds have come for Holder and Jesus Menendez is released from prison. 

While Soto’s inadmissible confession means Maggie has to dismiss her case, she’s able to pass it onto the FBI, who, she assures Soto, have “deep pockets and all the time in the world” to convict him. Unfortunately, her association with a bad cop also results in a job reassignment. 

Lorna and Cisco are engaged to be married, yay! While Lorna applies to return to law school, Cisco meets up with Teddy, the Road Saints leader. Cisco isn’t pleased when he discovers Mickey made a deal for him, and tells Teddy he wants to pay off his debt himself. Teddy replies, “There might be a way,” and we see Cisco take to the open road. (Another loose end!)

And Mickey? We leave Haller on the beach where we found him. But this time, board under his arm, he makes his way into the water. Back on the shore, a man with a Japanese tattoo on his forearm watches him go.  

Dun dun dun! See you on July 6 for what happens next. 

The Lincoln Lawyer Season 2, Part 1 TrailerLA's hottest defense attorney returns!