‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: “Conflicts”

“Oh my god! Please tell me you’re not taking the case. You two have seen each other naked. Conflict of interest much? Hello?” Lorna is right. Mickey’s relationships with women have typically been convoluted. But taking on Lisa Trammell’s murder case after they’ve been intimate does indeed feel like a huge conflict of interest. Mickey says that if that part of their relationship stays in the past, then it’s not in conflict. But Lisa’s not acting like it was in the past, and Mickey barely is. A lawyer and his client hugging and holding hands in a police interrogation room is a bad look. But The Lincoln Lawyer is gonna Lincoln Lawyer, and soon enough he’s watching the tape of her questioning by police. Lisa admits that she saw Mitchell Bondurant in line at a coffee shop near her office on the morning he was murdered. She has some choice words about the developer who’s been contributing to the rapid gentrification of her Los Angeles neighborhood, calling Bondurant a pig and a shitty human. And she says there are a lot of people who would love to take a shot at him. Again, not a good look. Especially when you’re the main suspect in the murder of the guy who secured a restraining order against you. 

After more mixed messages from Cisco, like credit card notifications on her phone that placed him at a biker bar instead of where he told her he was, Lorna finally calls out her fiance. He admits that he’s been keeping stuff from her, and explains how it was his old buddy Kaz joining the Road Saints MC that prompted Cisco to become an associate member. He left the biker gang behind once Kaz went to prison, but now that he’s out, old drama is rising back up. Kaz did go to prison. But Cisco would have, too, if his friend hadn’t protected him from getting pinched. Teddy, the Saints’ president, is still forcing Cisco to dig up whether Kaz flipped to the feds to get out early. And Cisco feels like he owes it to his pal to watch his back. But he promises Lorna it’ll all be over soon. “I just gotta finish this one thing…” 

When she was still fretting over Cisco, Lorna confided in Izzy about her concerns, and the two women have become more friendly now that the latter isn’t just driving Mickey around but periodically working in the office. But Izzy also has her own relationship drama. She’s been spending more and more time with Ray (Shelby Lee), her ex, who broke her heart once and helped introduce her to heroin. Izzy tells Mickey that she and Ray are in the best place they’ve ever been, and he says he wants her to be happy. But he also warns Ray that if she hurts Izzy again, there won’t be a third chance.   

Andrea “Andy” Freeman (Yaya DaCosta), a tough prosecutor and friend and ally of Maggie McPherson, has absolutely no love for Mickey Haller. “She gets sent to Siberia” – The Van Nuys DA’s office – “and you get famous?” Freeman, who’s never lost to Mickey in court and reminds him of that fact before Lisa’s bail hearing, also accuses him of being a shameless attention seeker. Lisa’s bail is set at two million bucks, which she doesn’t have. And ten percent for a bail bondsman isn’t doable, either – she’s overextended on her restaurant as it is. Desperate, she signs a contract with Mickey so he can shop her name and life rights to a production company. And back to the jail Lisa goes. So how does no bond money and a berth in county transform into a get out of jail free card? Suddenly, Lisa shows up at Mickey’s offices with Henry Dahl (Matt Angel), a hoodie-clad true crime podcast producer. Sure, he once interviewed Lisa for a segment. But now he’s putting up two hundred large to spring her from jail? Mickey isn’t buying it. He doesn’t trust Dahl and he tells him so; he also reminds him of his existing contract with Lisa. And he promises that this podcast dude isn’t going to make a dime from her name or story.

Obviously, Mickey and Maggie have had their disagreements. But lately they’ve been on good terms, enjoying each other’s company at a food truck rally and watching their daughter Hayley take her first few horseback riding lessons. But when Mickey hears in passing that Maggie and Andy discussed Lisa’s case in front of Hayley, he uses that as reason enough to file a motion getting Freeman removed from the proceedings. It would be a conflict of interest, you see, which is pretty rich coming from Mickey, but he does it anyway. When Freeman agrees to be more forthright with sharing discovery materials, he backs down on the motion – plus all the other motions he asked Lorna to write up – and leans in to tell Freeman that she’s the one who’s the attention-seeker. They’re both right. Each of them love it when all eyes are on them. But the point is that these two loathe each other, and their battle in court is shaping up to be a juicy one. Maggie, of course, is incensed. She confronts her ex-husband and says that using their daughter as a pawn in the case is some “underhanded shit.” And Mickey just watches her leave, because it pretty much was. She also infers that he slept with Lisa, and that only makes her more angry. 

Conflicts of interest. Later that evening, Mickey’s at home when Lisa stops by unannounced with some food from her restaurant. He insists that they can’t socialize, can’t be seen together outside the case, and certainly can’t continue to be intimate. But he’s not insisting very hard. And in the next breath he agrees that they might pick up where they left off “once this is all over.” That itself seems like another conflict! He shouldn’t even be keeping the food she brought! But he does. And when Mickey walks out to his driveway to see Lisa off, the camera pulls back. Who’s watching them from a parked car? Why, it’s Henry Dahl. Is this guy a true crime podcaster or an actual doer of crimes?    

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges