Why we need to talk about the Presumed Innocent finale

The following article contains spoilers for the final episode and entire season of Presumed Innocent.

They went for the triple twist ending, but couldn’t land it.

Throughout the weekly run of Presumed Innocent, Apple TV+’s abrasively compelling legal thriller, the on-screen questions have been shadowed by those off-screen. Did Chicago prosecutor Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal) really brutally murder his colleague Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve), with whom he’d been having an obsessive affair? And would he be found guilty for it by a jury?

Jake Gyllenhaal as Rusty Sabich (with Bill Camp as his lawyer Raymond Horgan) in an early scene from Presumed Innocent.Credit: AP

The case had been tried in both the courtroom and the Sabich household, where Rusty had to accept the damage he’d done to his wife, Barbara (Ruth Negga), and teenage children, Jaden (Chase Infiniti) and Kyle (Kingston Rumi Southwick).

But the on-screen calculation – stoked by fractious dialogue and desperate gambits – not only had to tie up the show, it also had to handle the legacy of its source material. Both Scott Turow’s bestselling 1987 novel and Alan J. Pakula’s 1990 movie adaptation, with Harrison Ford as Rusty, had a terrific didn’t-see-it-coming-ending.

Originally, after the messy trial is abandoned and Rusty is cleared, he realises that Carolyn was actually killed by Barbara. His wife admits to knowing of the affair and the murder. It’s unclear whether she left evidence to suggest Rusty was the murderer to frame him, or covertly let him know that she was in control.

The show’s creator, veteran writer and producer David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, Big Little Lies), has penned countless courtroom reveals, and it seemed unlikely that he’d simply repeat the quite famous conclusion, despite the decades that had elapsed. What he did – after the majority of the finale followed the closing arguments to the jury by Rusty and his nemesis, prosecutor Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard), and a not guilty verdict exonerating Rusty – was put husband and wife together in the family garage.

Presumed Innocent had laid the breadcrumbs for Barbara wielding the fire poker that Carolyn was beaten to death with. Early on, Barbara had told Rusty that she’d do anything to protect her family. The best single shot in the show may be the look on Negga’s face when Rusty lays out his case. He knows Barbara did it because he’d gone back to Carolyn’s house after she rejected him and they argued, only to discover her bloodied, dead body.

Knowing that he’d be the obvious suspect, and believing that Barbara was the real killer, Rusty insidiously covered it up. Every speech he’d given about the privilege of his job and upholding justice was bitterly undercut. As an act of misdirection, he tied up Carolyn’s body to resemble a previous case they’d both prosecuted. From the start, he was planning to keep his wife safe but also create reasonable doubt for his own inevitable trial.

Rusty knowing Barbara was involved, and covering it up to protect his family, was a good twist on the original ending. It worked in the moment. Gyllenhaal had always pushed Rusty’s flaws to the fore, and this was the character laid bare. But even Rusty was shocked at how easily Barbara had moved on from the murder. “I didn’t know that you could kill someone and not even wobble,” he told her.

Ruth Negga as Barbara in Presumed Innocent.Credit: Apple TV+

Except, she hadn’t. “I did,” announced Jaden, stepping into the garage to floor Rusty and devastate Barbara, who was still processing the fact that her husband believed she was a murderer. Like half the characters on the show, the high-schooler had gone to Carolyn’s house on the night she died to ask her father’s lover to leave the family alone. When Carolyn quite bluntly said she wanted out, but that the situation was complicated by her being pregnant with Rusty’s baby, Jaden snapped and picked up the fire poker.

In terms of surprises, it was initially shocking, but ultimately it was one too many. A show that makes you look back with a different perspective at the end can be satisfying, but another way of looking at it is that you were deceived all along. Certainly Jaden, who newcomer Infiniti played with a distant but deeply felt anguish, had her moments – particularly a conversation with Rusty about “disassociation” – but this was a left-field gambit.

The final 20 minutes, starting with the garage accusation and confession, had to carry an almighty load. “We will never speak of this,” Rusty announces, continuing the cover-up. “This is my doing,” he added, trying to shoulder Jaden’s burden. But the unspoken question was whether Jaden was simply acting like her father. Tommy Molto’s prosecution had repeatedly emphasised Rusty’s violent edge and callous actions. Were Jaden’s actions a matter of like father, like daughter?

The final montage suggested a happy family after some time had elapsed, laughing at a Thanksgiving celebration before glances between Rusty and Barbara suggested that the unspoken horror of what had occurred would always be lurking. This was Rusty writ large: stoically doing what he believes is necessary in the face of a crisis instigated by his own selfishness.

Do we need another season of Sabich family recriminations to explore that? Absolutely not. Hopefully David E. Kelley has learnt the lesson from his flawed second season of Big Little Lies, which took that approach. Apple TV+ responding to the buzz around Presumed Innocent with the unexpected announcement of a second season is probably taking a page from The White Lotus. Limited series strikes gold, it gets brought back as an anthology.

Turow wrote other legal thrillers that involve supporting characters seen, or at least mentioned, in this season of Presumed Innocent. Let’s have more of the partnership between Tommy and his prickly boss, Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle, whose every sneer was amazing). But Rusty Sabich should be left to marinate in his failings. Presumed Innocent was watchable if flawed, but one thing it nailed was Rusty’s toxic underpinnings. The show rightly refused to redeem him.

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