Presumed Innocent – Season 1 Episode 2 Recap & Review

People vs Rozat Sabich

Presumed Innocent Episode 2 picks back up from the end of the first episode, with Tommy questioning Rusty about his relationship with Carolyn. Suddenly, Rusty gets up and leaves the room. Raymond follows and blames Rusty for putting the final nail in the coffin of Raymond’s career. Tommy asks about a paternity test and Rusty tells him to get a warrant.

Back home, Rusty breaks the news to Barbara that he’s a suspect in her murder. She’s confused because he said it ended a year ago. He admits that it started back up again recently, just for a week. Meanwhile, Raymond’s wife berates him for not noticing that this was going on under his nose.

While going through the autopsy report, Rusty realises something. He storms up to Painless and berates him for not telling him that there were two sperm samples found in the Bunny Davis case. Painless says that Carolyn was well aware of this, however, Rusty is angry that this meant they hid evidence. He then calls Detective Rigo for help but she doesn’t pick up. Elsewhere, Tommy is convinced Rusty is mentally ill but Nico tells him to focus on the evidence.

At home, Barbara sees the photos of Carolyn’s body and is disturbed by what she sees. When Rusty can’t get in touch with Rigo, he goes back home. He sits down for dinner with his family and Barbara tells Rusty he needs to tell his children the truth. Naturally, both kids are upset and leave the table. Rusty listens to Barbara console his kids. We also see a clip of when Carolyn finally broke up with him, saying she didn’t want anyone to get hurt.

Later at night, his daughter Jaden asks Rusty why he did it and he has no answer. In the early hours of the morning, he wakes up to the sound of his son Kyle practising throwing the baseball in the garden. At that moment, the police arrive at the house with a search warrant. They search the whole house and take a DNA sample as well. Rusty later goes to the office and confronts Nico and Tommy but it only makes things worse.

At their couple’s therapy session, the therapist tells Rusty off for not telling her about the affair being reignited. Rusty says that there is enough evidence in his phone and computer to get him arrested. But he is keen to salvage his marriage with Barbara.

On the news, Nico promises to find Carolyn’s killer. Rusty then goes to Raymond, asking him to be his lawyer. But Raymond denies it, saying he only thought he knew Rusty. Afterwards, Rusty finally gets in touch with Rigo. She’s angry with him as well but he’s convinced there’s a lead in the Liam Reynolds case and begs her to help set a meeting with him again.

She does set up the meeting. Rusty tells Liam that if he had an accomplice, by giving them up, Liam could change his life sentence and get a few years of freedom. But Liam just laughs at Rusty’s desperation.

Rusty leaves and gets back in the car with Rigo. She agrees to help him but tells him not to lie to her again. In Raymond’s home, the couple bicker about whether Raymond should help Rusty or not. Raymond agrees that it would be nice to get one over Nico and Tommy.

Rusty comes home and gets a call from Rigo, who says the lab results are back. The paternity test is confirmed, Rusty is the father of Carolyn’s child. Police cars turn up at the house and Rusty tells his daughter that he loves her, before going out to meet the officers. Rusty is officially arrested.

News about Rusty blows up and we then see him walk into court, with Raymond representing him. They waive the pretrial conference and ask the judge to set an immediate trial date, which the judge agrees to do so. Bail is awarded and Rusty gets to go back home, feeling positive about a fast-moving case. He thanks his family for being there with him. Presumed Innocent Episode 2 closes out with Rusty getting a text from an unknown number that says, “You were there. I saw you.”

The Episode Review

Presumed Innocent Episode 2 slows the pace down a fair bit. After the rapid introduction of characters and the hustle of activity in the previous episode, this one definitely feels like a drag. It serves to show how Rusty deals with the aftermath of his affair (the first time and the second) coming out. He contends with his wife, his kids, and his colleagues and it serves to show how alone Rusty really is.

However, it is Raymond’s trajectory, from rejecting Rusty to becoming his lawyer, that is the highlight of the episode. In the end, old rivals are pitted against each other once again.

The investigation itself isn’t quite as interesting. The Liam Reynolds link feels like a dud and it’s frustrating, as Rusty surely feels, to have Liam simply laugh each time he’s questioned. Carolyn wilfully hiding a piece of evidence is an intriguing development but at the same time, the Apple TV+ show isn’t telling us much about her. We’ve seen her in bed and in court but we don’t have more understanding of what kind of person she was. Here’s hoping the following episodes turn out to be more captivating than this one.