Apple TV+
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of Apple TV+’s “Presumed Innocent,” titled “The Verdict.”
Since its release on Apple TV+ last month, David E. Kelley’s “Presumed Innocent” has taken viewers on a journey filled with shocking clues and disturbing revelations, all while delving into the minds of narcissistic and obsessive men. Over eight episodes, “Presumed Innocent” followed former Chief Assistant District Attorney Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he was on trial for the murder of his lover and colleague Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve).
In the finale of “Presumed Innocent” — an episode that was not Premiering to journalists, the series allowed viewers to learn that Carolyn’s killer was none other than Jaden (Chase Infiniti), Rusty’s teenage daughter. After Rusty was found not guilty, this is how the audience found out who committed the crime.
From the beginning, there were four main suspects. Rusty, of course, was obsessed with Carolyn. Throughout the series, their intense and passionate relationship was revealed in flashbacks. After Carolyn broke off their affair, Rusty sent her dozens of frantic messages ranging from declarations of love to threats. However, throughout the series, Rusty maintained his innocence. Casting him as the real killer would seem too obvious, especially considering the denouement of HBO’s “The Undoing,” another Kelley series, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.
Viewers also suspected that Rusty’s long-suffering wife Barbara (Ruth Negga) was the real culprit. After all, in Scott Turow’s 1987 novel—and its 1990 film adaptation, starring Harrison Ford—Rusty’s wife delivered the fatal blow that killed Carolyn, a fact that wasn’t revealed until the film’s shocking final moments. But from the beginning of “Presumed Innocent,” Kelley had woven a narrative that was completely different from both the film and Turow’s novel. More than anything, Barbara seemed desperate to get her family back on track, and Carolyn’s death had clearly had the opposite effect.
There were two other likely suspects. The first was the disgusting and loathsome Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard), who had taken Rusty’s place as chief assistant district attorney and eviscerated him on the stand in the penultimate episode, “The Witness.” Not only was Tommy jealous of Rusty’s professional success, he was also obsessed with Carolyn, so much so that she filed a formal complaint against him before his death. It seemed possible that Tommy had tried to take advantage of Carolyn’s burying of evidence in a case to force her to date him, and it all went wrong. Additionally, in the final moments of “The Witness,” Tommy came home to find his house a mess. On his kitchen counter was the missing murder weapon, a poker with a note attached that read, “Fuck You.” It seemed like either Rusty or Barbara was toying with him.
Finally, and perhaps the least obvious character, there was Eugenia Milk (Virginia Kull), another colleague in the Chicago district attorney’s office. She had a long-standing crush on Rusty and had a thinly veiled disdain for Carolyn, who she felt was ruining Rusty’s life. While Eugenia seemed unlikely to some, she was a character who was always observing far more than she let on.
There were also secondary suspects, Carolyn’s angry and estranged son Michael Caldwell (Tate Birchmore) and Kyle Sabich (Kingston Rumi Southwick) — Rusty and Barbara’s son — who knew about his father’s affair. Yet both boys seem more curious about their parents’ private lives than actually capable of such a heinous and carefully planned act.
But in the end, none of these suspects – all of whom seemed guilty at different points in the series – turned out to be the killer.
The finale opens with the police searching Tommy’s house for DNA evidence or fingerprints of whoever left the poker. When no evidence is found, Tommy and Rusty decide to continue the trial, which ends with two gripping closing arguments – and an eventual not guilty verdict for Rusty.
As everyone affected by the Rusty-Carolyn case—and Carolyn’s subsequent murder—tries to get on with their lives, Rusty confronts Barbara one night while she’s working out on the exercise bike in their garage. He tells her, “Actually, I knew it all along, then I didn’t, then I knew it again.” Stunned by his accusations, Barbara tells him he’s sick. Rusty reveals that he returned to Carolyn’s apartment the night she was murdered. When he realized she was dead and Barbara was likely the culprit, he tied up her body to try to make it look like convicted murderer Liam Reynolds (Mark Harelik), who had previously threatened Carolyn, had committed the crime.
When Barbara tells Rusty that he has gone crazy and is wrong, he reveals that he followed her car and knows she planted the poker at Tommy’s house. Overhearing his parents’ conversation, Jaden enters the garage and admits that she went to Carolyn’s house the night she was murdered. Jaden explains that she told Carolyn to stay away from Rusty, but when Carolyn revealed her pregnancy and that Rusty was the baby’s father, the teenager snapped. Fleeing the scene, she returned home in a daze, cleaning the car and burying the poker in the yard. She says that she only planted the poker at Tommy’s house because she was angry that he would accuse her father of something he didn’t do.
With Barbara too stunned to speak after her daughter’s revelations, Rusty takes matters into his own hands. He declares that they will never speak of the incident again and that Jaden acted to defend their family. In the end, he says that the whole ordeal is his fault.
“Presumed Innocent,” despite being a miniseries, has already been renewed for a second season, centered around a new case. According to Apple TV+, the legal thriller has been the streaming service’s most-watched drama since its launch in 2019.