Bull Review: Jury Duty (Season 3 Episode 2)

A client resents Bull’s government-mandated absence on Bull Season 3 Episode 2, “Jury Duty.”

Jason Bull is not a lawyer. He makes that exceptionally clear through the series. Yet he is the main reason people go to TAC for legal help. With recent events, that can spell trouble.

The good news: promoting their star advisor’s healthy return should be as easy as winning a case. The bad news: that’s a lot harder when he doesn’t appear to have returned at all.

Jason’s overconfidence about getting out of the civil service that’s been awaiting him since before his heart attack guarantees for us that he will instead be stuck in it for several days. At least the case is a worthy one.

The main issue here is that, in essentially having two cases, neither gets fleshed out as much as it could be. The strongest parts of the episode don’t get enough focus, and some moments seem lost completely.

As noted, most of the tension comes from the fact that serving on a jury means Bull isn’t there beside a woman who killed her young daughter’s murderer. Her annoyance should be fair, especially since Bull knew of his duties ahead of time. Yet she is portrayed only as petulant.

We speculate on other things as well. How incompetent must a lawyer be to let a child murderer walk without letting the sister who was also assaulted speak? Why does nobody on the jury seem to have sympathy for this woman anyway, even if she does act angry?

It’s only when the sister is allowed to speak that we center on the fact that, yes, this is a highly emotional event. A woman’s young daughter was murdered, and in many other episodes, nobody would want to convict her.

In this case, though, it barely has an effect on the jury at all. That should be a major crisis that takes time to resolve. Instead, in the next scene, the members are actually deadlocked, leading to a mistrial.

I do think I understand the point here. The team only needs to change one mind—that of the prosecutor, convincing her not to retry. Still, this is never stated outright.

In terms of likeable personalities, the plaintiff in the case for which Bull is on the jury wins. We do skim over little details like the actual problems that could arise from him practicing law without a license, but he is found not guilty easily, thanks to a little help from Bull.

There are a few fun moments as Bull tries to inject his own perspective where it is even less welcome than usual. Still, the key moment is the lawyer-to-be defending himself in closing arguments. This too is not given enough time.

For much of the episode, my biggest issue is that we don’t seem to get the attention to Cable’s story that we are promised. In the first scene, her absence almost seems treated as though she simply left her job.

In the end, though, we bring back the true feeling of loss with striking moments like Danny returning to her apartment and Jason hearing her voice at an empty desk. The clincher is the sudden appearance of her mother.

There’s more to this story, and Ms. McCrory will be a part of it. She, like our team, has questions and seeks justice.

One of those questions might involve why Cable was driving over a bridge in New Jersey in the first place. We’ve seen Bull try to hide the extent of his grief and barely seen it at all for others. Might there be more to know here as well?

What did you think of this episode of Bull? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Bull airs Mondays at 10/9c on CBS.

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