Perry Mason Review: Chapter Seven (Season 1 Episode 7)
The Dodson case feels more and more haunting, and Perry’s life is changing before his eyes on Perry Mason Season 1 Episode 7.
It’s incredibly satisfying to watch Perry in the courtroom, slowly but surely becoming more comfortable in his role as a lawyer and leaning into his natural talents for the job. It feels seamless, and you can picture him up there, years later, with even more talent and bravado. What we’re seeing is a man who was made for this job — in large part because of his passion.
Truthfully, I could watch more of those scenes, but there’s so much more going on with his character and with the investigation overall.
A small detail that’s been building up is the way Perry’s new career is affecting his relationship with Pete Strickland. Even before Perry became a lawyer, Perry was giving Pete reason to become frustrated with his friend and partner. Then once his career changed, Pete became the investigator working for him, and the dynamic shifted ever so slightly.
Perry doesn’t necessarily seem like he’s letting the job go to his head — instead, he still seems a little flabbergasted at how this all happened in the first place. But he’s also hyperfocused on the case, and that leads him to be too hard on Pete, who refuses not to take it anymore.
It’s really too bad we haven’t gotten to see more of that relationship play out.
With Pete out, Perry gets more help from Drake, who is willing at this point to bend some rules for the greater good. The two actors have great chemistry and the banter between the characters is really fun to watch.
The other part of Perry’s personal life that’s changing is his living situation. He’s lost his land — and to Lupe — which feels like a horrifying betrayal. That land is part of his identity. The problem is, there is almost too much information without enough exploration at this point.
It’s a good thing this series has been renewed, because even as it’s found its footing, there’s an awful lot of the story that still only feels like it’s scratching the surface of something more.
Perry’s own problems are beside the point, and his focus on the case and on making sure Emily Dodson isn’t convicted of killing her own son is important to him on a deep level. His investigative experience makes him that much more suited to put the pieces together.
He knows Ennis is involved, and he ties everything together, he figures out just exactly how Charlie Dodson died in the first place. It’s a tragic accident involving a woman Ennis had brought with him — a woman who’d been using heroin and nursed Charlie to quiet him down.
It’s among one of many unsettling details of this child’s kidnapping and death.
And speaking of unsettling, Sister Alice is still set on trying to resurrect him.
This episode actually opens with letting us see a bit of her backstory — a backstory that’s disturbing all on its own. We’re given the hint that as a young girl, she had to, at least one occasion, use her body as a way to make sure she and her mother had what they needed. But the sense is that this isn’t the first time.
That flashback offers a little more insight into Sister Alice’s relationship with her mother, though it’s also another instance where the story could dig a bit deeper.
Sister Alice does go through with trying to resurrect Charlie, only to find that there’s no body in the casket. It’s pure chaos, and among other things, it makes things for Emily Dodson look much worse.
But what’s fascinating is how Birdie falls right upon a solution: insisting that an abandoned baby a crowd down the road has stumbled upon is Charlie himself.
It’s so remarkably twisted, and it’s fascinating how religion and spectacle are complicating the case itself — and having a profound effect on Emily, too. It’s these details that make this case all the more haunting.
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Perry Mason airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.
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Ashley Bissette Sumerel
Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.