Presumed Innocent Season 1 Episode 4 Review: The Burden

If one was inclined to believe Rusty’s innocence, Presumed Innocent Season 1 Episode 4, “The Burden,” changes that once again. Every time new evidence is discovered in his favor, Tommy manages to get evidence against him.

So, there stands the big question Rusty himself voices when Raymond calls him about the DNA under Carolyn’s fingernails. Did he kill her, or is Tommy planting evidence against him?

Tommy is set on declaring Rusty guilty, but we have yet to find out what he is capable of. Considering he has questioned Carolyn’s son more than once, we believe he will go the extra mile to ensure the charges stick.

As fervently as Tommy is working to implicate Rusty in the murder, there are clues in his investigation that might cause doubt in the jury and the viewers. One comes to light when he interviews Carolyn’s son again.

Even though we know he saw Rusty the night of the murder, there are details in his story that make us wonder if Carolyn was talking about Rusty or someone else.

Previously to “The Burden,” we believed Carolyn and her son had no contact. However, this changes when he tells Tommy he met with his mom for lunch, and she mentioned a man in her office was scaring her.

How can we be sure the man was Rusty? She mentioned they worked together, but didn’t she work with every man in that building?

Reasonable doubt is planted, and we can no longer believe that Rusty is the only suspect. On the contrary, this makes us look at Tommy more closely.

He tells Eugenia he is leading the investigation for Carolyn, but his actions have made it very clear he isn’t interested in Carolyn but in blaming Rusty. Could he be the murderer trying to blame someone else for what he did?

Besides Rusty’s DNA under Carolyn’s fingernails, there are three other instances on Presumed Innocent Season 1 Episode 4, “The Burden,” that make us wonder whether he killed her or not.

The first one is the confrontation with Kyle. Even though Kyle’s explanation doesn’t guarantee he didn’t murder Carolyn, Rusty’s reaction makes us wonder if he is hiding something and is upset his son might know the truth.

There is hypocrisy in Rusty’s anger. How can he get mad at his son for being curious about the woman his father was cheating on his mother with?

It makes sense that Kyle wants to know what’s going on. In the same way, it makes sense that he only wants to talk to Barbara and not Rusty. His father betrayed them, and he doesn’t trust him enough to open up about what happened.

Even though the episode leaves us believing that Kyle didn’t kill Carolyn, Barbara goes the extra mile to guarantee there is no evidence against her son. At first glance, it may seem as if Kyle said something to her that the audience doesn’t know about, which might implicate him.

But Barabra makes it clear that her son is innocent; she is just trying to protect him because she knows how law enforcement can make up their mind quickly about a young black man being implicated in a crime.

The second instance that makes us second-guess Rusty is his conversation with Mya regarding the night of Carolyn’s murder.

During the first three episodes of Presumed Innocent, flashbacks help the audience better understand the story and the characters. However, this changes during this conversation.

Rusty himself has several flashbacks and is unable to pinpoint exactly what happened. One thing that is clear is that he had been drinking heavily before showing up at Carolyn’s.

This knowledge makes us viewers wonder if he can’t remember what happened because he was drunk or because he is lying about what truly happened that night.

Could the dream he has about being violent towards Carolyn be the truth? 

This time around, the flashbacks leave us more confused than before. They are still the core of the show, so as viewers, we must decipher the real ones and the ones there to play tricks on us.

The third instance in which Rusty’s innocence is questioned is the encounter with Ratzer. After Rigo is able to find the man whose DNA was also present in Bunny Davis’s autopsy, Rusty decides to confront him.

Even though Rigo asks him to behave, Rusty does enough to cause Ratzer to doubt him and figure out they are there for more than they tell him. This, however, doesn’t stop Rusty from going after him.

From the very beginning on Presumed Innocent Season 1 Episode 1, “Bases Loaded,” Rusty has been trying to pin Carolyn’s murder on this man. Now, he finally has the opportunity to do so (if Rigo finds enough evidence).

However, this plan backfires on him when Ratzer shows up at his house. Instead of staying calm, as Rigo has repeatedly asked him to do, Rusty reacts in the most violent way possible.

Up until this moment, Rusty’s violence had only been present in flashbacks or dreams. As viewers, we had never seen him be violent.

This moment with Ratzer changes everything and shows us that Rusty is capable of the violence that killed Carolyn.

Even though there’s plenty of evidence against Rusty, it still can’t be proven beyond reasonable doubt. There are still ways to explain the evidence away, which means Tommy can’t prove to a jury that Rusty is the only possible suspect.

However, if things continue down this road, Presumed Innocent might end up proving him guilty of murder.

Until that moment, every character we meet is a possible suspect.

Stray Thoughts:

• The flashbacks of Carolyn presenting the Bunny Davis case to Rusty make us wonder if she was controlling him with sex, knowing he was falling in love with her. She knew there was another man involved in Davis’s murder and still managed to keep it a secret from him. What else was she hiding?
• It is excellent that Ray continues calling Rusty out on his mistakes and ego. By explaining the difference between guilt and shame and not mentioning Rusty feels guilt, he is giving the audience another perspective into who Rusty is. If his best friend can’t trust him, can we?
• It is very important that the therapist herself points out she shouldn’t be seeing the entire family.
• There is definitely something brewing between Barbara and the bartender, which explains why she agreed to have sex with Rusty. However, this isn’t reconciliation sex. On the contrary, it feels like it’s the end of their relationship.

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Presumed Innocent streams Wednesdays on Apple TV+.

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