Presumed Innocent Season 1 Episode 8 Review: The Verdict

Presumed Innocent Season 1 Episode 8, “The Verdict,” delivers what it promised from the beginning: the reveal of Carolyn’s murderer. 

Even though the verdict is the jury finds Rusty not guilty of Carolyn’s murder, we must wonder if justice is truly served if her real killer continues to live their life as if nothing had happened. Of course, it is understandable why Rusty wants to protect the killer, but how is that fair to Carolyn’s life?

Ultimately, the show delivers an extraordinary series finale that makes viewers wonder about the truth until the very end. In hindsight, the clues to the real murder were obvious throughout the series, but watching week after week made it difficult to tell.

Presumed Innocent remained consistent throughout the season, staying true to the fact that it was impossible to tell whether Rusty did it or not. In the end, it becomes obvious this is because he had found Carolyn’s body and tied it in a manner that would drive the investigation away from the real murderer.

Truthfully, Rusty probably never thought the investigation would lead to him. However, as he tells Barbara when he believes she did it, he would have done anything to protect their family and her.

When he realizes the real killer is Jaden, it becomes clearer to him that he must keep the secret. He encourages them to forget this ever happened because, in the end, he still blames himself for Carolyn’s death.

If he hadn’t had an affair with Carolyn, none of this would have happened. Even though the jury finds him not guilty, Rusty will carry that guilt with him forever.

That is probably why when they announce the verdict, we don’t see happiness or relief in his face. At that time, he thinks Barbara did it, and he takes the blame for it.

That blame intensifies when he finds out it was his daughter.

Until “The Verdict,” we had relied solely on flashbacks to understand events in the past. This changes when Rusty confronts Barbara.

Even though there are flashbacks of him finding Carolyn and tying her up, it is his voice telling Barbara what he did, how he reacted when he saw Barbara the next morning, and when he tracked her car that truly paints the picture for the viewers of what Carolyn’s murder was like.

The combination of flashbacks and a story is the perfect way to help viewers understand the murder. That is why it is so impactful when Jaden begins to tell her side of the story, and we see flashbacks of the night of Carolyn’s murder.

Getting to witness Carolyn telling Jaden that she is pregnant is extremely important. That was Jaden’s trigger the night of the murder, and now is the missing piece of the puzzle that helps us understand why she was murdered.

Even though the flashbacks didn’t make Carolyn a likable character, there’s still some sense of injustice in the fact that Jaden goes free. One can understand why Rusty and Barbara will keep the secret, but it doesn’t seem fair to Carolyn.

If the entire show is about justice, that is definitely not served.

As Presumed Innocent comes to an end, we realize the show also served as Rusty’s defense. Raymond’s goal had always been to present reasonable doubt to set Rusty free, and that is exactly what the show does.

Making us doubt different characters throughout the season allowed reasonable doubt to shine through. As viewers, we could never be a hundred percent sure that Rusty did it.

In the same manner, we could never be sure that Tommy did it, that Carolyn’s ex-husband and her son were involved, or even that Kyle had something to do with it.

When Jaden talked to her father about disassociation and loss of memory, we could have doubted her. But even then, we wouldn’t have been sure, until the end, that she was the killer.

That is how Presumed Innocent accomplished its goal of keeping us on our toes and wondering what had truly happened. Ultimately, it reveals the murderer in the perfect manner: with the flashbacks that became the essence of the show and a story that goes beyond reasonable doubt.

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

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Presumed Innocent is available to stream on Apple TV+.

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