The Rainmaker Season 1 Episode 3 Review: Blue Suits and Big Reveals

Rudy Baylor continues to prove himself on The Rainmaker Season 1 Episode 3, all while the pieces of a seemingly unconnected puzzle start to come together. This episode also continues to draw audiences in and offer satisfying moments where scrappy underdogs have a chance to be heroes.

That said, there are a lot of details to keep track of, and the show also continues to feel a little disjointed, even as it becomes clear how each plot point is connected to the overall story. 

Rudy and Deck are focused on Dot’s case — the lawsuit against the hospital where her son, Donny Ray, died. Because they’re underdogs, they’ll do whatever it takes to get the information they need, but that’s exactly what audiences want to see.

Maybe they’re bending the rules a bit, but they’re on the side of the good guy. So, showing up at an AA meeting to get information from the doctor? They get a pass for that in our eyes. 

There’s a fun chemistry between Rudy and Deck, too. The humor that comes out of their antics, whether it’s whispering in a church or trying to talk themselves out of getting caught in a lie, is just another one of the reasons we can’t help but root for these characters. 

Rudy is also an underdog in the eyes of Bruiser, but he proves himself to her both in his knowledge of the case (to convince her he can do the deposition) and in the deposition itself. He’s tougher and better at this than people expect — even his girlfriend, who is on the other side of the table. 

Rudy and Sarah probably don’t stand a chance, and that’s not just because they now work for opposing law firms. There’s also a fundamental difference in the way they seem to see the world. Sarah buying him that blue suit (which he opts not to wear) is just one example of that. 

She also assumes his situation is temporary, and this seems like it matters to her more than she wants to let on.

Meanwhile, though Rudy maintains the same — that he’s going to work toward getting a better job — deep down, he’s starting to feel as though he’s found his people in J. Lymon Stone — or in the very least, the kind of law he wants to practice.

This episode also offers more context about Rudy’s brother, who died in a car accident. We’re given flashbacks as Rudy takes the bar exam, from the kind of relationship they had to the accident itself.

Rudy’s mother appears in the episode as well, first to visit Rudy at the law firm she has no idea he was fired from, and then later when Rudy goes to visit her. The visit suggests some tense feelings about the brother’s death as well, but on a positive note, the boyfriend that we saw on the pilot is gone… for now.

These developments are important to the story, but the confirmation of a murder and an intruder in Rudy’s apartment are the details that make it both suspenseful and, as I said earlier, a little disjointed.

There’s so much darkness in this show that feels as though it wants to be light, and the balance that those things could have just isn’t there. 

The intruder is the husband of Kelly, the neighbor Rudy can see through the windows of his small apartment. He threatens Rudy, proving to be even more violent than he already seemed to be. If that weren’t enough, there’s yet another villain to deal with. 

The audience already knows Melvin Pritcher has been up to no good, but thanks to Rudy and Deck’s efforts, including calling up every florist in town (from a good old-fashioned phone book, mind you!), they’re able to confirm, at least for themselves, that he killed Donny Ray in the hospital.

Also, just as they start to get closer to finding Jackie, another nurse who suddenly no longer works at the hospital, Pritcher gets to her first. There are a lot of secrets left to unravel, and a very real, very unsettling murderer is on the loose.

Dan Fogler plays this character extremely well. 

Knowing that Pritcher was the cause of Donny Ray’s death gives leverage before anything else, and Bruiser uses that to her advantage. She meets with Leo Drummond and offers him a deal, but there’s more going on beneath the surface of their relationship as well.

This episode, in fact, doesn’t begin with Rudy and Deck or anything specific to that case — not really. Instead, it’s Bruiser visiting her father in prison. Between that, a visit from the FBI, we learn about someone named Rosalie, and the fact that she was paid to leave town rather than testify in a case. 

The end of the episode then reveals something else — something that offers background on Bruiser’s character and will hopefully make her a little more well-rounded than what we’ve seen so far.

It’s a flashback of Prince showing up and telling Bruiser she needs to look after someone for a while — a baby. 

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The Rainmaker airs Fridays at 10/9c on USA.

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