Diksha Sundriyal
The third episode of HBO’s ‘Perry Mason’ Season 2 makes things challenging for Perry Mason as some crucial details about the case come to light. Mason revisits his previous failures and worries if this case will also turn out the same. While he is dedicated to the cause, the prosecution keeps bringing one trouble after another for him. Mason knows that the best way to help his clients is by figuring out the truth, but in the last scene, a twist suggests that his clients might not have been so forthright about their truth. Here’s what the events of this episode mean. SPOILERS AHEAD
Perry Mason Episode 3 Recap
The episode begins with Detective Holcomb changing his attire from the previous at the boat and going home. His wife tells him they are losing out on a deal on the house, and he promises to fix it. Meanwhile, Mason calls the number he and Paul Drake found in Brooks McCutcheon’s wallet. It is for a psychiatric facility named San Haven, where Mason finds Noreen Lawson. Della discovers the connection between Camilla Nygaard and Brooks McCutcheon, and Paul goes to Hooverville.
While Mason and his team try to figure out what is really going on with Brooks, a deadline is placed on them. The prosecution pushes up the trial date, but Mason succeeds in getting it to three weeks based on a preemptory challenge. In prison, the Gallardo brothers’ life is threatened. They get glass in their food, so they don’t sleep the entire night, knowing that someone will attack them again. When Mason finds out about it, he gets them protection.
Perry Mason Episode 3 Ending
Mason and Della’s meeting with Camilla Nygaard reveals that she knew Brooks very well. She had seen him since he was a kid, so she knew better than to invest in his stadium when he came to her asking for help after the banks refused the funding. She would have told them more, but then Mason mentions San Haven, which irks her. She immediately closes off, asking Mason not to talk with her about “tawdry rumors” and saying that “the Lawson girl’s family has been through enough.”
This confirms that Camilla knows all about Noreen and her family, and whatever tragedy happened to them might’ve been the work of Brooks McCutcheon. Later, Mason mentions Noreen’s name in front of Lydell McCutcheon, whose reaction reveals Mason is on the right path. This makes one wonder about the intention of the person who left that phone number in the evidence. They wanted Mason to find it and chase the lead that people like Lydell would rather he didn’t dig into.
Mason starts to work out theories about who could have killed Brooks, and his first suspect is Holcomb. Having seen the detective on the boat the previous night, Mason knows Holcomb and Brooks were working together. He concocts a story with Holcomb as a killer, but Della tells him there are no grounds for it and that the prosecution would tear it apart in a minute. They need something concrete. Unfortunately, the prosecution already has a leg up on them.
In the previous episode, the prosecution revealed that Rafael’s fingerprints were found on Brooks’ car. This detail bolsters their case, especially when the Gallardo brothers claimed they’d never met Brooks. When Mason asks them about it, Rafael says he wasn’t there, referring to the night of the murder. However, in another scene, Rafael is seen sketching a car resembling Brooks’. This means that the fingerprint the prosecution found is not fake. He actually touched the car.
There is no timeline for the fingerprint, and it could have been before the murder, which is still not good news for the Gallardo brothers. This points towards the fact that the brothers are hiding something, even from their lawyer, which will not work out well for them. Mason asks them to tell him everything, but they keep important things from him, like they rented the gun later used to kill Brooks McCutcheon.
Paul goes to Hooverville to verify the Gallardo brothers’ timeline but discovers something else entirely. He finds a man who rents guns. He rents five guns from the man and finds out that one of them is the murder weapon. The man all but confirms that the Gallardo brothers rented it from him. This is disturbing news because Paul knows that should the prosecution get their hands on the murder weapon, the case is done for. It is also troubling because the brothers didn’t share this with Mason.
The revelation of the gun creates a tricky situation by placing doubt in the audience’s mind. At the beginning of the investigation, it was assumed that the Gallardo brothers were not the culprits. Mason took their case because he believes they are innocent. But with all that they are hiding, we can’t help but wonder if there might be some truth to the allegations.
While there is still a lot to be unearthed, the gun and the fingerprints suggest that Rafael Gallardo might be more involved in the case than his brother Mateo. When we look at them, they appear to us as single units; either both were involved in the murder or none. Mason made the same assumption, just like the cops and the prosecution assumed that both had a hand in the murder. They are, however, not the same.
We don’t know much about Rafael and Mateo. We know they are brothers, but brothers have secrets and differences too. Mateo has a family, while Rafael is still a boy. Then there’s the scar that Rafael has. We don’t know the story behind that. At this point, we know more about McCutcheons than we do about the Gallardo brothers, which will hit Mason as soon he finds out about the gun. This will make him background check his clients. Who knows what secrets will come out then?
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