Diksha Sundriyal
As the second season of HBO’s ‘Perry Mason’ nears its end, the mystery surrounding Brooks McCutcheon and his family deepens. Despite his clients’ involvement in the murder, Mason goes on the offense to bring the defense to its knees. This makes Milligan desperate to get a win on a lawyer he didn’t consider that much of a threat in a case that he thought was open and shut. Mason’s winning streak is halted, raising the stakes for the final two episodes and making us wonder how the lawyer will get out of the tough spot he’s landed in. Here’s what the events of this episode mean for Mason’s future. SPOILERS AHEAD
Perry Mason Season 2 Episode 6 Recap
Due to his involvement with Brooks McCutcheon, Detective Holcomb is subpoenaed by Mason. The lawyer wants to expose their shady business, but this would ruin the police officer’s career, and he is desperate to do whatever it takes to get out of taking the stand. In return, he gives Mason two things that will bolster his case. One of them is the truth about what happened to Noreen Lawson.
With the truth about Councilman Taylor’s sister and their involvement with Brooks coming to light, Della takes over from Mason in court and tears the defense’s case to pieces. Things also go great for her out of the court as she moves in with Anita. Mason’s relationship with Ginny Aimes soars too, but things soon go downhill when the prosecution discovers that Mason has been keeping the murder weapon from them.
Perry Mason Season 2 Episode 6 Ending
It is difficult to convince people of your client’s innocence when you know the client is guilty. Mason’s approach to winning the case is tearing apart the victim’s image. The prosecution presents Brooks McCutcheon as an upstanding citizen of Los Angeles who was loved by the people and didn’t deserve to die. They want to use this sentiment against the two Mexican boys and get them the death penalty for the heinous crime.
Mason hopes to upturn that narrative by showing the jury that Brooks is not as saintly as the prosecution wants them to think. The man was neck deep into all sorts of shady things, which increases the investigation’s scope, indicating that several people wanted him dead and could have murdered him, framing the Gallardo brothers to take the fall. He wants the jury to believe that the cops took the easy way out and never quite investigated the case as deeply as they should have because of Brooks’s immortality and perversion on different fronts.
Mason consolidates his case during the testimony of Councilman Vincent Taylor. The brother of Noreen Lawson claims that his sister was wounded in a car accident, and the injury led her to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. However, courtesy of Holcolmb, Mason, and Della discover the whole truth about what happened to Noreen.
Her case file suggests that the injuries were not to her head, as one would expect in the case of a car accident. It was due to severe strangulation, which left her barely alive and damaged her nerves. The picture of Noreen’s wound on the neck reveals that she was strangulated with Brooks’ belt. In the first episode, Brooks’ kink of strangling women during sex was revealed. It turns out that he did the same thing with Noreen, but it went too far.
The revelation of such a thing taints Brooks’ image of being a family man who never did anything wrong. Now, he is not only the man who regularly cheated on his wife but also someone with perverted preferences. Della proves that Taylor was lying about what really happened to his sister, which means that he could have been lying about other things. For what Brooks did to Noreen, her brother had a good enough motive to kill him. He brandished a gun at Brooks and threatened to kill him one time.
If there was a need for another suspect, it is fulfilled by Vincent Taylor. Previously, Mason also proved that the fingerprint found on Brooks’ car could have been planted by someone to frame the Gallardo brothers. He also tore apart the testimony of the bus driver, who claimed he saw the brothers going toward the same place where Brooks was killed. According to Della, all of this is enough to build their case. After all, they just need one jury member to doubt the Gallardos’ guilt.
Meanwhile, Milligan becomes restless and pushes Strickland to find any dirt on Mason. Eventually, the PI discovers the smoking gun inside Perry’s case. The fact that Mason hid such significant evidence from the prosecution is enough for Milligan to rewrite everything that has happened and throw Rafael and Mateo Gallardo on death row while destroying Mason’s career in one move. While Della tries to come up with a legality that will legitimize Mason’s actions, he wonders how Milligan found out about the gun.
After questioning Della and Paul about what they shared with their partners about the case, his suspicion turns towards his own. Ginny had come to his office earlier and overheard some of Mason and Della’s conversation. Around the same time, he talked about the safe, and he thinks Ginny overheard that part and then tipped off the prosecution. In a rage, he lashes out at Ginny, who has no idea what he is talking about.
Could Ginny have betrayed Mason? It’s highly unlikely because she doesn’t seem to have any stakes in the case. There is no reason for her to tamper with it at all. While Mason did talk about the gun, it is improbable that Ginny heard about it because the door was closed. The part that she did overhear was when the door was partially open. Moreover, one scene has someone breaking into Mason’s house, clearly Strickland.
In the first episode of the season, Mason won a case for his client by getting evidence against the opponent from their office. He didn’t explain how he got it, but it’s clear that his PI broke into the man’s office to gather evidence against him. The same has happened to Mason, and surprisingly, his first thought didn’t lead him to Strickland, who he knows is the prosecution’s PI. In any case, there is no point in wondering how Milligan found out about the gun. Now, Mason has to change his strategy because not only is the slate wiped clean, but he’s been pushed back so much that no way appears out of his situation.
Read More: Is Perry Mason Based on a Real Lawyer or Detective?
