Sumith Prasad
The seventh episode of Apple TV+’s legal drama series ‘Presumed Innocent’ ends with Tommy Molto discovering a fire poker in his house with a note that reads, “GO FUCK YOURSELF.” The series finale then begins with the prosecution and defense discussing the person behind the tool. Even though the emergence of the fire poker doesn’t affect the murder trial, it leads Rusty Sabich to the killer of Carolyn Polhemus. He assumes that someone closer to him planted the tool in the prosecutor’s house. Although his assumption proves to be wrong, the confrontation it causes makes the murderer emerge from hiding! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Jaden’s Last Try to Save Her Father
Rusty and Barbara’s daughter, Jaden Sabich, planted the fire poker and the threatening note in Tommy Molto’s house. It is the same tool she used to kill Carolyn Polhemus. Jaden killed Carolyn in an impulse to eliminate her from the life of her father. She realized that the prosecutor’s presence had been causing fissures in the marital relationship of her father and mother, which made her confront the lawyer and ask the woman to stay away from her family. The teenager had always prioritized the harmony and well-being of her loved ones, which conquered her senses enough for her to kill the lawyer.
At the time, what Jaden didn’t know was the authorities would be able to place her father, Rusty, at the crime scene on the same night to consider him the prime suspect. The crimes she committed, which occurred out of her wish to see her family together, eventually start to destroy the lives of her loved ones, the same people she always wanted to protect. After hoping to ensure the togetherness of her parents, Jaden gets forced to confront the possibility of her father getting convicted of murder, which will take him away from her mother, Barbara, something she wanted to avoid all along.
This turn of events makes Jaden threaten Tommy with the fire porker and the accompanying note. As the prosecutor correctly guesses, she plants the tool to intimidate and incriminate him. First of all, the teenager wants the lawyer to stop hunting Rusty down vindictively. From her parents’ conversations, she must have realized that Tommy’s jealousy and inferiority complex are motivating him to present her father as the murderer in the trial. She may have wanted him not to approach the case too personally. At the end of the day, she knows that the evidence in the case alone cannot lead the prosecution to Rusty.
Secondly, the fire porker can be a piece of insurance Jaden keeps in Tommy’s house. Since it is the murder weapon, she must have thought that its presence in the prosecutor’s home would invite suspicion on him. Even though it is not a conclusive piece of evidence to state that Tommy is the killer, it is enough to raise doubt. Furthermore, the prosecutor has enough motive to murder Carolyn, especially considering his feelings for her and the rejections he received from the deceased. While connecting the dots, there is a possibility of a jury member turning their attention to Tommy from Rusty.
Tommy understands this possibility as well, which is why he tells Judge Lyttle that the person who planted the fire poker wanted to “intimidate or incriminate” him. However, Jaden’s efforts to protect Rusty may have hurt the latter badly if Tommy had decided to present the tool in front of the jury. As Raymond Horgan rightly highlights, the public would have assumed the prime suspect was behind the threat, especially since he was slowly losing the case. Luckily, Tommy doesn’t take the risk, which eventually helps Rusty gain a non-guilty verdict. The significance of the fire poker, however, does not end here.
Jaden taking Barbara’s car and planting the fire poker in Tommy’s house end up being inevitable developments to unravel the mystery behind Carolyn’s murder. If she hadn’t done them, Rusty might not have confronted Barbara, which turns out to be necessary for their daughter to reveal the truth that she had the tool with her because she killed her father’s secret lover with it.
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