‘Presumed Innocent’ Had 2024's Best TV Ending Yet
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The following story contains spoilers for the season 1 finale of Apple TV+'s Presumed Innocent.
A GOOD LEGAL thriller is everlasting. Films of decades past like To Kill a Mockingbird and 12 Angry Men made way for the likes of A Few Good Men and The Firm and so many other true greats. One sensation of the early '90s was author Scott Turow's book Presumed Innocent, which was published in 1987 and only a few years later became a hit film of the same name, starring Harrison Ford.
Because everything old nowadays becomes new again, David E. Kelley—a master of the legal thriller with his work on shows like Boston Legal, Big Little Lies, The Undoing, and more—decided to adapt Turow's book into an 8-episode Apple TV+, this time starring Jake Gyllenhaal. But in updating the story and adapting it to our contemporary times, the story comes with more than a couple exciting twists.
For weeks, we've followed the case of attorney Rusty Sabich (Gyllenhaal), as he faces charges for the murder of Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve). The charges come after the two, former colleagues in the District Attorney's office under the leadership of Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp), were discovered to be in the midst of a steamy, on-and-off affair. While his family—including his wife, Barbara, and children, Jaden and Kyle, played by Ruth Negga, Chase Infiniti, and Kingston Rumi Southwick—decided to nobly stand by him even after his affair with Carolyn prior to her death was uncovered, most everyone else seems to suspect that Rusty is guilty.
Rusty has former colleagues (and new D.A.) Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle) and prosecutor Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard) breathing down his neck, while one of Raymond's first moves after losing his D.A. position was to step up as his friend, Rusty's, attorney for the case.
Throughout the course of the show's investigation in to Carolyn's murder and subsequent court proceedings, lots of evidence and hints were put into play. Carolyn was murdered and tied up in a manner strikingly similar to the way a vengeful previous defendant—and conviction—named Liam Reynolds (Mark Harelik) was said to have killed his victim. While Tommy was focused on taking Rusty down, Rusty and his team became determined to put other possible killers—including Liam, Carolyn's son, and even Tommy himself—into question. Tommy, in fact, was thrust right into the midst of the investigation when the murder weapon, a fire poker, showed up at his home in the middle of the night with a note that said "Go Fuck Yourself." Was the actual killer toying with him? Was this a set-up? It's hard to say, but Tommy was left terrified with his orange cat at home (or did a damn good job acting alone by himself).
At the end of the day, we got our answers in the episode 8 finale, as we learned not only whether or not Rusty was guilty in the eyes of the law, but also who the true killer of Carolyn Polhemus really was.
Was Rusty found guilty or not guilty at the end of his murder trial?
After a pair of rousing closing statements from Rusty (acting as his own attorney) and Tommy, the jury reached its verdict: Rusty was found not guilty of Carolyn's murder.
Despite everything suspicious surrounding him and the entire case, his nightmare was over, and he'd be going home to resume his life.
Who is the killer in Presumed Innocent?
Some time after his verdict comes in, Rusty is at home and confronts Barbara as she's on her exercise bike in the garage, telling her that he not only believes that she was responsible for Carolyn's murder, but believes that he knows it was her for a fact. Barbara is appalled by Rusty's claim, but Rusty insists that she was, indeed guilty, and dissociated while committing the murder. He then reveals that when he arrived at Carolyn's home that night, he was the one who discovered her dead body first, and tied her up in a way to make Liam Reynolds look somehow guilty from behind bars. He is certain that Barbara is the murderer because he knows the car went to Carolyn's house. Barbara looks terrified in the moment—a great bit of acting from Negga—but things are only about to get worse.
As it turns out, Barbara was not dissociating anything. Jaden overhears the conversation, and comes into the garage, revealing everything. She's the one who went to visit Carolyn in her home, talking about her father's affair. And when Carolyn told Jaden that she was pregnant with Rusty's child, as Tommy alluded to late in the trial, she snapped, beating Carolyn repeatedly with the fire poker. She then drove home, cleaned up the family car, and tried to act like nothing ever happened. But, as we all know, something did happen. And they would all have to live with it. The family looks increasingly horrified as the reality of what happened becomes clear: Jaden looks cold and glossed over, Rusty cannot believe what he's hearing, and Barbara looks just about inconsolable. This is her worst nightmare.
Rusty takes full responsibility, admitting, in essence, that it was his moral failing in the first place that got them all into this situation. They agree to never talk about it again, and the story then jumps to a future Thanksgiving, the family all having moved past it—so we think.
As the show comes to an end, we get one last look at a glimpse between Rusty and Barbara. Both are smiling, happy, and living their lives—until their smiles wipe off their faces. They know what happened, and they have to live with it every day. And that will never change.
The show is returning for season 2—and the author of the Presumed Innocent novel has written two novels (Innocent, released in 2010, and Presumed Guilty, planned for release in 2025) that continue Rusty's story. We'll see if the series follows those as loose outlines for the story going forward, and how the Sabich family moves forward knowing what they all now know.
Who is the killer in the Presumed Innocent novel and 1990 film?
Spoilers below, of course, for the Presumed Innocent 1987 book and 1990 feature film.
Presumed Innocent
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Part of what makes the Apple TV+ version of Presumed Innocent's conclusion interesting is how it plays on the ending of both the 1987 novel and 1990 film. In both of those, after Rusty is found not guilty by the jury, he discovers at the very end of the story that it was his wife, Barbara, who killed Carolyn. And the show appeared to be going in that direction, before we got the major ending twist that it was, in fact, Jaden responsible—and that Barbara wasn't dissociating anything.
This made for a really smart move on the show's part. If someone wanted the exact same story as the book or the film, well, they could go read the book or watch the film. In updating the story to fit our present day, Kelley managed to change the ending just enough to keep the same vibe, but surprise everyone all the same.
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