[Warning: The following post contains spoilers for The Rainmaker Episode 2, “Nashville Hot.”]
All of the lawyers on The Rainmaker have to get their hands dirty in the second episode of the season, but in very different ways.
The episode begins with Melvin Pritcher (Dan Fogler) visiting his mother’s grave and then embarking on a mission to find out who killed her and get justice. At the same time, Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan) and Deck (P.J. Byrne) are hellbent on finding out information on him and listen in on his contentious meeting with his pretrial officer in which he declares his innocence in her death. They want to talk to him directly about what he knows about the hospital, but Bruiser (Lana Parrilla) says she’ll need to talk to his attorney first, as a professional courtesy. She sends them off instead to find the other fired hospital nurse, Jackie Lemancyzk, but they don’t abide by her instructions.
Instead, they break into Melvin’s motel room, which is already being watched by a pair of private eyes who witness the scene as Melvin drives his truck right in through the window to confront his burglars. Before they’re essentially run over, Rudy and Deck find Jackie’s address in Pritcher’s stuff, and, luckily for them, the investigators don’t follow them as they flee. It’s an unlucky decision for the PIs, though, as one soon finds himself entrapped by Melvin, then kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in the woods before his partner can find him.
Jonathan Hession / USA Network
After getting a deserved tongue lashing from Bruiser back at their abandoned-taco-shop headquarters, Rudy convinces her that they should exhume Donny Ray’s body to prove he was not using heroin at the time of his death. Meanwhile, Bruiser sets off to get Melvin’s attorney’s blessing to speak with him — convincing him to do so while in the throes of a romantic interlude.
(Lana Parrilla, for one, is a fan of Bruiser’s tactic here. “A lot of people haven’t seen like that, that grit in me … a woman that can roll up her sleeves and take a punch,” she told TV Insider. “The exploration of her is very physical… She can be very masculine in her approach, especially when it comes to intimacy. It’s been fun.”)
The results of their in-house autopsy prove he died of a substance overdose, and Bruiser sends Rudy to tell his mother, Dot, that they don’t have a case and need to settle. However, Dot still doesn’t believe Donny Ray was using again and sends Rudy away with a promise that she won’t ever settle the case. Plus, she’s lost faith in him as her lawyer. When Rudy returns to share the news with Bruiser, he admits he’s “not a good ambulance chaser,” like her.
“Do you know where the term ‘ambulance chaser’ comes from?” she replies with hand on hip. “It was used by white shoe firms in the ’20s to crap on any lawyer that wasn’t a member of their club. When the contingency fee law was enacted, small firms rose up full of attorneys who were just like their clients, the ones on the Statue of Liberty — the tired, poor, the huddled masses, those same people are our clients now, and if you don’t like it, you think you’re better than them, you’re not. You are them.” She then sends him and Deck to Donny Ray’s apartment to gather intel to use as leverage at a potential settlement conference.
In the bathroom where Donny was found dead, Rudy and Deck discover and collect urine still in the toilet that proves he wasn’t using drugs. It’s inadmissible in court for a multitude of reasons, but it comes in handy during the hearing as Leo Drummond (John Slattery) makes a surprise move for summary judgment. As Bruiser struggles to prove there’s a genuine issue of fact about whether Donny used drugs, Rudy boldly stands up and takes the lead, revealing the urinalysis as proof that there is a dispute of fact. While he’ll still face objections galore over the admissibility of that evidence, the motion still fails.
Christopher Barr / USA Network
After, Leo makes a threat and then an offer to Bruiser. He can get his client to settle for $150,000, even though he thinks the case is flimsy. Indeed, his client, Keeley (Hugh Quarshie), is eager to settle after that hearing setback and even raises that figure to $250,000 of his own volition. When he asks whether Rudy will get in the way of a settlement, Leo turns to Sarah (Madison Iseman) for more sensitive intel about Rudy… and she obliges by mentioning his dead brother.
When Sarah later meets with Rudy at the bar, she compliments his court performance but makes no mention of her betrayal by revealing his darkest moment to her boss.
This is also the first episode when we meet Kelly Riker (Robyn Cara), Rudy’s neighbor, and see that she is being abused by her husband and squirreling away money, possibly in hopes of an eventual escape. Through the window, Rudy sees her checking out her bruises in the bathroom mirror, and the husband sees him watching in. Fans of the book upon which this is based will know this is not heading anywhere good for Rudy.
At the settlement conference, Dot walks out after the company refuses to apologize for Donny’s death. Rudy chases after her, and when she accuses him of not understanding her anguish, he finally reveals his own experience with tragedy and the loss of his brother. He convinces her that Donny would want her to be taken care of, and it’s enough to bring her back to the table. However, before Dot can sign the settlement, Rudy decides to call it off. Bruiser, who’d been pushing for the settlement, ultimately agrees. “See you in court, Leo,” she warns.
After scolding Brad (Wade Briggs) for his very unhelpful and insensitive comments in the meeting, Leo tells Sarah that she’s about to have to get her hands dirty… as if she hasn’t already.
The Rainmaker, Fridays, 10/9c, USA Network
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