[Warning: The following post contains spoilers for The Rainmaker Episode 9.]
We’re in the homestretch of The Rainmaker now. The penultimate episode of the USA Network drama finally brought the big case into the courtroom, and of course, nothing went to plan for Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan). There was at least one promising — albeit highly unexpected — development by the end, though, and things did wrap up as well as could be expected for Bruiser (Lana Parrilla) and her father.
The episode began with Rudy and Deck (P.J. Byrne), now separated from Bruiser’s firm, arguing the case against Leo Drummond (John Slattery). Things quickly went off the rails when Rudy decided to scrap his opening statement mid-sentence and instead deliver his true theory of the case — even if it did invite a motion for dismissal of the entire case from Drummond.
To support his assertion that the hospital covered up having a serial killer nurse on staff, Rudy called the elusive Jackie Lemanczyk (Gemma-Leah Devereux) to the stand. As much of a triumph as her very presence was, though, her initial testimony was for naught because her evidence about Melvin Pritcher’s (Dan Fogler) use of the medication dispensation machine was illegally obtained and, thus, inadmissible. Leo, meanwhile, painted the prosecution as simply seeking a villain after a self-inflicted tragedy.
After Rudy and Deck tried to scramble to sign the other victims of Pritcher’s as a Hail Mary to save the case, they found they were once again a step behind Sarah Plankmore (Madison Iseman), who’d already contracted them for silence. Making matters worse, Dot’s (Karen Bryson) testimony, while emotional, also allowed Drummond to paint her son as a habitual liar whose sobriety at the time of his death was very much still in question.
Bruiser, who had to grapple with the feds offering her a deal to help entrap her father, came up with a new plan: Put Jackie back on the stand to testify about the Narpans machine. At first, the plan was a success; Jackie successfully revealed that the machine didn’t erase data, like the defense insisted, and she also suggested Melvin’s behavior around Donny Ray Black was antithetical to usual nursing practices. However, Sarah, who’d already fully crossed the rubicon, was called upon to deploy the firm’s so-called “Nuts and Sl*ts” routine to discredit Jackie by making her seem mentally unstable.
Christopher Barr / USA Network
When Brad (Wade Briggs) objected to Leo making Sarah second chair over him and reminded his boss that he knew where the bodies were buried, Leo smarted back that he wasn’t actually the one who buried them. (“Relax, Brad, you’re still useful as a backup singer, but that girl’s a star,” he said for added effect. Ouch.)
Elsewhere in the episode, Bruiser finally confronted her father, and he insisted, “I’ve done a lot of things, but I didn’t kill that woman. I shouldn’t have to tell you that.” Later, she finally learned the truth about what happened to the young mother Rosalie, who was a whistleblower, and as it turned out, Bruiser’s dad really didn’t kill her. It was just a misunderstanding that led to her death at the hands of one of their associates.
Before he and Prince (Tommie Earl Jenkins) took off to evade arrest, he had one parting gift: Tied up in Prince’s basement was none other than Melvin Pritcher.
So what will happen next? Well, Dan Fogler teased, “He leaves bread crumbs. He lets himself get caught, and then you see him in the basement with, who? … They might team up and use, use some of Melvin’s knowledge to catch the real bad guy. That’s all I’m gonna say.”
As for the absolution Bruiser got about her father, series creator Michael Seitzman said of the development, “Bruiser… wants the truth. Everything with Bruiser is about honesty. ‘First, I want to know the truth, and I want the people close to me to be honest with me.’ … She’s had two problems with her father: One is that he’s been dishonest with her, both by literally lying to her and also lying by omission…. and the other problem she’s been having with her father is that she’s wondering, ‘Did he do something terrible? He did something bad, but he didn’t commit murder, right?’ And so what I think she’s feeling there is relief that he finally told her the truth, which is, in their love language, the truth is, I love you. That’s what she’s been waiting for.
But I think also, she’s feeling relief that he’s not the monster.”
The Rainmaker, Fridays, 10/9c, USA Network