Summary
The Rainmaker lays out the battle lines in Episode 2, with both sides putting their cards on the table. The John Grisham adaptation is really finding its feet.
The battle lines are being drawn in Episode 2 of The Rainmaker. Sure, you can make the case that they were already drawn in the premiere, but it’s nice to see everyone’s cards out on the table. “Nashville Hot” is largely about establishing that J. Lyman and Associates really do have a case – and also reiterating that pursuing it might literally kill them.
But that has been obvious. The climax of the previous episode proved Pritcher was a killer, and the start of this one reiterates that, along with clarifying his motivations. Someone set his house alight and killed his mother, and he’s out for revenge, loaded up on cash and syringes. You have to fight fire with fire – perhaps not the best choice of words, granted – so it’s nice to see Rudy and Deck employ some sneaky tricks, like earwigging Pritcher’s pre-trial meeting to find out where he’s staying, and snooping around inside his motel room when they go to visit and he isn’t inside. This does, admittedly, backfire, since Pritcher returns to find them inside and drives his truck through the window, but it also yields actionable information, such as the fact that Pritcher had the address of Jackie Lemancyzk, the other nurse on shift when Donny Ray died.
Pritcher trying to kill two attorneys is the least villainous thing he does in The Rainmaker Episode 2. Immediately after he realizes he’s being tailed by Vape Lady and her compatriot, Ethan, and doubles back to kidnap Ethan while Vape Lady is looking for him. He takes him to the woods and tortures him for information about why he’s being followed and who killed his mother. Pritcher’s constant reiteration that he’s a nurse seems to undersell the full extent of his skillset, which makes it less surprising when Rudy and Deck finally get to Jackie’s place and see a body being zipped into a bag.
Despite all the corpses piling up, though, Donny Ray’s case is still difficult to fight in a legal context. After having his body exhumed, the autopsy reveals he died with opiates in his system, which makes it incredibly difficult to argue he was killed by any other means. The best they can hope for is a settlement, but Donny’s mother, Dot, will never accept one. She’s adamant her son was clean and that he was murdered. But proving it is another matter.
To this end, Rudy and Deck visit Donny’s apartment, where they find more proof that he was sober – framed sobriety coins, a wood carving station that requires a steady hand – and what might be a smoking gun in the form of his months-old urine, which was left in the toilet after the EMTs took him away. After testing, the urine proves that Donny did not have drugs in his system before he was taken to the hospital, but given that this isn’t how evidence is generally collected and handled, it’s inadmissible in court. It does, however, allow Rudy to flex some case law proving that there is a dispute over the cause of Donny Ray’s death. The game’s still on.
And it’s clear that the game will be fought with underhanded tactics on all sides. Keeley, clearly with something to hide, is willing to up the settlement figure, but it’s clear that isn’t going to move Dot, so Drummond already starts laying the groundwork to manipulate Sarah’s relationship with Rudy. This is the only aspect of The Rainmaker that still feels notably weak to me. Rudy and Sarah reconcile early on in Episode 2 after their understandable bust-up in the premiere, but it seems very flimsy that they wouldn’t realise there’s no way their relationship is going to survive this. To this end, a potential love rival is already being teased in the form of Rudy’s neighbour, Kelly, but it’ll take a while for that to develop, one imagines.
What I do like is how Rudy’s backstory is being woven into the case. As we know, Rudy lost his brother, John, and apparently, John’s final wish was for him to look after their mother. This allows him to relate to Dot when she accuses him of not understanding the grief she’s experiencing over Donny’s death. It allows him to present the settlement offer in more agreeable terms, but also, when Brad Noonan can’t help but be brutally patronising right as Dot’s about to sign, to understand why she doesn’t. There won’t be a deal. This is going to court.
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