Summary
Rudy’s ambition and hotheadedness get the better of him in The Rainmaker Episode 5. Meanwhile, Sarah shows her true colours, as predicted.
It was bound to happen eventually. Rudy’s ability to fall on his feet couldn’t last forever, and Episode 5 of The Rainmaker marks the end of the road for his run of good luck. Similarly, it also signifies a turning point in his relationship with Sarah, which, to be fair, should have come a few episodes ago. But now she has chewed him up in court and is developing googly eyes for Noonan, you might as well stick a fork in that romance – it’s done.
From the very beginning of this episode, Rudy’s annoying everyone. His very expression offends the doctor who Deck pays off for access to Melvin’s mother’s autopsy report. And Deck rightly calls him out for chasing Kelly all over the hospital when he catches a glimpse of her abusive husband, Cliff, roaming the corridors. He’s right in his immediate suspicion that Cliff is responsible for putting Kelly there – as implied by the cliffhanger ending of the previous episode – but Deck is also right that Rudy has other things he needs to be worrying about and focusing on.
Rudy’s obvious fondness for Kelly is arriving at the right time, since it’s paralleling Sarah’s attraction to Noonan. There’s a lot of mirroring between Rudy and Sarah in this episode. Both get closer to their new romantic interests while also preparing to argue their case at the hearing about the tissue committee. Even though Sarah leaked that information to Rudy in the first place – albeit accidentally – Leo and Noonan are happy to throw her in at the deep end and see if she sinks or swims. Depending on her performance, she might be welcomed into the inner circle.
The thing is, Rudy’s got a case. It’s blatantly obvious that Melvin is a serial killer and that the hospital covered up whatever he did to Donny Ray, but from a legal standpoint, that’s almost impossible to prove. That’s where he’s naive. He thinks being in the right gives him some sort of authority, so he keeps making false promises to Dot and arguing with Bruiser whenever she nixes his ideas (like going to the police). The case keeps leading him and Deck to more and more suspicious details – like the fact that Melvin was born already addicted to heroin thanks to an addict mother, forming a motive for why he’d murder someone like Donny Ray, not realising he was clean – but unless those details can be compiled and argued in court, they’re worthless. And Rudy doesn’t have the patience for that bit.
This is why Sarah is able to manipulate him so easily. Before the hearing, she slips in that she passed that bar exam and that “everyone has heard” their results now, knowing that Rudy’s haven’t been processed yet, and Bruiser sees right through it. But Rudy falls for it. During the hearing itself, as soon as he’s on the back foot, he desperately reveals far too much about Melvin and the cover-up, changing the terms of the case, and forcing Bruiser to strike everything he said from the record. It opens the door for Sarah to pummel him even further.
I think The Rainmaker Episode 5 does a pretty decent job of highlighting why Rudy is so frustrated. It helps that we, the audience, know for certain that Melvin is guilty. He spends this episode dragging Jackie around, falling for her ploy of needing to pee, which gives her the opportunity to make a call with a stolen cell phone, but he gets away with it because she decides to call Amber, her ex-boyfriend’s current wife, who ignores all of her warnings. When Melvin and Jackie turn up at her house to retrieve the file, Amber once again ignores advice and tries to fight off the intruder herself, which gets her bonked on the head with a shovel. Melvin leaves her comatose, but alive.
You’d think this would be a positive development for Rudy, since the home invasion makes the news, lending credence to his case against Melvin. But he once again goes against Bruiser’s advice and reports his suspicions to the police, which once again backfires. Despite any evidence to the contrary, Melvin’s victims don’t seem like those of a serial killer, since they’re all seemingly unconnected and have different MOs. When the detective realises Rudy is working for Bruiser, he immediately suspects that he’s trying to trick the police into winning his case for him, apparently not for the first time.
All these mistakes can’t be ignored, and Bruiser takes a hard line against the breach of trust, firing Rudy. At the same time, Sarah is being chauffeured with Leo and Noonan to a private jet that’ll take them to London to dine with Wilfred Keeley. She can’t help but smile with giddiness when she spots Noonan. The outcome of the war is yet to be determined, but it’s pretty clear who won this battle.
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