'Defending Jacob' Episode 1: Chris Evans as Andy Barber sets out on a path to find the truth behind a murder
Spoilers for 'Defending Jacob' Episode 1
Things were normal in the Barber family until 10 months ago. At least they were as normal as things could be. Two working parents — Andy (Chris Evans) and Laurie (Michelle Dockery) — and their son Jacob (Jaeden Martell) seems to be your regular family. Jacob seems to have a problem emoting when it comes to how happy or excited he is and this becomes a joke within his family. They are planning a vacation in Mexico for Christmas and everything looks and feels normal.
Except it is not. In the present, Andy Barber is present for a grand jury proceeding, where the jury is expected to take a call, based on evidence provided during the investigatory process, whether to grant a true bill of indictment or not. Andy is asked about his family and if he considered his family to be a happy one until the day that one of his son's classmates, Ben Rifkin was found dead in a park. What comes next is Andy recalling how his family was before everything changed.
When Andy got Ben's murder case, he couldn't have guessed that his 14-year-old son would get involved. Even when he begins investigating the other kids, he gets the feeling that one of them is not telling him the truth, but he doesn't push it because everyone is young. Instead, he ends up diverting his attention to a known pedophile in the area and is about to get ready to even bring the guy in.
Andy is also being pressurized to find a suspect as soon as possible because of how violent the crime is. The neighborhood that he is at is a closely-knit one and so everyone is interested in the case and its outcome. Furthermore, he also ends up attending the memorial service at Ben's residence and just before he walks out because he realizes that this is a bad idea as a prosecutor on the case, he ends up meeting Ben's dad. This conversation becomes too intense for Andy who is also a father to a 14-year-old son.
In fact, when he considers bringing in the pedophile, he is more influenced by pressure than objective thinking. Yet, before the night ends, Andy gets an anonymous mail in which he receives a link to a post about Ben's death where other students are sharing condolences. Only Jacob makes a mean comment about how people are trying to send messages to a dead person and trying to act like his best friend. It is insensitive, yes, but it could also mean that Jacob is just trying to call out students who are trying to express fake sympathies.
But then, Andy sees a comment in the thread where one of the students points out that "everyone knows Jacob did it" because he carried a knife with him. This shocks Andy who ends up going through Jacob's things in the dead of the night to check if he really has a knife and when he does find it, that's the moment that changes everything for the Barber family.
The suspicion that has risen in Andy will corrode his relationship with his son soon and maybe with Laurie as well. This grain of suspicion will drive Andy towards the grand jury proceeding, but there will be resistance because he is, after all, a father too.
New episodes of 'Defending Jacob' will drop on Fridays on Apple TV+.