'Defending Jacob' Episode 7: Neal Logiudice uses Andy's family past to accuse Jacob of committing murder
As 'Defending Jacob' inches towards the end of it's eight-episode run, there's plenty of riveting courtroom action that can be expected. Ahead of Episode 7, AppleTV+ shared an exclusive sneak peek that sees Neal Logiudice (Pablo Schreiber) take the fight on to Andrew Barber (Chris Evans). The clip shows Logiudice making a compelling statement. The backstory was that Jacob (Jaeden Martell) was accused of murdering his classmate, Ben Rifkin, by stabbing him in the chest thrice.
"Why would an eighth-grade boy kill his classmate?" Logiudice asks looking at Jacob. He also reasons that Jacob would have confidently committed the murder knowing that his father, Andy, the first DA in the county, would be the one to defend him. He also notes that the family's history with murder could have been one of the reasons for the heinous act. The message here is clear — Logiudice is certain that Jacob is guilty and he starts his opening argument by pulling Andy's family history.
Previously, in an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide, Schreiber, while decoding his character shed light on why Logiudice would do what he did. "I'm curious about what creates this...why we're looked at as antagonists or why we are disliked as a character. And I thought this was a really interesting examination or experiment because really, ultimately Neal is only the antagonist because he's the person prosecuting Jacob (Martell). He's the person who's in the way of Andy. His main mission is the conviction of Jacob, which would absolutely destroy him and he was our protagonist."
Schreiber continued: And so through the lens of the protagonist, obviously the things that he does come off as bad, and they piss us off because they're making life difficult for Andy. But in reality, Neal is only behaving as an effective prosecutor. He's doing his job in being a good prosecutor and going as hard as he can for the conviction of the person who he believes is guilty of the crime."
"As an audience, watching this happen is painful and it's frustrating. We dislike the character because he's getting in the way of our protagonist, but through the lens of Neal, he's not doing anything wrong. And ultimately in Episode 8, when we realize why he's doing what he's doing in the Supreme Court hearing that's been happening throughout the season, we should be left questioning why we hated him so much."
Only time will tell how things pan out for Jacob. 'Defending Jacob' Episode 7 releases Fridays on AppleTV+.