'Defending Jacob' Finale Preview: Will Leonard Patz’s note to Rifkins acquit the boy and why is Andy summoned?
'Defending Jacob' episode 8 is the finale of the season and it will see if Jacob (Jaeden Martell) manages to escape from the charges that the prosecution has filed against him or if the evidence that had surfaced in the last episode will sink his case despite Joanna Klein's (Cherry Jones) excellent defense. In the previous episode, Jacob's prose on a violent porn site called cutter was taken into evidence for portraying Ben Rifkin's crime scene accurately. The prose also clearly showed how much the writer hated the person who died. So this was taken to prove intent in the case by the prosecutor Neal Logiudice (Pablo Schreiber).
This resulted in even Jacob's mother Laurie (Michelle Dockery) doubting his innocence, so isn't it highly probable that the jury would support the prosecution too? However, Andy (Chris Evans) is doing everything within his reach to prove his son's innocence, but does he believe it himself? It is a question that we have had since the beginning of the show. For all his claims that he trusts his son implicitly, Andy somehow seemed to prepare for the worst-case scenario when it came to his son's case.
Andy even goes to the extent of calling on Sarah, Jacob's classmate and friend to appear in court as a witness. When he broaches the possibility of the same, however, Jacob tries to refuse and even tells Andy that he doesn't want Sarah pulled into all of this mess. He has after all just recently begun speaking to her again and she is the only friend that Jacob now has by his side. However, after the mess that Jacob had caused by being on sites such as cutter, Andy tells him that he has lost his right to have a say over how they would proceed. So if Sarah were to appear in the upcoming episode as a witness, she might be able to cast doubt on Derrek's statement considering he had stolen the phone for Sarah's sake.
Meanwhile, there is also the note that Leonard Patz had written to Ben's parents in which he claims that he was the one who killed their son. Will the letter reach Mr. and Mrs. Rifkin in time or just like in the books, would it be his death that brings about a change in the way Ben Rifkin's murder case has shaped up over time. The biggest plot point that has to be defined further is why Andy is answering prosecutor Neal's questions in the present. What is it that the prosecutors hope to achieve by putting Andy on the witness box again after all this time?
New episodes of 'Defending Jacob' will drop on Friday on Apple TV+.