'Perry Mason' Episode 6 Review: Detective struggles in court on his first day as a defense lawyer
At the end of 'Perry Mason' Episode 5, we saw the detective for hire give the bar exam and take the attorney's oath successfully -- all of it solely to defend Emily Dodson from the accusation of being a key suspect involved in the kidnapping and killing of her 1-year-old son Charlie Dodson. In episode 6, we see Mason has a bad start as the defendant's lawyer. He does want to do his best as Emily's lawyer but considering this is his first case defending in the courtroom, Mason chokes and stammers while he gives his opening statement.
The fact that he is even able to complete this is because of the District Attorney Maynard Barnes (Stephen Root), who hands a glass of water to him. It is in defending this case that Mason understands the man that he worked with all this while -- E.B. (John Lithgow). In fact, after a very bad day at court, Mason even laments at his dead mentor and asks why he had to kill himself before he could defend Emily and complete the case.
Emily is in deep trouble because she lies to her lawyer. She did not tell him how she had taken her son to a motel during one of the meetings with George Gannon, who she was having an affair with. This man is one of the four people involved in the kidnapping of Charlie and until now, the defense was arguing that Emily was also betrayed by George. Then the guard at the jail that Emily was held in appears as a witness and perjures himself in court to give a statement that Emily had confessed to the crime. However, with these two pieces of evidence submitted in court, things don't look too good for Emily.
However, it is not all bad news for Mason considering Detective Paul Drake, who had initially said that he will not help decides on the contrary. He helps Mason introduce the dentures that he had found at the crime scene but had instead hidden it because of Detectives Ennis and Holcomb in court but the evidence gets shot down by the judge because it was not legally processed. However, this one instance shows how far Mason is interested in going for his client and that is despite being lied to.
Then the episode also sees Mason's partner and friend Pete (Shea Whingham) arrive in Denver searching for the connection between Ennis and two of the kidnappers who were shot dead in a motel room. Turns out the three are connected by a past crime. Ennis served as a strikebreaker during the Ludlow Massacre when National Guard troops and private security forces slaughtered mine workers and their families. That is how the three are connected and if Pete manages to find solid evidence to prove this connection, Mason has a fighting chance against the District Attorney.
New episodes of 'Perry Mason' will air on Sunday night at 9 pm ET on HBO.