'Perry Mason' Episode 8: Season finale may see detective turned lawyer prove Emily innocent, emerge victorious
The 'Perry Mason' season finale will see Mason (Matthew Rhys) almost all out of moves in fighting the case for his client Emily Dodson (Gayle Rankin). He knows the truth. He knows who killed baby Charlie Dodson, how and why but the only way he can prove that his client is innocent is by ensuring that the jury witnesses a true confession from none other than Detective Ennis (Andrew Howard) when he is on the stand. Sure, in the previous episodes, Mason had managed to connect the church's Elder Eric Seidel (Taylor Nichols) to the crime. However, this is only seen as the defense attorney casting suspicions and if Mason hopes to win the case at all, he needs substantial evidence.
The promo of the upcoming episode sees Mason struggle to shine a light on the truth. The thread that was used to stitch baby Charlie's eyes open is still something that Mason holds onto and this episode also underlines how his intentions from the beginning were to find the true killer and mastermind behind the kidnapping and killing of the one-year-old boy and get him punished by the law. While the mastermind is Elder Seidel, it is Ennis who killed the baby and from then he also killed many others just to cover his tracks.
The co-conspirators, George Gannon who had helped to cook books for the church as an accountant, and finally Seidel too, all of them were killed by Ennis. Now, Mason has hence targeted Ennis and wants to see the murderer confess to his crimes during the cross-questioning of the witness. He wants Ennis punished and Emily proved innocent. However, things are not going to be easy. Until now, Mason had messed up a lot in life -- dishonorable discharge, his divorce and irresponsible behavior as a father, and most recently, even losing his farm from under his nose to his girlfriend who bought his property out.
If he does win the case against District Attorney Maynard Barnes's (Stephen Root) passionate debate, not only will this end the consecutive failures that he has faced in life; but he will also make a name for himself as a criminal defense lawyer. This is the Perry Mason that fans from the novel know of. This style of forcing a confession on the stand, cross-questioning, and pressuring witnesses to tell the truth in the best interest of his client is something that Mason from Erle Stanley Gardner's books would use.
The first season would then serve as the origin story while the following seasons -- of which the second season has been confirmed -- may introduce us to new case files.
New episodes of 'Perry Mason' drops every Sunday at 9 pm on HBO.