The ending of The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 has a plot twist that needs to be explained: what will happen in Season 4?
All seasons of The Lincoln Lawyer are now available on Netflix, depicting a beautiful arc covering many of the cases managed by Mickey Haller. As we know, the Netflix series is based on the books written by Michael Connelly: each season covers a book, and Season 3 made no difference, telling the story we have read in the 2013 novel The Gods of Guilt. But it’s not just that: what happens at the ending of Season 3 is a shocking cliffhanger that opens the way to Season 4, leaving the viewers with many questions. What happened, how is the last scene related to the rest of the plot? And what are we going to expect in Season 4?
All doubts are legit. In this article, we will examine in detail The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 ending, and all aspects will be explained: yes, the plot is connected with what is supposed to happen in Season 4, let’s understand what happened.
The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 ending explained: who’s the man in the trunk?
The plot of The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 followed the case of Julian La Cosse, accused of killing Gloria Dayton, aka Glory Days. During the ten episodes, Mickey Haller will discover how the murder of Glory Days is connected to the crooked DEA agent James De Marco: the defense attorney will collect evidence about his modus operandi, and ultimately, he will lead the prosecutor’s investigator, Neil Bishop, to confess his involvement in the events that will lead to Gloria’s death.
In Season 3, we successfully follow the trial until the last deposition, when Bishop tells the jury how he followed Glory Days the night she died, giving her address to De Marco and watching him enter her apartment one hour before her death. Neil Bishop will commit suicide in court, the people will drop all charges, and La Cosse will receive consistent compensation for everything he experienced. The case is closed, Mickey Haller is no longer considering quitting, but he definitely needs a break.
Nothing else was supposed to happen at the ending of Season 3, and still, a huge plot twist takes place in the very last scene: Haller is pulled over by the police, the officer asks to open the trunk, and a dead body is found inside. Mickey Haller is arrested, leaving everyone shocked. Who is this man, and how is all this related to the rest of the plot?
The man in the trunk is Sam Scales, a character we incidentally see in The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3: he’s the first case followed by Lorna after she passes the bar exam, a con artist who gets released by the judge thanks to Lorna’s creative defense strategy. After seeing his dead body in Mickey Haller’s trunk, the viewers are shocked: is this some kind of revenge taking place after what we saw in Season 3? How is this connected with the books? This will obviously be explained in The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4, but we can already reveal some aspects that will facilitate your understanding without revealing spoilers. Follow us.
What will happen in Season 4?
Netflix’s TV series The Lincoln Lawyer is conceived to cover a different book by Michael Connelly in every season. Season 3 is based on the novel The Gods of Guilt, but the discovery of Sam Scales’ body in the trunk has nothing to do with the plot of that book: it’s not connected to the Mexican drug cartel or the corrupted power in Los Angeles. Instead, Mickey Haller’s arrest after the body was found in his trunk is the beginning of The Law of Innocence, the 2020 book that follows The Gods of Guilt in Connelly’s Mickey Haller series.
Therefore, the ending of The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 provides a clear hint about Season 4: if Netflix confirms it, the 4th season will be based on The Law of Innocence. That’s where we will discover how it ended up in Haller’s trunk. In the book, Mickey Haller must prove his innocence in jail: he will build his case, defend himself as an attorney, and find the real culprit. The book has a bitter ending that will make Haller doubt the whole juridical system: we won’t reveal more details, so the pleasure of seeing the next season (or reading the book) is not spoiled.
We will keep you posted about any news related to The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4. Meanwhile, you can already enjoy the first three seasons on Netflix.
