‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 3 Ending Explained and Unpacked

The third stunning season of The Lincoln Lawyer has finally made its long-awaited premiere on Netflix , and brought with it a wide array of exciting new plot developments. If you’re an avid watcher of the series, you may have already binge-watched your way through the whole thing, anxiously awaiting the results of the show’s big trial. Unlike previous seasons of The Lincoln Lawyer , season three concludes with a massive cliffhanger which has left many fans reeling. Luckily, we’re here to help discuss the ending, unpack the themes and ideas at play and speculate on what’s next for Mickey Haller and his associates.

Needless to say, the following write-up will be choc-full of spoilers for the most recent season of the show, so please feel free to bookmark this page and return later if you’re not fully up to date on The Lincoln Lawyer . Without any further preamble, let’s dive into the most pressing plot questions of The Lincoln Lawyer ‘s third season, including the murder of Glory Days, the ensuing trial of Julian La Cosse, and the shocking trail of corruption that leads Mickey to investigate the DEA’s connection to the James De Marco drug cartel.

What Happens in Season 3 of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’?

Like the first two seasons of the show, the latest batch of episodes in The Lincoln Lawyer adapt a novel from Michael Connelly. This year, the narrative follows the events of Connelly’s 2013 body of work titled “The Gods of Guilt.” The story picks up right where season two left off, with Mickey, the eponymous attorney, taking on the case of Julian La Cosse, who has been accused of murdering Mickey’s friend and former client Glory Days. Days, whose real name was Gloria Dayton, was a well known woman of the night who played a major role in the final episodes of season one, as well as the opening episodes of season two. Her death served as a major reveal in the final moments of The Lincoln Lawyer ‘s second season, and established the stakes and main case for the third instalment.

The opening scenes of season three see Mickey accepting La Cosse’s claim that he is innocent, and agreeing to represent him in court. Of course, as the Lincoln lawyer begins digging into the actual details of Gloria’s death, he begins to tug at the thread of a massive conspiracy which reaches all the way to the top of the DEA. As this main story plays out, the season also offers a B story for Izzy, Mickey’s former chauffeur and on-again off-again partner in crime. Izzy spent most of season two establishing a studio for herself with the hopes of professionally dancing, though she struggles throughout season thrww to attract clientele. Ultimately, she resolves to curate the space and rent it out to dance TV shows after successfully hosting a wedding reception for Cisco and Lorna at the end of the second season.

Who Really Killed Glory Days?

To unpack the death of Glory Days, we must first look at the role she played throughout the first two seasons of The Lincoln Lawyer . In season one, Gloria provided groundbreaking testimony which exonerated Mickey’s client Jésus Menendez from his long-standing murder conviction. Shortly thereafter, she became a target for the LAPD, who had it out for her due to her ongoing professional relationship with Mickey. Once the true killer, Russell Lawson, revealed himself to Mickey under the protection of attorney-client privilege, Mickey once again enlisted Gloria’s help to put him behind bars. When we last saw Gloria, she had washed her hands of the messy legal situation, and presumably resumed her life as a call girl. Still, it was shocking when we learned of her death, as it seemed like Gloria was getting her life on the straight and narrow more than ever before.

In season three, we learn that this is exactly what got her killed, as she refused to play ball when called upon by corrupt DEA agent James De Marco. Throughout the new episodes, we slowly learn of De Marco’s ongoing relationship with drug cartels South of the border, as well as his growing web of lies which he uses to prevent himself from being caught. Apparently De Marco commanded Gloria to plant a gun in the home of Colombian drug trafficker Hector Moya. Though she refused to assist him, she was later called upon to testify against De Marco, causing him to kill her to cover his tracks. This information was revealed to the court by the DA’s investigator Neil Bishop, who had been secretly working in cahoots with Agent De Marco the entire time.

What Happens to Neil Bishop?

In the end, both Bishop and De Marco manage to escape justice through the courts, only to meet a gruesome end. After providing testimony to the court which implicates Agent De Marco in his conspiracy to collude with foreign cartels, Neil Bishop reveals that he snuck a gun into the court room, and takes his own life on the witness stand. The shocking scene comes to pass due to Bishop’s fear that he will be persecuted for assisting De Marco, as well as a fear that the DEA agent will come after him for exposing his secrets to the court. While Bishop’s death is highly disturbing from a narrative perspective, it also sets the stage for bigger problems in the forthcoming season of The Lincoln Lawyer , since Bishop would likely be one of the only people who could help to take De Marco down.

What Happens to Agent De Marco?

Like Neil Bishop, Agent De Marco also sees a brutal death in the final episode of The Lincoln Lawyer season three. As Bishop provides his damning testimony, De Marco is tipped off, and resolves to flee the country to avoid facing any legal consequences for the murder of Glory Days. For months, it seems as though the disgraced federal agent has escaped scot-free, though we ultimately learn that he was tracked down and killed by Hector Moya. The Lincoln Lawyer leaves it open-ended as to why Moya specifically takes De Marco out, though he has a plethora of reasons to do so. For starters, Moya was a long-time client of Gloria, so he may have wanted to avenge her death. Furthermore, he may have felt partially responsible for what happened to the young woman since De Marco killed her after she refused to turn against him.

Ultimately, Agent De Marco was a known enemy of Moya’s cartel outfit, so taking the federal agent out just seemed like a no-brainer. After killing Agent De Marco, Moya sent a postcard to Mickey and Izzy, which included a photo of the corrupt official hanging from a noose. While this offers some twisted sense of justice, it’s still alarming to Mickey, as the whole case has caused him to lose faith in the courts and in America’s legal institutions.

Mickey’s Fight With the DA, and Massive Cliffhanger

As the third season of The Lincoln Lawyer comes to a close, Mickey finds himself frustrated by the failures of the system, which have resulted in the deaths of several of his clients and associates. In a way, he blames himself for being a part of the legal system, and expresses aggravation that corruption within the greater Los Angeles county has gotten so out of control. Eventually, he decides to lash out at the DA’s office, in a desperate attempt to recoup a sense of accountability within the department. Mickey files a formal lawsuit against the DA citing the wrongful imprisonment of Julian La Cosse, hoping that he can finally bring some justice to the world by hitting corrupt officials where it hurts most: their wallets.

Unfortunately, Mickey’s ongoing beef with the greater legal system of Los Angeles may carry some unintended consequences down the road, as evidenced by the shocking cliffhanger at the end of The Lincoln Lawyer ‘s third season. One of the last things we see before the final cut to credits is a dead body inside the trunk of Mickey’s Lincoln Navigator. For now, we have no idea who placed the body, which is identifiable as con artist Sam Scales, inside Mickey’s trunk. Still, we know that the hotshot attorney has made a number of enemies in this town, including the DA’s office, the LAPD, and local mob affiliate and construction magnate Alex Grant.

What Can We Expect From ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season Four?

Clearly, the major case at the center of The Lincoln Lawyer ‘s fourth season will see Mickey sitting on the other side of the courtroom as a defendant, as he is tried for the murder of Sam Scales. When audiences last saw Scales, Mickey was berating the scammer for owing his firm a great deal of money, which will likely be used as supporting evidence that Mickey had motive to kill the young man. This probably means that the upcoming season will be adapting the works of Michael Connelly’s 2020 novel, “The Laws of Innocence,” wherein the Lincoln lawyer must build his defense from behind bars.

Luckily, Mickey has a solid support system on the outside to help him out, especially now that Lorna has officially become a lawyer, and Izzy has rejoined the firm as an office manager. As we patiently await more from The Lincoln Lawyer , our minds will surely be awash with images of Mickey preparing his case from a prison library, surrounded by friends and foes alike that have passed through the legal system. Netflix has not yet officially renewed The Lincoln Lawyer for a fourth season and beyond, though it seems like a no-brainer that the show will continue to be a success on the streamer. For now, all audiences can do is sit patiently and wait for news and updates about the future of the series.

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