The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 ended with quite a cliffhanger. Just as things are looking better for Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) than they have in seasons, the show ends in a place that sets up a possible Season 4 on Netflix. And considering what happened at the end of Season 3, we have a good idea of what story is coming next.
First, the Season 3 finale. In the show’s Season 3 conclusion, Investigator Bishop (Holt McCallany) takes the stand and reveals that DEA Agent DeMarco (Michael Irby) is the man who killed Gloria Dayton, known on the show as Glory Days. DeMarco did this after Gloria planted a gun in drug lord Hector Moya’s (Arturo Del Puerto) room and was later subpoenaed. Just as he’s finishing his testimony, Bishop reveals a hidden gun and shoots himself on the stand.
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This means Julian La Cosse (Devon Grey), who was accused of the murder of Gloria Dayton, doesn’t just go free – he also gets a settlement due to the wrongful incarceration. All in all, it’s a good ending for Mickey Haller. He got his client free, and he was finally looking forward to a vacation. In the season’s closing minutes, however, Haller is pulled over due to a missing license plate and the police officer ends up opening the trunk, where the body of Sam Scales (Christopher Thornton) can be seen in the trunk.
What Happened to Sam Scales in The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 Finale?
The answer isn’t given in the third season of the Netflix show, which adapts Michael Connelly’s book The Gods of Guilt. But it is given in the next book the show is set to adapt if renewed for a fourth season, Michael Conelly’s The Law of Innocence.
Scales, a client of Mickey Haller, is found dead on Mickey Haller’s trunk at the end of the episode. In the book that follows the case Haller’s bond is set to an exorbitant amount, so, in the ultimate twist for a defense attorney, he has to build his own case behind bars. And what happened to Scales has very little to do with Mickey Haller, and more to do with what Scales is: a con man.
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In Michael Conelly’s books, Scales runs a con that has to do with converting used cooking oil to bio-fuel, all under the alias of Walter Lennon. The problem, of course, is that Scales ends up ripping off Louis Opparizio’s organized crime unit in Los Angeles, and Opparizio has him killed.
The Law of Innocence has Mickey go free after it’s revealed that the FBI knows Opparizio killed Scales and framed Haller, but they let Haller stay in jail for a while to not jeopardize their investigation. Finally, after being ordered to testify, the FBI goes to the DA with their information, who then agrees to drop the case. That means Mickey gets off, but is never able to prove that he didn’t kill Scales in court. A bittersweet ending for someone who takes great pleasure in getting to prove he’s right.