Presumed Innocent
Season 1 – Episode 5
Episode title: Pregame
Original realease date: July 2, 2024
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ruth Negga, Bill Camp, Elizabeth Marvel, Peter Sarsgaard, O-T Fagbenle, Tate Birchmore, Renate Reinsve, Chase Infiniti, Lily Rabe, Nana Mensah, Kingston Rumi Southwick, Matthew Alan
Plot: Raymond insists Rusty is innocent, but the weight of the looming trial pushes the Sabich family to its breaking point.
* * *
[panting]
[Jaden] Dad!
[Rusty] Get out of my fucking house.
[Barbara] Rusty, stop!
Get out!
Get inside!
[Jaden] Okay, okay!
Babe, babe, babe. Look at me.
[crying]
[Raymond] Rusty? What the hell is going on?
[Barbara] Honey, baby, look, he’s gone.
[Raymond] Rusty, talk to me.
[Barbara] Breathe, breathe, breathe.
[Raymond] Rusty?
[breathing heavily]
[Barbara] So you thought he had information,
and you went to his house.
Then he comes h-here for… For what?
To intimidate you?
Rusty, you could have killed him.
What if he goes to the police?
[Rusty] He won’t.
How do you know?
He won’t.
[breathes shakily]
[punching keys]
[punching keys]
[knocks on door]
Tommy?
[Tommy] Yeah? Mmm.
I’m being told I’m the first witness, or one of the first.
I would like to know why.
The defense will be arguing prosecutorial bias,
and you can puncture that straight out of the gate.
If you expect me to say I think Rusty committed murder, I’m not doing it.
[stammers] No. I don’t expect for you to say anything.
I just expect for you to tell the truth. You have a problem with that?
What is it with you two?
You have some kind of thing with him?
[stammers] With Rusty?
[Tommy] Yeah.
Mmm.
[Tommy] If there were, I would need to know about it.
You ever kiss him?
Inappropriate.
Irrelevant.
Go fuck yourself.
You’re being called as a witness
to attest to the relationship between Carolyn and Rusty,
and I need to know you have professional objectivity.
If professional objectivity is really a concern,
perhaps you should recuse yourself.
Mm-hmm.
You know, there’s been a lot of restructuring going on around here,
and I want you to know that Nico and I value loyalty above all else.
[door opens]
[breathing heavily]
[coffee pours]
[spoon clatters]
[burps]
[farts]
[slurps]
[exhales sharply]
[sighs]
[groans, breathes deeply]
[slurping]
[groans]
[breathing heavily]
[heartbeat thumping]
[exhales sharply]
[high-pitched ringing]
[ringing stops]
[breathing heavily]
[water running]
[grunts]
[breathes heavily]
[Lorraine] It just exploded?
Yeah. Went everywhere.
All over the office.
[sighs] Raymond, all these nightmares,
they’re all telling you the same thing,
which is what the evidence…
Can we not?
Is telling you.
Is there any evidence, even a scintilla, that points to somebody else?
Lo, it’s not a question of evidence pointing to somebody else.
It’s the lack of evidence…
Pointing to him.
That points to Rusty.
I know. The burden.
Shall we talk about the burden you’ll be bearing?
Can we not?
He didn’t do it.
Hmm. Doesn’t matter.
You argue for the defense now, anyway.
[Rusty panting]
[treadmill beeps]
[treadmill beeps]
[grunts]
[hip-hop playing in the distance]
[Brian] Let’s go, Laura. Hurry it up.
[engine starts]
[chattering]
[dog barking]
Fuck!
[barking continues]
[barking continues]
Hey! Hey, what the hell are you doing?
Whoa, whoa. Hey, hey. Hey, hey. Hey.
[breathes heavily] Hey, I just wanna talk.
I’m calling the cops.
You’re gonna call the cops after the other night?
Fine. Oh, why don’t I drive you there?
We can fill out the report together.
The hell is wrong with you?
I just… I just wanna talk to you.
Okay?
Just… Just… Just have a conversation with me.
[breathing heavily]
You assaulted. You trespassed.
He can claim that you’re extorting him.
I-I assaulted him? I trespassed?
Hardly believe that he would come…
Best way for him to get ahead of that,
right, is to go to the police.
[stammers]
If he can curry favor with the cops
by characterizing you as a fucking sociopathic nutjob,
which, from where I stand, Rusty,
it’s the direction of the spiral that you’re in, I’m… [stammers]
Mya.
She’s a fresh mind.
She’s objective.
Listen to this theory of Rusty’s.
Liam Reynolds is our best suspect.
He had a motive.
Getting fucked over!
[people clamoring]
[Rusty] And despite being in prison, he had the means.
He knew people on the outside.
And according to Rigo, who has been talking to some of the inmates,
Reynolds has intimated that he killed her.
She was about notches on her belt.
Even if Reynolds were involved…
I would gladly crater her skull.
[groans] What I’m saying… Carolyn buried the evidence.
[Raymond] Which was inconclusive.
No, Carolyn buried the evidence, Ray.
[phone ringing]
[Carolyn] Hey.
Did you get the results back?
Um, nothing unexpected from the prelim.
And Ratzer, his semen was at the homicide scene.
So it’s not the fucking reach that you’re making it out to be.
Okay. But that’s not our case.
[Raymond] She’s right.
[sighs]
Hey, there are two things I’ve learned in my professional experience.
One is that prison informants,
they will say or fabricate anything to improve their plight.
Two, those who commit murder, they tend to threaten, to boast,
to fuck other inmates up the ass.
What they do not tend to do is walk around intimating.
I’m sorry.
And even if Reynolds was involved…
[sighs] …I still don’t see how this Ratzer guy helps us now.
What I’m saying is the two of them could be connected, Raymond.
Maybe they know each other.
This is my fucking life.
Yeah.
I know, and I would like to save it
because you came to me to defend your life, your freedom.
But Rusty, whatever our strategy…
[chuckling] …it’s not going to be,
“Hey, there’s this guy who knows this other guy who’s in prison,
both of whom had spermatozoa
at the same apartment of some dead prostitute.”
Who was tied up exactly like Carolyn was.
Not exactly.
Similarly.
[groans] My God. Fine. Well, you know what?
You can ask Ratzer yourself. He’s gonna be here tomorrow.
What?
Yeah.
He’s on the treadmill.
Oh, yeah. My suggestion.
He attacked a man last night.
Better the treadmill.
Mom, did he do this?
No. No, honey.
Your dad has a lot of rage inside him…
but not this.
[Rusty] Ratzer, I think it could be him.
You sure it’s not your bias?
Could be that.
What does Mr. Horgan think?
Ray thinks it’s a dead end,
and he thinks that I’m becoming a loose cannon.
[Jaden] Is he right?
[Rusty] Maybe.
I mean, you do kind of seem like you’ve jumped the tracks a little.
What is that supposed to mean?
I mean, you beat a man up.
Jay, he came to our house.
He threatened you. He threatened Mom.
What was I supposed to do?
I don’t know.
I’m scared for you.
Oh, honey.
[sighs]
It’s okay.
[sighs]
[groans]
Hey, Tommy.
Hey, Carolyn.
You’re stalking me?
[Tommy chuckles] I am stalking…
Okay, listen. It’s come to my attention you don’t wanna work with me, and, um…
Who said that?
Oh, God. [chuckles] Never mind who said it.
Is it true that you don’t wanna work with me?
[Carolyn] I…
[Tommy] Just tell me.
[Carolyn] I said…
[sighs]
I-I prefer to… [clears throat] first chair my own cases.
And if I were to second chair, then I’d rather it be with Rusty,
since he’s chief deputy prosecutor, and career-wise, you know…
Yeah, I know. It makes s-sense.
Yeah.
It just came back that you specifically didn’t wanna work with me.
I didn’t say that.
I… Maybe I was misconstrued.
[knocks on door]
[Nico] Working late.
[groans] Yeah.
Listen, this Liam Reynolds, the one who killed Bunny Davis?
[Tommy] What about him?
[Nico] That’s exactly it. You know, I’ve been hearing things.
That he made credible threats against Carolyn.
[Tommy] He’s in prison.
[Nico] And…
yeah.
But you checked him out?
We did, and if the investigators turn up anything new, we’ll look into it.
But you don’t think there’s any there there, do you?
He’s in prison.
Yeah.
Liam Reynolds is a dead end.
Right now, our focus is Rusty Sabich, isn’t it?
Yeah.
[train horn honks]
[patrons chattering]
[“Guilt” playing on speakers]
[whispers] Barbara.
[line ringing]
[clears throat] Clifton, it’s, uh… it’s Barbara Sabich.
[Clifton] Yeah. Oh, um, I was hoping you’d call.
[no audible dialogue]
I’m sorry. Th-This was a mistake.
This was a bad idea.
[Clifton] Um, who… who was it who said, “We regret the ones we don’t make”?
[clears throat]
[“Risk It All” playing on speakers]
Makes me feel safe.
Oof.
Isn’t that bad in the art world?
[chuckles]
[Barbara] Not for me.
And honestly, safe has been a little elusive for me lately.
Lewis Carroll.
What?
“In the end, the only choices we regret are the ones we didn’t take.”
Thought it was Oscar Wilde.
Now I feel a little less safe.
I really don’t want to be the one to make the first move.
I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to.
Oh, I want.
[Clifton] Mmm.
I just shouldn’t.
[chuckles]
Mmm.
But I want.
[inhaling deeply]
I had no involvement with that.
But you had an involvement with her, Mr. Ratzer.
Your semen secretions were found in her apartment.
But I wasn’t there that night.
Oh, so you do have memory of her after all?
You had sex with this woman?
Yeah, it’s possible.
Possible?
Look, I had relations with prostitutes, okay?
You know, and, uh, she looks familiar, all right?
[Brian sighs]
But look, hey… [stammers]
I love my wife, okay? [stammers]
But after… [stammers] …four children, she had little to no interest in sex.
So, sometimes, yeah. Not often.
And this man?
Nah, I don’t know him. I’ve never seen him before.
[Mya] Are you sure?
[Brian scoffs] Yeah, I’m sure.
Why would I lie?
[Mya] Are you worried about being implicated in her death,
{\an8}which maybe you already are, since your DNA was found at the scene?
[Brian scoffs]
[sighs]
We know Liam Reynolds did this.
{\an8}If you do know this man, now would be the time to tell us.
We’re gonna have to pursue this further.
[chuckles] Look, I-I don’t know this man, all right?
We know you were there.
I’ve never seen him before and… and I… I had nothing to do with that.
[breathes heavily]
[chattering]
[officer 1] Arms out.
[officer 2] Next.
[officer 3] Turn around for me.
[officer 1] That’s good. In line.
[officer 2] Morning.
[officer 1] You’re all good.
[reporters clamoring]
[reporter] Mr. Molto, can I get a quick comment on the record?
We understand that there’s been the tender of a plea.
This office will not be entertaining any plea.
The defendant is accused of murder
and no lesser charge will be so much as considered.
Beyond that, we look forward to a fair trial
where we can exact the appropriate measure of justice.
I’m sorry, that’s all I got.
A-And what would the appropriate measure of justice be?
[chattering]
[shutters clicking]
Actually…
I will say this.
There has been a grotesque and systematic lack of accountability
that’s been going on for too long in this city.
Actually, I would say in this country.
Wall Street criminally plunged innocent people into poverty
with their mortgage schemes, and not one banker went to prison.
Pharmaceutical companies prioritized profits
over patients’ lives with their opioids.
No one from that industry went to prison.
So, the message has been sent and received in America,
that if you’re high enough,
you can do and get away with just about anything.
Well, not anymore. No, sir.
[reporters clamoring]
Tommy, can… can you tell me how that was helpful to us?
Tommy.
Tommy, I’m asking you a question.
Just give me a second.
Okay.
[inhales sharply]
Uh…
I really appreciate the appointment.
[sighs]
I’m really… [exhales heavily]
I’m grateful for the appointment, really.
What I don’t appreciate, and I won’t tolerate, is this low-grade distrust.
I’m… I’m good at what I do.
Do… Do you think I would give you this case if I didn’t think that?
Well, I know a lot of people around here that have…
[chuckling] like, some kind of a problem with me.
And the reason is…
they’re picking up on cues,
and not just from Raymond and Rusty, but from you.
[Nico stammers] Tommy.
[sighs]
W-What’s happened to you…
[Tommy] For the record…
in the last month?
For the record…
[smacks lips]
To have the best shot at conviction,
I need to cultivate respect and goodwill from the jury pool, right?
That’s why I made the statement.
I’m the good guy in all this.
Potential jurors, they need to know it and better yet, they need to feel it.
They need to understand that something is so
because Tommy Molto says it’s so.
[shower running]
[reporter speaks indistinctly through device]
[Rusty] Jaden, it’s 7:30, honey.
Honey, is your bag ready?
I mean, it’s right there.
[clears throat] Hey.
No murder trials at breakfast, especially mine.
Turn it off.
I have a gigantic zit on my face. Can you please tell me if it’s cancerous?
It is not.
It’s huge.
It’s probably stress.
[Jaden] Are you sure?
Let me see. Let me look.
You look nice. You have an interview?
[Barbara] Thank you.
Uh, therapy, actually.
That’s gotta be a brain tumor.
You’re dressed like that for your therapist?
I am.
She likes me to look pretty.
Where is my phone?
I swea… Can somebody call my phone?
Will you ring your father’s phone?
[chuckles] I’ll call it.
[Rusty] I swear to God that it’s here.
Ringing.
[Kyle] There.
[phone ringing]
[utensil clinking]
[Jaden] Must be near.
Who is this?
This is Jaden.
[Rusty] What are you thinking?
Nothing.
I don’t believe you.
[chuckles] This is nice.
That’s it.
It is nice.
Can you tell your mom she looks beautiful for me?
[chuckles] I can.
[chuckles]
[Rusty] Okay. Bye, you guys.
[Kyle] Bye.
[Barbara, Jaden] Bye.
[car alarm sounds]
Stop touching. You’re making it worse.
[Jaden] I’m not touching it.
What… W-Why is… Why is Kyle’s bike in the trash?
I don’t know. I-I-I didn’t put it there, honey.
It is trash.
I mean, the gears are shot and the, you know… the chain keeps coming loose.
So I just…
Okay.
[grunts]
[keys jingling]
[breathing heavily]
[Dr. Rush] And this was when?
[Barbara] A week or so ago.
And we had a session last Monday.
Dr. Rush, can we please not make this about untruths?
I just can’t…
[Dr. Rush] No, no, I’ve… No, I’m…
Oh, and… and… and clearly, you’ve…
[stammers] …you’ve been considering having an affair with him far longer than that.
An aff… [chuckles] It was just a kiss.
That wasn’t…
just a kiss.
It sounds like it was a… like it was a romance.
[chuckles]
Yeah.
Well, it was romantic.
[Dr. Rush chuckles]
[Barbara] Deeply romantic.
[sighs]
Maybe that is why…
you didn’t tell me.
I don’t know why I didn’t tell you. I… [sighs]
I’m not ashamed.
I’m not.
[stammers, breathes heavily]
[sighs]
Knowing I could.
Knowing I was…
wanted.
Yeah.
Desired. I felt relieved.
You know…
when I was, um, at Clifton’s place,
I was walking up the stairs, and I remember thinking…
Jaden would be so proud of me.
[chuckles]
[Dr. Rush] Jaden?
I feel her…
[crying] I feel her judgment.
[sniffles]
And I… [sniffles]
I mean, I could be projecting because I judge myself…
[cries]
for staying with him.
[cries] For forgiving him.
[sniffles]
For loving him. [sniffles]
Yeah, I could have fucked Clifton… [sniffles] …but I didn’t.
[exhales heavily, sniffles]
So you tell me… [sniffles]
is that something I should be proud of?
[Raymond] Hey.
Hey.
Listen, I’m… I’m not saying it’s unwinnable.
I can win this case, Rusty.
But you need to let me.
Can we allude to the son or Liam Reynolds? Sure.
But our case is not somebody else did it,
or at least, not somebody else specifically.
Our defense is that they cannot prove you did it.
We need to establish a credible alternative to me.
Otherwise it… it’s…
I disagree.
Does Barbara think you’re guilty?
Of course not. What are you getting at?
Are you sure?
Yes, I’m sure.
Lorraine is 100% convinced that you did it.
Well, it’s obviously not coming from me,
and she’s not one to readily believe what’s reported in the news.
She and Barbara are close.
Barbara knows that I am innocent.
I hope so, ’cause this case, it may come down to her.
How so? She can’t establish an alibi.
[Raymond] She, as your wife,
can attest to your demeanor…
No, no…
later that night. How you acted…
no, no.
Behaved, whether you were agitated…
We are not putting her on the stand.
Distracted.
She could testify…
No, Ray.
From her very unique perspective that you could not possibly have committed
a murder in the hours before.
[sighs]
That sends a message to everyone watching that she believes in you.
She believes in your innocence.
That counts for something.
I know that much.
Also, it goes without saying, but I’m gonna offer it all the same.
Between now and the trial,
let’s not be beating anybody else up.
[reporter] We’re finally here.
Tomorrow, the trial that has not only grabbed the attention of Chicago,
but the whole country, is set to begin.
Rusty Sabich will be brought before a jury of his peers
{\an8}to face charges for the murder of his former colleague, Carolyn Polhemus.
[shutters clicking]
[thunder rumbles]
[no audible dialogue]
[shutters clicking]
[no audible dialogue]
[shutters clicking]
[siren wailing]
[no audible dialogue]
All right.
Mr. Molto.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we already met during voir dire,
but allow me to introduce myself again.
My name is Tommasino Molto,
but I’m from Chicago like you, so it’s Tommy.
I’ll be prosecuting the case along with Mr. Nico Della Guardia, who you also met.
We represent the State.
We’ll present to you evidence of a crime.
You will weigh this evidence, you’ll deliberate upon it
and, ultimately, you’ll decide if it proves the defendant’s guilt.
This man is accused in the murder of Carolyn Polhemus.
And we will present to you testimonial, physical, scientific and forensic evidence
that will lead you to form a conclusion.
One word about the victim.
{\an8}I knew her.
{\an8}And we all knew her.
Um, she was a colleague in the district attorney’s office.
Loved by all.
From an evidence standpoint, it shouldn’t matter that I knew her.
Admired her. That I miss her.
That has no evidentiary meaning or value,
but I won’t pretend that it doesn’t matter.
So if I show my feelings, let me apologize for that right now.
Prosecutors are expected to be tough, right?
Unfeeling.
Just functionary.
Well, we are functionaries of the only universally accepted system
for distinguishing wrong from right.
We’re bureaucrats.
I suppose you imagine that, after years of making charges
and trying cases and seeing defendants come and go, that we’d become inured.
It was all just a kind of blur.
Well, not today, because I did know her.
Today, you… all of you…
have taken on one of the most solemn obligations of citizenship,
and your job is simply to find the truth. The facts.
And it’s not an easy task, as we all know.
As memories fail, recollections become shaded
and evidence points in different directions,
you might be forced to decide about something
that no one seems to know or be willing to say.
And the evidence, in this case, the details are unspeakably gruesome.
I’m gonna show you an image. It’s quite violent.
[jury gasps]
Right. So if you were watching this at home, you would turn it off,
not watch, not listen, not see this.
No one should have to watch it or listen to it.
But here, you must.
You have to, right?
It’s a real crime. It’s a real victim.
Carolyn Polhemus.
And she had a son,
Michael.
So there’s real pain.
In the end, you don’t have to try to figure out why it happened.
A person’s motives, after all, may be forever locked away inside them.
But you do have to try to determine what occurred.
Otherwise, we won’t know whether or not this man deserves to be freed or punished.
And if we can’t find the truth, what is the hope of justice?
That’s why Carolyn got into this line of work.
That is why we all got into this line of work.
Hope for justice.
So, in the end, I… I won’t be asking you to cry for Carolyn, though you might.
And I won’t be asking you to feel for her family and her son.
Of course you will.
I simply implore you to be true. To be faithful to the truth.
Which, Carolyn, that’s all she would have asked.
Just be faithful to the truth.
Thank you.
[sighs]
Fuck.
