WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Presumed Innocent on Apple TV+!
Summary
AppleTV+‘sPresumed Innocentis an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1987 novel, so reading it could solve the case of who killed Carolyn Polhemus (Renata Reinsve). Starring Jake Gyllenhaal as hotshot prosecutor Rusty Sabich,Presumed Innocentis a modern retelling of Scott Turow’s story of lust, murder, and betrayal. When his former mistress, Carolyn Polhemus is found murdered, prosecutor Rusty Sabich finds himself on trial for his life. In the novel, the question of Rusty’s guilt took a backseat to a larger story about the ways that external factors and institutional corruption can hinder the right to a fair trial.
Presumed Innocentwas previously adapted for a 1990 movie starring Harrison Ford and Greta Scaachi as Rusty and Carolyn.
On the basis ofPresumed Innocent’s first two episodes, it appears to be taking a very different route from the original novel, with Jake Gyllenhaal’s twitchy and angry Rusty seeming far more guilty than his literary counterpart ever did.The question of who killed Carolyn Polhemus is front and center in the AppleTV+ adaptation, which even creates a brand-new suspect who isn’t in the novel. Despite this, by revisiting the 1987 novel, it could be possible to predict which ofPresumed Innocent’s characterscommitted the brutal crime.
Presumed Innocent Episodes 1 & 2 Recap: Rusty’s Affair & 9 Other Major Reveals
Presumed Innocent’s episodes 1 and 2 walk through everything from Rusty’s past affair with Carolyn to evidence suggesting he could be her killer.
Barbara Sabich Killed Carolyn Polhemus
Rusty’s wife wanted to punish him for his infidelity.
At the climax of Scott Turow’sPresumed Innocent, it’s revealed that Barbara murdered Carolyn to punish Rusty for his infidelity. Rusty begins to realize this while going over the evidence collected from Carolyn’s apartment, recognizing a glass from his own home that he knows he could not have left there. In the novel, after Rusty’s trial collapses, he puts the pieces together and confronts Barbara about her role in Carolyn’s murder. Rusty was framed not by his rival, Tommy Molto, but by his wife, who left his fingerprints and a semen sample at the scene of the crime.
Barbara wanted Rusty to go to prison for Carolyn’s murder, but her plan was foiled by corruption and ineptitude in Kimble County’s legal institutions.
Interestingly,the novel never directly confirms what Barbara’s goal was in framing Rusty. At the end ofPresumed Innocent, Rusty believes that Barbara framed him to put him through the emotional wringer, knowing that as a great lawyer he would solve the case, and have to confront what Barbara had done to him. Alternatively, Rusty’s best friend, Detective Lipranzer (Detective Rodriguez in the Apple TV+ version) believes that Barbara wanted Rusty to go to prison for Carolyn’s murder, but her plan was foiled by corruption and ineptitude in Kimble County’s legal institutions.
TheHarrison Ford movieadaptation ofPresumed Innocenthad the same ending, but gave Barbara the chance to fully admit her crime in a way that the novel denied her. It’s too early to tell if Jake Gyllenhaal’sPresumed Innocentwill go the same way, particularly asBarbara is a bigger character in the TV adaptation. The TV show’s addition of two teenage children for Rusty and Barbara also complicates matters further, particularly in terms of Rusty’s decision not to hand his wife over to the police at the end of the novel, because he didn’t want to separate his young son from his mother.
In 2010, Scott Turow wrote a sequel,Innocent, which revolved around the suspicious death of Barbara Sabich.
Carolyn Polhemus Dumped Rusty For Raymond Horgan
Raymond is a happily married man in Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent.
In the original novel, Carolyn Polhemus is revealed to have had many affairs both before and after her relationship with Rusty. At the time of her murder,Carolyn was engaged in an affair with Rusty’s boss and mentor, Raymond Horgan. The discovery of this fact drives a permanent wedge between Rusty and Raymond, leading to the latter appearing as a witness for the prosecution in the trial. Now that Rusty has convinced Raymond to represent him in court, it seems unlikely that this particular plot point from the novel will appear in thePresumed InnocentTV show, but it could inject some conflict between the pair.
Jake Gyllenhaal’s First Lead TV Role In New Crime Show Debuts With Promising Rotten Tomatoes Score
Presumed Innocent, which counts as Jake Gyllenhaal’s first lead role in a television series, starts off with a promising Rotten Tomatoes score.
Carolyn Was Involved In Some Shady Dealings
She collected bribes for a crooked judge.
InPresumed Innocent, it’s revealed that Carolyn hid evidence in the Bunny Davis murder trial, which was supposedly the motive for Liam Reynolds to order Carolyn’s murder. This storyline isn’t in Scott Turow’s original novel, but the book’s version of Carolyn is still guilty of legal impropriety. Much ofRusty’s defense in the novel revolves around the so-called"B file", a complaint about a judge that was accepting bribes for lenient sentences. Carolyn ultimately hid the file in a drawer, because on closer investigation she realized that she would be implicated in any corruption charges, having collected the payments for the crooked judge.
Much like the second semen sample inPresumed Innocent’s case against Liam Reynolds, Rusty believed that the B file was a motive for Carolyn’s murder. However, in reality, his knowledge of the file led to him being acquitted for different reasons.The crooked judge was Larren Lyttle, who was assigned to Rusty’s case.Worried that further discussion of the B file would draw attention to his past improprieties, Judge Lyttle abruptly brought the trial to a close, acquitting Rusty of Carolyn’s murder. There’s been nothing so far to suggest that Judge Lyttle is similarly corrupt in theApple TV+ show, but time will tell.
Tommy Molto’s Obsession With Carolyn Collapses The Case Against Rusty
Tommy’s determination to convict Rusty forces him to cut corners.
Played by Peter Sarsgaard in the TV show, Tommy Molto is quite a pathetic figure inPresumed Innocent. The zeal with which Molto pursues Rusty in the novel is driven by jealousy over the accused’s affair with Carolyn Polhemus. There are shades of this in the TV adaptation, which will presumably become more pronounced as the weeks go on. In the novel,Molto’s jealousy of Rusty, and his determination to achieve justice for Carolyn meant that he cut corners and jeopardized his case.
In one of the novel’s final courtroom scenes, Rusty’s defense lawyer, Alejandro Stern exposes the medical examiner, Dr. Kumagai, for not keeping sufficient track of a DNA sample that matched Rusty’s blood type. In front of the judge and jury, Stern explicitly draws a link between Kumagai and Molto, heavily implying that the prosecutor fabricated the one piece of DNA evidence against Rusty. This, coupled with Tommy’s circumstantial case, is enough for Judge Lyttle to use Molto as a scapegoat when dismissing the case at the climax ofPresumed Innocent’s trial.
As the Apple TV+ adaptation ofPresumed Innocentis set in a modern age of smartphones and digital record keeping, Tommy Molto has a stronger case against Rusty. Interestingly, Carolyn’s pregnancy and Rusty’s paternity has been added to the TV version, creating a far stronger DNA link between the accused and the victim than anything in the novel. This, combined with Jake Gyllenhaal’s more unpredictable Rusty Sabich, means that David E. Kelley’s adaptation ofPresumed Innocentcould have a very different ending to Scott Turow’s original novel.
Presumed Innocent
Cast
An eight-episode limited series based on the New York Times bestselling novel of the same name by Scott Turow. Starring Gyllenhaal in the lead role of chief deputy prosecutor Rusty Sabich, the series takes viewers on a gripping journey through the horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorney’s office when one of its own is suspected of the crime. The series explores obsession, sex, politics, and the power and limits of love, as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.
