S03.E21: When the Rains Came

[thewhiteowl]

Bull defends a prison guard accused of manslaughter after the drowning of two inmates.

[LuvMyShows]

Well, that was an, uh, interesting episode.  I'm sympathetic to the guy's situation, but what was never said, was that the trial wasn't because he didn't evacuate all twenty-whatever prisoners by himself; it was because of the death of the two prisoners.  And as the safety guy's testimony made clear, it would take about 8 minutes to move one prisoner to the 3rd floor by himself...something that the guard absolutely could have done had he stayed.  The concept of having to move all twenty-something prisoners by himself was irrelevant to the murder charge.  But further, he could still have moved all twenty-something prisoners by himself had he stayed!!! 

And there is no way on earth that the prosecuting attorney wouldn't have cross-examined with something like, "What was so all-fire important in the garage that it caused you to leave your post in such a risky situation?"  And then the $50K would have come up.  Also, I thought the deal they reached was going to include dropping the charges against him but filing charges against the private prison company, with him having to testify against them.  No way that negligence charges wouldn't be filed against the company for leaving the prisoners there for days in those conditions, regardless of if anyone died or not. 

[HurricaneVal]

There were quite a few loose threads last night that made me think even the writers didn't know which way they were going to go with how the case was going to be handled.

They made a big deal about how that guy didn't have his phone with him, and how it was "blowing up" back in the guard station.  So I expected Benny to pounce on that prisoner's testimony about overhearing the guard's phone conversation as false, since the phone was at the guard station.  But I guess that conversation did indeed happen, it just happened after all the other guards left.

The other loose thread was making a big deal about how the roof and plumbing were all new, so the guard thought the prison was in better shape than the rest of the buildings around, but that was never pursued (except obliquely by implicating general mis-management). 

I'm still really liking new!Cable.

[SamBeckett]

You know, even after last night’s episode I don’t remember new!Cable’s name!!! (Sorry to the actress playing her.)

This is like the 2nd or 3rd week where there’s been very little insight/impact from the rest of Bull’s team. Where is Chunk? And I know it’s been asked before, but what does Marissa do? (I get mock juries and jury selection.)

She said something last night — the whole red and green thing — that sounded as if they have the jury connected to something that is reading their mood or thoughts. That can’t be the case. Do they have a mock jury locked away in one of those rooms we used to see back in season one? That sounds really shaky. 

[Loves2Dance]

24 minutes ago, SamBeckett said:

You know, even after last night’s episode I don’t remember new!Cable’s name!!! (Sorry to the actress playing her.)

This is like the 2nd or 3rd week where there’s been very little insight/impact from the rest of Bull’s team. Where is Chunk? And I know it’s been asked before, but what does Marissa do? (I get mock juries and jury selection.)

She said something last night — the whole red and green thing — that sounded as if they have the jury connected to something that is reading their mood or thoughts. That can’t be the case. Do they have a mock jury locked away in one of those rooms we used to see back in season one? That sounds really shaky. 

They hire mirror juries to sit in the courtroom and experience what the jury is. Those people are paid and wears watches that monitor their positions. 

[SamBeckett]

54 minutes ago, Loves2Dance said:

They hire mirror juries to sit in the courtroom and experience what the jury is. Those people are paid and wears watches that monitor their positions. 

I’ve heard that but I have never seen enough people in any of these courts that would support that theory. Last night, the court was practically empty. (Plus, they went out of their way to dismiss many of the potential jurists.) 

Plus, there’s something about having people wired and connected to outside world doesn’t sound right. Yes, it’s not two-way, but how do they (the court) minter. And certainly they would want to. And don’t even get me started on the allowing Bull to talk to the outside world as the trial is going on.

[Loves2Dance]

13 hours ago, SamBeckett said:

I’ve heard that but I have never seen enough people in any of these courts that would support that theory. Last night, the court was practically empty. (Plus, they went out of their way to dismiss many of the potential jurists.) 

Plus, there’s something about having people wired and connected to outside world doesn’t sound right. Yes, it’s not two-way, but how do they (the court) minter. And certainly they would want to. And don’t even get me started on the allowing Bull to talk to the outside world as the trial is going on.

They don't focus on it as much anymore...it's the assumed method because that is what they showcased at the beginning of the series. 

[mythoughtis]

I hated this case. I had absolutely no sympathy for New Cable’s sister and brother-in-law, and that was before the deception was uncovered.  The plot line had significant holes in it.  In real life, there would be places to call when the young man found himself short of personnel- the state department of corrections emergency number for one. The nearest police authority for another.   

We should have heard about all the other guards aloud being fired, charged, and the prison being closed.  

I did feel sympathy for new Cable. 

Edited May 11, 2019 by mythoughtis

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, mythoughtis said:

I hated this case.

I found it very atypical.

Normally they secure their client's release by finding the actual guilty party.  This time, they simply... persuaded the DA not to prosecute?  

[Destiny74]

Criminal charges were dropped but the family members of the two dead inmates have a civil case aganist the management of that jail.

[Sarah 103]

On 5/7/2019 at 7:50 PM, SamBeckett said:

She said something last night — the whole red and green thing — that sounded as if they have the jury connected to something that is reading their mood or thoughts. That can’t be the case. Do they have a mock jury locked away in one of those rooms we used to see back in season one? That sounds really shaky. 

TAC hires a mirror jury. Each member of the jury has a counterpart on the mirror jury. They have the members of the mirror jury wear some kind of wearable tech that allows Marissa (who has some type of psych background) to see what they are feeling and which side they are supporting at any given moment. As it for it sounding shaky, it's TV (not only that but also a CBS procedural).

Edited May 13, 2019 by Sarah 103

[Welcome5431]

Is this episode an interpretation of the possible cover up of the negligence towards those inmates  in South  Carolina who might've been abandoned and stranded in their prison during a hurricane last Fall? Media coverage favored Kavanaugh's hearing and dropped the inmates' stories as well 

[JessDVD]

Finally watched this one. I felt like one set of writers wrote the first act and a different set wrote the second act and they forgot to check with each other on the other's work. First act writers dropped all these asides about the higher-ups not answering their phones, the building having a new roof and supposedly being water-tight, etc, and second act writers completely ignored what I expected would be some kind of collusion among the builders and the higher-ups. 

Still, whether the guy's reasons for leaving were noble or not, I think they're hard-pressed to get twelve jurors to all call him guilty of manslaughter or whatever the charge was. Also, he could have moved the inmates in a third of that time, if those other two guards had stayed....

I love how Marissa declares that jurors have turned from red to green like it should have the super Mario level up music and not like jurors change how they feel about a trial all the way through depending on what they're hearing or even, gasp, just listen to testimony and then decide how they feel at the end.

[auntiemel]

The way that he was the one out of all the prison personnel that got charged with the deaths simply because he was the last one to leave reminded me of how, back on The Biggest Loser, they used to make it seem like whether or not a team won the weigh in came down to the last person weighing in. I always wanted to scream at my TV, "THAT'S NOT HOW MATH WORKS!"

[catherinejane]

How do they also know that one of the inmates didn't murder the other one in the chaos?

I assumed at the start that the drownings was because an entire jail cell filled with water. But it was that someone fell off their bunk into the water in the dark? in 2 different cells. Which is more accident (and civil suit for negligence)

Seemed an odd sort of case. All down to ONE chap, when everyone above him (and below?) disappeared during the crisis.