Making A Murderer part 2, episode 8 recap: Special Care

Zellner revisits ballistics while Brendan’s hopes for release meet yet another roadblock on Making A Murderer.

Making A Murderer is starting to feel a bit repetitive at this point and as Refinery29 points out, it’s starting to feel more or less like the same thing with every single episode. Zellner investigates something and then finds out that the original trial failed to look deeper into whatever she has found.

While it is intriguing, it just feels mundane. I’m not entirely sure what else the docuseries could do to keep viewers interested through the course of 10 episodes, but something has got to give. In fact, this episode was fairly devastating for Brendan whose hopes to be released is shattered once again.

Zellner starts with recreating the supposed shooting that happened, the one where then-defense lawyer, Buting, stated that Steven’s landlord was the one who had fired the shots. When questioned, his landlord, Roland, attested to the fact that he would hunt gophers and squirrels and shoot at random targets all around the property.

The bullet that was used as evidence could very well have been from his gun. Zellner goes to say that Halbach’s DNA may have been planted on the bullet by getting DNA from her home. This could have been from any of the items retrieved from her home including chapstick.

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Meanwhile, the prospect of Brendan’s release dangles in front of him and his family who truly believe that he is finally coming home. But, of course, this ordeal goes completely the opposite way.

The appeal from the Seventh Circuit comes back in Brendan’s favor with Judge Rovner writing up an opinion that really supported the idea that Brendan’s confession was coerced.

It was a 2 to 1 decision, but it was a win nonetheless. Of course, the state is given a certain amount of time to counteract and they do, putting the ball in Nirider and Drizen’s court. They quickly come up with a reply hours before the deadline.

In what has only happened 42 times, the case will now be retried en banc which essentially means in front of the entire Seventh Circuit.

The state is not willing to give up, and they are going to fight this thing until the death. What this means for Brendan is that he has to remain in prison, because the previous affirmation from the Seventh Circuit is now vacated, as if it didn’t exist, and oral arguments have to be made all over again.

Zellner makes a good point that it would be in the state’s interest to get to the bottom of the case because whether Avery did it or not, the case was a hot mess and handled extremely poorly. This episode of Making A Murderer then shifts its attention to Bobby Dassey, Brendan’s brother.

He didn’t partake in the docuseries so any footage of him is from the days of the trial. When he took the stand in 2006, he stated that he saw Teresa walk to Steven’s trailer and that he saw her car after he came back from his day of hunting.

But Bryan Dassey, one of the other brothers, said that Bobby lied when he made those statements all those years ago, either to Bryan or the court. And just like that, we may have another suspect on our hands.

More investigation into Bobby reveals that he had disturbing pornographic images on his hard drive. It was quite violent and statistically connected to those who are likely to commit homicide. So while we now look to Brendan’s brother as the possible culprit, the episode leaves us with an uneasy feeling for what the future holds.

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Steven’s parents are growing more frailer by the day, the Halbachs are presumably in a state of discomfort and pain, and there are quite possibly innocent people in jail. It doesn’t help when Steven’s father forgets to bring his license on the day that he and Dolores to go visit Steven for his birthday, and he is unable to go in and see him.

And despite everything going against Brendan, his mother Barb is still fighting the fight alongside other supporters who want Brendan and Steven to be released. Everyone is trying their best to keep the hope alive, but it’s proving to be more difficult than anyone imagined.

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