Defending Jacob Season 1, Episode 2 recap: Jacob becomes a prime suspect

In Episode 2 of Defending Jacob, Jacob becomes a prime suspect in the case after his fingerprint is discovered on Ben’s jacket.

The second episode of Defending Jacob puts things into perspective for the entire Barber family as Jacob becomes the prime suspect in the case. After his fingerprint is found on Ben’s jacket, the district attorney has no choice but to refocus the investigation onto Jacob, and that means Andy can’t be on the case anymore.

Jacob becomes the prime suspect in Ben’s murder

Considering the title of the show is Defending Jacob, we already knew that Jacob would eventually become the prime suspect. The hunt for Jacob is set in motion when the investigators match a print on Ben’s jacket to Jacob. I’m curious how they already his fingerprints in the system.

Either way, now Andy and Laurie are on high-alert. Understandably, Andy is taken off the case and put on paid leave. Duffy gets a search warrant for the Barber’s home. It doesn’t appear that they found anything.

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Remember the knife? Well, Andy got rid of it shortly after finding it and confronting Jacob about it. The episode flashes back to present during Neal’s questioning of Andy. He asks him about the knife.

The cops never find Jacob’s knife, and Andy says he only disposed of it because he was acting as any concerned father would. He didn’t want his son to have one in the house.

Even though the cops don’t find Jacob’s knife — and it isn’t yet clear how they know about it — the search does turn up another knife in the woods near the murder spot. We don’t yet know if it is the murder weapon, but it looks that way.

Jacob denies having anything to do with Ben’s death, although that isn’t the entire truth.

Jacob reveals to the arresting officer that he found Ben’s body shortly after he died. He mistakenly believed Ben was just hurt and approached him to attempt to help, explaining why his fingerprint was on the jacket. Jacob got scared and ran without telling anyone of his grisly find.

Sadly for the Barber family, there is no avoiding Jacob’s arrest. The poor kid is taken to a cell overnight while awaiting his bail.

What is going on with Sarah and Derek?

Out of all of Jacob’s classmates, the show has chosen to focus on Sarah and Derek. At first, it appeared like Sarah might be an antagonistic presence in Jacob’s life, but now it looks like Sarah is one of the only people who believes in his innocence.

The show appears to be setting it up to look like Derek might have had something to do with Ben’s death, and Sarah knows something that could incriminate him.

She warns Jacob about all the terrible things Derek has been whispering since he publically accused Jacob online.

I’m curious as to why Derek turned on Jacob so quickly. He and Jacob were playing video games together after Ben’s death, and by the next day, Derek spread gossip all over the school.

Why does Derek hate Jacob? What happened to make him turn on his former friend? What does Sarah know?

Who is Leonard Patz?

Leonard Patz is an unregistered sex offender who was previously arrested for groping a young teenage boy. Leonard just happened to be present at the park the morning police found Benjamin’s body. He seems like the perfect suspect, and Andy pins all of his hopes on Leonard.

Plot-wise, Leonard appears like a red herring. He can’t be the murder suspect because Jacob needs to be the prime suspect. After an interrogation of Leonard goes nowhere, the police give up on Leonard. No one likes him for the crime.

At first, it looks like the book closes on Leonard’s story, but Andy may have been on to something after all. In the final moments of the episode, Leonard deletes numerous photos of Ben from his phone! It appears Leonard was stalking Ben and definitely knows more about this entire murder than he initially let on.

What did you think about Episode 2 of Defending Jacob? Do you think Jacob killed Ben? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The first three episodes of Defending Jacob are currently available on Apple TV+. New episodes stream on Fridays.