Defending Jacob Season 1, Episode 4 recap: Whatever it takes

Andy must visit his father in prison if he wants to help save his son, while Laurie accidentally talks to a reporter in Episode 4 of Defending Jacob.

In episode 4 of Defending Jacob, Laurie grapples with her doubts while Andy tries to take the defense’s strategy into his own hands by pursuing a potential lead on Leonard Patz.

Andy, Joanna, Laurie, and Jacob meet up to plan out his defense, or lack of one. Jacob’s story is full of holes — giant glaring holes. Perhaps the biggest is Derek. What happened to make Jacob’s “good friend” turn against him and finger him as the prime murder suspect?

Joanna is not buying Jacob’s story. Luckily for the teenager, they don’t need to come up with a strong defense since it is the prosecution’s job to find the burden of proof. Their plan is to attack everything they throw out until there is nothing left.

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In confidence after the meeting, Andy reveals his doubts about their plan to Joanna. He thinks they need to give the jury a reason to believe Jacob. He doesn’t want to put his son on the stand, but he has doubts.

In return, Joanna warns him that a reporter is snooping around for a story. Under no circumstances should anyone in the Barber family let her get her hooks in them.

At the Barber residence, Laurie is rattled by a pile of hate mail for her son. Amid the junk, she finds a large envelope addressed to her and stashes it away. Hm, I wonder what it is?

Later, Andy and Laurie try to serve a normal dinner, but Jacob isn’t having it. Why are they pretending to be normal under these unusual circumstances? His outburst prompts one from Laurie. What the heck are they supposed to be doing!? What does Jacob want from her?

His mother snapping quiets him. Andy tries to smooth things over with a cheeky dad joke. It’s sweet, and they follow up with a movie night. Andy appreciates Jacob’s request for a routine movie night. It is obvious that a part of him is wondering whether or not his son will be there long enough to create a new tradition.

While her husband and son enjoy a film, Laurie opens the mysterious envelope. It looks like she requested articles from a local publication to find out more information on Andy’s father, William James Barber a.k.a. “Bloody” Billy Barber.

In a flash-forward, Neil questions Andy on Laurie’s secret research and we finally get a flashback to the day Andy visited his father in prison, hence the creepy visions he keeps having. Neil continues his line of questioning, getting at the heart of the potential “murder gene” theory.

For a  final question, he finds a way to work in the fact Laurie didn’t have as much time as Andy did to understand her son wasn’t a murderer. Andy had 14 years, while Laurie only found out a few months before it all began. The way Neil talks about Laurie, it seems like something may have happened to her.

Back in the past, Laurie voices her concerns about Jacob to Andy in the quiet darkness of their bedroom. Not the most romantic pillow talk. The silence between them is loaded as Andy hesitates to answer. Does part of him agree with her? Is he rocked by the realization she might think their son is guilty?

The next day, Andy follows up on one of Leonard Patz’s supposed victims, Matt. Andy is still convinced Leonard is the real story, the man they can serve to the jury on a golden platter. Andy plays Mr. Nice Guy until he’s confronted by Matt, who is an obvious teenage dirtbag.

He doesn’t buy Matt’s statement. Allegedly, Leonard followed Matt into a library bathroom and groped him, then left. Andy doesn’t believe Leonard, a sex offender on probation would risk everything to feel up a kid who looks like he could beat him up.

It doesn’t matter, Matt isn’t biting. He is clearly hiding something, but unwilling to fess up and things get heated. His mother kicks Andy out of the house.

Andy decides to go straight to the source, Freeman’s Hardware, where Leonard works. He follows him home, writing down his apartment address.

At home, Andy bursts into Jacob’s room when he hears him using violent language while playing a video game — something he warned him against. He’s surprised to find Sarah hanging out with Jacob, playing alongside him. Andy changes his tune. It’s good for him to have a friend right now. We still don’t know what role Sarah is going to play in all of this.

Elsewhere, Laurie is stalking her former coworkers by following up on a gala. She’s hungering for a social life and return to normalcy. She lies to Andy and says her former colleague Cara asked her for dinner, in reality, she dines alone at a chain restaurant.

There, she meets a woman named Jeanine who appears as lonely as Laurie is. Why do I have a sinking feeling she’s that reporter Joanna warned Andy to avoid? Their conversation turns personal fast. Laurie talks art and slowly begins admitting to the hardship she’s facing at home, before ultimately confessing that she is the mother of the accused Newton boy.

The quiet dinner goes sideways fast. Joanne reveals she is the Globe reporter and confesses she knew who Laurie was all along. She asks if Laurie wants to keep anything off the record but Laurie is too rattled to say “no” before she rushes out. I have a bad feeling Jeanine is going to take that as permission.

After Sarah leaves, Andy asks Jacob about her. He reveals that Sarah might think Derek is guilty. Andy’s antenna goes up, why does he think that? Jacob says Sarah noticed Derek was being questioned by the cops at school. Of course, none of that means anything, necessarily. Still, it is potentially a glimmer of hope.

Jacob breaks the rules to create a secret Instagram account to follow Sarah. He tells her he wants to listen to her songs.

In one of the final scenes, Andy and Laurie lie side-by-side in bed. I found it interesting Laurie wore black while Andy donned a white T-shirt. He flat out admitted he’ll do anything to protect their son, especially now that he doesn’t have typical “lawyer” boundaries. While Laurie remains speechless, stirring in her doubts.

Andy’s promise to do “whatever it takes” to protect Jacob is put to the test the next day. The defense is building its own “murder gene” theory. If Jacob is convicted, they might be able to use the results to mitigate his sentence, get it dropped from first-degree to second-degree, meaning he could get 20 years instead of life without parole.

There is just one small catch. To complete the testing, they need a DNA swab from Andy’s father, and he’ll only allow it if Andy himself asks him.

What did you think of Defending Jacob’s fourth episode? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

New episodes of Defending Jacob become available on Fridays on Apple TV+.