Presumed Innocent had a gripping season 1 finale, but it turns out it was much different than what the creator intended. Find out what was going to happen here!
Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for Presumed Innocent season 1.
Presumed Innocent was the breakout novel of former lawyer turned author Scott Turow. It was an instant bestseller when published in 1987 and later made into a 1990 film starring Harrison Ford.
The Apple TV+ adaptation premiered in 2024 and likewise became a sensation that earned a second season. It was adapted by David E. Kelley, the Emmy-award-winning writer/producer of hits like The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, and Big Little Lies, who put his own unique stamp on the property.
Season 1 follows the plotline of the novel as Chicago prosecutor Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal) is rocked when colleague Carolyn Polhemus is murdered. It comes out Rusty and Carolyn were having an affair and before long, Rusty is accused of the crime and on trial.
The season took many twists and turns before Rusty was acquitted. He then confronted his wife, Barbara (Ruth Negga), to reveal he’d altered the crime scene to cover for her murdering Carolyn. A shocked Barbara denied it, thinking she was covering for Rusty killing her. As readers of the novel know, Barbara was indeed revealed as the killer.
Instead, it was the Sabiches' daughter Jaden (Chase Infiniti), who didn’t exist in the novel, who did it. She’d heard Carolyn was pregnant with Rusty’s child and, out of fear for her family, snapped and killed her before planting the evidence in her mom’s car. The season ended with the Sabiches deciding to keep this all quiet. However, that wasn’t going to be the plan.
David E. Kelley changed the ending of Presumed Innocent season 1
Speaking to Variety, Kelley revealed that he never wanted to do a straight-up adaptation of the novel. He was still leaning toward keeping to the ending of Barbara being the killer, but it changed when Negga was cast.
“The humanity that Ruth is bringing to this character, that’s a big leap for me to believe that she was able to kill somebody and then lie about it for eight episodes. So that was supplied by Ruth’s performance.”
So, he worked on Jaden, who he’d created for the series, and her motives would work as a teenager snapping to defend her family by extreme methods. Kelley told Negga of the change, offering to film two endings with each woman as the killer, but it wasn’t needed.
“But we never did that because Ruth, in reading the material and talking it through, agreed completely that this is the better ending with Jaden. She never batted an eye.”
That was a big twist for the series, so what could it mean for season 2?
Some might be surprised the series earned a second season as the ending seemed to wrap it all up for a limited series finish. While Turow did write other books featuring Rusty, it’s uncertain if season 2 or future seasons will adapt them in some capacity.
Kelley won’t give details of season 2 but hinted it will play on a new story in this universe.
“The series will be more in the vein of True Detective, with a new story, new venue, new characters [each season]. But thematically, we want to be true to those themes present in the first episode of Season 1: a good psychological legal thriller, a character and emotion-driven story, infidelity, betrayal. So, when the audience watches Season 2, it’ll be a new beast, but it will be on the same planet.”
If Kelley brings the same level of care and good style to season 2 as it did to the first year, then Presumed Innocent will be a blast to watch once more.
Presumed Innocent streams on Apple TV+.