This post contains spoilers from The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 episode 9 from this point forward.
Just as Mickey's case appeared to be going in their favor, Cisco tracked down Gazarian in time to witness his death. The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 episode 9 begins with Cisco convincing Jeanine to trust him and get away from the prying eyes of the police. The hits just keep on coming when Dana introduces a surprise new witness to the stand that Mickey never saw coming.
Dana's October surprise? Calling Lisa Trammell, season 2's murder suspect played by Lana Parrilla, to the stand to make Mickey look bad. Lisa reveals that she and Mickey had a romantic relationship while he was representing her for the alleged murder of Mitchell Bondurant. She didn't commit that murder, but she did kill her husband in self-defense. Lisa continues to weave a tale about a dispute about money and claims he got back at her by taking her down for the murder of her husband.
The courtroom gets heated on all sides, and on the way home to regroup, the other shoe drops when Cisco relays the news that Gazarian has died but he still has Jeanine. Over pizza, the team strategizes a game plan to connect Sam to the FBI without Gazarian and fight back against Lisa's testimony. Izzy shows the team letters Lisa wrote Mickey from prison, and they're very telling.
Lisa Trammell unexpectedly takes the stand
The next day, Maggie begins her cross-examination of Lisa, opening with a question about whether she killed Mitchell Bondurant, which opens up the door to Gazarian and the FBI. Maggie presents Lisa details about the deals over her life rights before introducing the threatening letters she wrote from prison. When she reads one aloud, it's clear she has a motive to retaliate against Mickey. Lisa's time on the stand ends, and it's unclear whether Maggie or Dana won. With that, the People rest.
Unfortunately, Maggie learns they never included the FBI flag in discovery, which causes a snag in their plan. They can find a backdoor to get the information in court with Drucker on the stand. Lorna has her own surprise for Carter's trial. The friend she phone in the previous episode was Myriam Arslanian, a forensic scientist who presents an animation of the shooting and gives Lorna the smoking gun that the victim could not have spoken at all with two collapsed lungs.
Maggie pushes Drucker about not pursuing other suspects before diving into Sam's Kirk Lennon alias, which connects to Biogreen. They talk about Sam's traffic stop, and that's how Maggie gets Roundtree in the mix in spit of Dana's anger. Mickey questions Roundtree and spots FBI Agent Ruth sitting in the courtroom. He quickly alerts Izzy to her presence. Roundtree reveals the "attempt to locate" on Kirk Lennon, leading Sam to be held and taken to the FBI by Agent Vasquez.
Mickey might face payback from the police
Ruth quickly leaves to courtroom to make a phone call, and Izzy follows and overhears her stressing over a big problem. Lorna effectively wins her case, leading to opposing counsel to approach her with a deal. Again, she wins the negotiation and scores Carter's charges getting dismissed. Schultz takes the stand at Mickey's trial and speaks about the feedstock and biofuel and the scamming that led to $9 million. It's called "bleeding the beast." Maggie gets Schultz to connect this back to Vasquez.
The court takes a break and Stone speaks with counsel in his chambers. Maggie and Mickey push for a bench warrant for the FBI, much to Dana's chagrin. Stone agrees to the bench warrant after hearing Ruth was in the courtroom. Cisco gets closer to Jeanine, who starts talking about Gazarian but claims she doesn't know the specifics about what he did. Mickey asks Maggie to put him on the stand. She refuses. On the way home, Mickey realizes his phone has been jammed and appears to be kidnapped by his police escort.