[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4.]
The Lincoln Lawyer drops a bombshell on Mickey (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) in the last scene of Season 4 when it introduces Cobie Smulders‘ character. And if you’re thinking she’s playing at least a version of a character from Michael Connelly‘s books, you’d be right. Yes, we will be seeing more of her in Season 5.
After the end of his trial and with his reputation restored, Mickey is looking to the future at the end of the Season 4 finale. He’s even planning to cook, hence a stop at the grocery store, where he notices Smulders’ character watching him. She then approaches him in the parking lot, confirms he’s Mickey Haller, and saves him as shots are fired in his direction. The FBI, including Ruth (Sasha Alexander), then shows up; the Armenians were targeting him after the case. But the more intriguing part is who Smulders’ character, Allison, says she is. She says that her instincts kicked in when she saw a guy eyeballing him and reaching into his jacket, then adds, “Actually, I’m your sister.” The season ends with Mickey staring at her.
In Connelly’s books, Mickey doesn’t have a sister. But he has a half-brother in Harry Bosch, who has his own series on Prime Video, and with The Lincoln Lawyer a Netflix show, crossovers are impossible. So, that makes us assume that Cobie Smulders is playing The Lincoln Lawyer‘s version of Bosch. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo told us, “It does seem like it.”
And when TV Insider asked co-showrunner Ted Humphrey if that is, in fact, the case, he said, “Is this how we’re bringing in Bosch? Well, I wouldn’t put it that way because of course we don’t have the rights to Bosch. Bosch is on another network. But there’s obvious parallels, I suppose you could say, in some ways. It’s how we’re expanding the world of the show, the world of Mickey’s family and introducing what we think is going to be a really compelling new character who can stand on her own two feet.”
Right now, Mickey’s reaction is pure shock. But does he believe that she is who she says she is to him? After all, it would be understandable if he had reservations.
“I think at the beginning he’s very skeptical, but there’s something weird. There’s something when you have those sensations or this feeling,” Garcia-Rulfo admitted. “Because I think if he would not believe it, he would just be like, ‘Ah, you’re crazy.’ That’s it. There’s something that holds his attention and there’s a feeling there that, you know what? This might be true. But I think he’s a little skeptical.”
Added Humphrey, “He’s just stunned, right? And we go out on that. So he doesn’t know what to think, but hopefully fairly quickly he will have a better sense of who this person really is and what’s really going on.”
Assuming that she is who she says she is, there’s also the matter of how Mickey feels about having a sister in his life at this point. Garcia-Rulfo isn’t so sure about that.
“I think he thrives on chaos and drama, and so I think it’s good for him,” he shared.
For Humphrey, bringing in Cobie Smulder’s Lincoln Lawyer character is part of the show’s evolution.
“It’s always important to be introducing new situations for characters and new characters and new situations for existing characters. I think Mickey is a loner. We’ve seen that and he struggles with that and he has a lot of close people in his life who are like his family, like Lorna [Becki Newton], Maggie [Neve Campbell], his daughter [Krista Warner], Legal Siegel [Elliott Gould] and these people around him, Cisco [Angus Sampson]. He has his mother, but that relationship is complicated, let’s put it that way. And he has these very complicated memories of his father,” the showrunner pointed out.
He continued, “And so the idea that there’s actually a real familial connection there and what does that mean and first of all, is it real? Where does it come from? And if it is real, how are they alike? How are they different? What are their different skillsets and things that they bring to life?”
Courtesy of Netflix
Humphrey also, at the time of the interview (which took place before the renewal for Season 5 was announced), told TV Insider that Allison is important for the next story.
“Cobie’s character will be the vehicle through which the main story of another season will come to Mickey, that she needs his help with something basically,” he teased. “And there’s a whole twisted story as to why that is and that part of the fun of that season would be unraveling what that is and what it means.”
It has since been revealed that Season 5 will be inspired by the seventh book in Connelly’s series, Resurrection Walk. According to the synopsis for that book, “Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller enlists the help of his half-brother, Harry Bosch, to prove the innocence of a woman convicted of killing her ex-husband …. a sheriff’s deputy. … Bosch reviews the case and sees elements that don’t add up, and a sheriff’s department intent on bringing quick justice in the killing of one of its own. Now Haller has an uphill battle in court, a David fighting Goliaths to vindicate his client. The path for both lawyer and investigator is fraught with danger from those who don’t want the case reopened and will stop at nothing to keep the Haller-Bosch dream team from finding the truth.”
With Smulders playing a character with, as Humphrey put it, “obvious parallels” to Bosch, that makes sense.
What do you think of Cobie Smulders’ character being The Lincoln Lawyer‘s answer to Bosch? What are you hoping to see in Season 5? Let us know in the comments section below.
The Lincoln Lawyer, Seasons 1-4, Streaming Now, Netflix
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