REVIEW: ‘The Rainmaker’ Season 2 Episode 3 — “Chokepoint”

Without Leo Drummond (John Slattery) as a formidable antagonist, The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 3, “Chokepoint,” replaces him with multiple new sources of tension. Among them are a lawyer who may represent a viper even more than Leo, a crooked judge, and even the mafia.

The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 3 opens with Rudy (Milo Callaghan) and Deck (P.J. Byrne) looking into the convictions of family court judge Rory Halloran (John Ramm). While sitting in one of Judge Halloran’s trials, the prosecution asks completely inappropriate questions, but the defendant’s lawyer, Louis Palermo (David Pearse), isn’t objecting or doing anything, really.

Rudy attempts to help the kid on trial by telling Louis to object, but Louis refuses. They keep going back and forth, and the kid’s mother grows increasingly upset with Louis, but he still refuses to budge. When their bickering catches Halloran’s attention, the mother attempts to hire Rudy, but Halloran refuses the defendant a change in counsel and orders Rudy out.

Bruiser is intimidated by the Mafia, and the FBI is courting Sarah in The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 3.

Rudy, not one to back down from a fight, continues arguing as he walks towards the exit, and Halloran holds him in contempt. When he reappears in front of Halloran, he’s warned that if he keeps sniffing around, he’ll be banned from contacting any of Halloran’s cases, including his new client, Victor (Asher De Land). He and Deck know they’ve got to change tactics because Halloran is in deep and not afraid to throw the weight of his robe around.

Meanwhile, Bruiser (Lana Parrilla), intimidated by Mafia leader Gator (Owen Roe) during The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 3, has beefed up security at home. Her ex-husband and now ex-client Tom (Austin Nichols) is caught having lied to the grand jury, and the prosecutor’s office is planning to press charges. With Gator threatening Bruiser, she’s forced to take Tom back as a client to keep him from flipping on Gator in a plea deal; a deal that Tom desperately wants to accept to protect his star pitcher, Boone (Liam O’Halloran).

Rudy’s ex, Sarah (Madison Iseman), is also back, but the FBI is courting her to help them investigate high-powered attorney Amanda Vonn (Merle Dandridge). She meets with Leo Drummond, who awaits trial on house arrest, and he gives her very good advice: You have all the power. If they didn’t need you, they wouldn’t be talking to you. You’re the chokepoint.

A lot’s going on in The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 3, but it still feels totally manageable.

Amanda, for her part, visits Dublin to meet with the Irish businessmen who own the prison where Victor is currently being held. She advises them that releasing Victor to keep everything quiet won’t be enough to keep Rudy off their scent.

A lot’s going on in The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 3. Still, the episode feels totally manageable. Part of this comes down to Rudy and Sarah’s storylines being attached at the hip. Although they spend no time together on screen, every move they make is clearly tied to the other.

John Slattery proves in The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 3 exactly why he’s such a great actor. Throughout the first season, Leo is cold, calculating, and a legal shark. Here, Leo is a defeated man who knows that no amount of legal posturing is going to be enough to save him. As good as Slattery is at portraying a man who thinks he has all the power, he’s just as effective when he’s forced to play that same character with an ankle monitor on.

Still, there’s a spark in his eyes when Leo starts giving Sarah advice. He’s in this position largely because Sarah turned on him after The Great Benefit Trial, but he still offers her genuine advice meant to help her succeed. It’s obvious that he still respects her greatly, even admitting that he would have turned on her, had the roles been reversed.

P.J. Byrne, as Deck, continues to be the real star of The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 3. In a pivotal scene, he decides the only way to help Victor is to dig through the dumpster and find documents he believes Louis shredded when he was ordered to hand everything over to Rudy. It’s bizarre watching him orchestrate the entire bag of shredded paper into a giant sorting and puzzling project.

And yet, while Deck’s tendency to be somewhat extra is being used as a comedic tool here, it also underscores how brilliant he is. There aren’t many people who would think to put pieces of a plea agreement back together after they’ve been put through the shredder.

In her meeting with the businessmen from Ireland, Amanda Vonn refers to Rudy as a hunter. Her point is that he’s resourceful and never gives up. Milo Callaghan has incredibly intense facial expressions that truly sell his ambition and determination. For Rudy, it’s not just a case; it’s a kid’s life.

The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 3 is showing off some of this year’s best television.

That grave reality is part of what’s made The Rainmaker Season 2 so good thus far. In any case, it’s possible for judges and attorneys and even the public to forget that there are real people attached. Case numbers are never just some abstract impersonal concept. To someone, it represents a family member, a friend, a colleague, a lover, or some other relationship.

The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 3 conveys the weight of that by making this not just one kid, but potentially 1,000 kids who were wrongly imprisoned by a crooked judge. When Rudy and Deck look at his record, they find that he imprisons 81 percent of the kids who stand before him, while the average elsewhere is only about 12 percent.

It’s no surprise that Lana Parilla is an absolute beast of an actress. Her storyline with ex-husband Tom is the weaker one here, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. In fact, while Rudy’s case has kids’ lives hanging in the balance, the stakes feel more real for Bruiser. She has to admit to Tom that he’s advising her against taking a deal because it will get her killed by Gator.

The stakes are much higher in The Rainmaker Season 2 than in its inaugural season. Fortunately, while everything feels bigger and the plot feels more dense, it works beautifully to create a legal drama with twists, turns, and the perfect amount of gravity. If it’s any indication of what’s still to come, The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 3 is showing off some of this year’s best television.

The Rainmaker Season 2 airs Friday Nights on USA Network.

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