‘The Rainmaker’ Puts Rudy, Deck & Bruiser in Grave Danger

Things got very dangerous for our favorite attorneys on the latest episode of The Rainmaker. Friday’s (October 23) installment saw Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan) and Deck Shifflet (P.J. Byrne) staring down the barrel of a gun, while Bruiser (Lana Parrilla) was left clutching her keys between her fingers when she found a notorious gangster in her home. Warning: Spoilers for The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 2, “Cards Up,” ahead! 

Picking up after the premiere, Rudy attempted to convince Dot Black (Karen Bryson) to stand up as guardian ad litem for young Victor Suffredes (Asher De Land). At first, she hesitated, noting that she’s still not a whole person after the death of her son, but she quickly changed her mind and was all-in for the boy before Rudy could leave her driveway.

They scheduled a hearing on the motion to appoint Dot right away, but they were in for a shock when Sarah Plankmore (Madison Iseman) showed up to represent his wayward stepfather and protect his guardianship. On the stand, Victor’s stepdad claimed to love the boy and have his best interests at heart, even reporting the very new news that Victor had, in addition to pulling a prank, changed his and everyone else’s grades in the computer system he hacked, and he was caught with a shiv (which we know to have been his cellmate’s, but still). It was all enough for the judge to rule against Rudy and keep dear old stepdad in charge.

However, as Sarah warned her new boss(ish), Amanda Vonn (Merle Dandrige), Rudy wouldn’t back down that easily. He and Deck soon discovered that the stepdad’s house was for sale, posed as a gay couple in the market, and snooped through the office when the realtor wasn’t looking. There, they discovered that the deed to the house was in Victor’s name, and his stepdad has been sponging off the money his mother left him, which is probably why he wants the kid to stay locked up.

As Rudy and Deck presented this new evidence to the judge, Sarah did her best to counter, but the judge agreed to overturn his prior ruling and warned Sarah that the client’s misrepresentations of himself in court reflected badly on her as well.

This gave Rudy, Deck, and Dot the right to visit Victor in juvie, and, after a staredown with the warden, they got in to see the boy. There, Victor insisted that while he did do those things, he didn’t deserve to be in juvenile detention, and there were other kids like him, too. After that, they decided to try and find out if there were more kids who got the same mistreatment from their former lawyer, Louis Palermo (David Pearse). After strolling into his office and seeing Victor’s file in the middle of being mangled by a shredder, they tried to snatch it … until Louis came in with a gun and forced them out.

That didn’t stop Rudy and Deck from finding out who was really behind the scheme: Harris Gate Systems, a private detention facility with over a dozen locations. Jackpot.

Sarah, who was also determined to find out who she was really working for, researched the firm and the account name on her paycheck to come to the same conclusion. She then confronted Amanda about it, and the powerhouse attorney leveled with her: She wanted Sarah to channel the same shark who used Rudy’s dead brother to rattle him in court, and she would make no apology for it.

Is Sarah going back to the dark side? She certainly hasn’t had any luck making amends with Rudy. Twice now she’s approached him in earnest, but he’s rejected her, coldly, at both turns. Meanwhile, Amanda, a leader in the industry, is here lauding her talents at getting in the mud. It’s a temptation she might not be able to resist much longer, especially if she wants to be successful. Sigh.

Christopher Barr / USA Network / Versant Media

Things got similarly scary for Bruiser, but for very different reasons. Boone McCready (Liam O’Halloran) was set to be deposed over the baseball betting scheme Bruiser’s ex, Tom Cassidy (Austin Nichols), had gotten himself wrapped up in, and she came along to advise him through it. Boone was, of course, completely innocent of any of it and fully believed his coach’s reasoning for pulling him out of the ballgame in question — Tom knew something about getting injured by overdoing it, after all — but that wasn’t the problem. Boone was also being asked about other games where the very same thing happened, and a few new names were being brought up in the conversation, one of which sent shivers down Bruiser’s spine.

Alone with Tom, she confronted him about who he was really in debt to and confirmed her fear that he’d gotten into trouble with the apparently notorious criminal Gator Jack Guidry (Owen Roe). And the bruises on his stomach were courtesy of his goons after they paid him a visit at the batting cages. With that, she quit the case on the spot.

However, when she went home, she discovered none other than Gator himself, sipping on her bourbon and instructing her that she would have to continue representing Tom to make sure the case went away. He needed someone he could trust, after all, and she was the spitting moral image of her father. The episode closed with a shot of her hands, clutching her keys in defensive posturing, as he got up and left. What has Tom gotten her into, exactly? He deserves the “Lying Liar” codename in her phone list, that’s for sure.

The Rainmaker, Fridays, 10/9c, USA Network