Perry Mason Chapter Six Review

Keith NoakesJuly 26, 202091/100n/a8 min
Director
Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Writer
Kevin J. Hynes
Rating
TV-MA
Running Time
57 minutes
Airs
Sundays 9pm
Channel
HBO, HBO Canada
Overall Score
Rating Summary
Chapter Six saw Mason get his lawyer legs under him while a unsurprising player comes to the forefront. Matthew Rhys is once again spectacular as Mason.

For our review of the last episode of Perry Mason, click here.

Synopsis: As Emily’s trial begins and a damning witness testimony takes center stage, Mason attempts to recover from a shaky start. Meanwhile, in their search for clues that might lead to an exoneration, Della and Strickland investigate a potential connection between Detective Ennis and Charlie’s kidnappers. Later, Mason considers betraying Drake’s trust to give his client an edge in court, and Birdy urges Sister Alice to scrap her Easter Sunday plan before it’s too late. (HBO)

Maybe being a lawyer isn’t so easy after all. Or at least that’s what Mason learned in this episode. In fact, he was catching on pretty quickly, going back to the character’s roots as an ace defense attorney. Meanwhile, the rest of the story comes full circle as the church finally comes to the forefront as the catalyst for everything, much to the surprise of no one. However, Alice still found herself in the middle of the growing feuding factions within the church though nevertheless, she persists.

Chapter Six started with the beginning of Emily Dodson’s trial. Barnes was laying it on his circumstantial case strong while inciting plenty of outrage. Meanwhile, Mason showed his inexperience. In terms of Mason’s case, it was all about finding connections between Ennis and Charlie’s kidnappers. Back at the trial, Mason tore into Matthew Dodson on the witness stand for pretty much being a bad husband. However, that momentum got killed instantly once Barnes called a surprise witness, a man who witnessed Emily and George fooling around in a motel while Charlie Dodson was left unattended in an adjoining room. As a result, Mason tore into Emily for withholding that information from him (Maslany as Alice was great as she put things into perspective).

Mason got some much needed ammunition from Strickland in the form of evidence that George Gannon was stealing from the church (thanks to an accomplice within the church). Another question was whether to keep his word with Drake in court. Mason did (though Drake wished he didn’t) but still attacked the physical evidence (Drake got a financial reward that he did not feel right about). Feeling remorse, Drake decided to help Mason even though it was technically illegal (he sent his wife away). Using a title Della stole from the church, she found another connection between George Gannon and the church. Strickland made another while looking for a connection between Ennis and the kidnappers while in Denver. However in court, Mason’s attempt to admit the dentures into evidence was shot down by the judge. Meanwhile, Birdy warned Alice of what may be to come but she was adamantly against running away.

The trial hit a boiling point once the woman tasked to guard Emily Dodson in jail claimed to have heard Emily confess to murdering Charlie during Sister Alice’s visit (which was obviously a lie but it still enraged the gallery). She wasn’t worried because she was confident that Sister Alice would bring Charlie back to life. Meanwhile, Ennis admitted to Holcomb that he was involved in the Dodson case. He was simply hired to do a job and that job went haywire. Holcomb didn’t care and only wanted whoever else who could expose them dead.

On the way to the church’s former accountant at the center of the financial ties to Gannon, Mason vented about E.B. (a good little monologue from Rhys as Mason). The episode ended with Mason on Jim Hicks’ (Todd Weeks) doorstep with a shotgun pointed his way.

So the kidnapping and ransom was just a way for some bad apples within the church to cover their own asses? Ennis and the others were hired to do the deed and things went wrong. Maybe the ties to the police run deeper. Seems pretty simple but there is surely still more to this story. Hopefully Sister Alice will survive. It will also be satisfying to see Drake prevail.


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