BULL 2x02 "Already Gone"

Now even Bull is getting in on the "making audiences cry" trend. Dammit, this is too much!

In an episode far more emotional than I remember Bull ever being, TAC take on the case of Adam Harris, an eighteen-year-old charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Emily Connor, a cancer sufferer who was determined to end her own life rather than undergo a surgery that would save her life, but ultimate render her a shell of her former self. It's the type of noble case that season 1 Bull would have taken on without question, but there's a big difference in the character of Dr. Jason Bull in season 2: he's more business-oriented.

   Every company has a bottom line, and Bull took its fair share of noble-cause cases in season 1 without ever really addressing the fact that it actually does have a bottom line. (Even without the clients not paying TAC for services, does anyone remember in season 1 when we learned the thousands of dollars TAC paid each mirror juror per day? Making too many noble gestures without accounting for the income loss is a sure way for a company to go under.) But, just two episodes into season 2, Bull appears to be remedying that, balancing noble cause with bottom line - and by making Bull himself a much sharper, more authoritative leader of his staff. I didn't see the Bull/Benny brother-in-law friendship today, I saw Bull the boss pull rank and demand Benny provide legal aid to Adam Harris because that is his job.

TAC gather to discuss the case
Image: CBS

   And it's a job Benny does well. Despite his Catholic beliefs clashing with the topic of suicide and murder, Benny does an admirable job of convincing the jury that Adam is innocent. All the work, however, isn't done by Benny alone: Cable, Danny and Marissa all play significant parts in swaying the jury with their narrative, while Chunk narrows his focus onto learning more about the methods TAC employs by sitting in on discussions about jurors.

   There was no big reveal in this episode - unlike the premiere; the episode followed a very organic, slow pace and the biggest shock was the surprise revelation Adam was a drug user and thus could have supplied Emily with the drugs she needed to end her life, though this was dismissed soon after and didn't factor as heavily into the storyline as it might have done. And that - along with TAC's hard work - meant that, at the end of the day, justice was served, an innocent boy wasn't jailed for a crime he didn't commit, and an emotional episode about suicide concluded as positively as it could.

Bull's second season is fast differentiating itself from its first: more character focus, a better balance of characters (especially in this episode compared to the premiere), and, so far, some very memorable storylines. There remains the issue of a decreased focus on the actual science of the trial science involved, but perhaps I can accept that, since, in the meantime, Bull is examining some of its other deficiencies and pumping out some quality material.

RATING: 8.5/10

POINTS OF NOTE

• The format staples in Bull's first season have yet to come through in season 2 under the new showrunner. If this continues in the next few episodes, I'll have to discuss them properly.
• Did anyone really understand Danny's subplot? Maybe I've missed the point of it, but it didn't seem to fit into the episode, in my opinion.
• The "suicide note" Emily left in the form of a video montage of her times with Adam was beautiful and heartbreaking. Had the episode called back to it after Adam was found innocent, I'd've bawled my eyes out.