Defending Jacob

Episode Reviews

April 24, 2020, Episode 1: “Pilot”

Fourteen-year-old Ben Rifkin is found dead in a park—clearly the victim of murder. Andy Barber, the local Assistant District Attorney, is in charge of the investigation. His son, Jacob, was also a classmate of Ben’s, so he and Laurie are naturally concerned with their own boy’s mental state. But when Andy sees some posts online—posts in which one of Jacob’s friends accuses the boy of murder—their concern takes a different turn.

We see Ben’s body in the leaves: His eyes are open, and a huge bloodstain covers his shirt. We hear about a potential suspect—a convicted child abuser who just moved into the area and who was convicted of groping a boy almost the same age as Ben. But Ben’s body showed no signs of sexual assault, we’re told.

Jacob tells his dad a joke predicated on a semen sample and masturbation. Andy and Laurie kiss in bed, then seem to be engaged in foreplay when the camera cuts away. Ben becomes the subject of a makeshift memorial, and friends and relatives gather for a Jewish Shiva. A song makes reference to the “season of the witch.” Characters use the f-word seven times (and Jacob uses the stand-in “friggin’”), the s-word three times, and “d–n,” “h—” and “d–k” are also used. God’s name is misused three times, and Jesus’ name is abused twice.

April 24, 2020, Episode 2: “Everything Is Cool”

After discovering a knife in Jacob’s room, Andy throws it away with the trash. It’s just a way to get the thing out of the house (since Jacob wasn’t supposed to have it in the first place), not to cover up anything. “It’s not a crime to own a knife or to be a stupid teenager,” he tells wife Laurie. “Thank God. We’d have to lock up half of them.” But whispers are growing louder, and when police find Jacob’s fingerprint on the victim’s sweatshirt, they arrest him as a suspect.

Another knife is found in the park. Andy drives through town wildly and recklessly. Jacob admits that he found the body (describing the incident to police in some detail) but denies killing anybody. Another suspect, a convicted child molester, deletes photos of the victim (innocent-looking photos in and of themselves) from his phone. We see the guy stare at another young man. A song makes a reference to God.

Characters say the f-word three times and the s-word twice. We also hear “a–,” “h—“, “d–k” and “p-ss.” God’s name is misused five times, twice with the word “d—n.” Jesus’ name is abused twice.

April 24, 2020, Episode 3: “Poker Faces”

Bail bond is set for Jacob, and he comes home. But things are far from normal. Laurie loses her job at the child-protection non-profit she helps manage (to avoid any “negative association,” she’s told) and her best friend. She learns that husband Andy’s own father was convicted of murder himself—and she worries that Jacob might be accused of having a “murder gene.” She also recalls how difficult and angry Jacob was as a child, and tiny doubts creep into her mind. Meanwhile, Andy continues to believe that a convicted child abuser is the real killer, and he convinces an old colleague to give him the abuser’s criminal file.

In flashback, Laurie remembers a birthday party at a bowling alley, where she prevented a much-younger Jacob from smashing someone over the head with a bowling ball. She tells a doctor that early on, Jacob would throw things at them, and at daycare he pushed a girl off some playground equipment. (The girl, we’re told, required stitches.) Andy chalks all this up to Jacob being a “normal boy with normal problems,” but he divulges his father’s violent past: His dad was thrown in prison for stabbing a woman at a community college, killing her. We learn that Jacob’s supposed murder victim bullied Jacob (along with other kids). Jacob plays a violent video game.

We learn that the victim (Ben) called Jacob a “f-ggot” on multiple occasions. While playing a videogame, Jacob uses the word “gay” derogatorily. We learn that Jacob’s new celebrity has earned him a few female admirers, including someone who’s created an online fan page for him.

The f-word is used once, the s-word five times and we also hear the word “d–k.” A crude word for testicles is also used. We see one or two texted acronyms that, if spelled out, would include a curse word or two. God’s and Jesus’ name are both misused three times each. Someone paints graffiti over Andy and Laurie’s garage door: “Murderer rot in hell,” it says.

April 30, 2020, Episode 4: “Damage Control”

As Jacob’s defense attorney, Joanna Klein, begins to prepare for the trial, Andy explores other possible suspects—including following convicted molester Leonard Patz and trying to talk to one of his accusers. Laurie, meanwhile, eats dinner at a diner and strikes up a much-needed conversation with a friendly woman. She’s horrified to learn that the woman is actually a reporter.

Andy visits a teen—who accused Leonard of groping him—in his mother’s home. The teen, who was in his room with his girlfriend doing, in the mother’s words, “God knows what,” won’t talk to Andy. Andy accuses the teen of lying about the accusations (which is why charges weren’t pressed). He suggests Leonard might’ve been the teen’s “lover” or “dealer.” (We hear some graphic discussion of the alleged misdeed, too.)

We learn more about Andy’s father, who’s still in prison for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old girl. Laurie secretly tries to find out more about “Bloody Billy Barber,” as the press called him at the time. In flashback, Andy remembers when he was 6 years old and visited his father in prison for the only time. The dad grabbed the boy by the wrist, and Andy remembers the dagger tattooed on his arm with the skull pommel.

In a therapist’s office, Jacob views pictures and clicks buttons designed to indicate whether he might have any violent tendencies. Many pictures are innocuous: pictures of puppies or a girl in a wheelchair. But some, in purposeful contrast, are horrific: a squirrel with its guts spilled; a man cradling a bad head injury; shrouded, stacked bodies. He plays a violent video game with a female school friend. (The girl may or may not have a crush on him, but one of Jacob’s old friends was “obsessed” over by her.)

The story that Jacob tells Joanna about the day he allegedly murdered a classmate is filled with holes. Andy drinks beer at dinner, while Laurie drinks wine. Characters say the f-word six times and the s-word four. We also hear “b–ch,” “h—” and “g-dd–n.”

May 8, 2020, Episode 5: “Visitors”

Andy visits his father, who’s serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old, in an effort to get a DNA sample from him. But it’s not his only outlet. He talks with a couple of Jacob’s friends, too, and he discovers new evidence—some of which might help clear Jacob, and some which might convict him.

When Andy’s told that Jacob frequented some “cutter porn” sites, he tries to minimize it at first. “All kids look at porn,” he says. But the sites that Jacob frequented were filled with sadistic imagery and, in the words of one of Jacob’s old friends, “people getting cut up and stuff.” We see some of those images, including a woman standing in a shower (from the knees down) in a puddle of blood. (Other images featuring injuries and perhaps even a corpse or two are briefly seen.)

A female friend of Jacob’s admits to sending a topless pic to Ben, the boy whom Jacob is accused of killing. (We see the eighth grader from behind, and from the shoulders up, as she takes the pic.) A fellow student steals Ben’s phone a couple of days before the murder to get rid of the pic. Andy and Laurie apparently have sex in their closet. We see them kiss passionately as they strip off their shirts, and Laurie unbuckles Andy’s pants.

Laurie relates a memory of watching Jacob, when he was 5 years old, picking up a bowling ball and seeming to prepare to slam it on another kid’s head. A woman spits in her face as she’s grocery shopping. Andy punctures a woman’s tire with a broken bottle. Jacob tells his dad that he wants to show a classmate the movie Borat—a really inappropriate choice for a 14-year-old. A teen uses a bong. Characters say the f-word 10 times and the s-word once. We also hear “a–,” “pr–k,” “p-ss” and “d–k.” God’s and Jesus’ name are both misused once.

May 15, 2020, Episode 6: “Wishful Thinking”

As Jacob celebrates his 15^th birthday and his trial edges closer, a new revelation switches the focus to another suspect. But Jacob’s counselor also reveals that the boy has some disturbing genetic patterns and “antisocial tendencies” that point to problems of his own.

The “new revelation” comes in the form of a teen who had earlier accused suspect Leonard Patz of groping him. Turns out, the teen’s relationship with Patz was more complicated: Patz would pay the teen to touch his privates on the outside of his clothes. It happened “six or seven” times, the teen says, but it stopped when Patz became enamored with a new kid—the eventual murder victim. That’s when the teen went to the police with his accusations. (He also tells police that Patz owned a knife that might’ve been the murder weapon.)

The teen says Patz tried to lure him to the older man’s apartment with the promise of beer. And we see Patz sleeping on the couch with empty beer bottles nearby. Andy and Laurie notice a strange car in their neighborhood—one in which the driver seems to just sit inside, smoking cigarettes. (The car slowly follows a terrified Laurie as she takes her morning run.) Andy gets a call from his father, a convicted killer, and essentially disowns him. Characters use the f-word about a dozen times. We also hear the s-word six times or so. Other profanities include “a–,” “d–n,” “h—,” five abuses of Jesus’ name and three misuses of God’s name (two of them with the word “d–n”).