Perry Mason (Season 2) Episode 7: Recap & Ending, Explained – Who paid the Gallardo brothers to kill Brooks McCutcheon?

Perry Mason (Season 2) Episode 7: Perry Mason’s latest episode comes with a series of new revelations. Until now, it was clear that the Gallardo brothers were paid to shoot Brooks McCutcheon. The question was not just who paid them but who wanted to get Brooks killed. The defense council fought against Brooks’ clean image and made the Jury doubt the wealthy heir’s conscience.

Now the penultimate episode of Perry Mason has many surprises under its belt. It explores Perry getting a much clearer picture of the mastermind behind the murder. It dishes out moral conflicts like every other episode. But this time, the focus is more on the mystery getting solved.

*Spoilers Ahead*

Perry Mason (Season 2) Episode 7 Recap:

Who broke into Perry Mason’s office?

Chapter Fifteen begins with the old buddies – Perry (Matthew Rhys) and Pete Strickland (Shea Whigham) being together, walking out of the water, drenched. Before answering what they were doing there, the episode takes us through what happened the day before. It is the same day when Perry was humiliated in front of Judge Durkin (Tom Amandes), and then Milligan (Mark O’Brien) started grinning with a wicked sense of victory.

Now this self-aggrandizing prosecutor shares an expensive bottle of alcohol with Pete – for successfully bringing the evidence gun to his notice. So as suspected, it was Perry’s closest pal – Strickland, who acted against him and broke into his office. Later, in front of Judge Durkin, Milligan asks for a mistrial and also a jail term for Perry. The judge, however, is just as tired of Milligan’s antics as he is of Mason’s. So, he gives Milligan time till Friday to make a case for the gun to be an admissible piece of evidence.

However, now Pete is guilt-ridden since he let his ego get the better of him (remember how Milligan provoked him earlier to work against Perry?). He calls Perry to meet on a bridge, who, by then, figures out Pete’s involvement in the charade. So, the two get into a bare-knuckle fight to take out their rage. After settling their differences for the time being, they return to Perry’s office. Over there, Della (Juliet Rylance) and Paul (Chris Drake) get justifiably angry at Pete after realizing what he did. However, they both understand his value to know what the DA’s department is up to.

Della goes to meet Hamilton (Justin Kirk) at his office out of concern that he is being pressured to push a certain verdict. She was right. Some of Hamilton’s intimate photos with another man were being used to blackmail him. While showing them, Hamilton gulps back his tears. Della cannot help but feel abundantly sorry for her close friend and wants to find out who is behind these threats. Hamilton rather suggests accepting the defeat gracefully.

Later, at night, Perry and Pete meet Detective Holcomb (Eric Lange) to see the McCutcheon ship heading to Japan being swept by the feds. They plan to enter as deckhands to discover where and why certain produce is being dumped. They eventually sneak onto the ship to find an adjoining boat, which is used to do the dirty deed. Besides the produce, they notice ‘black gold,’ i.e., oil, on the ship. They both understand how the fruits and vegetables were just a way to hide the business of oil. Perry clicks a few photos of their activity, and then Pete suggests swimming back to the shore. That’s how they return to L.A., drenched.

Meanwhile, Paul and Della keep working on other tangents of their case. Paul is still on the lookout for the woman in a blue sedan. Annoyed by his continued absence, Clara (Diarra Kilpatrick) joins him in the vigil. He realizes how his paranoia was making her just as restless. She takes note of how committed he is to the case, considering that he had many sleepless nights. So, while he takes a breather, she observes the activity in that corner. Soon after, they start ruminating over their past, and it seems like this assistance gig makes them reconnect.

Then suddenly she notices ‘the car,’ and they follow it all the way to the woman’s home. Paul stays back in his car while Clara decides to enter the house as a Jehovah’s Witness. She walks in to find that woman with a needle still stuck in her arm. ‘Are you Josephine Baker?’, the woman asks. It is clear to Clara that she has mistaken her to be someone else.

While Paul waits outside in his car, Clara sees the woman ODing and gets terrified. By then, Paul sees a car driving inside the establishment and gets worried that Clara has not come out yet. While Clara hides behind the closet door, she notices this man seeing the woman and then calling an ambulance. She steals one of the letters and runs out to know this man’s identity. Meanwhile, we realize that the man is Phipps, Camilla Nygaard’s lawyer.

On the other hand, Della meets Mr. Denning at the Department of Agriculture to speak about the federal investigation against Brooks McCutcheon and Charlie Goldstein in relation to their scam. Denning says they both were subpoenaed and were called to testify before a jury. Della asks for the relevant, confidential files and stays in the room while Mr. Denning goes out to bring them.

However, a different man (the same creepy man we saw tailing Della and Mason before) arrives sometime later in the room. He says that Denning won’t be coming to the office again today – implying the danger she is in. She walks out, scared out of her wits. Anyhow, she rushes out to phone Perry to inform him about it.

In the office, Perry discusses Della’s suspicion that Brooks was selling the produce Lydell was dumping to the black market. So feds possibly got wind of it, which made Brooks and Goldstein scared. But Pete wonders why they needed a big charade to carry the veggies to Japan to sneak oil into Japan.

Then, Marion Kang (Jee Young Han) joins the discussion and adds an important part to the conversation – could they possibly be selling the oil to the Japanese military? Due to the ongoing war, league member nations called for embargoes on Japan. So it makes perfect sense. It brings Perry to the conclusion that Lydell got his own son killed to hide this dirty secret.

Perry Mason (Season 2) Episode 7 Ending, Explained:

Who paid the Gallardo brothers to kill Brooks McCutcheon?

Perry goes to the McCutcheon’s palace while Lydell is giving his grandson lessons in skeet shooting. Perry unloads a bag of oily veggies onto his floor and terrifies Lydell with a simple act. Now Perry knows that Lydell was trying to protect his profits, not his son. Despite Perry’s argument as clear as day, Lydell refuses to take any blame for it. He gets emotional while saying that he did not want Brooks’ death.

Cut to – we see Camila playing the piano in her lavish villa. The creeper who was tailing Della and Perry walks into her room. He hands over Della’s recent pictures from the parking lot while she comes out of Mr. Denning’s office. So the earlier scene where Camila sweet-talks Japanese business partners for a deal makes sense. It was a power battle between her and Lydell. At the time, she even justifies Brooks’ death to Lydell, saying how he now has control over shaping his family name’s legacy.

On the other hand, innocent brothers get pulled into needless trials and tribulations due to the likes of Lydell and Camila. In prison, Raphael (Fabrizio Guido) gets out of solitary confinement to share the cell with Mateo (Peter Mendoza). But he is too shaken to speak a single word. Mateo, meanwhile, contemplates whether to share the letter of acceptance from an art institute for Raphael. Seeing Raphael’s crushed spirits, he crumbles that piece of paper in his hands.

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Perry Mason (Season 2) Episode 7 Links: IMDb, Wikipedia
Perry Mason (Season 2) Episode 7 Cast: Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk, Shea Whingham, Justin Kirk

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