The final night of Rebel brings us a two-part conclusion to the series starting with Episode 9 “Trial Day.” Rebel (Katey Sagal) is dealing with the fallout from her very public fight with Grady (John Corbett) on the last episode. The public marital discord led to an arrest which has created a social media circus around the Stonemore case.
Hiding in their home, Grady and Rebel continue to argue with each other, while Ziggie (Ariella Barer) feeds the news with an expletive quote about the situation. Cruz (Andy Garcia) brings his key witnesses Maddie (Daniella Garcia) Helen (Mary McDonnell) and Jason (Dan Bucantinsky) to court for the start of the trial, while Rebel’s personal life has put a cloud over the righteousness of the case. Cruz is forced to face a confident Benji (James Lesure) and Cassidy (Lex Scott Davis).
Rebel pressures Nate (Kevin Zeggers) to attend the trial and text her updates. Nate arrives at court in time to offer Misha (Abigail Spencer) some encouragement before her testimony. Mischa’s testimony is the strongest that Cruz offers but Cassidy’s cross examination using personal information about Misha’s relationship with Nate is unexpected and upsetting. Life gets more complicated for Rebel as she is preparing her star witness, she learns that Ziggie has overdosed and is in the hospital.
Cruz begins questioning Stonemore CEO Mark Duncan (Adam Arkin) which turns into a disappointment. At the same time Rebel, Grady, Nate, and Lana (Tamala Reneé Jones) arrive at the hospital only to find that Ziggie and Sean (Jalen Thomas Brooks) are not there. Suspecting a Stonemore ploy, they rush back to Rebel’s home to find the chemist whistleblower missing and his husband unconscious.
Ziggie shows up at court, Sean is missing, and Nate confronts Cassidy over her treatment of Misha. Angela (Sharon Lawrence) has returned to cause havoc for the case. Not only did she pay off Sean to get Rebel out of the house, but a message from the whistleblower has her voice in the background.
Episode 10 “36 Hours” has Cruz remembering a pep talk he once got from his wife from a previous failed court case. He tries to admit defeat to Rebel and Lana, only to be rebuffed by Rebel who forcefully explains that it may be the bottom of the ninth, but this is the time when she comes alive.
Rebel’s first stop is to talk with Sean, who was arrested and is currently at the police station. She learns that he was paid twenty thousand dollars to steal Ziggie’s phone and cause problems for Rebel. After waking up Ziggie, Nate, and Ziggie’s volleyball team, Rebel and Lana solve the mystery of what their whistleblower meant when he mentioned Eureka on his last phone call. It is a reference to a storage unit and Lana and Rebel take off into the night to find out what is hidden.
No obvious answers are present at the storage locker, which leaves Rebel and Lana having to search a packed room with multiple items, and they don’t even know what they are looking for. While they deep dive into the storage locker, Grady brings Ziggie and Shawn to Nevada in search of Sean’s little brother.
Lana confronts Rebel about how she and Benji both use Cassidy for their own purposes which gets Rebel thinking about the message from the whistleblower. They search the storage locker for a cat statue which contains a flash drive, and together they speed away from the storage locker for court. Lana and Rebel cannot comprehend what is on the flash drive, so they head for the hospital to seek Misha’s help.
In Nevada, Grady is trying to work out a plan for what to do with Sean’s younger brother while helping Ziggie try to find a way to forgive Sean. This is when Grady does the best parenting he can. He guides Ziggie through the idea of how people are different. We learn when and how Rebel and Grady adopt Ziggie and how her birth mother was a client of Rebel and Cruz’s, a case which they lost. Ziggie’s mom died of cancer, and while we learn about Ziggie’s backstory, Grady beautifully describes how people are different in their abilities, and that couples can balance each other out.
Misha cracks through the flash drive and Rebel walks into the courtroom with proof that Stonemore has been testing the valve on inmates in a private prison in upstate New York. A settlement of $600 million plus the removal of the heart valve from all patients and pulling the defective valve from the market is offered and Cruz triumphantly announces in the court that he accepts the offer.
Cruz goes to dinner with his kids, Rebel returns home to celebrate with her family and Cassidy has an idea that will unite the family, using Benji’s firm to takedown Angela and who she works for.
Personal Thoughts:
Rebel concludes on a happy note, but throughout the 10-episode series viewers learned that the famed advocate is not always successful. Thankfully, the series ended by wrapping up the storyline in a positive manner.
Looking back on the show, the cast was stacked with talent and should have got another season to develop the series. Katey Sagal and Andy Garcia are a match made in heaven and should get Emmy nominations for making a standard legal drama into something compelling and exciting.