The Lincoln Lawyer Season 5's Major Betrayal Is The Harry Bosch Crossover The Show Is Missing

The Lincoln Lawyer season 5’s source material, Resurrection Walk, features a major betrayal, and it’s the Harry Bosch crossover that the show is missing. Anyone who is a fan of both The Lincoln Lawyer TV show and the book has to come to terms with the fact that we’re never going to get a Bosch crossover. It’s sad. I wish we could see Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Titus Welliver in action together.

However, the show is, and always will be, missing Harry Bosch. Netflix simply doesn’t own the rights to the character, and it’s not as if its competitor, Prime Video, is going to just give him up. Bosch is currently a character in the spinoff Ballard. Over the past four seasons, they’ve functionally replaced him with other characters.

The Lincoln Lawyer’s new permanent Bosch replacement, Emi Finch, can do a lot to help fill in the gaps in season 5. She will serve as the catalyst for Mickey taking on the main case of the season. Additionally, she will make things complicated for Mickey in the family department, much like Bosch did when he first appeared in the books. However, things will still be different.

Namely, they’ll have to remove some of Bosch’s more emotional moments. One of the most emotionally impactful scenes of Resurrection Walk, Maggie’s betrayal in the courtroom, just won’t be right without Titus Welliver’s version of Harry Bosch. If they keep the scene, his absence will be felt more than ever before.

Maggie’s Betrayal Is The Most Shocking & Infuriating Moment Of Resurrection Walk

Before the start of Resurrection Walk, Mickey and Maggie broke up, so she isn’t in the book very much. When she does appear, she absolutely betrays Mickey in the most shocking and cruel way.

Mickey and Maggie have faced each other on opposite sides of the courtroom before. They’re both good at their jobs, and they’re never going to go easy on each other. However, Maggie has never stooped as low as she does when she uses Harry Bosch’s private medical information, which she learned from during a family dinner, to try to discredit him.

She only knew about that treatment because Mickey was talking to his family about supporting Bosch through his cancer treatment. It wasn’t public record. It wasn’t in discovery. It was private and shared from a place of trust.

In all the books up to Resurrection Walk, I’ve never been anti-Maggie McPherson. I thought Mickey and Maggie were better as friends and co-parents than a couple, but Maggie was fine. That completely changed in this moment. It’s one thing to use publicly available knowledge against Bosch. It’s another thing entirely to use his cancer treatment against him.

Maggie goes as far as to imply that he is crazy and can’t be trusted. She uses a crime report that suggests Bosch made up a break-in to suggest Bosch was cognitively impaired, and she doesn’t even give him the chance to explain why he was confused. It’s absolutely despicable behavior.

How Maggie’s Betrayal Could Work Without Harry Bosch

The moment where Maggie betrays Mickey and Harry is one of the biggest “bomb drops” in Resurrection Walk. However, it’s hard to imagine them making the scene work without Harry Bosch. They would need another person working on the case to be in a medical treatment that could impair their mental faculties.

It would be way too much to introduce Emi and reveal that she has cancer in one season of The Lincoln Lawyer. They could potentially have Cisco get cancer, as he is an investigator for Mickey. Functionally, that story choice would serve the same purpose. It wouldn’t cut quite as deep, though, when Maggie brings up the cancer in court.

Lorna getting cancer wouldn’t have much of an impact since she’s a lawyer, not an investigator. The only other major options are Izzy and her girlfriend, Grace, who helped Mickey out with his last case. I don’t know that it would really make an impact if Maggie went after one of them, since she doesn’t have a close relationship with either of those women.

There is no logical solution to this problem. The only people in that group with whom she’s close are Lorna and Mickey. The betrayal would either need to be directed at one of them or Emi, and none makes sense for the show. Truly, I think the best choice would be to cut out the scene entirely. Unfortunately, that also means losing one of the most impactful moments of Resurrection Walk.

Maggie & Mickey Getting Back Together In S5 Would Feel Unearned Based On The Book

Maggie’s betrayal of Mickey and Bosch in Resurrection Walk proves that their issues run so much deeper than they seem. There is a philosophical difference between them. Mickey is a defense attorney, and Maggie is a prosecutor. Mickey is willing to act in shady ways, but he has a moral line. Maggie likes to act like she's better than him because she's on the "right" side of the law.

However, the betrayal in Resurrection Walk shows that she's not as good a person as she thinks she is. Her holier-than-thou attitude is completely unwarranted. At least Mickey is upfront about bending the law, and he has lines that he won't cross. She literally uses a family member's medical information against them, and then she justifies that action over text.

Ultimately, I've never felt particularly strong about Mickey's love life, but I would absolutely riot if Mickey and Maggie get back together in The Lincoln Lawyer season 5. These two might have ended The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 on good terms, but it wouldn't be right for them to start up a relationship in season 5 based on the books. Mickey is a family man. He would never accept Maggie turning on his family like that.