Her Deadly Game

The next morning, Keera and Harrison go back to Beaverton with one more name from Jack Worthing: Stephanie Bowers. The address leads them to a broken-down trailer. A woman in her late seventies answers the door and first claims not to know Vince, but then she finally admits that she is Vince’s mother and that he pays her bills to keep her quiet because he’s embarrassed of her. When she says that his wife, a tall blonde, came to talk to her seven or eight months ago, they realize she is talking about Lisa. Stephanie tells them that Vince’s father beat him when he was a child. Vince was a voracious reader and developed an alter ego, Jack Worthing, who was wealthy and popular. As a child, Vince spent most of his time with his grandfather, who drove a taxi, which reminds Keera of Vince’s college taxi service. He also sold strawberries for his grandfather, but his father would beat him for the money, which explains why he raised the prices of the strawberries. Suddenly, many of the features of Vince’s history make sense to Keera.

However, while Keera and Harrison now have confirmation that Lisa was Anne’s accomplice, they still don’t understand why. Keera knows that her next move is to finish the trial and win the case, regardless of the identity of Jack.

On Monday morning, Keera, Patsy, and Vince wait for the judge to arrive at the courtroom. Vince is calm and restates his belief in Keera in the same words he’d said when he first hired her. It gives her the chills. During Ambrose’s closing argument, Keera is distracted by Vince’s behavior and begins to wonder if Vince somehow did kill Anne.

Keera feels ill about the possibility and rushes to the bathroom during the break. Lisa finds her there and tells her that she is only Jack Worthing’s messenger. When Keera returns to the courtroom, she confronts Vince about Jack, but he reminds her that her job is to defend him, and she delivers her closing statement.

Back at the office, they wait for the jury’s verdict. Patsy can tell that Keera doubts Vince’s innocence and reminds her that her job is to protect her client’s rights. Keera goes to the pub on the ground floor to get out of the office, and Rossi finds her there. She thanks him for sending Litchfield’s report, which he half-heartedly denies.

Rossi tells Keera that although Vince is innocent of Anne’s murder, he believes the man is guilty of something else. He brings up the question that’s been bothering Keera: Why did Anne and Lisa frame Vince? Keera drops the name Jack Worthing, and from Rossi’s reaction, it clearly has meaning to him. Because the name came to her through Vince’s case, however, she can’t explain it to him directly.

Keera and Rossi go to Lisa’s house, and she tells them about Jack Worthing. Anne’s discovery of Stephanie had been accidental—Vince told her his mother was dead. Stephanie told her that Vince developed his alter ego, Jack Worthing, as an escape from his father’s abuse. Jack was wealthy and popular, but he was also capable of things that Vince wouldn’t do, and money was very important to him. After that discovery, Anne and Lisa found the other people Lisa had directed Keera to. Eventually, they discovered that Vince’s wealth management firm was a Ponzi scheme, modeled after Bernie Madoff’s. LWM was rife with fraud, but when Anne asked questions, Vince locked his home office. Anne broke in and found an invoice from Cliff Larson Accounting.

At this point, Rossi cuts in because his case from last year—Cliff Larson’s murder—suddenly makes sense. In Madoff’s scheme, he used small accounting firms with names similar to large firms to fool his clients. Vince did the same and then killed Larson. When Anne discovered this, she set up her plan with Lisa, even writing the Jack Worthing emails.

Rossi calls Ford and opens the Larson investigation again. Keera calls Patsy and updates him. She feels sick about having cleared Vince’s name, and Patsy reminds her again of her job. When she hangs up, she at first regrets getting rid of the scotch but then instead turns to the chess board. She decides to extend the game, but it’s only a matter of time until she wins.

The next morning, the jury has a verdict. Keera and Patsy are both surprised and dismayed, knowing that a short deliberation often foreshadows a guilty verdict. When Vince sits down at the defense table next to her, she feels ill. The jury returns a verdict of not guilty, and when Vince hugs her, she realizes he doesn’t feel any guilt, remorse, or even sadness about Anne’s death.

At the office, they are already besieged with calls from the media and potential new clients. Winning this case means that the firm will survive beyond Patsy’s tenure. Keera tries to be happy but goes into her office and throws up in the wastebasket.

Rossi calls Keera and tells her that the feds are now investigating LWM and that he is charging Vince with Cliff Larson’s murder. Keera tries to call Vince, but he doesn’t answer. She realizes that he is either running away or going to attack Stephanie or Lisa. She picks up Rossi, and they go to Lisa’s house, calling for protection for Stephanie on the way.

Lisa’s front door is open, and a trail of blood leads up the stairs to Lisa’s bedroom, where she sits on the bed, holding a gun, next to a half-packed suitcase. Vince is dead on the floor, with a metal rod near his hand. Lisa tells Keera that Anne convinced her to buy two ghost guns during their plan for just this reason.

A week after the verdict and Vince’s death, the firm is still busy. Keera is representing Lisa in both Vince’s death and Anne’s assisted death by suicide. LWM is exposed as the largest Ponzi scheme in Washington state history. Patsy tells Keera that soon everyone will forget about Vince, but she knows she never will.

At home, Keera plays chess online with Patsy until she gets to the final move. Instead of playing it, however, she drives to his house. When she asks how he’s doing, he admits that his doctor diagnosed him with cirrhosis. Keera tells him that she’s quit drinking, too, and finally tells him about her relationship with Ambrose. They decide to go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings together. When Keera resigns her position on Patsy’s chessboard, he realizes that she knew all along that he was Dark Knight. They reset the board and start a new game.