The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 Ending Explained: Who Killed Glory Days?

This article contains spoilers for The Lincoln Lawyer season 3.

When discussing the trial of Julian La Cossa (Devon Graye) and the far-reaching potential conspiracy that The Lincoln Lawyer‘s titular Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and company uncovered during their investigation, Haller’s mentor “Legal” Siegel (Elliott Gould), gets up from the table and announces in quite dramatic fashion that he is leaving Los Angeles behind to move to Boca and get as far away from Mickey Haller as he can. When asked why, Legal quite frankly replies that, essentially, “When you come at the king, you’d better not miss.” Given Legal’s position as Mickey’s mentor, undoubtedly he’s given him a lot of good advice along the way. 

This is advice Mickey probably should have listened to.

Throughout season 3 of The Lincoln Lawyer, Mickey starts picking away at loose threads, finding the ties that connect the late Glory Days (Fiona Rene) to villainous cartel leader Hector Moya (Arturo Del Puerto) and back again to a rogue DEA agent named James De Marco (Michael Irby) and a disgraced ex-homicide cop Neil Bishop (Holt McCallany). The initial thought is, of course, Moya went to jail because of Glory Days, so he had her killed at the end of Season 2. The truth is much more complicated, and much more dangerous. Here is what really happens at the end of The Lincoln Lawyer season 3. 

Who Killed Glory Days?

Mickey successfully establishes a chain of witnesses that lead him to De Marco, and while De Marco seems to skate by initially, Haller doubles-down and keeps digging at witnesses until he’s allowed to call Bishop, De Marco’s patsy, onto the stand. Bishop then lays out everything: De Marco’s connections to a rival cartel of Hector Moya, the way De Marco used people he arrested to do his dirty work, and the way De Marco used him to carry out even more of that dirty work, all in the name of keeping Hector Moya imprisoned on fraudulent gun charges. The truth comes out, in front of the judge and jury of the La Cossa murder trial. Agent De Marco is the person who killed Glory Days, burned her apartment to cover it up, used his power to set up a complicated conspiracy to arrest Hector Moya, and then worked overtime to frame other people for his misdeeds.

Of course, this information doesn’t come freely. After revealing his knowledge of the web of conspiracy crafted by De Marco at the behest of his cartel handlers, Bishop pulls a hidden gun from an ankle holster (his main service weapon was taken away by the bailiff to avoid any issues), and he dramatically kills himself on the witness stand shortly after baring his soul and making a host of powerful figures very mad at him. Mickey has won his case, but at what cost?

Mickey Haller Wins the Case (Sort Of)

Mickey lapses into a depression. The system really is rigged against certain people. The truth has been revealed, but De Marco escaped legal justice (even if he didn’t escape cartel justice) and there would be no punishment for the murder of Glory Days, the death of Eddie Rojas, and the mental and physical anguish suffered by Julian. However, while the cog might have escaped, the machine still exists for Mickey to rage against it, and after re-uniting with daughter Hayley, Mickey takes up Julian’s lawsuit with the district attorney’s office and various state and federal law enforcement officials until he gets what must be an eye-watering big settlement from all and sundry parties. 

Cause for celebration! Julian got paid, Mickey got paid, and while the various crimes have officially gone unpunished, perhaps the law enforcement community of the greater Los Angeles area has learned a valuable lesson about doing things by the book, not cutting corners, and not framing innocent people for various crimes they did not commit. Or, maybe, in true Lincoln Lawyer fashion, Mickey just kicked over the most dangerous hornet’s nest he could find, then stomped on it for good measure.

A Body in a Trunk Sets Up Season 4

Leaving the celebratory dinner with the associates from Haller & Associates, Mickey gets into his car and drives off into the Los Angeles night, smiling to himself over a job well done. Then, he gets hit by blue lights and pulled over by a cop without any cause; Mickey drives slowly and doesn’t run any red lights. As it turns out, someone stole the license plate off of the back of his car, creating probable cause for a traffic stop that gets out of hand with the officer quasi-legally searching Mickey’s car. 

Cue the horrified reaction shot from the Tarantino-style trunk cam.

The final shot of The Lincoln Lawyer season 3 shows a handcuffed Mickey being dragged by a police officer to look into the trunk of his beloved 1963 Lincoln Continental where he sees a bloody, battered dead body of Mickey’s recurring conman client, Sam Scales. Mickey has gotten a lot of people out of murder charges throughout the show, but he’s facing the toughest trial imaginable for a defense attorney: his own. It’s clear Mickey has made powerful enemies by coming at the DEA and drug cartels, and the police will be none-too-happy to see him in their custody. Even with all of his friends on the inside, Mickey Haller is in deep, deep trouble.

As Legal might have warned Mickey, you can beat the rap but you can’t beat the ride. 

All 10 episodes of The Lincoln Lawyer season 3 are available to stream on Netflix now.