Bloodline season 3 episode 6 review: John Rayburn takes the stand

Are we about to see the downfall of the Rayburn family on Bloodline season 3? If Eric O’Bannon has anything to say on the matter then the answer is yes. They have framed him for Marco’s murder and he was offered a plea deal of 30 years without parole, but after talking to his sister Chelsea, he’s decided to take this case to trial and hope that his lawyer can get just one juror to believe him and get that acquittal. With Kevin being the main “witness” to this crime, Eric may have an easier time getting to the truth then he realizes.

Instead of focusing his anger on Kevin, Eric wants his lawyer to focus all her attention on John and the murder of Danny. It’s a struggle for his lawyer to get him to understand that John is not the one on trial and it’s not her job to prove John’s guilt, but to prove Eric’s innocence. Right now, Eric is his own worst enemy and if he has an outburst in court about John killing Marco he’ll be sending himself to jail.

Are we all ready for Eric’s trial to begin? We hope so, because we had a chance to see how Eric’s first day of court went. We were wondering what Eric’s defense was going to be focusing on if not John and instead it looks like his attorney is actually trying to cast doubt on Meg, saying that she’s had a violent history with Marco, has disappeared into thin air and that Kevin and John are covering for her. She paints a very convincing picture to the jury as she tries to show them that the Rayburn family is framing Eric for Marco’s murder.

When John takes the stand we expect him to have a good handle on how to testify, what to say, and how to say it. He’s an expert at hiding his feelings and has been working with the court system for 27 years. What he doesn’t know is that Eric has been in touch with Lenny Potts and asked him to sit in the courtroom while John testifies in hopes of rattling him a bit… and it does. Eric’s defense reveals the two situations: The one where John handcuffed Eric and threatened him with a gun and then meeting up with Eric after Marco’s murder to give him the murder weapon. John lies under oath denying these events ever happened, but that’s no surprise.

Potts has a chance to try to convince John to do the right thing during a break in John’s testimony, but with such strong loyalty to his family (and him being responsible for Danny’s death) there are just too many secrets he needs to keep buried to tell the truth. Instead he lies further and says that Marco had told him that he had planned to rescind the immunity deal he had with Eric because he thought that Eric had something to do with Danny’s death. We will have Eric’s pleas to John to stop doing this to him ringing in our ears all day – haunting and heartbreaking.

The person we actually feel the worst for in this whole mess is Chelsea. Eric has always been a screw-up – maybe not a murderer, but he’s continuously bringing trouble to Chelsea’s doorstep when all she’s been trying to do is make a better life for herself. Now that Eric has this murder charge following him around, she’s being harassed by the police every chance they get and at work she’s never had a negative performance review in the ten years she’s been working there as a nurse… but now she’s getting hit with them. She’s also the person that is probably the most aware of all sides of this situation with Eric and after a conversation with John she knows that Eric is innocent and that the Rayburn’s are lying. Seeing her give her testimony about Meg and the things she said about Marco gives more fuel to the Meg is the killer theory Eric’s defense is cooking up. Episode grade: A-

What did you think of this episode of Bloodline season 3? Leave us a comment in the box below and tell us if you think the Rayburn family is going to get caught for these murders. If you want more on Bloodline then head on over to the link here where you can read more reviews from this season or even previous seasons. (Photo: Netflix)