Goliath season 2 premiere review: An apology, a new case and Lou Diamond Phillips

When we last saw Billy McBride in Goliath he had toppled all of his enemies and won a huge case. Callie had been fired from the law firm, Leonard was under FBI investigation, Donald was on his death bed and he had won $50 million dollars for his client (and a big pay day for himself). Everything turned up Billy! Despite all of his wins, he still found himself broken down by the end of the season and that’s where the beauty of this show lies. While it’s fun to watch Billy take on the corporate giants and win the day, Billy is a fundamentally broken human being. He has never forgiven himself for helping a killer go free (who then murdered an innocent family) and no matter how many times he slays the giant, it’s never going to take that pain away from him. Going into season 2 we are excited to see what Billy is going up against and if he can find a way to give himself a little bit of forgiveness.

In a Billy state of mind

So where is Billy after all this? Same place he always was. He’s still living out of the same motel, drinking heavily at the same bar and still beating himself up. Also, he’s pretty much giving away all of the money he earned from the case last season. The guilt he feels after Donald’s reveal that Rachel’s death was meant for Billy is too much for him and that money is a reminder of it.

Brittany’s apology

If you’ve been wondering about the state of Billy and Brittany’s relationship since it ended on such a sour note last season the premiere didn’t waste any time on that. She showed up at Billy’s motel to apologize to him as part of a recovery program, but this was a very sincere apology filled with love for him. After accepting her apology there were a few moments where we could see how much they wanted to mend their relationship, but right now things are still so raw.

Lou Diamond Philips

Before we start this chapter of our review can we just take a moment to talk about how much we love Lou Diamond Phillips? CarterMatt has been a huge fan of his since his days on Longmire (a favorite of ours!), so when we saw him pop up in the Goliath premiere we were beyond excited to see him alongside Billy Bob Thorton – two powerhouse actors. We were not disappointed.

The case

Phillips is playing a man named Oscar who is having some legal trouble – more so his son is. Two of his sons were killed in gang violence and his youngest (Julio) is being charged with retaliation murders. Oscar is convinced that his son didn’t commit this crime since he wasn’t even involved in the gang life and the night of the murders he was home with his dad. After Billy’s past experiences with helping someone accused of murder go free only for them to murder an entire family, Billy won’t help personally, but agrees to check out the public defender to make sure they are doing everything they can since he and Oscar are friends.

After meeting with the public defender Billy feels confident that she will do a good job, but talking with Julio breaks his heart a bit and we can see how much Billy really wants to do more for him since he thinks Julio didn’t do this.

Billy gets in touch with a friend of his (Detective Keith Roman) to find out a bit more about the case against Julio and the unfortunate news is that it looks pretty cut and dry against him. He has the motive, they have an eye witness and when Julio’s father (his alibi) gets killed it makes this case pretty well stacked against Julio. Our real question is why do they want Julio so badly for these murders and how is Roman connected to all of this?

Billy starts to pick apart what the eye witness could actually see from where they were when the murders occurred and we can see that even though he doesn’t want to be involved her really can’ help himself. Add to that Oscar being killed on his way to give his statement and we can see that Billy is hooked.

Related – Check out our review of Goliath season 2 episode 2.

CarterMatt Verdict

If this is the case for the entirety of the second season then we are beyond excited for this. It would be a really great story for since this is the same sort of case that made Billy want to back away from law in the first place. If Julio really didn’t kill these men and Billy can help it might give him some peace of mind (well as much as Billy can get peace of mind). So far, this season is heading in exactly the right direction.

What did you think of the Goliath season 2 premiere and do you like the set up of the season so far? Leave us a comment in the box below with your thoughts. If you want to check out more of our reviews and scoop on the show then be sure to join our CarterMatt Facebook page to make sure you never miss an update. (Photo: Amazon)