Bull episode 19 review: The struggles of self-representation

Whenever you see a man choose to represent themselves in a court of law, there is one super-quick reaction that you’re probably going to have: “Oh crap.” It often doesn’t end well, especially since the people who are so willing to do this have massive egos and they are not often willing to listen to other people.

At the center of Bull episode 19 on CBS Tuesday night, we had one of the best examples of that in Jules Caffrey, a high-power attorney known for having his way in court. Unfortunately, the problem at the center of tonight’s episode was that he was accused of killing his fiancee Lauren, and all of a sudden much of that ego and that power that he felt was stripped away. As a result of that, he went to Bull for help, but he wasn’t all that willing to help himself at times.

In the end, though, the decision to put Caffrey (who loved to refer to himself on third person) out there as his own attorney was significantly aided thanks in part to jury perception. Maybe at first he would come across as a giant egomaniac, but over the course of the episode, Bull started to slowly unravel not only much of who he was, but also how he was going to be perceived by this group of people.

The big breakthrough to us came when Bull was able to prove that the victim here was actually grifting him; the prosecution tried to paint him as a player who didn’t care about women. However, what we learned instead was that he was a being played by her the whole time. Bull blindsided him with this information on the stand, which forced him into a spot of great vulnerability. Of course, maybe Bull didn’t realize that the prosecution would use this as a way to attack his credibility as an attorney, but that certainly happened.

The verdict

We were of course convinced going into the episode that Caffrey would get the desired verdict, and that turned out to be the case. He was not guilty, so chalk up another win for Dr. Bull. What makes things interesting about this show is that after the verdict, we often get a chance to see the reveal of the real killer. We got a chance to have that tonight, as it turned out that “Lauren’s” real sibling ended up being the one responsible for the crime.

In the end, this was another fairly formulaic episode of the case — an investigation, a trial, the reveal of the real killer, and a few happy moments at the end. The one thing that made tonight’s episode stand out a little more was the excellent performance from Isaiah Washington as Caffrey, a guy with a ton of gravitas, but also a deep desire to love … even to the point of being emotionally reckless. Grade: B.

When is Bull returning with new episodes?

It’s true that there is another hiatus coming up after this episode. If you are interested in getting some additional news about it, head over to the link here. (Photo: CBS.)