The Lincoln Lawyer is one of Netflix’s hit original series, following slick, street-smart attorney Mickey Haller as he takes on high-stakes criminal cases across Los Angeles. With each new installment, Mickey pretty much tackles one primary, overarching case.
In The Lincoln Lawyer season 2, he finds himself drawn into a tangled murder case when restaurateur Lisa Trammell, who becomes both his client and a brief romantic interest, is accused of killing a powerful real estate developer. By the end of the second season, Mickey wins the case and fans are ready to move on to the third season.
But Lisa doesn’t appear in season 3. However, she does make an appearance in The Lincoln Lawyer season 4. Of course, this brief cameo has everyone talking. It also has some people needing a refresher on what happened to her the last time we saw her. No worries! We’re about to recap Lisa’s story right now.
Spoilers are ahead from The Lincoln Lawyer seasons 2 and 4!
Lisa Trammell is accused of murdering her husband in The Lincoln Lawyer season 2
In The Lincoln Lawyer season 2, restaurateur and community activist Lisa Trammell emerges as one of Mickey’s most challenging clients. She is introduced as a passionate owner battling gentrification in her neighborhood and even sparks a brief romantic connection with Mickey. That dynamic shifts dramatically when she is arrested for the murder of wealthy developer Mitchell Bondurant, a man publicly pushing to take down her restaurant and property.
At first, the evidence against Lisa looks bad. Yet, Mickey mounts a deft defense, suggesting that others, including those tied to a corrupt construction company, may have had motive and opportunity. After a tense courtroom battle, he persuades the jury that Lisa did not kill Bondurant, securing her acquittal.
However, the true twist comes after the trial. As Mickey investigates further, he becomes suspicious about Lisa’s missing husband, Jeff Trammell. The man everyone believed to be Jeff was, in fact, an actor Lisa hired to impersonate him, and the real Jeff had divorced her years earlier and vanished under mysterious circumstances.
The chilling truth is that Lisa had killed her husband and buried his body in the garden behind her restaurant. This revelation explains her resistance to selling or mortgaging the property and her unease whenever Jeff’s name is mentioned.
Once the truth is uncovered, Mickey ends their romantic relationship. Lorna then alerts the authorities, prompting a police investigation at her property. While Lisa avoids conviction for Bondurant’s murder, her role in her husband’s death ends up putting her in serious legal jeopardy. We never see her actually arrested in the second season, but we find out what exactly happened to her in The Lincoln Lawyer season 4.
Basically, we find out that the police did arrest her and that she was sent to prison after she confessed to the murder. She briefly returns in season 4, episode 9, attempting to discredit Mickey during his trial. She wants revenge after what happened to her. However, her plan backfires when Mickey and his team present the court with the threatening letters she had been sending him from prison. That’s pretty much her storyline in the fourth season. This is probably the last we’ll see of Lisa going forward.
All 10 episodes of The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 are streaming on Netflix right now.
