Trial & Error Season 2 Finale Recap: How Did Lavinia’s Case Close?
It’s very possible that Trial & Error‘s Josh Segal and his ragtag legal team have worked their last case, seeing as the NBC comedy’s fate is still up in the air.
But did they manage to pull off one last victory?
In the final two episodes of Trial & Error‘s second season, Josh & Co. exhaust every option to prove that Lavinia Peck-Foster, and not Jesse Ray Beaumont, was responsible for the murder of Lavinia’s brother, Chet.
The good news? Josh begins to close in on Lavinia, thanks to leads from locals like Forge Clooney, East Peck tattoo artist Reverend Tats (“not a Reverend,” his chyron helpfully clarifies) and, oddest of all, Mickey Moose. The really, really bad news? Thanks to the tie pin-turned-camera that Lavinia gifted Dwayne last week, Lavinia is able to stay one step ahead of Josh and manages to kill each of his witnesses before they can take the stand.
Fortunately, once Josh discovers that Dwayne’s tie pin is feeding Lavinia intel, they’re able to resume work on the case without fearing for everyone in East Peck — and they quite literally strike gold by identifying some GPS coordinates that Chet had gotten tattooed on his back before he died. The coordinates lead to the center of Lavinia’s hedge maze, where Dwayne and Anne find a box full of gold bars. (As a fan of the S-Town podcast, which has been less subtly honored already in Season 2, I particularly enjoyed this shout-out of a twist.)
But wait! There’s more! Even though the gold itself would have been reason enough for Lavinia to kill her brother, there is an even stronger motive hidden underneath the box’s false bottom: letters from Lavinia’s long-lost son, Trig Peck, that prove Trig was trying to get in touch with Lavinia for years. Once Lavinia discovered that her own brother was keeping her from seeing her son, surely that made her snap, right?
Well… right! When Lavinia takes the stand the next day, Josh surprises her by bringing her son into the courtroom and letting him take the fall for Chet’s murder. But Lavinia can’t bear to see her son go down for her crimes, so she finally confesses to offing Chet — and after singing a lovely refrain of “A Bird in a Gilded Cage,” Lavinia is locked up. (Well, for one day, at least. She ends up busting out of prison, with the help of her house-boy, and escapes to Barcelona donning her Ronnie Del Mundo disguise.)
And in the end, Josh reveals that it wasn’t Lavinia’s son who appeared in the courtroom during the trial. It was merely Dwayne’s brother-cousin, Wayne, who played the part of Trig convincingly enough to get Lavinia locked up. (Like I said: for a day.)
Elsewhere in the finale:
* After trying her absolute hardest not to give birth right there on the courtroom floor — kudos to Jayma Mays for her riotous physical comedy in this finale — Carol Anne Keane finally welcomes a daughter, Princess Anne Keane. It turns out Josh isn’t the father, after all, and the baby really belongs to East Peck’s comatose mayor. But Josh adores the baby anyway, and he and Carol Anne end the finale with some heavy, heavy flirting.
* After confessing to her crimes, Lavinia tells Josh that she and her fellow Pecks helped rid the town of witches back in 1994. “Now that we’re gone, they’ll most certainly try to come back. And not the good kind,” she informs her former lawyer, with a wonderful nod to Kristin Chenoweth’s Wicked character, Galinda.
Josh doesn’t seem to buy it at first, but a voicemail left on the taxidermy office’s answering machine at the end of the episode tells us he should take the warning seriously: “Hi. I don’t know if you followed the witch trials of 1994. I need you to help free the East Peck Three. Those two boys need your help.” (Because only in East Peck does “three” really mean “two.”)
With that, I hand it over to you. What did you think of Trial & Error‘s Season 2 finale? Grade it in our poll below, then hit the comments to back up your choice!
I want another season if only to see that East Peck Three case, and learn more about the witch trials :D!
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Great finale. Crazy from start to finish-I too loved everything with Carol Anne desperately trying to avoid giving birth in the courtroom (the whole “rise/sit” thing was especially hilarious), and the funeral for Mickey Moose, complete with a kid saluting JFK Jr. style. I love this show’s attention to even the most minute of details. I also loved everything with Anne’s painted on eyes.
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Josh’s stunt to get Lavinia to confess was great, too, as was his speech when he went to visit her. Turning her whole “What did you think I did?” thing back on her was a fun touch :D. Not surprised that she managed to escape in the end, though. If the show does miraculously get another season, sounds like a good opportunity for her to make a return visit of some kind.
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And I liked how everything with Carol Anne’s baby got sorted out, too. I felt for Josh with his reaction at finding out he wasn’t the father, but that ending with them celebrating her becoming D.A. and their flirty banter was really sweet and cute.
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Yeah. Continuing to hope for some surprise good news regarding this show’s future-I’d love to see what else they could do with this town and these characters. But if this is indeed the official end, then eh, well, it’s definitely been loads of fun, and hopefully we’ll see the cast in new stuff as soon as possible.
Couldn’t agree more!! ^^
I agree with Angela, too. Well said!
I hope we get a Season 3 but I’m not counting on it.
While I am deeply in lust with Chenowith, I couldn’t even get through one episode. To me this ensemble is less then the actors, all of which deserve better.
We hope this show gets renewed. It should also be pushed to 10 pm and in the regular season where it would undoubtedly pick up more viewers.
Goodbye to the MUR-DER BOARD! MUR-DER BOARD! also the hook up board and the baby board
Love, love, love this show! I laughed out loud several times during every episode of this season. Nick D’Agosto is fantastic, great at comedy. I especially loved how the finale set up the premise for season three! Now we just need this show to be renewed and maybe as a mid-season replacement instead of a summer run?
NBC What are you waiting for! Renew this show!
Unlikely: https://tvline.com/2018/08/07/trial-and-error-cancelled-renewed-season-3-nbc/
Loved the show- what’s going to happen with the witches! ? Looking for Season 3
They’re seriously going to cancel this show just when women have won the right to be flag boys? Wow.
BEST case for renewal EVER !!
I just discovered the show this summer and am so glad I did! This was a really fun watch. What a cast, and what a fun style/premise/execution. I hope Warner Bros is successful in finding a new home for it, because it deserves it.
I really hope someone at any streaming service is smart enough to pick this show up, they get two great season worth binging and an amazing cast ready for season 3 with the possibility of also getting great guests for the third trial. This show is an unknown gem waiting to be taken from NBC.
yess^^^
i hope streaming services are paying attention because this show is hilarious and was poorly advertised but it would definitely catch on with a network that gave it a shot.
Loved this show since the beginning and we waited forever then to hear about a renewal and we got one so I have super high hopes. In the meantime, will there be a moose heir? How will we know how many Saturdays are in 2019?!?