In Season 2, Perry (Matthew Rhys), Della (Juliet Rylance), and Paul (Chris Chalk) were given their hardest case yet. Perry and Della find themselves defending the Gallardo brothers, two Mexican-American locals who are accused of killing rich bad boy Brooks McCutcheon (Tommy Dewey).
But as the investigation goes on, it becomes clear that Mateo (Peter Mendoza) and Rafael (Fabrizio Guido) aren’t always as innocent as they seem. Early in the season, Paul figures out that the brothers did pull the trigger on the gun that killed Brooks…But who paid Mateo and Rafa to do their dirty work?
Perry Mason Season 2 ends on a bittersweet note, with one of the Gallardo brothers admitting to the crime, the real villain of the season being revealed, and Perry going to jail for illegally hiding the murder weapon to hide the “smoking gun.”
Was Mateo Gallardo really the one who killed Brooks? Will Camilla Nygaard (Hope Davis), who ordered Brooks to be killed and tried to blackmail DA Hamilton Burger (Justin Kirk), really be brought to justice? And if Perry is in jail, does that mean that Perry Mason has been canceled by HBO?
Sources talked to Michael Berger, who worked with Jack Amiel on the second season of the HBO show Perry Mason, about some of the big risks he and Amiel took. Berger and Perry Mason executive producers Susan Downey and Amanda Burrell talked about how Season 2 of Perry Mason ended and what they hope for the future of the show…
What Happened at The End of Season 2 of Perry Mason? Did Matteo Gallardo Kill Brooks McCutcheon?
In Episode 3, Paul Drake found out that the Gallardos did shoot Brooks McCutcheon with a gun they rented from a man in their Hooverville. This was one of the most surprising things to happen in all of Season 2 of Perry Mason.
We find out later that they were hired by a mystery puppet master, who turns out to be Camilla Nygaard, but that killing Brooks wasn’t just about the money. Brooks had the homes of the Mexican-Americans who lived on the land burned down so he could build his beautiful baseball field there. The fires took the life of the Gallardos’ little sister.
But most crime shows wouldn’t put the Gallardos so directly in the middle of the crime. Susan Downey, the executive producer of Perry Mason, told that this new direction was “the idea of [showrunners] Jack Amiel and Michael Begler.” She also said that Team Downey was “nervous” about this new direction.
“We weren’t nervous because of the history of Perry Mason,” said Downey. “We were scared because you have to make the right decision with that choice. We thought it was a great idea to give Perry, who is already struggling with imposter syndrome, a client who turns out to be guilty. This gave him a great new task and was very refreshing.”
Michael Begler, who helps run the Perry Mason show, told Decider that the idea came from the stereotypes he already had about the main character.
“You kind of have this idea that he stands up for the average person. They’re not guilty, but how will he prove that?” Begler said. “So it was a very interesting thought experiment to think about what happens when he protects the guilty. “But how does he do that?”
Perry and Della’s case is thrown into chaos by the news, and Perry is forced to hide the murder weapon in the office’s vault. (We’ll talk more about that bad choice soon.) Eventually, though, Perry becomes obsessed with not only showing up as the Gallardos’ lawyer but also helping find out who did order Brooks’ death.
“I think that, you know, Perry is a person with a very strong moral center, but he’s also a person who understands the gray,” Begler said. “And Brooks took so much away from Rafael and Mateo. They were hurt, you know.”
“Now, no one agrees with the killing, but you can see who they are. And I don’t think Brooks deserves to live because he was a bad guy. I think Mateo shouldn’t have pulled the trigger because he is a good guy at heart, but he made a bad choice.”
“If everyone is perfect and good and not guilty, there’s not much interesting about that,” said Amanda Burrell, the executive producer of Perry Mason. “I think we really got the chance to say, ‘Look, sometimes people make bad choices.
Perry has done stupid things in the past. Everyone makes them, so what do you do with them now? And I think it really got people involved in the conversation.”
Once Perry, Della, and Paul find the photos Camilla Nygaard was using to blackmail Hamilton Burger, the city’s District Attorney is able to work out a kind of lenient plea deal for the Gallardos. Since only one of them pulled the trigger, if one of them admits, he will get 20 years in prison and the other will be let out of jail right away.
Matteo agrees to the deal and says that he shot Brooks, which is true. Rafa is then free to go to art school. But does this mean that Camilla Nygaard didn’t get caught for murder?
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Does the End of Season 2 of Perry Mason Mean that Camilla Nygaard Is Going to Die?
In one of the last scenes of Season 2 of Perry Mason, Della Street questions Camilla Nygaard about her part in Brooks’s death, but the oil tycoon doesn’t feel bad about it. In fact, she is surprisingly calm when the Feds come to arrest her.
“I love how her last line to the Feds is, ‘Have you eaten?’ She’s going to invite them in, basically. Begler told, “It’s not a big deal.” “And she’ll get through this because she’s worked so hard to get where she is, and she’s not going to give that up without a fight. I’m sure she thinks she can get out of it, though.”
“I mean, look, Phipps doesn’t seem to be her only lawyer to me. You should know that this woman is ready to lead an army. I don’t think there’s anything she can’t do. We see how much she can do and how far she is willing to go to do it.
Begler said that Camilla will do anything to stay in power, and that her obsession with weird beauty habits is meant to show how determined she is. Specifically, her bee-sting facials, which are based on the way ancient Egyptians took care of their face.
“She’s won so much, she wanted to win over getting older. She was going to do whatever it took. Begler said, “She was going to put up with the pain of the bees and the venom in order to get healthy and stronger than everyone else.” “But we love the fact that she has to go through so much for her beauty.”
“I also like how, in that scene, she’s pretty much turned into a monster. But I think she thinks she can keep going on and on.”
Even though it’s still not clear if Camilla will go to jail, Perry Mason himself shows up to serve time at the end of Season 2.
Does Perry Go to Jail at The End of Season Two?
At the end of Season 2, the show’s main character, Perry Mason, goes to jail for a short time because he was caught hiding the murder weapon in the Gallardo case. Most legal dramas would try to find a way for their main character to get out of punishment like this, but Perry Mason seems to welcome it. The season ends with Perry settling into his cell.
Michael Begler said that he thought it was an appropriate step for the character given where we met Perry in Season 2.
“If you look at where he starts the season, you’ll see a guy who has a lot of phony syndromes and is haunted by the death of Emily Dodson (Gayle Rankin). And now he’s going to be in charge of someone else’s life again,” he said.
“You know, Paul Raci’s character Lydell says to Perry in Episode 3: ‘Even when you win, you lose.’ I think we all like the idea that “even if you lose, you win.”
“Because I think about how he went from being a guy who didn’t think he could do this to being a lawyer who tells Della, “You know, you have to fight.” I think it was important to see that he can go in there with his head held high. He’s going to stick with it until the end, and he has no reason to back out.”
But if Perry Mason ends that way, does that mean the show is over? Since Paul Drake now works for someone else and Della seems pretty happy with Anita (Jen Tullock),… Is Perry Mason no longer on?
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Will There Be a Season 3 Perry Mason on HBO?
So, does that mean Perry Mason is done? Team Downey and Michael Begler sure hope not.
Begler said, “Well, I hope it doesn’t end with him going to jail.” “Let me put it this way: I feel like we’ve just begun. Even though he’s in jail, it’s only for a short time, but I think Perry is becoming the lawyer he knows he can be by the end of the season.
“And I can say for sure that I’ve been thinking about how to keep this train going since they called wrap, because this is such a fun world to play in.”
Susan Downey said, “Look, we’re supposed to say that we’re just glad this season is over and that everyone loves it and ‘blah, blah, blah.'” We’d love to keep telling this story if we could. Amanda [Burrell] and I talk all the time about how a whole world has been made. Both in front of and behind the cameras, there is a great group of people.
And Perry, Della, and Paul are the kind of people whose stories can go on and on. There are other kinds of crimes they can do. We love to learn more about other things in Los Angeles and the rest of the world. So, you know, that would be great if that chance came our way.”
“Unfortunately, you know, it’s not up to me or Team Downey,” said Begler. “You know, we really need to hear what HBO has to say. But I think they at least know how excited we are and what we want to do if we get the chance.”
