TV Show Reviews

Wishful Thinking: Defending Jacob’s Sixth Episode Explores Barber Family Tree

We’re now on our sixth episode of Apple TV+’s miniseries Defending Jacob. Things are getting intense to say the least.

Andy Barber is desperate to find anything that will help his son avoid having to spend the rest of his life in jail for a crime we don’t know if he committed. Jacob doesn’t exactly make life easy for the Barbers, but if you were a teenager accused of murder it would probably be difficult for you to deal with as well. The entire feel of this episode is akin to walking on eggshells. You never know when things are going to explode, but you have a feeling it will be sometime soon.

Slight Spoilers

Since the episode just came out, I don’t want to spoil anything. We do find out some interesting information in relation to who could have also possibly killed Ben. That isn’t the highlight of the episode. The highlight is finding out, through medical science in terms that I didn’t fully comprehend; that essentially all three men share certain traits with each other. While the “murder gene” isn’t something that Jacob is found to have, it is found out that Andy’s father, him, and Jacob all share an “anti-social” trait, as well as petulance for violence. Subtle events in this episode make it obvious that there’s definitely something building in Andy that he’s been determined to keep under wraps for years. As Laurie points out, Andy was always so desperate for their family to appear as “normal” to everyone.

Honorable Mentions

J.K. Simmons returns as Andy’s father and while “Bloody Billy” didn’t have a lot of screen time, his little scenes lent a lot of information on character development. As well as Andy’s relationship with the man. Pablo Schreiber’s Neal also was more prominent in this episode and we can tell there’s going to be a showdown when court starts. Which, looks like it will be next episode.

Rating: 3.5/5

Episode six was more of a “moving the plot along” episode, but there were a few very important moments that certainly will play out in the finale two episodes.

What did you think of Defending Jacob episode six?

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