Contains spoilers for The Lincoln Lawyer season 1 and for Michael Connelly’s novel by the same name.

In the closing shots of Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer season 1, a man with a tattoo is shown watching Mickey Haller surf, and the books might reveal his identity. The Lincoln Lawyer season 1 primarily drew on Michael Connelly’s second book in The Lincoln Lawyer novel series, The Brass Verdict. However, it borrowed several plot lines from The Lincoln Lawyer book 1 and it seems the Netflix adaptation might explore this further in a potential season 2. While the primary story of The Lincoln Lawyer season 1 focuses on Mickey Haller’s (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) defense of the video game CEO Trevor Elliot (Christopher Gorham), background plots play key roles too. Mickey Haller tracks down Gloria Dayton (Fione Rene), a key witness that went missing when Jesus Menendez (Saul Huezo) was on trial for the murder of Martha Renteria. Dayton’s disappearance led to Menendez, a man Haller knew was innocent, going to jail on a life sentence. Dayton’s evidence at an appeal helps to get Menedez freed when she tells the story of having seen the killed and knowing that he is a man with a tattoo on his arm.

While the Jesus Menedez case is pulled from The Lincoln Lawyer book 1, the Netflix adaptation never says who the man with the tattoo that really killed Martha Renteria actually is. In Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer, Mickey Haller is hired by a wealthy real estate agent, Louis Ross Roulet, to clear him of an assault charge against a sex worker called Reggie Campo. While Roulet claims that he was set up, Haller discovers that he did in fact attack Campo and was also responsible for the murder of Martha Renteria two years earlier. However, he is stuck in a bond of attorney-client privilege that prevents him from directly revealing the truth and helping to free Jesus Menendez from prison. In the Netflix adaptation, with the Martha Renteria case left unsolved, it is highly likely that the man with the tattoo in The Lincoln Lawyer season 1 is Louis Ross Roulet, or a version of that character who might receive a different name from the books.

More than just a cliffhanger ending, the appearance of Louis Roulet watching Mickey Haller surfing is a huge setup for how The Lincoln Lawyer can continue in season 2. In Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer, it is revealed that Roulet had been watching Mickey for almost 2 years and hired him specifically because he had been the lawyer for Jesus Menendez. Roulet knew that Haller might see the similarities in the cases and by keeping track of him and then hiring him, Roulet was able to tie him up in attorney-client privilege. With the time likely to take place between the end of season 1 and the release of The Lincoln Lawyer season 2, it seems that Haller has just come to Roulet’s attention and he’ll be watching in preparation to hire him in the next season.

Unfortunately, the change to The Lincoln Lawyer’s timeline might spell an early doom for Gloria Dayton. With Dayton being able to potentially identify Roulet, she is likely to be his next kill rather than the case being an attempt on Reggie Campo’s life. This would speed up a plotline that happens in later Mickey Haller books, and it would also give Haller a fresh reason to hate Louis Roulet quite so viscerally when he learns the truth, even with Menendez no longer in jail. While this might fall into some tropes regarding using women’s deaths to fuel male narratives, it would make sense after the tease of the man with the tattoo in The Lincoln Lawyer season 1 ending.

The Lincoln Lawyer season 1 is now available on Netflix.

✕ Remove AdsUnfortunately, the change to The Lincoln Lawyer’s timeline might spell an early doom for Gloria Dayton. With Dayton being able to potentially identify Roulet, she is likely to be his next kill rather than the case being an attempt on Reggie Campo’s life. This would speed up a plotline that happens in later Mickey Haller books, and it would also give Haller a fresh reason to hate Louis Roulet quite so viscerally when he learns the truth, even with Menendez no longer in jail. While this might fall into some tropes regarding using women’s deaths to fuel male narratives, it would make sense after the tease of the man with the tattoo in The Lincoln Lawyer season 1 ending.