A Friend in Need

"**A Friend in Need**" is the sixteenth episode of the fifth season finale and the one-hundred-third episode overall of the legal drama series *Bull*, which was aired on May 17, 2021.

## Summary

As Benny surges to a lead in the DA polls, Bull is approached by David Sherman, the DA who recently stepped down amid a campaign contribution scandal related to charges he dismissed following a deadly crane collapse. Bull reluctantly takes the case for TAC because he owes Sherman a favor from a time when he and Benny tried one of their first cases. Bull asks Benny to trust him, not indicating that Benny himself would be affected if he declines Sherman's request. Bull, Chunk and the team try to argue that the charges against Sherman are politically motivated, given that the Attorney General bringing the case was set to run against Sherman for an open Senate seat. TAC and Sherman seem destined for defeat, until Benny appears as a last minute witness after a conversation he had with ADA Kiehl, the man who encouraged him to run for DA. Benny says that not only is he withdrawing from the DA race, but that Sherman should be returned to the DA position. Following a successful verdict, Bull arrives home to find Judge Rand, who presided over the case, waiting in his apartment. However, Rand is there to marry Bull and Izzy, in front of Benny and the TAC team.

## Recap

Benny was running for political office. He was campaigning to be the next District Attorney and so he was running for former District Attorney David Sherman’s position. However, Sherman was in trouble. He was facing charges in a corruption trial and he wanted Bull to represent him. He was even willing to threaten Bull into doing it. Sherman had given Bull a favor several years ago and he said that he could still file charges against both Bull and Benny for what this favor entailed. Sherman threatened Bull.

He also threatened Benny. Benny didn’t know about this favor and so it wasn’t his fault yet he could still be in trouble for it and so now Bull has to protect him. Bull agreed to represent Sherman. He had no other choice and he knew this might hurt Benny’s campaign. Benny was up in the polls. He was being looked at favorably by the city of New York and now this can hurt him.

People will look at Sherman’s case with questions. They all know that Benny still works for TAC and so they’ll connect Sherman with Benny. They will wonder if he condones the corrupt behavior that Sherman is guilty of. They will also say Benny is connected to the disgraced DA and so this could tank Benny’s campaign.

Benny later begged Bull not to take the case. Bull didn’t tell him why he was taking it but he said he had to and he was expecting Benny to trust him and Benny doesn’t. Benny and Bull were fighting. Benny has to face the media onslaught from the story and Izzy was helping him. They both agreed Benny should quit TAC. Izzy also thought she needed to put her wedding on hold and that wasn’t a threat. She just said there were so many signs of why now wasn’t the perfect time.

Benny resigning was a great thing. He went up in the polls by a point and so he and Izzy weren’t as mad at Bull as they could be. Only the wedding was still on pause. Izzy was going to need time before she was ready to marry Bull and it doesn’t help that he just expects her to trust him. Bull managed to tick off everyone in his close circle by agreeing to represent Sherman. Sherman was being accused of corruption.

He decided not to press charges against a crane owner whose crane crashed into a building and killed several individuals. Days after he refused to press charges, the crane owner donated a hundred thousand dollars to Sherman’s campaign. It was clear Sherman accepted a bribe. Sherman was the only one denying that and he resigned as District Attorney because he claimed he needed his hands free to fight the charges.

Sherman also believes his political enemy known as the Attorney General was coming after him because they were both considering a senatorial seat. It was the Attorney General who reviewed his case and investigated him. It was the Attorney General who found the donation. He was now using it against Sherman to sink Sherman’s political career and so Bull and Chunk had to fight the charges. After they were done with their first day, Bull “*hired”* Chunk to represent him.

He wanted client/attorney secrecy and once he got it he told Chunk the full story of what happened all those years ago. It seems TAC accidentally helped a murder escape the charges. The murder killed his wife and child and he admitted after he won his case that he did it to Benny. And Benny nearly beat him to death for it.

Benny didn’t think he had anything to worry about a man who admitted to murdering his family. Only the guy press charges and Bull had to go to Sherman to beg him to spare Benny. Sherman did. He made the assault case against Benny disappear and Benny’s career and profile continued to rise. Things were different now because Sherman needed something. He held what he had over Benny’s head to get Bull to represent him and now they were facing a trial they could not win.

Sherman looked guilty. It also didn’t matter why his political foes opened an investigation into him as long as that investigation found something. Which it did. Sherman took a meeting with someone he shouldn’t have and he agreed not to press charges based on the conversation between them. And then days later, this person donates a hundred thousand to his campaign.

Bull and his team’s defense was that this a witch hunt. They were accusing the Attorney General of purposely setting up Sherman and this defense was helped by the fact one of Sherman’s deputies donated money to the Attorney General’s senate race. The guy who donated was ADA Kenneth Kiel. Kiel was the person who approached Benny about running for DA and so Chunk later called for Benny on the stand. He questioned Benny.

He asked him about Kiel and Benny revealed a private conversation with Kiel. Kiel bragged about getting Sherman out of the way. He said Sherman was too good and that he got in the way of all the money they could collect. Benny repeated this conversation. He also said he was dropping out of the race for DA and that he was actually going to run for Sherman’s readmittance as District Attorney.

The jury found Sherman not guilty. He later thanked Benny for helping him get off and Benny thanked him for that favor years ago. He found out about the favor from Chunk and that’s what convinced him to drop out of the race. And speaking of the race, the Attorney General is trying to distance himself from the conspiracy and so he’s filing charges against Kiel and others like him who betrayed Sherman to get him out of office.

Benny will go back to his position at TAC. His sister Izzy arranged for a surprise wedding with a judge and so she and Bull were married like planned and their loved ones got to be there for it.

## Cast

### Main

* Michael Weatherly as Dr. Jason Bull
* Freddy Rodriguez as Benjamin Colón
* Geneva Carr as Marissa Morgan
* Christopher Jackson as Chunk Palmer
* Jaime Lee Kirchner as Danielle James
* MacKenzie Meehan as Taylor Rentzel
* Yara Martinez as Isabella Colón

### Guest

* David Wilson Barnes as David Sherman
* Christopher Braden as State Investigator Jack Martel
* Michelle Wilson as AAG Gina West
* Joe Grifasi as Judge Arlen Rand
* Kenita R. Miller as Juror #4/Elaine Yarsborough
* Chris Blisset as Juror #17/Jim Sorkin

## Trivia

* Shortly after the episode aired, it was revealed that Freddy Rodriguez was leaving with his last appearance in the following episode.
* Eric Stoltz who is the actor and director starred in an early season 5 episode.

## Quotes

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