School for Scandal

"**School for Scandal**" is the first episode of the second season and the twenty-fourth episode overall of the legal drama series *Bull*, which was aired on September 26, 2017.

## Summary

Kara Clayton shoots and kills her billionaire older husband Marcus after he refuses to revise the terms of their pre-nuptial agreement. Kara is charged with murder despite having three stab wounds and claiming self defense. Diana Lindsay is representing Kara and asks for Bull's help, but he tells her he has already agreed to represent Marcus' interests in the case. After correctly surmising that Kara's wounds were self-inflicted, Bull thinks he has outmaneuvered Diana in finding the perfect juror to serve as foreperson. But he later learns Diana has one-upped him when the perfect juror turns out to be from her home town of Callisto, Texas. To avoid a hung jury, Bull and his team must now find bulletproof evidence to win over the biased juror.

## Recap

The show opens with Kara and her husband arguing about their prenup. He refuses to renegotiate the agreement and then insults her. She stabs herself several times with a knife and when he grabs the knife from her hand she shoots him. Kara then calls 911 and reports that her husband tried to kill her. Bull joins the CEO of Clayton Communications and his board of directors. They offer him a job. Bull accepts and brings a check for ¼ of a million dollars to Marissa. She is unsure of his decision to work for the Clayton family to try to get a conviction of Kara for murder. She is surprised that Bull can be bought but he says for that much money he is willing to do almost anything.

Bull also tells Marissa that Diana is in town and wants to see him. The next scene is of Bull and Diana in bed. She asks him for a favor. She will be representing Kara and needs his help. She wants him on her team. Bull tells her he has already signed on to work with the other side. She is not happy and tells him she will see him in court. Bull and Marissa talk about getting ready for the Clayton family meeting as Christopher shows Bull his LSAT test scores. His scores are very good and he will be moving to Nashville to go to law school.

Bull asks Chris if he would be willing to stay and go to law school at night if he gives him a raise. Marissa tells him they just can’t afford it. Bull outlines his strategy to the clients. They interrupt him to say they would rather not go to trial and would be willing to push for the murder charges to be dropped if Kara would be will to take 500 million dollars to give any right she might have toward the Clayton family business. They offer Bull another 350 thousand if he can make the deal. Bull says he will get right on the negotiations.

Bull gets Diana on the phone but she keeps hanging up on him before he can make the offer. He finds her at her hotel but she continues to avoid him. He finally jumps into her limo and she is excited to hear the offer. They head to the hospital to tell Kara what the Clayton family is willing to offer. She tells Bull the company is work 6 billion and it will all be hers. There is no way she will take less. Bull and Diana leave and he tells Diana that Kara is lying about what really happened.

Bull meets with the Clayton family counsel and convince them to push the DA to press charges against Kara. He is sure she is lying and he knows he can prove it in court. If he wins they will pay him what they promised and offer a law school scholarship to the person of his choosing. They agree. Bull and his team start researching the backgrounds of the entire list of jurors. Under Bull’s guidance they question and pick the jury.

The trial starts with a great deal of press coverage. Kara is in wheeled into the courtroom with oxygen. The first witness describes the details of the prenuptial agreement and says that is Kara meet certain weekly, monthly and yearly sexually goals she would get more money for each year they remained married. The jury seems shocked and disgusted by this information. The jury is told if the couple had divorced today Kara would have received 16 million dollars.

The jury is then told that at Mr. Clayton’s death Kara would receive 6.65 billion. Marissa studies the jury and tells Bull they have 5 of the 12 juries on their side at the moment. The trial breaks for the night and Bull hears one of the jurors talking on the phone. He realizes she is from the same town as Diana and he thinks she is a plant. He knows he will now have to step up his game. He and Amy work through the night preparing to question Kara when she takes the stand. They realize that there were no finger prints on the gun that was used to kill Mr. Clayton.

Kara takes the stand and tells the jury that her husband was paranoid and was convinced she was having an affair. He called her into his study the night he died and wanted sex. She refused and he got very angry. He again accused her of cheating and reminded her of what the renup required her to do. He then got up from his desk and stabbed her. Bull’s attorney then asks Kara what he major was in college. She reports she was an anatomy major. He then asks her why her finger prints weren’t on the gun. He also tells her detectives found the remnants of gloves in her husband’s shredder in the office. The jury finds Kara guilty. Christopher receives a scholarship to law school. All of Bull’s employees get a raise.

## Cast

### Main

* Michael Weatherly as Dr. Jason Bull
* Freddy Rodriguez as Benjamin "Benny" Colón
* Geneva Carr as Marissa Morgan
* Jaime Lee Kirchner as Danielle "Danny" James
* Annabelle Attanasio as Cable McCrory
* Christopher Jackson as Chunk Palmer

### Guest

* Minka Kelly as Kara Clayton
* Brian Stokes Mitchell as Perry Sinclair
* Ronald Guttman as Marcus Clayton
* John Rue as George Donahue
* Richard Litt as Judge Brisbee
* Sarah Mack as Juror #39
* Kyle Bary as Receptionist
* Alex Landi as Juror #1

## Trivia

* In this episode, Brian Stokes Mitchell quips to Michael Weatherly about how he is tilting at windmills and calls him Dr. Quixote. In 2002, Mitchell portrayed the role of Don Quixote in the Broadway revival of *Man of La Mancha*.
* In the hospital and again in court, Kara Clayton says the stab wound in her chest missed her heart by only a centimeter. The stab wound was just under her collar bone, much farther away then 1 cm, more like 6 inches.

## Quotes

**Jason Bull**: I'm expecting our new clients in about a half hour. I have nothing for them. Bring them to the mock courtroom, make sure everybody's there.
**Marissa Morgan**: Got it. Yeah, I should warn you, Bull, Chunk's been looking for you all morning.
**Jason Bull**: What does he want?
**Marissa Morgan**: I don't know. But he's... dressed strangely.
**Jason Bull**: Really? How can you tell?
[cut to Bull entering his office; Chunk is waiting outside dressed in a three-piece suit]
**Jason Bull**: Who died?