So Help Me Todd season 2 episode 2 opens with a flustered Margaret (Marcia Gay Harden) making her way through the crowded halls of the judicial building. Todd (Skylar Astin) is also there, but he's much less flustered. There's a montage showing nearly everyone from the law firm in different courtrooms on different cases.
Margaret is defending Lila Hogan (Christin Park) and her husband Nate, who are accused of murder. Todd is a witness in the case Beverly (Leslie Silva) is trying against Gus (Jeffrey Nording), where his client, Lavender Kirk, is suing her client Rollie Biondi (Michael Q. Adams) for $9 million. Allison (Madeline Wise) is in traffic court defending herself in front of Judge Hudson (David Diamond) against 10 traffic tickets she received.
Judge Hudson tells Allison she needs to pay her fines by the end of the day or have her license suspended. Margaret, arguing her case against District Attorney Boatman, loses her motion for dismissal. Todd, meanwhile, is flitting around the courthouse giving out his business cards trying to drum up clients.
A surprise substitution
Margaret's clients, Lila and Nate, are on trial for killing a restaurant manager (Andrea Rosolia) after an argument at his restaurant. The prosecution says they returned that night and set the restaurant on fire, killing the manager. Margaret argues the DA only has circumstantial evidence, but her argument isn't enough to get the case dismissed.
Judge Jacob Frontera wants to start the trial immediately, but a juror has gone missing. The bailiff finds the missing juror (Marnie Mahannah) and the judge gives a quick recess because she has been a victim of identity theft and needs time to sort out her personal affairs.
As Margaret returns to the courtroom and starts to talk strategy with Susan (Inga Schlingmann), attorney Barton Perry walks in and announces a motion to change counsel. He says he now represents Lila and he presents a motion to sever the trial so that Lila and Nathan can be tried separately. This is a total surprise to Margaret and blows her strategy apart. The judge grants the motions and tells Margaret to be ready to start Nate's trial in 20 minutes.
While trying to figure out a new strategy, Margaret and Susan wonder if one of the couple really did set the fire and the other is covering for that person. Susan tries to interject some of her ideas, but Margaret isn't interested. When the trial starts Margaret tries to implicate Lila as the person who set the fire.
But Lila’s new lawyer throws a wrench in that plan by asking to put a new witness on the stand. The DA tells the judge that the witness will say they heard Nate threaten the restaurant manager. Margaret asks for an immediate mistrial because the DA has tainted the jury by telling them what the witness would say. But no luck, the trial will continue.
Todd sees a pattern
In the Lavender Kirk case, Gus argues that Lavender's child was traumatized by Rollie Biondi's puppets at the child's birthday party when one of the puppets shoved cake in the child's face. Beverly puts Allison on the stand as a medical expert to refute the claim.
Beverly's case ends in a mistrial, and Beverly uses the opportunity to pitch her firm's services to Lavender Kirk.
While walking around the courthouse Todd hears jurors talking about being the victims of identity theft. He starts to wonder if there is a thief in the courthouse stealing people's financial information. When a juror in Beverly's trial asks for a recess because she received a notice of fraud from her bank, Todd knows he's on to something.
Todd figures out that a security guard at the juror's entrance is skimming information from the smart watches of jurors as they sign in by sending Allison in as a decoy juror.
During recesses, Margaret shares a sandwich with Gus and tries to figure out her next move defending Nathan. They talk about their exes and what happened in their marriages. Beverly appears, and Gus leaves. Beverly reminds Margaret that she needs to win the case.
Margaret gets the truth
When Margaret's trial starts up again, the DA introduces a recording authenticated by Lila of Nate confessing to setting the fire. When Margaret confronts Nate he says Lila set the fire, but she's setting him up. He explains the recording was him trying to tell her what to say to the police while they were in their hot tub. Margaret asks how Lila could have recorded him if they were in the hot tub. Nathan says Lila must have used her smart watch.
Margaret tells Todd they need to get the security guard's skimmer so they can get the entire audio file from Lila's smartwatch before she takes the stand. Together, Todd and Margaret manage to get the skimmer from the security guard, but it needs to have contact with Lila's watch to get the file. Todd uses a puppet from Beverly's trial to get access to Lila's watch.
The photos on Lila's watch show her in Mexico with the restaurant manager a few weeks before the fire; they were having an affair. But they can't use the file in the trial because of how they got it. Instead, Margaret uses travel records and other information to set Lila and Nate against each other when Lila is on the stand.
After an exciting afternoon in court, Margaret's client takes a plea for covering up the murder, while Lila is charged with first degree murder.
New episodes of So Help Me Todd air Thursdays on CBS and are available to stream on-demand the next day on Paramount Plus.
