There were many characters in The Lincoln Lawyer who couldn’t be classified right or wrong, and ex-LAPD Neil Bishop was one of them. The man definitely had a conscience, but circumstances forced him to do something, to side with certain notorious elements of society that set him down the wrong path.
Spoiler Alert
Bishop met DEA agent James De Marco around 10 years back when the latter approached him out of nowhere and offered him a deal. Bishop wanted to do good, but things didn’t turn out the way he would have liked, and because of that, he didn’t have a very good reputation in his own department. At that time, Bishop was in charge of a murder case that happened on Montgomery Avenue. De Marco came to meet with respect to that case, and he asked him to not go after the perpetrators and let the case remain unsolved. Marco told him that there were some really powerful people who were ready to pay a lot of money if he played along. De Marco offered Bishop a huge sum of money in return for doing what he told him. Bishop firstly wanted that money, and secondly, he also knew that going against a person like Marco was not the wisest thing to do. On the face of it, Marco made an offer, but I personally do not think that Bishop had much of a choice. Also, Bishop had separated from his wife, and he wanted custody of his son desperately. He knew that he could use that sum of money to fight the legal battle with his wife. Bishop took the money, and that act of conspiring together with Marco sealed his fate. Bishop became Marco’s pawn after that day, and the latter made sure that he made him do all sorts of illegal things for him.
Just before Bishop met Marco, he had met Mickey Haller during a trial. Haller was handling the case of a gangster named Mr. Woodson at that time. Woodson had been arrested by Bishop, who was also the lead investigator on the case. Bishop wanted Woodson to be sent behind bars, not only because he was a criminal, and he had committed the crime in question but also because Bishop’s reputation was at stake. A conviction meant that Bishop could rise in the ranks and prove his mettle to his own superiors. But Mickey, as usual, resorted to all sorts of shrewd tactics, and he made sure that his client was not sent to jail. Things went downhill for Bishop after that, professionally, and the man could never recover from that debacle. Marco met Bishop at a point in time when the latter was in a very vulnerable state. Marco hatched a plan to put Hector Moya behind bars. Hector was a dangerous man, and criminals like him needed to be put behind bars, but Marco’s motives were very different. Marco was a member of Moya’s rival gang, and he used his powers to make sure that each and every member of the Tijuana cartel was either killed or put behind bars. Marco asked Bishop to keep track of Gloria Dayton, aka Glory Days’ movements, as he knew that Hector Moya would try to contact her at some point in time and ask her to testify for him. Marco had framed Moya, and he had made sure that Moya was given a life sentence. Even Mickey was deceived by Marco, and for the longest time, he was under the impression that the mafia boss was the one behind her murder. Bishop did what he was told, though, being a prudent man, he knew that Marco could go to extreme lengths and murder Gloria. The inevitable happened: Marco ended up killing Gloria after she was served a subpoena by Hector Moya. Marco wanted to tie up all loose ends, and he did what was needed. Gloria’s death impacted Bishop, and though he chose to stay quiet and follow orders, there was a fire raging inside him.
For the first time, Bishop probably felt that he was not a good man. He felt burdened with guilt, and all he needed was a nudge to speak the truth and testify against Marco. Mickey went and talked to Bishop in The Lincoln Lawyer season 3, and that gave the latter the push to do the right thing. Bishop was William Forsythe’s witness, but he defected at the very last moment. Bishop accepted that he was the one who was following Gloria Dayton on the orders of De Marco. He told the court that on the night of Gloria’s murder, Marco was the last person to visit, and according to his opinion, he was the one who had killed her. Bishop knew the consequences that confession was going to have on his life. He knew that the members of the Juarez cartel would hunt him down. He knew that staying alive would put the life of his son in jeopardy. Also, on a personal level, Bishop knew that he wouldn’t be able to cope with his guilt. So at the end of The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3, Bishop took out his gun and shot himself while sitting in the witness box. In his last moments, he looks at Mickey and tells him to tell his son that he is sorry. Mickey was devastated after that incident, as he didn’t even imagine that Bishop could take such a grave step. I believe that Bishop was not a bad man, but he made some wrong moves, got involved with people he shouldn’t have, and in the end, he went on a path from where he knew that he wouldn’t be able to return.
