Mickey’s personal conflicts have seen some similar beats across The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 arrives, he’s expected to be in jail accused of Sam’s murder, raising the stakes for his team to the highest level yet.

With Mickey in jail, the depiction of his non-work life and personal relationships will look very different from past seasons. As expected, The Lincoln Lawyer’s cast is changing as Mickey becomes the defendant rather than just the defense attorney. Neve Campbell’s Maggie is helping Mickey’s defense team, Constance Zimmer’s Dana Berg is ing as the case’s ruthless prosecutor, and Yaya DaCosta’s Andrea Freeman is exiting The Lincoln Lawyer altogether. Though disappointing after her romance with Mickey, Andy’s exit makes sense with the new legal and personal dynamics, and hopefully means season 4 will avoid unnecessarily repeating a Mickey story trend.

Mickey Shouldn't Have A New Romantic Interest In The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4

Mickey's Season 4 Story Should Focus On His Established Relationships

When The Lincoln Lawyer season 3 revealed that Mickey and Andy were romantically involved, it seemed like that relationship had the potential to be endgame – if the show chose to avoid a reconciliation with Maggie, of course. However, with Andy’s exit ahead of The Lincoln Lawyer season 4, that’s clearly no longer the case. Since Andy’s relationship with Mickey wasn’t part of Michael Connelly’s book series, the question now remains of how season 4 will proceed with his romantic life after their implied breakup.

With Mickey being a strong romantic, The Lincoln Lawyer has given him a new significant other in each season so far. In season 1, his primary love interest was his first ex-wife, Maggie Mherson, who the showrunners have described as the love of his life. However, with Maggie leaving for San Diego in season 2, Mickey’s main romantic interest became his client, Lisa Trammell – which certainly didn’t end well after he realized she was guilty of murdering her husband. Subsequently, season 3 saw him enter into an unexpected romance with his legal rival Andy Freeman.

This outing doesn’t have enough narrative space in Mickey’s journey to introduce a brand-new love interest.

While Mickey’s new romantic interests each season made sense given the freedom of his personal life, it would be a great understatement to note that circumstances are incredibly different in season 4. Mickey no longer has time for a new love interest in The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 – he’s fighting for his life as he faces charges for murder, putting into perspective all of his choices and his existing relationships with his friends, family, former clients, and former adversaries.

With Andy gone, it seems The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 is rightly setting aside any budding romances for Mickey, instead focusing on a deeper reflection of his history and a more worrying look at his future. Though it seems inevitable that there will be some romantic elements to Mickey’s story due to Neve Campbell’s Maggie returning for all 10 episodes of season 4, this outing doesn’t have enough narrative space in Mickey’s journey to introduce a brand-new love interest.

The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4 Needs To Continue Mickey & Maggie's Reconciliation Story

Maggie's Return Will Further Their Will-They-Won't-They Story

Rather than potentially pairing Mickey with a new love interest, The Lincoln Lawyer season 4’s romantic story has to focus on Mickey’s established relationship with Maggie. The flashbacks of Mickey and Maggie in The Lincoln Lawyer season 3 reiterated that she’s the love of his life, and his arrest and grim charges are bound to put his life and love priorities into perspective. Knowing Mickey, he’ll realize that Maggie and Hayley are his greatest priority, and that it’s time he finally makes it work to reconcile with Maggie. Of course, that’ll require putting her over his career.

Netflix has yet to announce the release date for The Lincoln Lawyer season 4.

Other than the fact that he’s facing murder charges with the death penalty on the table, one obstacle that stands in the way of their reconciliation in season 4 is Maggie’s new boyfriend, the orthopedic surgeon Jack Gilroy. Mickey’s jealousy will doubtlessly be high seeing Maggie and Jack together, and he’ll have to it whether Maggie may be better off staying in her current relationship. The complexities of that relationship have been a throughline for every season of The Lincoln Lawyer, which will only become more intense and exacerbated under Mickey’s new life-or-death circumstances.