Knowing that he’d be the obvious suspect, and believing that Barbara was the real killer, Rusty insidiously covered it up. Every speech he’d given about the privilege of his job and upholding justice was bitterly undercut. As an act of misdirection, he tied up Carolyn’s body to resemble a previous case they’d both prosecuted. From the start, he was planning to keep his wife safe but also create reasonable doubt for his own inevitable trial.

Rusty knowing Barbara was involved, and covering it up to protect his family, was a good twist on the original ending. It worked in the moment. Gyllenhaal had always pushed Rusty’s flaws to the fore, and this was the character laid bare. But even Rusty was shocked at how easily Barbara had moved on from the murder. “I didn’t know that you could kill someone and not even wobble,” he told her.

Except, she hadn’t. “I did,” announced Jaden, stepping into the garage to floor Rusty and devastate Barbara, who was still processing the fact that her husband believed she was a murderer. Like half the characters on the show, the high-schooler had gone to Carolyn’s house on the night she died to ask her father’s lover to leave the family alone. When Carolyn quite bluntly said she wanted out, but that the situation was complicated by her being pregnant with Rusty’s baby, Jaden snapped and picked up the fire poker.

In terms of surprises, it was initially shocking, but ultimately it was one too many. A show that makes you look back with a different perspective at the end can be satisfying, but another way of looking at it is that you were deceived all along. Certainly Jaden, who newcomer Infiniti played with a distant but deeply felt anguish, had her moments – particularly a conversation with Rusty about “disassociation” – but this was a left-field gambit.

The final 20 minutes, starting with the garage accusation and confession, had to carry an almighty load. “We will never speak of this,” Rusty announces, continuing the cover-up. “This is my doing,” he added, trying to shoulder Jaden’s burden. But the unspoken question was whether Jaden was simply acting like her father. Tommy Molto’s prosecution had repeatedly emphasised Rusty’s violent edge and callous actions. Were Jaden’s actions a matter of like father, like daughter?

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The final montage suggested a happy family after some time had elapsed, laughing at a Thanksgiving celebration before glances between Rusty and Barbara suggested that the unspoken horror of what had occurred would always be lurking. This was Rusty writ large: stoically doing what he believes is necessary in the face of a crisis instigated by his own selfishness.

Do we need another season of Sabich family recriminations to explore that? Absolutely not. Hopefully David E. Kelley has learnt the lesson from his flawed second season of Big Little Lies, which took that approach. Apple TV+ responding to the buzz around Presumed Innocent with the unexpected announcement of a second season is probably taking a page from The White Lotus. Limited series strikes gold, it gets brought back as an anthology.

Turow wrote other legal thrillers that involve supporting characters seen, or at least mentioned, in this season of Presumed Innocent. Let’s have more of the partnership between Tommy and his prickly boss, Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle, whose every sneer was amazing). But Rusty Sabich should be left to marinate in his failings. Presumed Innocent was watchable if flawed, but one thing it nailed was Rusty’s toxic underpinnings. The show rightly refused to redeem him.