Carolyn Polhemus is one of the central characters of the Apple TV+ streaming series Presumed Innocent. She is portrayed by Renate Reinsve.
Biography[]
Carolyn was once a respected prosecutor in the Kindle County area and is the center focus of the series' plot, where her murder is blamed on her former co-worker, Rusty Sabich.
Appearances[]
Bases Loaded[]
Raymond contacts Rusty to inform him of Carolyn's death. Rusty immediately visits her home, where he finds her corpse in a compromised position. Rusty is assigned the case by Raymond against Tommy and Nico's wishes. In his office, Rusty asks that Rigo find certain information that could be related to the case. At home, Rusty's wife Barbara talks about it with him.
The following day, Rusty, Raymond, Tommy, and Nico all attend Carolyn's memorial, where Rusty spots Carolyn's ex-husband Dalton and son, Michael. However, Dalton is not a suspect as he has an alibi exonerating him.
In a bar, Rusty and Raymond discuss a lead in Carolyn's case, and Rusty mentions Bunny Davis. That night, Rusty reviews crime scene pictures involving Carolyn's death. The next day, Rusty visits the coroner's workplace and is told off by one of the workers there when he tries asking for more information on Carolyn's death.
A flashback of when Carolyn was alive shows her prosecuting a case where Liam Reynolds had allegedly killed Bunny Davis. The case would be discussed between Tommy and Nico, where Tommy found a connection between them.
Eventually, Rusty and Rigo visit Liam in prison about the connection between him and Carolyn's death, but it gets them nowhere. Another flashback shows Carolyn almost attacked by Liam after he's convicted of the murder.
When Rusty visits Carolyn's ex, Dalton, at his house, he learns about his relationship with Carolyn, why they divorced, and that their son Michael holds a grudge against him and his deceased mother.
Back at the office, Rusty gets into an argument with Tommy over Rusty's case handling.
Eventually, the press would question Rusty outside the court concerning Carolyn's case, but he redirected the question to Raymond and how Nico's comments besmirched it.
That night, Barbara asks Rusty if he's working on Carolyn's case, which he indirectly confirms. This upsets Barbara, who mentions that his affair with Carolyn nearly ended their marriage.
During his appointment with his psychiatrist, Liz Rush, Rusty mentions his affair with Carolyn and how it affected his marriage with Barbara. As Rusty explains it, flashbacks between Carolyn and Rusty occur when he and Carolyn have an affair. Barbara later mentions to Carolyn that Rusty must stop loving her.
After Nico becomes the new district attorney, Carolyn's case is given to Tommy, who later questions Rusty about it and mentions that some of the evidence found raises some suspicions. One of them was Rusty's fingerprints found in her home, but also that she was pregnant when she died and wanted to know if he knew who the father was.
People vs. Rozat Sabich[]
Tommy questions Rusty about Carolyn's unborn child, and Rusty denies knowing how it is. Raymond and Raymond discuss it in his office. Raymond and his wife Lorraine "Lo" later discuss Carolyn's affair with Rusty. During one of Rusty's investigations of the Bunny case, a flashback is shown where Carolyn discovers evidence that compromises her case. Rusty later confronts a coroner over this, who flips him off.
At his home, Rusty is forced to reveal his affair with Carolyn to his children Kyle and Jaden. Both Barbara and Rusty would talk to Liz about his affair and how it would affect their marriage. Nico also mentioned Carolyn in a press conference he held about her.
Eventually, Rusty receives a call from Detective Stevens that the paternity test revealed that he was the father of Carolyn's unborn child and was arrested for her murder.
Discovery[]
Rusty receives a disturbing text where the sender claims they saw him at Carolyn's house on the night of the murder. Carolyn appears in a dream that Raymond, where Rusty kills her. She's mentioned in a conversation between Barabara and a bartender.
The next day, Carolyn's son Michael was revealed to have seen Rusty at her house. He claimed to have taken pictures and a video of the night in question and turned them into the DA's office.
After an unfortunate dinner with his family, Rusty recalls the night he talked with Carolyn when she was found dead. The next day after his pre-trial hearing, Mya asks Rusty if he has feelings for Carolyn. Her question is based on Raymond ordering her to form a narrative for the trial.
A flashback shows Carolyn talking to a little girl who was part of a sexual assault case and how it made him fall in love with her.
Rusty later visits Carolyn's home and has flashbacks of his interaction with her there. That night, Tommy listens to a voicemail message left by Rusty on Carolyn's phone and that same night, Rusty receives the photo evidence the prosecutors were holding.
The Burden[]
When confronted about why he rode his bike around Carolyn's house one night, Kyle admits that he knew about the affair between her and his father.
A flashback shows Carolyn practicing her opening argument about Bunny's case to Rusty.
Kyle's previous knowledge about Rusty's affair with Carolyn is told to Raymond by Rusty. When Dalton and Michael are summoned to talk about the photographic evidence that Michael had submitted to the case. Michael admits that he had lunch with her once, and she admitted she was angry at someone whom she had no choice but to see because she had cases with him.
Rusty has a nightmare about Carolyn which causes him to wake up one night.
Eventually, Rusty talks to Mya about what he did the night of Carolyn's murder.
On the day Raymond visited the DA's office to negotiate a plea deal, he was left floored to learn they had found incriminating evidence against Rusty. The evidence was they found Rusty's skin underneath his Carolyn's fingernails. Raymond later reports this finding to Rusty, who denies her ever even scratching him.
Pregame[]
As Rusty uses a treadmill, he thinks about Carolyn. Tommy thinks about a time when he confronted Carolyn about her not wanting to work with him.
Carolyn was featured on a newscast where the trial about her murder was set to start the next day, and Tommy mentioned her in his opening statement of the trial.
The Elements[]
Carolyn is mentioned several times throughout the court days when witnesses testify.
The Witness[]
Carolyn is mentioned several times in and out of the court proceedings and appears in a couple of flashbacks.
The Verdict[]
Carolyn appears in several flashbacks, is mentioned in both Rusty and Tommy's closing arguments, and it's revealed that Jaden killed her, and Rusty tried to cover it up.
Trivia[]
Gallery[]