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The Lost Turnabout
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Maggey Byrde
A-amnesia!? I can't believe my lawyer's trying to defend me in such a state...

Episode 1: The Lost Turnabout is the introductory and tutorial episode of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All. As with all the introductory episodes, this episode only consists of a trial and has no investigation sections. In this episode, an amnesiac Phoenix Wright must defend unlucky police officer Maggey Byrde, accused of murdering a fellow policeman, Dustin Prince, while dealing with a highly egotistical witness.

Prologue[]

Rich vs Nick

Incoming amnesia...

Phoenix Wright was having a nightmare in which he was running away from someone. A voice stopped him and said, "You can't run away forever, Mr. Phoenix Wright!" The voice turned out to be from the judge, appearing as a tall, menacing giant with glowing red eyes, while Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" played in the background. The nightmare ended with the judge crushing Wright with a gavel for being "no longer worthy of [his] title". Wright woke up, believing that the ringtone on a cell phone had caused the nightmare. Suddenly, Wright was knocked out with a fire extinguisher by an unknown figure with a golden fringe.

Trial[]

???
Ah, good. I finally found it. Talk about a close call. I hate to do this to you, but... It's nothing personal... Mr. Attorney.

Former session[]

Wright regained consciousness, but he felt a little foggy in the head. At that moment, he was greeted by a policewoman. He discovered that she was actually his client, and that her trial would be starting soon. However, Wright had no recollection of ever taking a murder trial, or what his own name was, or even having ever been a lawyer. Nonetheless, the trial began, with only prosecutor Winston Payne addressing the judge. When asked if he was ready, Wright tried to say that his memory was foggy, but the judge would not accept his excuses.

Dead Dustin

The crime scene.

Payne addressed the court and Wright learned that his client, Maggey Byrde, had been accused of killing her lover, a fellow police officer. After informing Wright that he would not show him any mercy this time, Payne called Detective Dick Gumshoe to the stand. Gumshoe testified that the murder had occurred at a local park and that the victim was Dustin Prince, a policeman and, according to both Gumshoe and Payne, Byrde's lover. He had been pushed down from the benches on the upper path and his landing had bruised his body and snapped his neck. His time of death could also be accurately verified as Prince's watch had stopped at the exact moment of his landing. Payne then moved on to submit a photograph of the corpse and its surroundings into the court record.

Broken glasses

The broken glasses.

At this point, the judge recalled that an important piece of evidence had been brought to light during the preliminary hearing the previous day. Wright could not remember what the judge was referring to but, acting upon a suggestion from Byrde, he checked through his notes and noticed a pair of broken glasses. Gumshoe informed the court that the glasses belonged to Prince's killer; he had grabbed and held onto them as he fell. Wright noticed that Byrde wore glasses but she protested that although the ones she had on were her spare pair, the broken glasses were not hers. It had merely been a coincidence that she had broken her usual pair on the same day.

Payne then added that in addition to the glasses, there was more decisive evidence. The judge ordered Gumshoe to testify on the murder; before Prince died, he had managed to write his attacker's name on the ground when he had landed. A photograph was then presented to the court; the word "Maggie" could clearly be seen scrawled on the ground, seemingly written by the victim as he died. The judge allowed Wright an opportunity for his cross examination of the witness.

Dead Dustin 2

A message from the victim?

Wright could not remember what a cross-examination was but, according to Byrde, all he had to do was expose a contradiction in Gumshoe's testimony. Examining the photo again, he realized that although the name "Maggie" had been written, Byrde's forename was actually spelled "Maggey". Payne argued that perhaps Prince had not known the correct spelling of her name but Wright reminded him of his earlier claim that the defendant and the victim had been lovers, making this next to impossible. The judge inquired whether it was absolutely certain that the two had been lovers, and Payne was forced to admit that the two had been a well known couple in the police force. Gumshoe was then asked to testify further about what he knew about the relationship.

Baseball glove

Prince's baseball glove.

Gumshoe revealed that the two had been dating for about half a year and had gotten extremely close, even talking about marriage. The day of the murder had been Prince's birthday and Byrde had bought him a special present. Gumshoe knew about this because Byrde had come to him to ask for suggestions on what present she could buy. The present had been a special baseball glove, custom ordered two months previously, which Gumshoe presented to the court. The glove was bright yellow, which Gumshoe noted had been Prince's favorite color.

Satisfied with this evidence of the relationship, the judge then asked whether "Maggie" had really been written by Prince. Payne was unsure of this fact now and asked Gumshoe to testify further about what had been discovered about the name on the ground. Gumshoe revealed that it could not be confirmed that the handwriting was in Prince's style. However, sand had been discovered under his pointer finger's fingernail in addition to scratches on his finger caused by writing on the ground. From this, it could be concluded that Prince had written the word with his right hand.

Byrde informed Wright that she had gone through much trouble to get Prince's baseball glove, which Wright noticed was designed for a left-handed person. Arguing that a left-handed person would not have written a message with their right hand, Wright presented this contradiction to the court, reasoning that someone else must have written the name with Prince's finger. The judge agreed with his conclusion and was now ready to declare Byrde not guilty, but Payne interrupted, declaring his intention to present an eyewitness to the murder. The judge agreed to hear this witness' testimony but not immediately; there would be a short recess first.

Latter session[]

In the defendant lobby, Wright finally explained to Byrde that he was suffering from amnesia. Byrde was in disbelief but he told her not to worry. Firstly, though, he needed to figure out a few things about himself. Byrde gave him a business card that he had given her, with his cell phone number written on the back. Wright then asked her to tell him anything that she thought would be helpful to the current case.

Byrd and Prince

Byrde and Prince finding the cell phone.

Byrde could not think of anything important, except the "incident with the cell phone". Inquiring further, Wright learned that on the day of the crime, she had been walking in the park with Prince when she found a cell phone that someone had dropped. The owner had called it and she had given the caller her name and promised to meet them in order to return the item, but the person had never shown up. Wright asked where the phone was now and was informed that Byrde had given it to him yesterday. Producing a phone from his pocket, he asked her if she thought it had anything to do with the murder. She did not know, but remembered that his eyes had lit up when they had talked about it the day before.

At this point, Maya Fey interrupted them (although Wright did not yet remember her). She was angry since she had phoned Wright several times with no reply. She then told Byrde not to worry about her case and presented Wright with a list, containing some names and phone numbers that apparently belonged to a group of con artists that the police were currently investigating, which Wright had supposedly asked her to look up. The numbers had been found in the memory of the phone that was currently in his possession. Before Byrde could explain that Wright was suffering memory loss, court was called back into session. However, Wright was now confident that he had all the pieces of the puzzle.

Park false flashback

What happened according to Wellington.

In court, Payne called the witness to the stand. He gave his name as Richard Wellington, and it quickly became evident that he was quite vain and self-absorbed. The judge ordered him to give his testimony. Wellington testified that he had been in the park that day around 6 p.m. when a police officer had suddenly fallen from a height in front of him. Looking up, he had seen Byrde's face. The only other thing he had seen was a banana that had fallen with the police officer. Wright's memory was slowly beginning to return to him at this point and he remembered that he had to believe in his client. If Maggey Byrde was innocent, then there was only one explanation for Wellington's testimony: he was lying.

Wright began his cross-examination. He inquired further as to the banana that Wellington had mentioned. Wellington stated that it was actually more like a bunch of bananas rather than one. Fey told Wright that Byrde had never mentioned anything about bananas and that Wellington must have been lying during his testimony. However, Wright thought that there was no reason for him to lie about that and that he must simply have been confused. Presenting the baseball glove to the court as Wellington's "bananas", he reasoned that they were thought to have been bananas for one reason: Wellington had bad eyesight.

Wellington admitted that he did not have perfect vision, which was the reason he had misidentified the glove. The judge then asked him why he was currently not wearing any glasses and the witness explained that he had recently lost them and had not yet had the time to acquire a new pair. Wright asked him if he was wearing them when he witnessed the incident. Wellington would not admit that he had not been and Wright used the opportunity to suggest that it was, therefore, not conclusive that the woman he had seen at the crime scene was Maggey Byrde. Payne objected that the height difference was only nine feet and it was therefore quite probable that he had been able to see her face clearly, despite his lack of glasses. The judge was unsure of what to think and asked that Wellington be more accurate in his testimony; after all, a person's life was in the balance.

Wellington testified further that he had indeed seen the woman on the upper path but she had run away upon realizing Wellington was there. He then claimed to have phoned the police “immediately” after witnessing the crime, stating the time of his call to have been around 6:45 p.m. He also credited the police with arriving within ten minutes of the phone call. However, Wright presented Prince's autopsy report, which stated that his death had occurred at 6:28 p.m, over 15 minutes before the call to police. Payne suggested that he had been dazed after witnessing the murder, but neither Wright nor the judge was convinced that he could have been dazed for 15 minutes. Wellington hesitantly replied that he had been searching for a phone booth, as he had lost his cell phone. Remembering the lost cell phone that Byrde had given him, Wright wondered if it was the same phone that Wellington had lost. However, Wellington produced a phone of his own, mentioning that he had found it in the end after all.

Wright objected to Wellington’s claim of searching for a phone booth; presenting the first photo of Prince's corpse, he demanded to know why Wellington had not used the phone that was merely three steps away. At this, Wellington spluttered; he did not have a believable reply. Fey believed that he had been searching for his phone during the time gap but Wright did not believe this was the case. There was something else that Wellington had lost and needed to find immediately: his glasses.

Wellington indeed recognized the broken glasses that Wright swiftly presented but quickly tried to correct himself and so would not confess that they were his. Nonetheless, Wright pressed on, stating that Prince had grabbed the glasses from his killer as he fell. The killer knew that he had to find the glasses as soon as possible to avoid incriminating himself, but he had not realized that the glasses were underneath the body. Wright then explained the real reason for the time gap: Wellington was the real killer and his unsuccessful search for his glasses had lasted fifteen minutes.

Payne objected that there was no proof for Wright's accusation. Wright was unfazed and demanded to hear Wellington's explanation. Wellington stated that Prince had written his killer's name, but it had already been proven that this was not written by Prince himself but that his hand had been used for the writing. Wright accused Wellington of setting up the crime scene, but Wellington replied that he did not even know Maggey Byrde's name until today. The judge agreed, but Wright thought back to what Byrde had told him had occurred on that day.

Presenting the cell phone to the court, Wright explained that on the day of the murder, Byrde had found a lost cell phone and then received a phone call from its owner. It was then that she had informed the caller of her name, Maggey; this was how Wellington knew her name but not its spelling. Payne retorted that Wellington had no motive, but Wright produced the list that Fey had given him during the recess, informing the court that the numbers were of members of a con artist group and had come from the memory of the phone that Byrde had found: Wellington's phone. The numbers were on his phone because he was a member of the group himself.

Payne pointed out that Wellington still would not have any reason to kill Prince as all he had to do was meet with Byrde and collect his phone. Wright countered that, on that day, Byrde, dressed in civilian’s clothes, had met up with Dustin Prince immediately after his shift at the police station ended. As such, Prince had still been in his police officer's uniform, having had no time to change. Wellington, on his way to collect the phone, had seen Byrde and Prince together and came to the wrong conclusion that she had shown a police officer the phone and its contents. He was afraid that the policeman would ask a few questions before returning the phone. This was why he had panicked and murdered Prince.

Suddenly, Wellington burst into laughter. He admitted that it was an impressive theory but that there was no way to prove that the phone that had been shown to the court belonged to him at all. Wright suggested that all they had to do was dust for fingerprints on the phone, but at this, Fey reminded him that when he had received the phone, he had wiped it completely clean as it had been covered with sand. Wellington continued to laugh and added that the numbers on the phone he had with him had "magically" been wiped, so it would not be possible to cross check any numbers on his phone's memory with those on Wright's list.

Wellington Breakdown 2

Wellington breaks down.

Wright was now in a tight spot. He pleaded for another chance to prove that the phone belonged to Wellington, which the judge granted. Remembering the business card that Byrde had given him earlier, Wright showed it to the court, pointing out the number that had been written on the back. He then asked Fey to phone the number. She did not completely understand Wright’s logic, but she complied. The phone in Wellington's possession then began to ring. Wright, his memory coming back to him, explained that Wellington had attacked him earlier in the morning in order to retrieve the cell phone that would incriminate him. However, he had accidentally taken Wright's phone instead. Wellington knew now that he had finally been discovered. He pulled on his scarf so tightly that he throttled himself, turning blue and passing out.

After Wellington was taken away, Payne inquired to whom the phone Wright had in his possession belonged. Wright responded that it obviously belonged to Wellington. The judge was now satisfied that the case was solved and declared Maggey Byrde "not guilty".

Epilogue[]

In the defendant lobby, Byrde thanked Wright for everything he had done but blamed herself for Prince's death. She told Wright and Fey that she had always been unlucky in life since she was a child, but Fey consoled her, saying that she knew that eventually her luck would change. Byrde thanked her for her kind words and took her leave.

Meanwhile, Wright's memory had almost fully returned to him but he did not yet remember who Fey was. However, after asking her (to her shock and annoyance), his memory finally returned to him. He began to remember Detective Gumshoe, the judge, and finally Fey, although he was still unsure as to who Payne was (despite being Wright’s first opponent in court, he was rather forgettable). Unfortunately, Wellington had erased the numbers on Wright's cell phone, so it seemed like he would have to start over. His thoughts then returned to Fey and he remembered that it hadn't even been two months since she had returned into his life, and that story began on one rainy afternoon, two months ago...

Development[]

  • Wright's nightmare in the beginning of this episode was inspired by a similar opening in Devil May Cry. The judge in the dream was originally a demon.[1] The nightmare is shown again in Farewell, My Turnabout.
  • This episode is the only one from Justice For All that occurs in the second season of the anime, rather than the first.
  • Byrde can be seen wearing a Blue Badger hoodie in the flashbacks of her with Prince at Exposé Park. Since Rise from the Ashes was added for the Nintendo DS re-releases of the games, this would be the first appearance of the Blue Badger as the police department's official mascot in the original Game Boy Advance versions.

Differences in the anime adaptation[]

Main article: Gyakuten Saiban: Sono “Shinjitsu”, Igiari!
  • Wright reveals to Maggey that he has amnesia during the first part of the trial instead of the recess.
  • Wright first notices that Maggey's name is spelled different from the photo by looking at her name tag instead of the court record.
  • Maya does not arrive until the middle of the second part of the trial.
  • Wright asks Maya to call his phone instead of the judge.

References to other cases[]

  • At the start of the trial, Winston Payne states that "It's been a while, Mr. Wright. Let's see what you've learned since last time. I won't show you any mercy this time, rookie!" The case Payne is referring to is The First Turnabout, the first episode of the previous game.

References in other media[]

  • In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, one of Phoenix Wright's Hyper Combos, "Order in the Court", references Wright's nightmare at the start of this episode. In said move, a gigantic version of the judge smashes his gavel onto Wright and his opponent, in a similar manner to the "nightmare judge".

Typos, errors, and other oddities[]

  • When Fey is first explaining to Wright about finding an inaccuracy, he states "Yeah, that's exactly what we need do", instead of "Yeah, that's exactly what we need to do". This was corrected for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy.
  • When Wright regains his memory of Fey, she says "You keep starting at me! Don't tell me you've missed me!", with "staring" being misspelled as "starting". This was also corrected for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy.
  • When presenting the photo that shows a phone booth next to the crime scene, Wright says, "All the defendant had to do was walk three steps", incorrectly referring to Wellington as the defendant, rather than the witness.
  • The player actually learns Maggey Byrde's surname before she is formally introduced. The tag on her speech boxes during her initial conversation with Wright at first reads "???" but changes to Byrde soon after.
  • Prince's autopsy report states that the cause of death was a broken neck, which usually (but not always) results in paralysis from the neck down. If this was the case, he shouldn't have been able to write any dying message, yet Phoenix Wright does not point this out, nor does Winston Payne explain it.
  • After the first chapter, Dick Gumshoe's profile is removed from the court record for some reason.
  • Upon receiving the Names List from Maya, the court record states that it was received from Maya Fey, despite the fact that Phoenix has forgotten her last name.
  • Upon Maya's arrival during the recess, she gets angry at Phoenix stating that she has phoned him several times with no reply (which could be seen as yet another clue about the phones exchange performed by Wellington). However, this would mean that Wellington, who had stolen Phoenix's phone, would have noticed Maya's calls, therefore realizing his mistake; even if he had indeed wiped out all of the phone's numbers, the different ringtone should've been enough to tip him off. While it is possible that Wellington was aware of this by the time Phoenix asks the Judge to call his phone and was just feigning ignorance, it remains odd that he didn't just turn the phone off for good measure.

Miscellaneous[]

  • This is the only episode in which Payne calls the detective in charge of the case as a witness. Usually, he calls actual witnesses of the crime without the detective's description.
  • This is the first case in which an "Cross-Examination ~ Allegro" theme is used for the cross examination of one of Detective Gumshoe's testimonies.
  • The Lost Turnabout is the only introductory/tutorial episode in the Ace Attorney core series to date in which the defendant does not take the stand to testify.
  • In the unofficial Brazilian Portuguese fan localization, the Crime photo 1 was edited and shows an orelhão instead of a phone booth.
    AA2 Ep 1 - Crime Scene 1 in Brazilian Portuguese version

    The Crime Scene with an Orelhão (from the Brazilian Portuguese version)

Other languages[]

  • Chinese - 失去的逆轉 (Shīqǜ ·de Nìzhuǎn; lit. "The Lost Turnabout")
  • Portuguese - A Reviravolta Esquecida (lit. "The Forgotten Turnabout")
  • Russian - Потерянное дело (lit. "The Lost Case")

References[]

  1. Hsu, Janet (2014-10-31). Ace Attorney Trilogy - Surprising Tidbits You Never Knew! Capcom Unity. Retrieved on 2014-11-02.
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