When Paulette's describing what happened to everyone in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, she mentions that Emmett was Callahan's wife's attorney for their divorce. This is nice and karmic for Callahan, and nice for Emmett to get his revenge… but then you realize that a divorce case for the wife of a man who owns a billion-dollar law firm would be a pretty lucrative trial. His mom probably got the big house on the cape!
In the beginning, when the girls sing "What You Want", Elle relays her plan to the girls.
Step 1: He's off to Harvard Law, so I get in there too
Step 2: Make Warner reassess, impress him with my high IQ
Step 3: We throw a great big wedding, and invite all Delta Nu
Her plan doesn't come true the way she thinks it will, but the way she worded it, all of those things do end up happening. Step 1 happens at the end of the song, Step 2 happens at the end of the show, after she's realized she doesn't need Warner, and Step 3 is implied to happen after The Finale... between Elle and Emmett.
The way that Elle gives a convincing verse to the administrator is not completely nonsense. Although the banner and emphasis on love is cheesy, some of the lyrics demonstrate that Elle's emotional nature does not negate her intelligence and that she has plenty of ambition and motivation to get through law school. Both of those topics would be compelling in an essay on their own.
Further proof that Warner is not qualified for Harvard Law: during the party scene, Vivienne is planning extensively on how to pass classes and get connections for reference letters while the only thing he says is "I'm gonna go get a beer."
The announcement that Vivienne is "training for the Peace Corps" at the end seems to come out of the blue — until you remember that toward the beginning of the musical, another character had already done a stint in the Peace Corps. And who was that character? Enid! This is probably not a coincidence, considering that they seem to become friends during the Wyndham trial and are at the salon together at the start of "Legally Blonde: Reprise".
"Take It Like A Man" has a lot of clues about how Emmett is falling for Elle, but there's one quite subtle one. Elle sings "Think of the guy you want most to be" as Emmett changes into the clothes. Who do they both conclude he ends up looking like? Warner, who Emmett knows Elle is/was in love with. Even more than that when you watch the MTV broadcast of that song, pay close attention to the acting for the song. Elle smiles goofily when Emmet states he looks like Warner, but when he states that he's just himself, her expression shifts as though she's just had a realization before she agrees with him and admits that she doesn't want the person he is inside to change.
In the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, Paulette says that she and Kyle have two kids and one more on the way. Considering that the timeline from Elle arriving at Harvard to graduation is three years, the children would have had to have been conceived relatively quickly after the one before was born. And what is it colloquially called when siblings are born 10 months apart? That's right: Irish twins.
It's also possible that the two older kids are literal twins. For that matter, it could be both — a pair of twins and then a third kid conceived shortly after they were born (Irish triplets?).
Paulette describes herself as “middle-aged” so it’s likely they had to use fertility treatments to get pregnant, which is correlated with multiple births.
In the "Gay or European?" sequence, nobody ever seems to suggest that maybe the dude is bi. Sure, they use the fact that he has a boyfriend to confirm he's into dudes, but it's not unheard of for bisexuals to be dating one gender and have affairs with the other.
Well, his boyfriend Carlos has the line "I swear he never ever ever swing the other way!" so that may have been their way of covering it.
And the reason Elle thought he was gay to begin with is that he didn't react to the bend and snap. Which still doesn't prove anything (it's only 99% effective, after all), but that supports her hypothesis that he's not interested in women.
Also, the Camp Gay stereotypes that the sequence is based on aren't generally attributed to bisexuals.
And the case hinged not on proving that he was attracted to men, but that he wasn't attracted to women - therefore proving that he couldn't have had the affair with Brooke. Him being bisexual wouldn't have served the purpose of the plot.
The musical covers this base by having Elle establish — he doesn't react at all to the famous Bend n' Snap, therefore, he's not into women.
It also flustered him and made his word seem less trustworthy. Yeah, he could be bisexual and having an affair with a woman, but it would seem that he would mention in his testimony that he had a boyfriend during said affair.
Because it wasn't the defense lawyers' job to theorize about him being bi; they had to prove that he was gay, theorizing that he was bi would have made them look wishy-washy on the stand. Had Carlos not jumped up, and said that Nikos was gay, it would have been the prosecution's job to point out "hey, he could be bi".
In addition to all this, the film this is based on came out in the early 2000s, when bisexuality in films and television was pretty much non-existent, and even today bisexuality is still severely underrepresented. However, making Elle's basis for the argument the Bend n' Snap instead of his commenting on her shoes, like in the film, justifies this slightly more.
Callaghan being revealed to be a massive pervert. Probably a subtle clue to this—besides Warner who is a big name, all the first-year students he picks for his internship are attractive young women.
Another indication is the scene where Vivian complains that he never asks Warner to get his coffee and he always asks her.
Also, it makes it just a tiny bit more plausible that he would pick first-year law students for the murder trial if he wants young women to be in charge of.
Trial attorneys or barristers will pick Elle as an excellent trial advocate because she remembers and can put together a sequence of facts into a coherent narrative. She displays further brilliance in being able to use that knowledge to effectively cross-examine an essentially hostile witness in the form of the clothing store attendant. And she didn't even want to be a lawyer at that point!
Mrs. Wyndham-Vandemark suspecting Brooke of having an affair with Enrique. Of course she heard it from her daughter. What's more, if Chutney wanted to murder Brooke, then an affair is the perfect cover story. She probably also wanted to frame Enrique for the murder, hence starting the affair rumour.
Of course, considering that Enrique was going along with the lie, he probably assumed that he would be able to claim that at worst, he "inspired" the murder but had no part in it himself.
Brooke getting liposuction. Her husband had a habit of marrying and divorcing a lot. If she did genuinely love him, it makes sense she'd be paranoid about her body—and that her workouts weren't necessarily enough.
The fate of Elle (valedictorian) and Warner (nothing special) is summed up earlier in the film due to the fact that Elle managed to get into Harvard Law School with a near perfect score on her first try while Warner needed to retake the test just to get accepted into it.
Further indicator—Warner says he wants to be a Senator by thirty. Assuming that he means that he's already a senator by thirty... he hasn't read his constitution. On the other hand, he could mean becoming a senator before he is 31, which would require him to be born in a rather narrow time span, or he could mean becoming a state senator, where the age limits are often lower (18 in California and Massachusetts).
Looking at the above, it becomes clear that while Warner clearly thinks of Elle as just a Dumb Blonde who gets by on her parents' money, he's basically the male equivalent of this where Elle shows her true potential. When it comes to academic achievement, Warner only gets anywhere by relying on his parents' connections where Elle just needed the right incentive to apply herself.
A subtle hint of how little Warner thinks of Elle (particularly her intelligence) is actually in the Affectionate Nickname he gives her. "Pooh bear" is (one assumes) a reference to Winnie The Pooh. What other nickname is he given? "A bear of very little brain". The fact that he calls Vivian the same nickname implies he held the same view on her as well.
Warner also says he needs "a Jackie, not a Marilyn"—where Elle is being compared to Marilyn Monroe. However, in real life, Marilyn was not the Dumb Blonde she portrayed in film and was quite smart. In fact, she was known for Alter-Ego Acting. Just like how Elle turns out to be not the dumb blonde everyone thinks she is. Such misinformation could also reference how he's not as good a researcher as he seems.
This gets even better if you know about Jacqueline Kennedy. John F. Kennedy had so many affairs that hiding it from Jackie became too difficult for his staff. Jackie knew what she was getting into when she married him, and tolerated it for the wealth and status. But overtime, she demanded him to stop, knowing a divorce would be a nightmare for JFK's career. Meaning Vivian being a "Jackie" parallels to Elle actually being more like Marilyn than Warner thought. Moral of the story: research the Real Life person you're going to use as a label on someone, because you might end up describing them better than you thought.
That said, Warner dumping Elle for Vivian may have been politically astute. While Elle would be a good Trophy Wife, she is just another rich girl from Beverly Hills. Vivian on the other hand is Connecticutblue blood whose family has connections that can further benefit Warner’s political career.
While Warner isn't the most malicious person in the world, he has a terrible habit of using and objectifying every woman he meets, albeit in different ways.
Considering how crassly he dumped Elle for not being "serious", it is obvious he saw Elle as a way to sow his wild oats before he moved on to someone "serious" than someone he actually cared for as a person. It also shows how much of a Horrible Judge of Character he is to not recognize Elle was a serious person: Elle had a 4.0 GPA from a (presumably) UC-equivalent school and studied fashion merchandising, a profession that may not be law, but is a legitimate and high-paying profession that requires people's skills all the same.
Warner also objectifies Vivian. It is clear Warner doesn't care for Vivian as a person either and thinks her image and pedigree are all that matters. The fact that their relationship is pretty passionless, on top of Warner inviting Elle to a study session with Vivian, ignoring how awkward it would be to bring your girlfriend and ex-girlfriend together, shows Warner sees Vivian as just another tool.
Warner also tries to push Elle to give up Brooke's alibi. This isn't just out of opportunism either: Warner sees Brooke as a pretty Gold Digger, ignoring the fact that she also built her own fitness empire. But Warner being Warner, he doesn't see that as a remotely respectful position and objectifies Brooke based on her appearance.
And then there's trying to make a desperate attempt to get Elle back, which proves how much of a nasty piece of work Warner is. Thankfully, Elle has by then wised up and moved on from Warner. It is no wonder Warner graduated without a girlfriend or job offers.
Another hint that Chutney was lying was that she said she went to the gym, got a perm, and then went home and took a long shower washing her hair while Brooke was supposedly shooting her father. The logical order would go to the gym, take a shower to wash their hair, and then get the perm. It may also be a hint of Nice to the Waiter in that Chutney isn't nice enough to clean up after a workout class because it would be Squick for the stylist to work with a sweaty client, even if their hair is getting washed. Of course, Elle can't say that is enough to destroy Chutney's alibi because it's a subjective argument, and too many people are that careless. She focuses on the perm since Chutney's curls are intact, as she points out, and how Chutney insisted she was in the shower.
A Math Bonus: If 27-year-old Chutney has had her hair permed on a bi-annual basis since age 12, then she would have had exactly 30 perms in her lifetime. Elle wasn't estimating.
Stromwell is the one who raises Elle's spirits by telling her not to let one asshole control her life. It is possible that Stromwell endured the same kind of sexism when she went to law school. Considering her age, Stromwell probably studied law at a time of even greater misogyny against working women and had to deal with people like Callahan on a daily basis. It could also explain why she's tough on her students: she wants to prepare them for a world of assholes.
While it doesn't really excuse her, it is easy to see why Chutney became so vindictive: her father has a long history of marrying and divorcing women. Chutney probably resents him for the lack of a stable maternal figure, and Brooke being the same age as her is just the tip of the iceberg. So the attempted murder of Brooke might've been Chutney trying to spite her father rather than outright hating Brooke.
The fact that Elle was able to crack the case and prove Brooke's innocence when not even Callahan could makes sense. Elle realized that Chutney was lying when she admitted to getting a perm, which contradicts her claim that she was in the shower while her father was being murdered. How did Callahan, an experienced lawyer, miss this crucial detail? Because he's a pompous asshole who objectifies and even sexually harasses his female staff and probably views himself as a macho man. Anything related to haircare and fashion is a "girly" subject he is quick to ignore. A woman on his staff might have figured out Chutney's lie, but Callahan rejected the advice out of misogynistic pride.
Heck, Callahan dismissed Elle's earlier deduction that Enrique was gay based on his knowledge of shoes.
Plus, the fact that Callahan's team of interns is mostly comprised of women and yet they hadn't figured out the clue either also makes sense. It doesn't come from perms being looked down upon and the perm rule being obscure because of it. The women sacrificed fashion and hair care from either believing Real Women Don't Wear Dresses, being too busy studying, or trying to look "serious".
Elle's Ironic Echo to Warner's aspirations—If I'm going to be a partner in a law firm by the time I'm thirty—shows that she has always been a far more grounded person than him. Warner's goal is to become a Senator by the time he's thirty, which is an extremely difficult goal even for someone with connections, and unless he's talking without thinking, he apparently doesn't know the age limit for being elected to Senate.note The most famous person to actually accomplish this — the 46th President, Joe Biden — was elected to the Senate at 29 and sworn in at 30, which was possible only because of when his birthday fell in the year. Elle wanting to become a partner at a law firm is a more realistic professional goal and shows she has a better grasp on things than "Mr. Serious".
Warner's standing at Harvard was nothing special, but it was still Harvard so it seems strange why he has no job offers. Once you realize though the family he comes from, he probably just applied to prestigious law firms who could do better in a desperate effort to still make his family proud. If he applied to a smaller, not as renowned one, he probably could've secured a job.
Elle and Paulette basically stole her old dog back by lying about the law. They could both get in trouble, and it's definitely not a good look for Elle's legal career, especially since (as per the second movie) she's getting into animal rights law.
Of course, that's assuming Paulette's ex even has the money to lawyer up. Which, considering his...accommodation, seems highly unlikely. Also, the guy is clearly thick as two short planks (anyone with a basic knowledge of linguistics knows Elle is speaking gibberish), so the chances of him even suspecting anything was wrong for him to want to lawyer up is very slim. Besides, he most likely kept the dog to be mean to Paulette, and losing it would be something he would shrug off. Let's face it, Elle and Paulette have absolutely nothing to worry about.
Also, while the specific argument might be gibberish, the lack of a marriage only works in Dewey's favor if he single-handedly purchased both the trailer and the dog, which, again, seems unlikely (it's unlikely he was even consistently employed, considering how happy Paulette is about Kyle having a decent job). If Paulette put any of her money towards buying the trailer and/or the dog (or if either of those was something she owned prior to the relationship, which could be the case), then she would have some level of legal rights to those things. No halfway decent lawyer would advise him to take it to court unless he could prove that he was the sole owner of everything, because if he sues and Paulette turns out to have ownership rights, he could lose a lot more than just the dog and could even theoretically be arrested for theft if it's proven that any of that belonged solely to Paulette (particularly the trailer, as that's likely to be worth enough to merit a grand theft charge). This doesn't mean Elle is legally in the clear, but it means that even if Dewey realized there was something to expose, he likely wouldn't do if because of what he stands to lose.
The way Elle's friend casually asks if she (Elle) can't just take a Percocet suggests prescription drug abuse.
Brooke's alibi that she had liposuction done at the time of her husband's murder saved her life. She had been keeping it a secret, so chances are her husband and stepdaughter did not know about it. Chutney expected Brooke to be home at that time. If she had been, Chutney would have shot her as she originally had planned.
Chutney very nearly got away with her crime, since Brooke might not have revealed her alibi even in the face of being found guilty. This is a woman who tried to murder her stepmother simply because she was the same age as her; who knows what she might have done to the next person who angered her?
In Chutney's "defense", we don't know how long Brooke and her father were married, so this may have been based on long-term resentment building to an impulsive act rather than just Chutney getting angry on impulse.
Elle may not be the first woman that Callahan hit on as an intern. Considering his subtle treatment of his female interns, it is clear he has a not very respectful view of women, and this extends to feeling entitled enough to sexually assault them. How many other girls did he hit on? And how many dropped out because they lacked Elle's support system or a sympathetic teacher?
Brooke really loved her husband and is mourning him even as she goes free. She's a widow and knows her own stepdaughter hated her enough to kill her. She was wrongfully incarcerated and came close to not only going to jail but losing her own reputation. While she's rightfully happy about not going to jail, she's likely going to be traumatized by everything she's gone through.
Elle's mother taught her the "bend and snap" in junior high. Why would a mother teach her tween daughter a move designed to draw attention to her boobs and butt?
One of Elle's friends got a passing grade in Spanish because she gave a lapdance to the teacher. While it is played as a cheap gag, what you have in this situation is a girl willing to screw her way to the top and a professor sleazy enough to accept sexual favors from female students. Eww...
(basically to lose weight, you lose it all over rather than lose weight in just one place).