Prodigal Son Episode 7
If it is one thing, we’ve learned about Malcolm Bright, its that he can’t stay out of trouble.
Where There are Answers…
Case in point? This week’s episode opens with our lovely profiler in a car junkyard looking for a very particular station wagon. Because it is Bright, things quickly head south. Someone in the shadows is shooting at him, but by the time he’s joined by his fellow NYPD detectives, our attempted murderer is long gone. What isn’t? The multiple bodies within this yard. It sounds like we’ve got a case.
Malcolm continues to spiral in the meantime. His therapist is worried he may have a breakdown if he doesn’t stop looking into his past. She worries he will see things that aren’t there, and at first, he’s not apprehensive about it. As the episode continues, we see that this may very well be something he should take with concern.
Lights, Camera…
The case drags on, and Malcolm is more than convinced whoever dropped the bodies in the junkyard is somehow connected to his father. Gil, Dani, and JT can’t seem to find otherwise. So, again… what does Malcolm do? The least smart idea out there. He decides it is time to visit his father and demand he tells him the truth.
Because he’s done that plenty of times in the past.
What is the problem with this? Oh, right. Ainsley is interviewing her father that day with her boyfriend, the videographer. For once, Jessica and Malcolm agreed about something—Martin will chew her up and spit her out. Ainsley, sort of like her brother, doesn’t listen and heads straight for danger. She’s convinced she can work her father and get the answers. We see this before Malcolm arrives. You have to give her credit. For a girl who never really knew her father, she doesn’t back down from asking him vivid questions about his murders.
Martin, ever the con artist, switches it back on her. He might’ve killed a couple of dozen, but as a surgeon, he saved many more. What a warped, twisted sense of self, as we’ve seen here.
Family Affair
Things get interesting here on out. Malcolm arrives, and Ainsley is less than pleased that her brother has shown up on her day. Yet, she lets him into the room with her, and Martin is gleeful seeing his two children together. This is where many fans, myself included, start to question Ainsley. Previously, she comes off as this sensible and grounded individual, but she quickly shows otherwise. She wants to double team Martin, but at her brother’s expense.
On camera, she describes how Malcolm has suffered at the hands of Martin’s crimes. He grows frustrated until she accuses him of being a terrible father. That’s when he snaps, and we see him for the scary, cold man we know he can be. Ainsley is beaming in a twisted way, though. She got what she wanted, but at what expense? Why would you throw your brother’s demons out to the general public like that?
Locked Down
The situation quickly goes from bad to worse. Earlier in the episode, one of Martin’s fellow inmates showed he had an interest in Ainsley, asking for his time on camera. We’ve seen through Martin’s lens that he’s easily impressionable and quick to outbursts. You may guess what happened next. He’s killed a guard and is running free within the psychiatric hospital. But it’s fine! They’re in a locked corridor, according to Martin’s guard. Nothing can happen.
They must not know that Malcolm is in the room. Ainsley, more thrilled now that she’s got one hell of a story, orders her boyfriend to take video footage of the prisoner and the sirens. Because that’s TOTALLY normal…
He goes, not so willingly, and Malcolm grills his father about the station wagon. We learned earlier in the episode the knife found by Edrisa belonged to Malcolm, supposedly, and he went on a camping trip that weekend with his father. Various flashbacks occur where Malcolm seems to remember pieces of this trip. But what is true in what the man says? I don’t trust him, no matter how charming Martin Whitly can be.
Leave a Reply