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.
If You Give a Knife to a Murderer…
Much to the shock of everyone, we quickly learn that our prisoner has a guard’s key, and he throws open the door and stabs Ainsley’s boyfriend. The guard and Malcolm rush to get the door closed, but nothing good comes of this. Her boyfriend is gasping at first but quickly falls silent. Martin tells her that he’s dying, his lung has collapsed. Martin offers to help, but Malcolm refuses. He says he can help him. But… there is that pesky, shaky hand.
Ainsley, under her father’s trap, demands that Malcolm let their father help him. Begrudgingly, he does. And because Ainsley hasn’t made enough terrible decisions this episode, begins to film it. I hope her boyfriend survives so that he can dump her ass. For real, Ainsley has shown more psychopathic tendencies in this one episode than Malcolm has demonstrated the entire season. She’s brutal.
Bright is Right (as usual)
For the second time this episode, Malcolm makes another terrible decision. He decides to go out into the hospital to find the prisoner and take back the ID card with only a taser. While Gil promises a panicked Jessica that her son is smart and reminds her that he trusts his decisions, Malcolm is off with the camera and taser, where granted, he does take the man down and saves the day. But still. The Whitly siblings are not the brightest in the decision-making department.
The lockdown ends soon after, and Martin saves Ainsley’s boyfriend’s life, in some twisted way, becoming her hero. We learn, and it seemed quite obvious that Martin set this up sometime later. How far will he go to twist the minds of his children? Can we trust anything he says to either of them? And now, with Ainsley believing her father has a humanistic side, will she fall victim to his advances too?
Hello?
And just because this hasn’t been enough of a freakin’ rollercoaster ride, Malcolm and Jessica are chatting later that day, discussing what has happened. It is a sweet moment, and Jessica doesn’t appear self-absorbed for once until there’s an ominous ringing from the basement. The room that Jessica sealed following her husband’s arrest. There is a telephone inside the room, and Malcolm breaks the wall, answering the call. The man from the junkyard is on the other line, creepily talking about the camping trip and knowing all about him.
And that is where the episode ends, and my burning questions begin.
Thoughts
This episode is action-packed from start to finish. Who is the man from the junkyard? Why did Martin protect him? Did they commit crimes together? Did Martin enlist the help of Malcolm as a child? I’ve grown quite angry at Martin over the last two episodes. I appreciate his charm and one-liners, they are hilarious, but man, this guy is seriously so insane. He claims to be a good father, yet all he does is get into the head of his children. He manipulates them and causes them to feel things that aren’t based on facts. It is SO wrong and so apparent to us as viewers, but not to the characters themselves. I want to ship Malcolm to an island somewhere away from all of his family. None of them are good for him.
Speaking of which, UH HELLO AINSLEY. What happened there? In the first two episodes, she seemed so normal and unaware of things. Now, she’s filming her boyfriend as he’s being operated on, and has a gleeful look in her eye as she tries to outsmart her father. There are so many thoughts I could list here about her. But, I would bet money things only spiral from here on out. That girl is heading nowhere good.
A Thought
And the junkyard murderer! How is he connected? The season can only go up from here, and I love every minute of it. Just when I think the answers are there, they throw a new piece into the mix. The characters mesh well, and the writing is always spot on. This show is one of the best of the fall line up, and if you’re not watching it, you’re missing out. Period.
Stay connected with So Many Shows: