Prodigal Son 1.6: All Souls and Sadistsby Wolfen MoondaughterReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Network
Credits Grade: 8 The team investigates the murder of a man in the woods; the trail potentially leads to family, but is it leading to the right person? Malcolm hunts for the car in the photo of him and his father from a forgotten camping trip, hoping finding it will restore his missing memories. Ainsley is intent on interviewing her father, despite her family's objections. And we get a glimpse of Whitly outside of his family, in a group therapy session.The crime arc is predictable -- once we got a tiny piece of information, I saw the answer coming a mile away. Still, they did a fair job making it believable that Malcolm didn't see it immediately, and using the situation -- similarities and differences both -- to explore his psyche and history. The misdirection was nicely done. And this makes two eps in a row where I didn't find any glaring flaws in the mystery! And the ep changed the dynamics up nicely for at least a little while, paring Malcolm off with Gil, and Dani with TJ. I like the new worry Malcolm's therapist has given us, about the potential for Malcolm to lose the ability to tell the difference between reality and memory / delusion, and the follow-through with that warning in the episode, which in turn led to a nice little hurt-comfort / whump moment (he almost sets himself on fire in an attempt to wake himself from a delusion). I also appreciate how the show finally addressed what it's been hinting at from the get-go: that Malcom has masochistic tendencies (which I suspect stem from a sense of guilt, that he feels he deserves to be punished, like how he said in the first ep that he deserved to die for betraying his father). The ep also did a nice job exploring the flip side: sadism, which helps us in turn get indirect insight into Whitly. And the situation eventually gives us a chance to see a new facet to Malcolm: that he knows martial arts! (While I enjoy the idea of him being vulnerable and needing protection, I hope we get to see more of that.) This ep has helped me warm up some to Ainsley (although she does have the annoying "aggressive reporter who cares more about the story than anything" attribute). I appreciate her backbone, how she sticks up for herself; I loved her line about her mother raising a strong woman. Plus, the scene where Jessica meets Ainsley's boyfriend is hilarious! Even her willingness to see her father as more than a monster is understandable -- especially given the chilling job he does making himself endearing, with what I'm 99 percent sure was reverse psychology. I also appreciate us getting to see Whitly as he speaks to people other than his family. Granted, with him being a narcissistic psychopath, there's no more reason to believe him in therapy than with his family, but then again, in crowing about his daughter interviewing him for the news, there's no reason for him to lie in this particular instance. I guess I'm just intrigued by the parallels of two psychological experts (although I'm unsure WHY Whitly, a heart surgeon, seems an expert about the human psyche), related but with markedly different problems, in therapy. The whole ep makes one eager to see all the Whitly family in one room! And I appreciate the fact that the ep speaks of hope for the psychologically damaged, doesn't write the "criminally insane" off, but instead treats them as ill people who might get better if the right treatment is given (especially if the illness is caught early enough). Written: November 10, 2019
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