Prodigal Son, 1.11: Alone Timeby Wolfen MoondaughterReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Network
Credits Grade: 9 Desperate to know where Paul may have taken Malcolm, Gil visits Whitly while the rest of the team continue the hunt.We learn some fascinating new details that shine new lights on things, addressing a plot point that had bothered me, as well as opening up a new avenue to be explored. There's also a big twist that ramps up the thrill! Malcolm gets "whumped" hard, but the comfort side of things is a bit lacking -- talk about lost opportunities there! Still, what he goes through, and the subsequent growth / affirmations is satisfying! And I love seeing JT worry for him! Spoiler time. Still With me? Okay. It was soooo satisfying seeing Gil get all bad-cop on the evil grandmother. Seriously, instead of convincing me that Colette can be compassionate, all her being nice to the woman did was convince me that, for a profiler, Colette's a terrible judge of character! I'm bummed that Shannon didn't survive after all -- I was hoping the team made it to him in time. What a waste of actor Pertwee -- he really could have been a great contributor to the series! I love that Malcolm hallucinates his doctor when he needs to work things out. I'm baffled by Malcolm saying that he's Paul's origin story, when Malcolm knows full well that Paul's story began when Paul killed his grandfather. The line makes no sense at all! But happily, it's the only aspect of the episode that really bothered me. I had wondered at first why Gil didn't tell Whitly right away about Malcolm having been abducted by Paul, but that was cleared up when Whitly collapsed. Couple that with the fact that Whitly hadn't been able to go through with killing Malcolm, and it seems there is some seed of humanity in the man after all -- although it's chilling that he'd been able to entertain the idea in the first place. I had been wondering for while how Paul could act so lethally towards Malcolm, when Malcolm is the son of his mentor, but now that we know that Paul and Whitly had a falling out over whether or not to kill Malcolm as a kid, it makes sense, and I feel a bit dumb for not having thought of that possibility already. Learning that there was a secret passage into Jessica's family home (either always there, perhaps as part of the Underground Railroad, or somehow secretly installed by Whitly) that she knew nothing about, and that Whitly had chloroformed Malcolm so often, Malcolm was becoming immune to the effects, were also major bombshells! (I wonder if Jessica will still insist on staying there.) I loved seeing Malcolm geek out over the idea of Paul evolving as a killer -- I'm betting it's because Malcolm is hoping that if Paul can change in one direction, he can change in another, and be cured of his sociopathy. After all, if murderous Paul can change for the better, that suggests Malcom doesn't have to worry so much about going insane himself and following in his father's footsteps. (Not to mention, what a victory for Malcolm that he didn't kill Paul even when he had every reason to! So he's got even less reason to fear now!) And it means there's hope his father could be cured (if Whitly, too, was made a sociopath, not born a psychopath; personally, I don't have hope in that regard). Poor Malcolm and his hands always getting injured! Although, I suppose this is a kind of payback for when he chopped of Nico's hand .... I really wish we'd gotten to the reaction Gil and the others had to seeing all Malcolm survived -- especially JT, given that we now know he cares for Malcolm too! Still, the family hug was sweet (and hopefully shows that Ainsley isn't a psychopath after all, given how relieved she seemed). I'm glad we got to see Jessica being a mama bear, not just being chased around as a victim. I also appreciate that she had the self-awareness to consider that she may have made things worse, stealing and releasing that photo to the press. I wonder what other problems will arise from that, for the investigation in general, and for Gil in particular. And I wonder if we've seen the last of Paul .... Written: January 24, 2020
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