"You think life is a case to be solved; sometimes it’s just a tragedy to be endured."
The second outing of Prodigal Son continues to be as intriguing as the first, the case of the week is never really the highlight, but that's probably not why most of us are here. Malcolm continues to have nightmares where he sees a girl in a box, someone he saw when he called the cops but was never found, they still found evidence to lock his father up of course, but not any girl, so he wants to know what happened, and I wonder if his mother played a part in some of it.
Now that Malcolm is officially a consultant for the NYPD he gets called on the case of a family annihilator, they find a wealthy family of four murdered at the dinner table and inside the father a very poisonous black mamba that wraps around Dr. Tanaka until Malcolm saves her. Now, that was disturbing, that’s for sure. Full disclosure, I absolutely hate snakes, they handled the scene well and Malcolm saving Dr. Tanaka was hilarious, but I did not enjoy that, at all. Still charming, but, please don’t do it again.
The team dynamics are working wonderfully, at the moment, JT continues to have some aggression towards Malcolm but they decide to address it head-on and Malcolm suggest he should just go ahead and ask away, it turns out the only question that comes out is whether it was weird to have a serial killer for a father, to which the answer is: hell yes.
Malcolm's father continues to call from Jail but his messages are being ignored till they become what one could imagine a howler would sound like (Is that a Harry Potter reference? Yes, it is). But then, when the last live family member turns out to be a black market animal dealer and throws a snake at Malcolm, this prompts another memory, Malcolm remembers his father knocking him out after finding the girl, which means something happened in between that and him calling the cops.
This means Malcolm reluctantly goes back to see his father but he gets no answer from him, only more doubts about his own guilt, how much time he lost and how many people could've died in the meantime, which is such a manipulative way to put it. Now, why is this is the secret they chose to hide? I don't know, it would only make sense if it incriminates his mother, and boy would that be a blow for Malcolm, and that’s clearly what they’re hinting at since we learn she keeps tabs on their conversations through the guard.
But alas, in debating the family annihilator with his father, Malcolm realizes something about the case, that the murder was about being left out of the family against their will, so probably the patriarch had an illegitimate son who wanted in the family and punished them all for being left out. When they go get the suspect, he's at a barbecue with his family and I have to say, even though the profile is literally "family annihilator" I did not expect him to poison his whole family and himself, but it does make sense, I guess. Thankfully, they manage to save them all, tough, again, the case is not really why we watch.
Gil talking to Malcolm is a good thing, they both seem to need it, not only talking to each other but the job itself, tough Gil says it's not particularly a good thing to need. After a drink reacts with the meds he was given at the hospital, Malcolm's a little too tipsy, so Dani gets him home and even helps him tie himself up and I love that she doesn’t seem judge at all.
"Nobody should need this."
What did you think about this episode? I look forward to your comments.
