"You can still be scared of family."
This time around, though I still didn't care much for the resolution of the case, I was entertained nevertheless. The victim was a model and social media influencer, she was found arranged as some sort of mermaid, mimicking a campaign that made her famous by her boyfriend, a clothing designer calling himself Axel X. When they tell him how they found her he acts sketchy and this brings Malcolm's attention on him.
The profile of the killer seems to be a stalker so they go to a memorial for Tatiana in the hopes of seeing him, they find a stalker and bring him in, he turns out not to be the guy but he does tell them that when he was stalking her he saw something sketchy about Axel. He refuses to talk, at first, but when a car hits him Malcolm manipulates him and makes him think he's dying so he tells him the truth. He says Axel knew Tatiana was leaving him for another brand and he hit her. I have to say the guy was a douche, but what Malcolm did was cold.
They realize the killer is actually a fan of Axel's and probably someone from his entourage who's trying to make his life better. Turns out it was Axel's security, but Axel was more than willing to let him do anything the thought was right and even helped cover everything up which brings Malcolm to say some interesting things about doubting the people closest to you, your own family.
Speaking of which, Jessica tells Malcolm Martin agreed to take him off the visitation list but he knows there has to be a prize for that and he confronts her about the reason why she wants them apart. She says she expected suspicion from everyone else but not her son, and that she finds it offensive that even though his father is the serial killer, she seems to be the monster. But there's something to this idea of the monster you know, especially if he's already in a cage, where you can see him, it feels safer for you to focus on the more elusive monsters, even if they don't have the same kill count (though we can't be really sure of that).
So Malcolm goes to see Martin who's thrilled to get to play with him, even though he agreed to behave, he says he'd answer his questions but he's been known to lie so no one would believe him anyway, and he suggests Malcolm and his mother figure things out among themselves without getting him in the middle, though we know meddling is all he wants to do. Malcolm really doesn't seem to be doing well and I'm starting to wonder how sustainable this is, how long can he be like this until something truly horrible happens to him if he doesn't find some balance soon?
In a session with his psychiatrist, Dr. Gabrielle Le Deux (Charlayne Woodard - Pose), we see Malcolm is starting to wonder if his mother was complicit in his father's murders and she was/is capable of to protect her family and reputation so he asks Gil for the footage of his mom's police interview and we see a great performance by Bellamy Young but not one I truly buy from Jessica. She says she knew something was wrong but she thought it was another woman, she says she feels guilty for enabling him, and wonders how many women she could've saved, all things that make perfect sense, but maybe a little more so if you've been thinking about something for a while. Malcolm does seem to buy it though.
But if that's true, then the flashback we saw of Jessica remembering that night in the red dress makes no sense. She was telling Martin "it" had to stop, that it would destroy them, she even says she's seen enough, does she think maybe it's an obsession and not something he actually was doing in real life? Because even if she did think it was a woman, since the "it" is vague enough, she definitely knew beforehand, it wasn't just suspicions she had, so no matter what, her performance for the cops was definitely bullshit. I do wonder why she pretends with Martin though, just for the cameras? Were there cameras in every room we saw them interact before now? Is this all a performance they agreed on?
I still can't get a good read on Ainsley but I wonder if it's purposeful, she seems to be angry that she's left out of the family reunion, as well as the family dysfunction. She says perhaps as she's the only one who has no emotional baggage attached to him perhaps she's the only one who could actually handle to visit him. She gets almost obsessed when she learns he's her number one fan and gets it in her head that she has to have a one on one exclusive interview with him to help her in her career, something her mother and brother are absolutely against, of course, but she ends up doing it anyway.
"What did she do?"
What did you think about this episode? I look forward to your comments.
