"There's been so much I haven't been able to protect my children from, let me protect you from this."
It turns out, after Malcolm stabbed him, Martin's in a coma, and the way we get to see some of Michael Sheen while he's under, are the vivid dreams/nightmares he's having which apparently include the girl in the box (Anna Eilinsfeld) or maybe just a composite of all his victims. In this nightmare, though, she's the one that kills him, and that's when he realizes he's in a coma. He takes control of the whole thing but, instead of getting his anger out on this figment of his subconscious, he decides to wake up by the end of the episode.
Jessica is the one taking the fall for the stabbing at the moment, she says she has better resources to fight the charges if it's not seen as self-defense, which makes sense since Malcolm being put through a magnifying glass is never a good idea. She's also trying to atone for not being able to protect her kids from their father and all he brought to their lives. Malcolm begrudgingly agrees and she's ecstatic when he gets distracted by a case, it appears she sudedenly loves his work and how happy it makes him, which is a welcome change, even if a bit abrupt.
Jessica gets a call from Sterling, or The Devil, as it appears on her contact list, he's apparently the shark who got Martin the cozy room he's in instead of the electric chair. She doesn't want his help but Ainsley presses her on it. Jessica considers it for a second but it turns out Ainsley was just trying to get her to get a good lawyer by showing her exactly what she didn't want. And here's where Eve comes back into the frame, which brings quite a nice conversation between the two where Eve seems quite understanding of Malcolm and perhaps even more so in the future after Jessica tells her what he's had to endure.
Now, to this week's case. The victim is a big fish investor and he looks like he's been embalmed and kept in a casual position even though he's been dead for three days. Malcolm's theory is that they're dealing with a necrophiliac which isn't necessarily a sexual thing, though it all gets a bit weird when he says it's an understandable impulse to want someone who's just a safe company, and I have to say I loved the look on everyone's face when he was explaining it.
The job has a professional quality which they think will shrink the pool of suspects until they learn there's a convention of funeral directors coming to town. Turns out the victim had invested in a funeral home with two other people, Tilda (Ana Gasteyer - What Women Want, Mean Girls), and Dev (Sathya Sridharan - Blindspot). Dev is their first suspect until they find him almost dead. Then they go for Tilda but she says the likely killer is a silent partner they had, Leanne (Ashlie Atkinson - Mr. Robot), a woman who spent a little too much time with the bodies for their comfort.
Later, Malcolm and Edrisa are talking on the phone, and when she seems eager to hang up, he realizes something's wrong. As it turns out, Leanne's there, pointing a gun at her to try and get more time with Dev, thankfully Malcolm distracts her and Edrisa knocks her out, happy to be able to help. Edrisa really shone here, she's always fun but I liked how much they focused on her this time around.
In this episode, Dani seemed to be trying to connect with Malcolm, though it's not clear if she thinks they could actually be friends or if she's just trying to keep an eye on him for Gil. Maybe it's both? I did like the sweet moment they had when Malcolm said he liked talking to her. For now, the show's taking a little break and to me, this is not necessarily a high note to leave us on, yes, there were some fun moments, but the show appears to have gone back to the meaningless cases of the week, ones that are more filler than anything else. I hope this was just a misstep because I was getting very excited about the improvement and I would be very disappointed if it was just a fluke.
"We need to face it."
What did you think about this episode? I look forward to your comments.
