Tonight’s episode of The Irrational starts off with a bang, quite literally. A woman opens the door for someone posing as a utility worker and once she opens to let him in she takes shots to the chest. As if that wasn’t brutal enough, this person stomps on her to finish the job.
Turns out the woman killed was Serena Barton, a journalist. She wasn’t the only one — this is the third killing with similar MOs. Alec is brought in to help. Only two items were missing from Serena’s house, but with her wallet still out (cash visible and everything) left untouched, what was the real reason behind this murder? Also, what’s the purpose of crushing their teeth?
Before we can even analyze that, serial killer is on to victim number four.
"A Kick in the Teeth" - THE IRRATIONAL - Pictured: Jesse L. Martin as Alec Mercer, Arash DeMaxi as Rizwan. Photo: James Dittiger/NBC © 2024 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Alec doesn’t believe he fits the profile of a serial killer (despite literally killing multiple people) because most serial killers aren’t looking to get caught, but this one? He’s killing in broad daylight AND in plain view of cameras. Detective Brown believes they have found the killer; a witness said she saw a construction worker run out of Serena’s home and ID'd this man, Carlos Perez, as the killer. Now this is where eyewitness testimonies could be inaccurate and cause more harm than good; because Carlos has a past, Detective Brown believes that they’ve found their man. As Marisa points out, there were plenty of construction workers in the area, how is it that this woman is so sure it was Carlos without any other evidence (we don’t even have his DNA do we?).
When Alec calls Detective Brown on this bias, stating that many people tend to judge people for their past using said past to make them fit a narrative in the present, he instantly gets on the defensive. This doesn’t come off as an easy open and shut case, so what’s the rush on this one, Detective? Alec tells Marisa to interview Carlos while he conducts an experiment.
"A Kick in the Teeth" - THE IRRATIONAL - Pictured: Maahra Hill as Marisa, Rene Rosado as Carlos Photo: James Dittiger/NBC © 2024 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Back in the classroom; Alec quizzes the students. He lays out a few cards and asks them to identify the amount of spades. When they answer incorrectly, he points out that there were spades in different colors that the students missed, to which he explains that the “[...] mind sees what it expects to see.” I could already tell where he’s going with this.
Once he explains that trick, Rizwan and Simon act out a scenario where an argument breaks out and then Rizwan’s wallet is stolen. All the students in the classroom are technically eyewitnesses since they’re there and saw what happened, but can they correctly identify key details that would be admissible? Alec quizzes them again on the details and the results are telling. Only fifteen percent of the students were able to answer all the questions correctly, despite most of them believing that they were one hundred percent sure of their answers. Sounds familiar right? The woman who witnessed Carlos fleeing Serena’s house could be as confident as she wants, but eyewitness testimonies aren’t always credible.
"A Kick in the Teeth" - THE IRRATIONAL - Pictured: Students, Jesse L. Martin as Alec Mercer. Photo: James Dittiger/NBC © 2024 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The killer strikes again; this time it’s at night. MO has changed yet again, which is inconsistent with the traits of a serial killer. Which now means this killer could be targeting specific people. While having dinner, Alec and Kylie make the connection (not the hatred of cilantro being the key here); all the victims have had dental work done. Alec believes that the victims are related.
-This turns out to be true, in a sense; they’re all children born from sperm donations. Marisa and Alec head to the home of the sperm donor, Steve Thomas. It’s where they learn that upon his death, Steve’s fortune will be distributed among his biological children (yeah, the math is starting to math now). With killing each of these “siblings”, the killer has more to gain with the inheritance. The search for each donor sibling has begun, but so far nothing is getting them closer to the killer. Simon, back from his sick day, offers another thought: maybe this “sibling” they’re looking for isn’t a donor sibling, but simply one of Steve’s children.
"A Kick in the Teeth" - THE IRRATIONAL - Pictured: Maahra Hill as Marisa, Jesse L. Martin as Alec Mercer. Photo: James Dittiger/NBC © 2024 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Detective Brown, while surveilling one of the siblings’ homes, saw the killer but he was spooked and left. Turns out it was Eric Dent, the man who claimed it was a client who called after hearing gunshots. Eric, forgetting about his siblings, goes to his father’s home to kill him. Alec finds Eric and tries to talk him down – it works and Marisa and Detective Brown are able to handcuff him.
The focus of this episode was negativity bias: how the tendency to pay more attention to negative information rather than positive information can hold one back.
What’d you think about tonight’s episode of The Irrational? Share your thoughts below or connect with me on X/Twitter @chenfordhugs
