Our cliffhanger is resolved fairly quickly on tonight’s episode, but that’s no reason to leave!
Lots is happening so let’s get to it. Eve is back, and my theory about her being connected to the girl in the box has been confirmed. I’d say I feel a sense of pride, but when you watch as much TV as I do, it just becomes inevitable. Exactly what her relationship is to the girl is up in the air, but no one crawls into a creepy empty chest in a serial killer’s basement because.
We also get to meet a friend of Malcolm’s: Vijay (Dhruv Uday Singh). Shows of this nature rarely introduce new characters so late in the game that have any hope of being more than reoccurring guest-stars. Though, Vijay does have that feel to him. He and Malcolm bonded over their criminal fathers, but then Vijay’s father got out of jail and their friendship fell apart. Malcolm believes it was because their common thread had been broken, but Vijay sees things differently. I’m more inclined to believe Vijay given how enthusiastic he is to see his old friend again. If you dumped a friend because secretly you didn’t really care about the person but were just using them to deal with a hard time, I doubt you’d be so eager to run into them again (unless you’ve got a lot of guilt about it).
The murder presents as a simple smash and grab gone wrong, however this being Prodigal Son that’s not the case. Instead we discover a group of thieves where one member is killing women who look an awful lot like the only girl in the crew. Why? Duh, because he likes her! That’s quite an evolution from pushing her down on the playground, eh? Ah well, either way the undercover motive gives Malcolm’s profiler powers the upper hand when he and Vijay get in over their heads. This situation also allows for our Prodigal Son weekly “Malcolm nearly dies” moment – in this instance it’s when he’s knocked backwards and cracks his skull on the concrete floor. After another staple (“Malcolm hallucinates his father”), he wakes up and manages to avoid dying care of help from Vijay (who operates on his wavelength in a true gesture of friendship).
Finally (really, Firstly), the cliffhanger resolution between Malcolm, Martin, and Jessica results in Malcolm agreeing to two visits a week to his father. There’s nothing in the agreement having to do with phone calls, yet Martin feels right in threatening Jessica’s freedom when Malcolm fails to take his calls.
Overall this episode is not one of my favorites. It doesn’t have the usual spark a lot of Prodigal Son episodes have had, but it’s certainly not the worst. Vijay’s appearance and addition to the cast is welcome, and his enthusiasm with respect to Malcolm is definitely a nice change of pace. As opposed to Malcolm always feeling like the outsider trying to inch his way in, Vijay is proud to join him in being outsiders together. I hope we see more of this friend – he’s cute to boot!
The Eve twist hardly registers because, again, duh. Super attractive woman shows up out of no where on Jessica Whitly’s doorstep, and is conveniently single and interested in her son??? Come on…practically screaming the reveal here. Still, for people who aren’t familiar with this kind of show it’s probably a fun twist.
And, it was fun to see Martin experience some parental anxiety. Jessica’s comment about psychopaths not having feelings is interesting, as is Martin’s response of being able to turn them off – is it true? Doesn’t look like it…Especially when Jessica throws Gil in his face! Oooo, that was fun, I can’t lie. Even Malcolm threw Gil in Martin’s face. Albeit funny, it might end badly for Gil.
So, Eve, about that box…
