Prodigal Son

[ivyfic]

Okay, they've got me. It is the emo best.

I am all caught up--come talk to me. (Spoilers in comments).

Comments

[sperrywink]

misbegotten linked me since I am all in for Prodigal Son. I have my post here:
https://sperrywink.dreamwidth.org/600589.html

But here are my thoughts. (Also cornerofmadness is also a big fan and I have commented a lot in their journal.)


So this episode was both more and less than I expected. More suspense-filled and heartening, but less revealing of ongoing secrets. So it definitely worked for me as a mid-season reveal since it leaves so much more room to grow the series.

The hunt for Malcolm was nicely done, but once the rescue team reached the cabin and I saw they had 13 minutes left, I knew he wouldn't be there, ahaha. But I was not expecting them to be at his childhood home. How creepy was that???

And Gil confronting Martin and Martin taunting him with how Malcolm was not his. So heart-wrenching because it is the truth. Both that Gil was there for Malcolm as a father-figure and that he has to contend with the knowledge that Martin will always be his biological father.

The heartening part of the episode was where Malcolm says, "I'm not a killer," and Watkins replies, "Not yet." Which considering some of the lead up to this episode, I wasn't sure about given Malcolm's repressed memories involving Watkins and the girl in the box. So it feels weird to say 'Go Malcolm for not being a killer.' but seriously go Malcolm, particularly in capturing Watkins in a trunk. That was more than a little sadistic and emotionally scarring, but still, not a killer.

And I was not expecting the "Mr. Boots" reveal with the creepy angel figurines and then his mother and sister's hiding out in the house a la The Shining. I totally expected Watkins to make a "Here's Johnny" joke when he was breaking down the door, ahaha.

I'm not sure how I feel about the reveal that Martin was going to kill Malcolm as a boy, but I expect Martin to try to weasel out of it one way or another.

[ivyfic]

Of course, I post this and then go work a 14 hour day, for I am an auditor and it is busy season.

I am not on your filter! Can't see the post!

I watched this last night and have rewatched the scenes between Gil and Martin three times. Largely because they are both wonderful actors, and also, it is hitting one of my favorite tropes, the people-believe-someone-is-dead trope. I love how the scene develops, from Martin clearly severely affected by solitary (I went and googled Michael Sheen to make sure he was okay and there wasn't something going on IRL, he looked that off), trying to use the only cards he has to make Malcolm come to him. I love that here he says, "Are we speaking our inside thoughts, because I have a few of those," and doesn't voice them--but clearly later, he does think those. I love his absolute certainty of Malcolm's death, and his despair at that.

When he fell to the ground, I honestly thought he was about to execute an elaborate escape plot to enact vengeance. But I like what they did better--a, because it meant Malcolm saved himself, and b, because it takes this megalomaniacal figure, who last we saw him orchestrated a prison riot, and makes him completely powerless. I love the way he just disintegrates if he doesn't have Malcolm to focus on. I'm not sure I'd call it love, but it's definitely obsession.

So I'd been thinking all season that the big reveal was going to be that Martin involved Malcolm in the torture and killing of a victim--what with all the "you're just like me," and with the way Malcolm freaked out holding a scalpel with his father telling him to cut. The reveal that Martin had planned to kill him--totally unexpected. And also I think still a little questionable? Watkins isn't exactly impartial, Malcolm's memories are still blurred, and the Martin that confirmed it was Malcolm's hallucination. So I'm fully prepared to find out that wasn't what happened, or not just. It makes sense that if Martin felt he had to kill Malcolm, he would involve another killer, for fear that he would balk. But that also could be what Watkins thought was happening and never Martin's plan.

If it was Martin's plan, though, it means on some level Martin accepted that his son would turn him in but chose to let him live anyway? Lots of places for this to go.

I thought the Mr. Boots reveal would have been creepier if we'd had any mention earlier in the season. Also, I find the actor playing the sister...not good? The scene where she found out Malcolm was missing felt very off to me. Unless I go with some deep interpretation that she's a sociopath faking emotion...she just seemed flat.

I kind of love the whole axe murderer in the house thing when a) they are in a city, b) last we saw there was a load of press outside, so why not just open a window and scream?, and c) cell phones exist. I mean, I don't care that they went the direction they did--dramatically the right choice--but a little more on the absurd side.

I was expecting the fake out with the rescuers. It's been done so many times.

I fully expected someone's hand to get chopped off once the ax came out. Malcolm chopped someone's hand off in the pilot, and apparently in this universe, you can reattach hands with no ill effects. I really thought Malcolm's hand would get lopped off.

Now I am going to stay up too late and rewatch the ep.

It has been so long since I've seen an episode of television I immediately had to rewatch. This show is so absurd on so many levels, but I am along for the ride as long as it lasts. It's nice to feel fannish again.

[sperrywink]

Yeah, Lou and Michael Sheen hit it out of the park. But that's hilarious that you made sure MS wasn't sick! It was totally believable.

YES! I thought it was all a ploy too until he was high on benzos. It does highlight how much he depends on Malcolm to be there. And, yes, definitely obsession.

I was with you in the boat of what I expected to have revealed about Malcolm, so was totally thrown by the Martin wanting to kill Malcolm twist too. (Apparently, cornerofmadness figured it out, so they are a ton better at deciphering mysteries than me or you). Good point about it not being the whole story though. That does leave some juicy reveals still to happen, that is true.

I found Mr Boots creepy enough as-is, but I see your point about making it more creepy. cornerofmadness and I have been discussing Ainsley and we both feel that she is more like Martin than Malcolm is. So her lack of affect works with that interpretation of the character as more sociopath than not. It'll be interesting to see further interactions between Martin and Ainsley and what it reveals.

I was thinking Malcolm's hand would get chopped off too, ahaha. I'm glad they didn't.

Yeah. I haven't been this into a show since the SGA/Battlestar Galactica days. :-)

I'm sort of hoping my sister will binge watch the episodes with me when she visits next week. SHe hasn't seen the show but I think she would enjoy it.

[ivyfic]

I also love the implications of "the chloroform wasn't working anymore." That implies that Martin was showing Malcolm his hobby room over and over, then chloroforming him. That indicates that Martin desperately needed to share his secret with his son--maybe wanted to raise his son to join him--even though that ultimately proved to be his undoing. Couple this with his rage when Ainslee confronted him with Malcolm's trauma--he seems to have no concept of how fucked up Malcolm is.

I enjoy the sibling dynamic of Malcolm and Ainslee, where Malcolm was old enough to have much more of an idea what was going on (and now seems to have been deliberately shown), whereas Ainslee seems to have been too young at the time for it to be more than a story to her. I don't think they've confirmed the age gap, but I'd guess that Malcolm was 8-10 and Ainslee was 4-6 when Martin was arrested--which is not that far apart, but far enough for their relationship to the trauma to be on different planets.

[ivyfic]

Also, on rewatch, in the first scene between Martin and Gil, Martin puts enormous emphasis on my in "my boy." Which lends credence to his anger at Gil for trying to be a father to Malcolm is the inside thought he wasn't going to say when Gil had something Martin wanted from him.