This week’s episode is full of misdirection and twists, with the final culprit being the one the audience least expects. It starts off as a chance to learn more about Malcolm’s mental state after his imprisonment at the hands of the Junkyard Killer, but soon turns into a cat-and-mouse game between Malcolm and the psychiatrist sent to clear him for duty. Read on to find out what we noticed in “Internal Affairs.”
Malcolm Vs. Simon
It’s not often we see Malcolm match wits with a profiler at his level, but this episode gives us the chance to see him spar with Simon, the psychiatrist from Internal Affairs who is in charge of deciding if he’s fit for duty. Malcolm comes on strong at first, hoping to shut Simon down, but Simon pushes back and probes into Malcolm’s true mental state. Of course, it’s all revealed to be a massive excuse for Malcolm to profile Simon, who turns out to be the killer. But watching Malcolm and Simon trade barbs is exciting to see. It makes us wonder what it would be like to see Malcolm go head to head with another profiler at his level (Criminal Minds crossover with Reed meeting the Prodigal Son crew, perhaps?).
Edrisa Checking Malcolm’s Medical Records
When Malcolm comes back to work after what happened with Watkins, everyone is, appropriately, worried about him. When he invites himself to a crime scene, despite everyone’s wishes that he not work, Edrisa comes up to him, all happy to see him back. She mentions the fact that he had seven abdominal stitches and a fracture to his first metacarpal, and he still looks great. Edrisa says it like it’s no problem; she didn’t even have to think about it. However, she sees the looks the others are giving her and suggests she might have pulled Malcolm’s medical records. She was worried, as she should be. The look that Malcolm gives her isn’t of disgust or embarrassment. It’s of flattery, knowing that someone cares so much about him. It’s a small scene that shows just how much Malcolm means to Edrisa, how worried she was and how Malcolm doesn’t see Edrisa as just someone he works with, not just a colleague. But a friend who cares about him, and vice versa.
How Scenes Cut Together Helped Make the Episode
Hats off again to the editing crew that create the order of scenes to help add hilarious moments. In what could be considered an intense episode, this phenomenal work stood out to us and made the episode all that more enjoyable. Although we saw flashbacks in the episode, it never appeared choppy and, rather, flowed perfectly together with the series of events unfolding (and folding) in the episode. For example, when Gil was talking to the psychiatrist about when he knew they had caught their guy, it immediately cut to that same suspect being questioned, stating, “You’ve got nothing.” This team is amazing, and their constant brilliance is sure to appear again in season 2.
Jessica’s Involvement With Helping Malcolm Heal
As we all know from the previous episode, Malcolm went through a terrible ordeal and came out with an injured hand. Jessica, being the mom that she is, doesn’t do anything halfway. She brings over Ilsa, formerly of a German Olympian judo team, to make his food, give him meds, and more until he recovers, even staying with Malcolm in case he had any of his bad dreams. Later on in the episode, Jessica, of course, had to drop subtle shade towards Malcolm with hints about having grandchildren while interviewing deprogrammers for the team, making this one of the more light-hearted and funny scenes in this episode.
Malcolm Lashes out at Gil
We all know that Malcolm and Gil have a close father-son mentor relationship so this week felt extra painful when Malcolm lashed out at Gil. Malcolm is dealing with the aftermath of his Junkyard Killer kidnapping, and in the heat of the moment, we see the carefully controlled façade drop. Malcolm lashes out and blames Gil for why he is “like this,” and it’s evident that his words incredibly hurt Gil. Gil tells him to get out and storms away to his office. It’s a knife to the heart for every fan who knows Gil wants what’s best for Malcolm, and Malcolm, despite his anger at this moment, sees Gil as a father figure.
Malcolm Danger Count: 4
Prodigal Son is available now on Fox Now and Hulu. The cast recently began filming on season 2, which will return in early 2021. Check back in next week for another #NerdsRewatchProdigal!
