Prodigies, welcome back to the second installment of Nerds Rewatch Prodigal! If you’re not familiar with this series, every Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT, we’ll be pressing play on Twitter to rewatch and live-tweet an episode of Prodigal Son. Last week, we put our rewatch goggles on for episode 4 of season 2, “Take Your Father to Work Day.” This week, we delved into the events of the season’s fifth episode, “Bad Manners,” with a new perspective now that we know what events unfold in order to point out some of its most striking moments and features. Without further ado, let’s jump into what we noticed in episode 5!
Maybe Edrisa and Caffeine Shouldn’t Mix
While Edrisa is always one of our favorites, this episode offers a particularly fun glimpse at Edrisa as she opts for extra caffeine instead of sleep to get through a backlog of bodies. From her first moment onscreen in this episode it is clear that something is not quite right with Edrisa and when she explains that she’s been drinking her own macchiato and a nonalcoholic Four Loko concoction to help battle the sleep deprivation. Then later when the coffee no longer works she switches to straight Four Loko which makes her excessively jittery throughout the autopsy update with Gil and Malcolm. The best Edrisa moment of this episode comes when she drops in on Malcolm as he is working on the case and actually ends up helping him solve the case. However, she spends the whole time she’s helping Malcolm sitting on the table scooting around, fidgeting, and playing with her pencil – it’s like watching a toddler trying to sit still. She is so energetic normally, but the caffeine just pushes her to a whole new level and really brings out her personality in a way that makes her even more loveable than ever.
Ainsley Gets Competitive
This episode gave us a deeper glimpse into Ainsley’s psyche and we can’t say we’re sure we like what we saw. The opening flashback to an over-competitive game of hide and seek could be chalked up to a child not knowing when enough is enough. However, that gets coupled with Ainsley’s single-minded ruthless drive to solve a murder before the NYPD. Yes she’s a reporter, but catching killers is definitely not in her job description. We did get some interesting sibling moments between Ainsley and Malcolm where it seems Malcolm is really starting to analyze Ainsley for her choices. Not only does she think she can catch the killer, but Ainsley also makes a calculating decision to film a dead body at a crime scene. It’s enough to get Gil and Jessica on their guard as well and I have to say I agree that this is yet another step too far for her. Every choice she makes in this episode gave us a look inside her mind and what we see is a little unsettling.
The Whitly Parents Are a Team?
This episode saw something very unique — Jessica willingly going to visit Martin to ask for help. We know the Whitly’s aren’t exactly on top of the whole co-parenting thing, and Jessica would typically rather do absolutely anything but see Martin, but with the news about Ainsley taking after her father in the stabby life choices area, the Whitly parents actually have a common interest: keeping the secret. Granted, Jessica is more focused on the “I can’t have another serial killer in the family and I don’t want her to go to prison” aspect, while Martin is just proud of them for following in his footsteps and getting away with it. However, no matter how much their individual reasoning for wanting the secret kept or how much Martin antagonizes Jessica they are at least in the same book — if not exactly on the same page — for the first time since we met them.
Sarah Windsor’s Explosive Ending
As head of the Windsor School of Etiquette, Sarah Windsor was obviously a lady concerned with appearances. Though this was an apparent facet of her personality, it was still a shock when she met her end at her own hand after she realized Malcolm had figured out her secret. Rachel, her assistant, was actually her daughter. Not only that, but Rachel was the perpetrator of the debutantes’ murders. Rachel was Sarah’s dirty little secret. Ms. Windsor always valued the debutantes over her even though they betrayed the values of the school, something which caused Rachel to direct her anger towards them for rejecting the love that she desperately craved her whole life. In order to try and keep this scandalous news from spreading, Sarah blows up the school in a fiery blaze of glory. Though the moment was tragic, the camerawork in the scene is something to truly be admired.
The Gilica Ice Starts to Thaw
Gil and Jessica have definitely had their ups and downs this season, but this episode offers a special moment between the two. As we know, Jessica goes to visit Martin to talk about the Ainsley issue and it goes about as well as can be expected. However, when Gil finds out he tells Jessica, “Look, you don’t need to talk to Martin. I’m here. Whatever you need I’m here,” and it is about the sweetest thing you’ll ever see. Especially given the fact that this statement leaves Jessica speechless. Unfortunately, the moment is cut short as JT tells Gil that they need to go follow a lead; however, before he leaves Gil asks about Ainsley only to be informed that Ainsley is already gone. This leads to what may be Gil’s best quippy Jessica related moment, as Jessica says, “I’m too late”, and Gil responds, “I don’t know. You were right on time for me” then smirks at her and walks away. It is simply a short but brilliant glimpse at just how much Gil cares about Jessica, and it’s the first glimmer of hope that maybe the ice around Gilica may be thawing.
Make sure to join us next Tuesday for our live-tweet event under the tag #NerdsRewatchProdigal and the Twitter account @Call4BackupPod as we press play at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on episode 6. Additionally, you can listen to our corresponding commentary for this week’s episode on our podcast Call For Backup here. Make sure to stay up to date with all of the news concerning Prodigal Son and the campaign to save the show here. Until next week, Prodigies!
