Nerds Rewatch: What We Noticed in ‘Prodigal Son’ Season 2, Episode 8

Phil Caruso/FOX

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 7 of season 2, “Face Value.” This week, we delved into the events of the season’s eighth episode, “Ouroboros,” 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 8!

Hoxley Steals the Show

Phil Caruso/FOX

From the moment we met Simon Hoxley at the end of the midseason finale, it was clear that he would spell trouble for Malcom; however, it wasn’t clear until the met in person how much trouble. Hoxley is a rather over the top, eccentric Brit who enjoys being the center of attention and is always the smartest one in a room, so watching this foreign profiler who everyone knows from his books interrogate the team and shadow them on a case makes for a unique episode. Particularly as he interacts with nearly every major character and manages to irritate pretty much every single one of them. Despite this however, Alan Cumming’s portrayal of the character is hilarious. With lines like “I can’t die in Brooklyn” and “I’m going to be killed by a Millennial. What a twist?,” there is no-one else who could have pulled it off nearly as well. Although, it does bring up the question — since both Tom Payne and Michael Sheen are British/Welsh using American accents for the show, did having Alan Cumming there speaking in his normal accent trip them up at all?

Getting Away With Murder?

Phil Caruso/FOX

This episode offers the public resolution to the Nicholas Endicott murder. Nat is blamed, and since she’s not there to contradict the story after her death, it becomes the accepted narrative. The Whitlys are the only ones who know the truth. It’s all over — or is it? After all, Ainsley is still a killer, and all the Whitlys need to come to terms with their roles in covering up the crime. Plus, while Hoxley may be satisfied with the way this case ended, there’s plenty of loose ends for a potential sleuth to uncover later. If the show is revived elsewhere, it will be interesting to see if this is really the end of the Endicott case. Additionally, Ainsley’s happy reaction to getting away with murder needs to be more fully explored. There’s a lot to unpack there, and without a resolution to the series her arc feel incomplete.

Malcolm’s Lies Stick Out Like a Sore Thumb

Phil Caruso/FOX

Because only your arm being soaking wet at a crime scene with a giant tub of ice water totally makes sense, right? Wrong. When Malcolm discovers the dead courier floating in this tub of ice water after arriving at the crime scene early, he tries to retrieve his phone by plunging his arm right on in there only to discover that he needs the guy’s thumbprint to unlock it. So naturally, he grabs some scissors and cuts off the man’s thumb right in the nick of time before Dani, JT, and Hoxley arrive. When its questioned why his arm was soaking wet, Malcolm spouts off an unbelievably unconvincing lie about getting splashed by a car on the street. Yeah right. You’d think that being a profiler and literally having a stint at the FBI would make Malcolm a better liar at some point, but we were continuously proven wrong.

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 8. 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!

Co-contributors: Brianna, Kenedi, LeeAnn

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