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Prodigal Son Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
20 Episodes 2019 - 2020
Episode 1
Pilot
Mon, Sep 23, 201945 mins
Malcolm Bright is the assumed name of the brilliant son of super-maxed serial killer Dr. Martin 'the Surgeon' Whitly, under which he proved himself as (over-)committed FBI profiler, yet was fired as 'mental risk'. He's engaged as consultant by metropolitan lieutenant detective Gil Arroyo in his native New York, where his meddling mother Jessica and reporter sister Ainsley can reconnect properly. His first case of multiple murders, on a patriarch and his estranged family, soon proves the work of an imperfect copycat of Martin, whom Malcolm decides to contact again after having severed ties ten years ago to end a traumatically 'fake' childhood, which still causes pathologically extreme nightmares, hence sleeplessness on top of his allergy to most foods. The NYPD team has mixed feeling about the consultant who thinks like the worst criminal and doesn't hesitate to save a surprising 'collateral' victim from a fatal explosion at home by ax-amputation.
Episode 2
Annihilator
Mon, Sep 30, 201943 mins
Gil invites Malcolm again to consult: on the poisoning of several family members; snakes found in the body of the late patriarch Aristos Boutsikaris point to an estranged son Liam, who tries to kill Malcolm with snake venom, which triggers a new memory of Dr. Whitly using chloroform on his son when he discovers an unconscious woman in a locked box. Ainsley discovers that Malcolm visits their father. Malcolm goes warns Dr. Whitly that he will uncover the truth behind his missing memories. When the suspect is reported dead from suicide, Gil gives his team a few hours to prove Malcolm's theory that he was framed. Malcolm and Dani visit the family lawyer, who admits that he was an illegitimate child rejected by the patriarch, seeking revenge by killing his family before poisoning himself, his wife and daughters, but the cops are able to reverse the poisonings. Dani takes an inebriated Malcolm home that night and helps him into bed. Dr. Whitly's guard at the asylum secretly contacts Jessica, who thus keeps discrete tabs on his visits.
Episode 3
Fear Response
Mon, Oct 7, 201943 mins
The murder by suicide-inducing LSD overdose causing extreme anguish leads Malcolm and the team to professor Elaine Brown, a premier expert in the science of fear. Letters recovered from the victim's body and the man's brain being removed after his death suggest the killer may be a disgruntled former test subject of Brown, who was illegally dosing her students with LSD, which she covered up. Jessica protests that her son's visits with Dr. Whitly further damage his 'fragile mind' and asks Gil to intervene, but he feels Malcolm can make his own choices. As Brown identifies the suspect ex-student Dominic Render, Malcolm realizes that the murders aim to wipe out everyone involved with her research. While on stakeout, clarifying his pro-police attitude to simpleton cop JT, the killer breaks into Brown's house and drugs her before she shoots him dead; Malcolm convinces her to surrender. Jessica visits Martin to tell him to stop seeing their son, he tries to manipulate her. Malcolm intentionally doses himself with chloroform to try and fill the gap in his memories, inducing an extreme panic attack.
Episode 4
Designer Complicity
Mon, Oct 14, 201943 mins
Jessica gets Malcolm removed from Dr. Whitly's visitation list. A social media influencer is murdered by an MO Malcolm deems the work of a stalker. Accompanied by JT, he picks up photographer Roger, who followed the victim for some time, but refuses out of fear to reveal evidence that the police believe he has. After the real killer tries to run him over, Malcolm tricks Roger to think he's dying, causing him to hand over the evidence, which points to designer Axel X, the victim's former boyfriend, who Malcolm realizes is the actual target. Without a warrant to justify Malcolm seeks out Axel on his own and gets him to give up the killer: his bodyguard Joey. Joey prepares to kill him, but Giles' s team spring a trap last minute, thanks to the wire Malcolm wore to catch Axel and Joey. Gil provides Malcolm with a recording of his mother's interview following his father's arrest, revealing she had no prior knowledge of the murders, but mistook Martin's suspicious behavior for having an affair. Ainsley makes a surprise prison visit to talk to her father.
Episode 5
The Trip
Mon, Oct 21, 201943 mins
Haunted by worsening nightmares, convincing him he needs the last box of tangible memories, which his mother got hold of, Malcolm needs the 'distraction' of profiling. So he butts in to Gil's team's apparently routine case, only to find the murder of a Dominican drug lord by hundredfold stabbing must be personal, not just a turf war as cop Dani Powell maintains, having been the undercover lover of his rival Xavier Estime , one of two rival Hispaniola gangs' prime suspect drug barons, who inherit the cocaine and other drug business in the territory. Malcolm accompanies Dani -with Gil and alone- to probe them, hitting on a darker personal drama but exposing them to a vengeful parent on top of the gang - and succession war. A shootout in the process exposes Malcolm to a drugs overdose, intensifying his nightmares but also inspiring the search for his psychologically blocked childhood memories.
Episode 6
All Souls and Sadists
Mon, Oct 28, 201943 mins
When Bright uncovers a photo of himself and Martin from when he was a kid, he is forced to focus on the repressed memories from his childhood psyche. He also finds himself bonding with a young boy connected to the NYPD's latest homicide. Jessica and Malcolm finally agree on one thing-they must put a stop to Ainsley's idea to interview 'The Surgeon'.
Episode 7
Q&A
Mon, Nov 4, 201944 mins
Bright's quest for answers about his childhood leads him to a junkyard, where he's bombarded with gunshots. Narrowly escaping, Bright and the NYPD discover multiple bodies on the scene, with victims spanning decades. Gil, Dani, Frank and Bright must investigate this serial killer who Bright suspects has something to do with "The Surgeon."
Episode 8
Family Friend
Mon, Nov 11, 201943 mins
Interpreting the NYPD-dubbed Junkyard Killer's MO as that of a "righteous" killer, Malcolm searches the scrapyard and finds a live victim, Ryan Davis, buried in a makeshift underground cell. Enraged, the killer calls again demanding to know how he figured it out. Malcolm maintains his composure until the killer mentions the girl in the box, which winds him up enough to risk walking into a trap where he's injured semi-mildly. The killer gives him a phone and tells him to meet at a certain location if he wants to save kidnapped priest Leo, who looks after homeless people like Ryan. Gil helps save the priest, but Malcolm realizes it was a diversion: the killer meanwhile intruded the hospital to murder Ryan in his bed. Ainsley spots him there and can hide just before cops arrive. Jin, who has just woken up from surgery, breaks up with her out of disgust for putting her career before him, finding she had filmed his surgery and was planning to air it. Jessica refuses Malcom's advice to leave her house at least until the Junkyard Killer is caught. Gil must report the FBI is taking over the case, he's sidetracked.
Episode 9
Pied-A-Terre
Mon, Nov 25, 201943 mins
Malcolm's nightmares are worse then ever, now starring the 'girl in the box' yielding a samurai sword to urge him to search. The naked corpse in banker Beth Saverstein's luxury flat bed isn't her husband David, but the anonymous lover she invited behind his back in the anonymous 'erotic experimenting community' run for socialites by mysterious Jasper by Simone. Malcolm lures her undercover as a potential client needed to be vetted, in his bed. Meanwhile he is 'normally' dating his mother's lawyer and charity secretary Eve Blanchard, who soon regrets having dared him to profile her. The incompetent FBI agent haughtily refused any contact with the NYPD over the junk yard killer after taking the case, until she learns Gil's case is the only actual lead.
Episode 10
Silent Night
Mon, Dec 2, 201943 mins
Ainsley's interview airing brings up trauma in Malcolm as he watches it, and Eve hasn't contacted him after he profiled her. NYPD Chief of Detectives Turner's murder forces Malcolm to cross paths with hostile alcoholic retired cop Owen Shannon, who oversaw Dr. Whitly's case and treats Malcolm almost like a suspect than a witness. Shannon bitterly claims to be unfairly dismissed from the force for insisting that another killer helped the Surgeon, but ends up deciding to help Malcolm, share some reservations. Gil's team is left to deal with the FBI, headed up by profiler Colette Swanson, who hates 'amateur' Malcolm and asks Dani to spy on him. Preparing for Christmas with her family, Jessica becomes increasingly agitated by the focus on her husband and announces a reward for a new lead on the girl in the box. Shannon and Malcolm find Turner's secret office, where they realize that he also shared Shannon's concerns and wanted to prove him right. Suspecting the truth, the two deduce the killer's real name, John Watkins, and visit his deceptively welcoming grandmother Matilda Watkins for information. John cuts Shannon's throat, knocks Malcolm unconscious, and abducts with him before the team arrives.
Episode 11
Alone Time
Mon, Jan 20, 202043 mins
Malcolm is kidnapped and chained for 'purifying tests' by the Junkyard killer Paul Lazar, whose mother Matilda Watkins just wants him to exact bloody revenge, while even Malcolm can't talk much sense into him, the first ordeal being a chest stabbing matching the one he gave in self defense as a kid when Martin and Paul took him to the wood cabin to be murdered. Only with time running out, the incompetent FBU agent takes her cue from Gil's team to the cabin, but it's not the right trail. Gil gets special permission to question Martin, who faints and fears it's already too late. Semi-delirious, Malcolm reaches the same conclusion as his family going through old pictures: the secret dungeon is hidden in the home basement. Left as 'final test' a hammer to dislocate his own hand, he breaks free to take on the lethal threat.
Episode 12
Internal Affairs
Mon, Jan 27, 202043 mins
Following a mysterious and catastrophic incident in the precinct, Bright faces an internal affairs review as Gil and the team worry about his mental health.
Episode 13
Wait & Hope
Mon, Feb 3, 202043 mins
Malcolm takes a detour from his mandated vacation time when he finds out a killer on the loose is mimicking homicides from one his favorite children's books, "The Count of Monte Cristo." With added help from a very excited Martin Whitly, the NYPD trace the case back to a high society family planning one of the biggest weddings of the season, so Malcolm and Dani get dressed up to attend the event and track down their culprit.
Episode 14
Eye of the Needle
Mon, Feb 10, 202043 mins
Jessica continues to search for more information on the "Girl in the Box," but is confronted by the "Carousel Killer," who has a very public vendetta against the Whitlys. While the NYPD investigates families tied to Martin's victims, it's ultimately up to Malcolm and Jessica to track down the tip-line caller - turned killer - who is blackmailing her. Meanwhile, Ainsley receives a big promotion at work, but quickly realizes she may never escape the high demand for serial killer reports.
Episode 15
Death's Door
Mon, Feb 17, 202044 mins
Malcolm can't confess having stabbed Martin, as Jessica already took the blame to the police. Ainsley calls 'best and worst' attorney Everett Sterling, who 'gor Martin off too easily', only to be rejected so she can seek a fitting defense counsel. Martin is in coma, having a nightmare where his victim 'in the box' fights back stabbing him in a coma, but even then remembers a sociopath is always in control and regains conscience. Malcolm sought distraction in another NYPD case, an investor murdered and masterly embalmed at home to necrophiliac standards. He invested in funerary firms, so morticians are suspect, but they hold a convention of 3000 and the linked ones are rather target as the killer strikes again. With Martin awake, he exacts a price for not exposing Malcolm stabbed him: two visits per ten days. Dr. Edrisa Tanaka gets a terrifying a chance to partake in the action when the killer comes to her mortuary, luckily followed by Malcolm and the cops he called.
Episode 16
The Job
Mon, Mar 16, 202042 mins
When a motorcycle gang robbery turns into a murder, Malcolm and team are called to the scene to investigate. While he's working on a profile, he runs into an old friend from boarding school, licensed insurance investigator Vijay (guest star Druhv Singh). Together they work to uncover the identity of the murderer and his accomplices who stole millions in watches. Meanwhile, Martin blackmails Jessica, exchanging his silence about who stabbed him for more quality time with his son.
Episode 17
Stranger Beside You
Mon, Mar 23, 202043 mins
After a celebrity blogger's husband is murdered, the team must uncover a wed of deceit around the baby she recently gave birth to, neither being safe. At Malcolm's request, Ainsley uses her reporter skills to dig into his Eve's past, and discovers she's the girl in the box's sister, with Martin involved and scrutinized again.
Episode 18
Scheherazade
Mon, Mar 30, 202044 mins
At tycoon Nicholas Endicott's private arts benefit performance, defected Cuban star dancer Javier collapses in his own blood, fatally poisoned by oleander. Previous company star Joseph, who was replaced by Javier arm-injured in an accident caused by the diva Fiona, would have waited long enough to recover fully first, now he risks being replaced by a third. Another ballerina is nearly blinded by capsaicin poison, on Fiona's orders, but she loved Javier and feared he wanted a transfer, having become impotent. Suspecting that triggered by a trauma, the team digs up his Cuban past, as director stepping in after the fraud-exposed predecessor at the state ballet, Ivan Castillo, murdered six of his fellow dancers, and was probably falsely reported dead. Malcolm coaches Eve to trigger Martin's ego into telling what happened to her sister Sophie, his never-found victim, yielding a worrisome plot line for all.
Episode 19
The Professionals
Mon, Apr 20, 202043 mins
Malcolm is gutted to hear lover Eve's 'suicide by drowning' two weeks ago was a cleverly disguised murder and insist to take the case. Pressured by the while family, Martin admits it must be the work of tycoon Nicholas Endicott, who arranged his soft hail deal, confirming Jessica's catastrophic taste in men. The NYPD team has a hard time identifying and trapping his presumed female hired killer 'Nightingale', only to see her released on a shady CIA deal and insist on innocence. Just in time they find the real killer, about to strangle Martin, overpowered by Malcolm, who apparently overdoes the rescue.
Episode 20
Like Father...
Mon, Apr 27, 202043 mins
Malcolm is bailed out by Jessica after his arrest for the murder of Nicholas Endicott's killer Eddy and insists to be put on the case, but is instead confined to the family home with an ankle monitor. Having hacked it and slipped out, he meets up with Edrisa to deduce that the crime lab that processed Eddie's body planted false DNA evidence. Endicott, who owns it, arranges for Dr. Whitly to be transferred to Riker's, where a bounty is placed on his head. Malcolm and Ainsley visit their father, getting him to reveal what he has on Endicott, but it turns out he never had any evidence, it was a bluff. Gil informs Malcolm that he is going to be officially charged and lets him flee, instructed to leave town and wait for news. Malcolm finds Eve's sister Sophie, who is working as a veterinarian in a Connecticut town, finding confirmation that she murdered Eddie, but decides to take the blame instead, blaming himself for failing to save her as a child. Gil goes to Endicott's house to retrieve Jessica, who winds up saving his life when Endicott has him stabbed. Endicott then captures Ainsley and lures Malcolm back to his mother's house. Malcolm threatens Endicott with a gun; when Endicott mockingly says he'll never be prosecuted and Malcolm can't shoot despite it all, Ainsley suddenly slits his throat and stabs him multiple times, fatally. She asks what happened, claiming to ignore what she did, just as Dr. Whitly contacts his children, revealing his plan to stay alive.
