‘Prodigal Son’ Season 1, Episode 10 ‘Silent Night’ Review: Christmas Murder Hunting

The Whitly’s sure do have interesting holidays. Unfortunately for them, as much as they try to live away from The Surgeon’s shadow, this holiday might just be all about him. This week in the midseason finale of Prodigal Son, Dr. Whitly’s (Michael Sheen) shadow looms larger than ever over his entire family. Interestingly enough, it came in a very unexpected way.

In this episode titled ‘Silent Night,’ the stakes are raised. Though it’s not as riveting and hair-raising as the episode Q&A, it still fills the shoes of anticipation quite nicely. And it leaves room for plenty more narratives to fill out the next half of Prodigal Son’s first season. So, without further ado, here’s what happened in this week’s Prodigal Son.

Christmas Murder

Ever since Ainsley’s (Halston Sage) went live, it has been on every television screen in New York. On Christmas eve, it so happens to be playing on Malcolm’s TV. But, before it could swallow him up all over again, a 5-inch stiletto comes hurtling towards the screen courtesy of Jessica (Bellamy Young). Under the light of the cracked TV, Jessica reveals that Gil (Lou Diamond Phillips) told her that the girl in the box was real. Then, she proceeds to apologize for invalidating Malcolm’s feelings all these years. With the air cleared, she reminds Malcolm of Christmas dinner. He might’ve forgotten but, it doesn’t matter all the same. Malcolm has a Christmas murder waiting for him.

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Come Christmas morning, Malcolm is with the team in a hotel room checking out the corpses of a policeman and a prostitute. As Dani (Aurora Perrineau) reveals, the dead Chief of Detectives Ian Turner had a squeaky clean record. And their ongoing theory is that he had a dirty secret and the girl threatened to tell on him. So, he killed her and committed suicide out of guilt. Despite the incriminating scene, Malcolm thinks otherwise.

Taking Turner’s gun, Malcolm reenacts their theory up until he points the gun to his own head. As the unmistakable click of the safety resounds, everybody panics. Turning around, Malcolm tries to assure them that it’s not loaded only to realize that it is and things could have gone so terribly wrong. And after everybody calms down, he explains that it couldn’t have been a homicide-suicide situation. There was someone else.

Grumpy Old Pals

In the precinct, Malcolm explains that Turner’s body was staged. In anger, the killer simply plowed through the girl and took their sweet time to try and frame Turner. So, their attention is directed towards anyone who had a beef with Turner. Before they could continue, the FBI comes marching in with Colette Swanson (Meagan Good), Malcolm’s old buddy, in the lead.

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Even though her dislike for Malcolm was made clear in the past episodes of Prodigal Son, I did not expect her to be absolutely asinine towards him. In their short exchange, she made every effort to rub Malcolm’s face on the ground. However, she might just be the key to discover what Malcolm’s past with the FBI is though so, I’m not crossing her out yet. Having the upper hand, she kicks Malcolm and the rest out of their little conference room but, keeps Dani to help her.

Afterward, Malcolm is sentenced to miserably go through hundreds of Turner’s case files in a little desk. It doesn’t take long for him to find a clue though. As it turns out, Turner had a partner before he was promoted to chief, Det. Owen Shannon (Sean Pertwee). In addition to that, Malcolm also remembers Shannon to be the bad cop who mentally and emotionally tortured him upon his father’s arrest insisting that he was daddy’s little helper. Until that moment, Malcolm’s furious with him, however, he’s the only lead they’ve got.

Smear Campaign Homicide

Upon knocking on Shannon’s door, Gil and Malcolm are greeted by a gun to the face. As it turns out, after the Surgeon was caught, Shannon’s career went down the drain. Now, he’s a drunk waving a gun around in paranoia. Seeing him, Malcolm could barely contain his rage. So, he tries to rile up Shannon by accusing him of murdering his old partner and the girl he was with. The mention of the girl puts an abrupt halt to the brewing tension, however, because as Shannon reveals, Turner was gay.

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With this new information, the murder turns into a case of character assassination. Someone was trying to smear Turner’s character. And as Gil says, “a dead cop can’t defend himself.” With that, JT tracks down Macy Barnes (Ashley Austin Morris), the madame who handled the girl who was killed to find out who hired her and tried to frame Turner.

Meanwhile, Colette tries to get some dirt on Malcolm from Dani. But, she’s as loyal as an excellent friend could be. Besides, she senses that Colette’s vendetta against Malcolm is something more personal. Reaching a standstill, Colette shows Dani footage from when Paul Lazar (Michael Raymond-James) cornered Malcolm in the tunnels. Apparently, Malcolm omitted this two-minute conversation from his report. And now, Colette thinks Malcolm has more to do with the junkyard killer than he’s letting on.

The Cost of Ambition

On the other hand, Gil finds Jessica waiting in his office. And now, she’s also eager to know about the girl in the box. Knowing that she’s already worried about too much, Gil takes her hands in his and tries to redirect her attention elsewhere. As Gil says, “Let someone take care of you for a change.” It’s a little sweet and a little tender but, Jessica suddenly notices what Gil’s doing and abruptly pulls away.

When Gil explains that he’s simply trying to prevent the girl in the box from consuming her, Jessica snaps back with “You don’t get to make that decision!” Before he can further explain, Colette calls for his help. Now alone in his office, Jessica opens his case file about the girl in the box and sees the picture of the bracelet. Strangely, something like realization or recognition passes through her face.

When Ainsley arrives for their Christmas family dinner, Jessica’s still not too thrilled with her daughter. Because of her interview, the media is once again feasting on their family. Ainsley refuses to apologize for her actions, however, and maintains that chasing after her ambition isn’t wrong. She also insists that the interview gave her the chance to use the media to direct the narrative. When Jessica snaps back, she reminds her daughter that Dr. Whitly had real victims. And these victims had real families that are now seeing Ainsley on-screen bringing back their horrors. The saddest part is that the story never seems to be about them.

Later on, Ainsley’s words have Jessica thinking. And taking her daughter’s words to heart, Jessica steps out her door to face the press head-on to spin her own narrative. Brandishing a picture of the bracelet, she urges the general public to help her search for the missing girl and to truly bring martin Whitly to justice.

An Unlikely Ally

After JT tracks down Macy Barnes, he and Gil find out that the smear campaign and the murders are unrelated. As it turns out, Turner was onto Macy’s underground prostitution business. So, she sent one of her girls on him to seduce him and take incriminating photos to blackmail him. When her girl didn’t come back, Macy just assumed Turner killed her.

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Meanwhile, as he’s headed home for their Christmas dinner, Malcolm is intercepted by Shannon. In their first meeting, he failed to recognize Malcolm but Malcolm’s hand tremors gave him away. And somehow, after Malcolm confides about the connection of his lost memories with the junkyard killer, the two find common ground to bond over. With this, Shannon takes Malcolm to a secluded garage where Turner used to take the case files he didn’t want anybody to see when they were still partners.

Inside, both Shannon and Malcolm are surprised to see files and files about the junkyard killer. Unbeknownst to anyone, Turner was going after him. While Shannon was thinking that Turner ruined his career for ratting on him, Turner was actually trying to redeem his name by proving his theory that the Surgeon had a cleanup man right. With realization dawning on him, regret fills Shannon. Soon, Malcolm realizes that he and Turner were in a relationship. As Malcolm tries to comfort Shannon, the old policeman spies his old list of suspects. With hope building between the two of them, Malcolm pulls out his own list of suspects and they set out to cross-reference it.

A Christmas Dinner Murder with the Prodigal Son

After a while, one name pops out from both lists – John Watkins. And soon, Malcolm and Shannon are at the doorstep of the man’s address. Instead of a man, however, they’re greeted at the door by a blind old lady who quickly invites them inside after they introduce themselves as John’s friends. While she prepares food for her guests, Malcolm marvels at John/ Paul Lazar’s childhood home. It’s as he calls it the holy grail for profilers. And everywhere he looks, there are clues as to how John became the serial killer he is. But, apparently, the brunt of it is with Matilda, the old woman who’s John’s grandmother.

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Trying to ID John, Malcolm asks to see pictures of him. But, when Matilda brings out the album, John’s face is scratched out in all pictures. Switching tactics, Malcolm pretends to go to the bathroom to snoop around. He finds John’s room at the top of the stairs. And when he sees the scratch marks inside John’s closet, a fragment of memory arises and he remembers being inside that very closet trying to claw his way out.

When Malcolm comes back down, Shannon is dead. His throat has been slit. Apparently, the old woman knew they were cops all along and called her grandson home. While the old woman is screeching for John to finish off Malcolm, Malcolm follows John outside into a shed. Unfortunately, John knocks him down. John gives him one warm greeting before finally knocking the prodigal son out cold and hauling him off.

Prodigal Son continues Monday, January 20th, at 9/8c on Fox.