Prodigal Son - It's All in the Execution

Prodigal Son returns for its Second Season with Malcolm (Tom Payne) even "more brightish than usual." Still feeling the effects of helping his sister get away with murder, it's not until the final scene where the Surgeon (Michael Sheen), now reinstated back to the asylum, correctly diagnoses the true cause of his son's guilt. With Gil (Lou Diamond Phillips) still recovering from his wounds, JT (Frank Harts) has done a solid job running the unit which catches a new case in a justice killer dispatching the guilty by obscure means (one by guillotine and walling another inside a literal dungeon while still alive).

The episode is notable for the odd manner of deaths, Malcom's guilt leading to him fraying at the edges, his father's return to the asylum, and its opening sequence in which Malcom nabs a killer on a balcony. While the episode mentions COVID, it doesn't play a part in the episode (and we don't see a single character in a mask). As for Black Lives Matter, and police violence, a late plot thread is added in which a racist cop mistakes JT for a suspect and violently tries to subdue him. The scene feels a bit tacked on at the last minute, but will apparently have lingering ramifications for at least the next few episodes. As for relationships, the episode keeps Gil and Jessica (Bellamy Young) in neutral thanks to the old cliché of a half-heard conversation, and with JT taking on larger responsibilities Malcom and Dani (Aurora Perrineau) have been working as more closely as partners, making her more aware of a change in his demeanor.