TV Two-fer! Mr. Robot, Prodigal Son

That’s right folks! Two for the price of one!

First up was Mr. Robot‘s fifth episode of the season, “Method Not Allowed.” I know last week it was advertised that this was an episode unlike any we’d seen before, but truthfully, when it was over all I really noticed was that Mr. Robot didn’t show up in it. But jokes on me because there were only two lines of dialogue spoken the entire episode! The rest of it was so intense that I never even noticed!

We start with Darlene picking Elliot up in the woods where she says they don’t need to talk. So they don’t. For the rest of the episode. Instead it follows them as the deftly break into Virtual Realty in order to hack into their servers to get the necessary access to make bank transfers that will hopefully thwart Whiterose. There was some excellent cinematography throughout all their scenes at Virtual Realty, with my favorite being the two siblings running down a red staircase. Also, I’ve never seen a character run as much as Elliot did from the cops – he even got hit by a car and kept going!

Elsewhere in the episode we see the quiet and solemn Dom being summoned (via text) to go look into the Dark Army van that was on fire in the woods, then again at the end to go find Darlene and Elliot. Price is also seen alone on Christmas day, with no family, being summoned to the Deus group meeting to happen later in the evening. The episodes true winner was the music, and the visuals helped keep you glued to the screen. This was definitely an episode that gave the season some much needed forward momentum, so I can’t wait to see where this catapults us to next week!

Yesterday was a new episode of Prodigal Son, and it seems as if my prayers have finally been answered! This week, while initially following the same formula, which includes an introduction of another killer, seems to take a turn revealing it’s a serial killer that may have connections to The Surgeon! I still was pretty sure this was going to be another one episode and done case like every other episode this season has been, but then we got to throw in Ainsley’s interview with Martin.

She seems to think she’s prepared, but we all know Dr. Whitly is a master manipulator, so he was able to turn the interview in his favor before Malcolm showed up. He interrupts the interview saying that if Martin knows who this killer is, then he needs to fess up. Seeing how Malcolm’s questioning rattles their father, Ainsley uses Malcolm’s outcomes in life against him. It was a great way to show that The Surgeon is in fact a psychopath, but you have to feel for Malcolm.

All that gets cut short however, when the hospital goes on lock-down, and another inmate stabs the cameraman/Ainsley’s lover. Martin manages to convince everyone that he can save Jin, and does so successfully. We learn after the fact that Martin had orchestrated the whole ordeal just to put himself in a better light to his kids, especially Ainsley. It seems like he successfully did that for a moment at least. We also learned via present day and flashbacks that Malcolm had a knife from that camping trip, but what was done with it?

Thank goodness this episode ends on a bit of a cliffhanger! I was starting to lose all hope for anything truly exciting to happen. Needless to say, I can’t wait until next week to see what both of these shows bring to the table!