Instinct Review: Manhunt/Trust Issues (Season 2 Episode 9-10)

Well, that’s fast. Instinct Season 2 Episode 9 “Manhunt,” sees the end of the Sleeping Beauty case a full two episodes before the finale.

The first part of another double feature blows two common expectations out of the water. First, that the season-long case would indeed carry through the entire season. Second, that we’ve been awaiting some major reveal with Ryan.

Save for some kind of finale twist that would at this point be nearly absurd, Ryan is indeed a good guy. He’s still a little too obsessed with the case, which creates some issues, but it doesn’t get him killed, either.

The case ends far better that I’d have expected, even as a family is further destroyed by the fact their brother and son is the real killer. To be far, Ryan and Dylan do both nearly get themselves killed.

I’m not sure how I feel about this, especially given confirmation that the show will not return for season 3. What else will we spend the final two episodes on?

The good news is that while the ending is abrupt, it doesn’t feel too rushed. As the title suggests, this is a full-on manhunt, and it has the pace and tension of one for most of the hour.

I’m very happy that Ryan isn’t a murderer, both because I like him and because the potential revelation has been getting ever more complicated each episode. For those same reasons, I’m glad he gets to live, too.

Still, fans have had plenty of reason to expect something more, if only from the narrative tone of Ryan’s arc in the series. There’s still a small part of me nervous that we’ll be presented with something done solely for shock value in the finale.

We do get a partial answer to the question of the subject matter for the last episodes. It comes through the re-appearance of Dylan’s father, here to cast suspicion on…Julian? I did not see that one coming.

It seems his federal friends have tipped him off to devious hacking of the NYPD. Yes, Julian is secretive, and yes, “Jules” has access, but really—where are we going with this and why?

Instinct Season 2 Episode 10 “Trust Issues” works to give more explanations while also following a shooting at a brewery.

Being done with Sleeping Beauty feels no less strange as we move onto new drama and new cases. The  latter is a comparatively typical shooting of several family members, briefly red herring-ed as a murder-suicide.

A brief tangent here: having our coroner act as a patsy to elevate Dylan and Lizzie’s intelligence has been frustrating before, but it returns in new fashion as he misses a gun positioning issue that, if evident to our main characters, should be obvious to someone with his training.

The need to pull a character down to press central ones up is common. We certainly see mediocre shows do it, but it also happens in good shows that should be above such decisions.

Here, the stretch on the “lazy and unobservant” trait is almost too extreme to believe. Coroners have training and expertise. It simply makes no sense that one would miss something, and it’s becoming a bit demeaning.

The killer winds up being a dirty cop whose motivations aren’t quite explained thoroughly enough. Once again, we have more important stories to give screen time to.

Good news: Julian isn’t a traitor. The suspicions cast on him quickly turn to the re-emergence of a man presumed dead— killed by Dylan’s hand in being brought to justice.

This means more questions that ever, woven among more adoption plot threats. Some brief interference from a deadbeat biological dad puts Andy’s lawyer skills to use again, even as the show’s cancellation means we may never hear more of his career path.

Otherwise, all is looking up. Sam is having a boy, and everyone conspires to throw Dylan a very sweet surprise party. It’s a nice break after two deeply tragic storylines. It also happens before the final scene of the episode.

Fans of crime dramas know this means nothing good. When Dylan and Julian are called away, they head to meet Maya, the latter’s mysterious new “friend”, and find that she’s been killed.

With her own reasons for having been in New York and the circumstances of her death both in question, we have an entirely new focus for the end of the season and the series. I’m not sure we’ll have anywhere near enough time for it.

Given that the show’s fate was always in question (I feel like CBS has been planning to cancel since before the first episode, using double features to “burn off” the last of the show) it worries me that we have so little time for the possibility of closure.

I want various storylines wrapped up. I want to see characters look hopefully toward the future. Most of all, I want to see Dylan and Andy meet their son. I have a bad feeling many of these hopes won’t be met. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we get at least some happy moments to suffice.

 

What did you think of this episode of Instinct? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Instinct airs Sundays at 10/9c on CBS.

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