Prodigal Son Review: The Killabustas (Season 2 Episode 9)

On Prodigal Son Season 2 Episode 9, “The Killabustas,” we finally get some long-awaited background on Edrisa, our favorite medical examiner. Edrisa’s one-liners at crime scenes are one of the things that makes murder such a joy on this show.

At the crime scene on this episode, Edrisa reveals that she herself named the killer who carved his name into the torso of his victim, The Vulture. Kind of a dead giveaway that the murderer is one of the Killabustas, but they have to track down every lead, I suppose. 

Edrisa being part of the Killabustas, her online web sleuth community, was unpredictable and at the same time so totally her. She loves helping people — dead or alive — and while we already knew that, The Killabustas shows how far she’ll go to protect the people she cares about.

Evidently, as far as stabbing someone. (But he was a murderer, so it’s fine, right?)

Watching Edrisa and Blaze start a relationship (or a fling, no judgment) is so much fun to see. We rarely see Edrisa out of the morgue, so seeing her be happy about something that didn’t involve work is something I’d like to see more often. 

Sometimes it seems like Edrisa is written as a doe-in-headlights stumbling over her words kind of girl around Malcolm, so it was nice to see her finally move past that. The flirting between Edrisa and Malcolm is sweet, but watching her meet someone she can actually be with is much more exciting. I hope we get to see more of her and Blaze in the future. 

Elsewhere in “The Killabustas,” Malcolm is literally hit head-on by a car. This isn’t an exaggeration or a joke, though it sounds like it coming from Prodigal Son. Is anyone surprised that he didn’t even try to move when the car was coming straight for him?

This causes Malcolm to start seeing hallucinations of his serial killer father, as you do. 

Typically, when a character on a show has hallucinations or is in a dream-like state, they’re shown/told things their conscious brain would never know or figure out. Think of all the times you’ve watched a character get a head injury and experience an argument about them in the next room or see something from their childhood they never would’ve known otherwise.

Prodigal Son flips this trope on its head by having his hallucination flat-out tell him that Martin isn’t there, and then telling him what his brain actively knows but won’t act on. It is slightly upsetting not getting to see it come to fruition, though. 

Dani opens up to Malcolm in hopes that he will do the same. She reveals something about herself that it would hace taken anyone else years to put out there, and she didn’t receive anything back.

We know logically that Malcolm won’t open up right now because he thinks he’s being told by his father to open up, and if there’s one thing Malcolm hates, it’s doing what will please his father.

Maybe the next time Malcolm gets injured (which I’m sure won’t be long from now) instead of his father appearing, he can instead think of the hallucination he had where he and Dani were together.

The rest of this episode revolves around Jessica and Gil, and Martin and Dr. Capshaw. It doesn’t matter to me how comfortable Martin is calling her Vivian, she’s still Capshaw to me.

Not to be a teacher’s pet, but I still find this relationship highly inappropriate. While the forbidden love trope is sometimes incredibly hot, this situation simply isn’t one I can get behind. 

As I said in my review of Prodigal Son Season 2 Episode 8, “Ouroboros,” the power balance still seems way too disproportionate. What was fun about the timing of these relationships, however, is that it gives us a chance to see Jessica and Gil side by side with Martin and Capshaw. 

On one side, there’s Jessica and Gil — something years in the making, with soft, tender love for one another — a relationship that they both found in extremely dark times where the two are both benefitting. Martin and Capshaw, on the other hand, are quick and dirty, forbidden on every level. What they’re doing may as well be classified as a string of one-night stands. 

Especially since I still think Martin is partially using Capshaw for his inevitable escape. 

While Gil and Jessica have found comfort and care in one another, Martin and Capshaw are based completely on lust. They go further in showing us the difference between the two relationships by having Jessica and Gil dancing alone together in a garage, while Capshaw is immediately found out by Friar Pete.

Even though Edrisa stabbed someone, this episode still feels a bit slow. We can only assume it was to prepare for Martin Whitly’s escape from prison next week.

Other Thoughts:

• Finding out that Edrisa believes in astrology is just what I needed to love her even more.
• The best quote of the episode, which really sums up the entire show, is when Malcolm says, “Trauma is my middle name.” Yeah, bud, we’ve noticed.
• Give me more Dani background! I loved this tidbit we got of her and want to know more about her. 

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

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Prodigal Son airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on FOX.

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