Prime Target Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2 Review: A New Pattern / Syracuse

Prime Target Season 1 Episode 1, “A New Pattern,” and Prime Target Season 1 Episode 2, “Syracuse,” introduce us to the dangerous worth of math, which is more suspenseful and intriguing than it sounds.

Granted, it takes until “Syracuse” for things to actually get interesting. “A New Pattern” is an extremely slow, decently boring hour of television. We spend it getting to know how awkward Ed is at socializing and how intense he is about prime numbers.

It’s a necessary introduction, but the episode needed something more to keep us engaged. Introducing Taylah in that episode might have helped, as her scenes on “Syracuse” are mainly responsible for picking up the momentum and building intrigue.

Hopefully, Taylah and Ed cross paths sooner rather than later, ideally on Prime Target Season 1 Episode 3, “The Sequence,” because neither one is entertaining enough to investigate this alone. And then there’s the fact that they need the knowledge the other person has in order to make any real headway on this investigation.

Plus, we’re going to need someone to explain whatever math developments happen during the course of the investigation, and it would look strange if Ed randomly narrated all his developments in non-math genius terms.

Prime Target Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2 do a decent job of setting up the mysteries/conspiracies of the series. There are, of course, still lots of questions, but there’s no doubt that whatever forces are at play, they’re extremely dangerous and well-connected.

Someone killed Ed’s advisor, Robert Mallinder, and warned him about how he was supposed to stay away from prime numbers.

It doesn’t seem likely that Kaplar Institute is behind the threats to Robert. They clearly want Ed to continue his prime number research, as evident by them showing up to his flat in a super creepy way late at night.

Most likely, Robert’s concern over his prime number focus ties back to Safiya — the former student who also studied prime numbers and committed suicide. However, that doesn’t explain who called to reprimand Robert for looking at prime numbers again.

Seeing as how the NSA is watching him and someone shot Taylah’s boss at the end of “Syracuse,” someone inside the NSA being on the other end of that phone call would make sense, and it would further connect the math storyline and the NSA storyline.

Overall, Prime Target is off to a slow start, but things do eventually pick up pace, making it to where we are excited to see what’s in store throughout the rest of the season.

Stray Thoughts

• I was very confused when the premiere opened up with an explosion in Baghdad. I thought I started the wrong show.
• Taylah’s storyline being behind Ed’s in “Syracuse” made for a couple of brief, confusing moments.

What did you think of the two-episode premiere of Prime Target? Will you be sticking around? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Prime Target airs on Wednesdays on Apple TV+.

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