'Prodigal Son' Episode 5 preview: A war is on in Malcolm Bright's mind, will he give in to his fears or face his father?
Spoilers ahead for Episode 4 of 'Prodigal Son' titled 'Designer Complicity'
There are two major takeaways from the last episode of the Fox thriller 'Prodigal Son'. One, that Malcolm Bright's (Tom Payne) mother Jessica Whitly (Bellamy Young) had no idea about The Surgeon's (Michael Sheen) killing spree.
Two, that Bright's sister Ainsley (Halston Sage) finally goes to meet her father in his cell.
The episode begins with Bright in a dire state. At the end of the third episode, he had used chloroform on himself to trigger the memories of the night so he could find out what happened to the girl in the box.
This reminded him that his mother could have been involved in one way or the other in his father's crimes. While that is settled by the end of episode four, it doesn't look like there is any respite for Bright's mental health.
In the promo released by the network for episode five, we can see Bright admit to his mother that his nightmares are getting worse. They are, in fact, getting more graphic.
"These nightmares, are they getting worse?" a very concerned Jessica is seen asking Bright. "They are becoming more vivid," he confesses to her.
His very first visit to his father after decades in episode one had triggered a bad bout of night terrors, tremors and PTSD. This conflict was further worsened by his father's reiteration that both of them are not that different.
Which, at one point, had also led Bright to doubt himself. However, this constant reiteration by his father takes on a new face in the coming episode.
In the next clip in the promo, Bright is in his father's cell with himself. "I'm your subconscious," the other Bright says. Dressed in Malcolm's sweater, it looks like Bright is fighting with his subconscious that is akin to his father.
"I'm only trying to show you the truth about yourself," the Martin Whilty-like Malcolm tells him. "What you need is something to help you stitch all this crazy together," he tells him.
This points to a war going on in Bright's mind at all times. 'Prodigal Son' is very much a thriller about those who give in to their psychotic tendencies and those who don't.
Bright seems to be in this conflict all the time — but does that mean he is becoming like his father?