Prodigal Son Speculation

[cornerofmadness]

A Prodigal Son article came out today (you can read it here.) that speculates on the beginning of S2 and had me and my friends on twitter chattering all afternoon.

If you don’t want to read the article, it basically takes something Tom Payne said and blew it up into speculation that Malcolm and Ainsley will hide the murder of Nicholas Endicott. In many ways I think that would turn this into a one and done for me. Let me explain why and to indulge in my own S2 speculation.
So why wouldn’t hiding the body work for me (besides the fact Malcolm should be smarter than that)?
1. Ainsley did stab him several times and cast off is a thing. If you’re unfamiliar with cast off, when you’re swinging a knife or a bat and drawing blood, the blood will arc along with the weapon. Posted a few pics here of the scene. So, we have a couch and chair along with a lamp, end table and carpet all of which would have been soaked in blood. In fact since we have a cut carotid you’d have arterial spray (though it looked more like Jugular venous flow but whatever, you have a major vessel cut) it’s possible droplets hit the wallpaper (Uncle’s picture too) but the high ceilings would probably preclude cast off getting all the way up there. Jessica has a lot of people working in her house and not just maids. She has staff there who care for her businesses. Hell, JT and Dani have been in this place more than once. People will notice if suddenly the room was gutted and everything replaced. They couldn’t hush that up.
2. Even if they DID manage to redo the room in the matter of the hours available to him and transport Endicott out of there, this is a 150-year-old home. Those floor boards will be old and the blood will soak straight on in. Anyone who’s watched an hour or so of True Crime TV knows even specks of blood can be found and with the new advancements in DNA they’d be able to type it out to Endicott. In theory, the siblings could soak the flooring with bleach to denature the DNA and pray no one says ‘hey why does this place reek of bleach’ because it will (and that stuff lingers)
3. The police already know Endicott tried to murder Gil (I say try because if Gil dies, I will be inconsolable). Edrisa knows Endicott framed Malcolm and knows how (so I’m assuming it’ll be down to her to clear his name). Malcolm has reasons to murder Endicott. The police will look hard at him and his family. Malcolm has to know this. He’s not an idiot. He knows there’s no way he could cover this all up. Hell, if he can find traces of blood in his father’s station wagon 20 years later, he has to know they’d find the blood in any of his mother’s cars he uses to move the body (or Ainsley’s car because does she have one?)
4. I think it would be a huge misstep with fans making Malcolm do something so criminal and criminally dumb.
So how do I think it could go?
1. I think both siblings will go to if not prison at least a holding cell. Malcolm does in fact have a warrant out for his arrest. However, Malcolm is an expert in psychology and his sister was in a dissociative fugue. She did ask what had happened as if she wasn’t there when Endicott got sliced and diced. I think he would make a huge deal of that, trying to get her shipped to a high security psych ward on a 72-hour hold. He might have enough sway on the force to swing it.
2. Can Ainsley get out of this? I think it is possible. Bear with me here. Could it be self-defense? Not easily but maybe. Keep in mind we don’t know what Endicott did to Ainsley before Malcolm arrived. Did they just sit there? Maybe. Did he do something more? Who knows, he did eye bang her even after leaving her mother’s bed. He could have. Yes, yes, she cut his neck from behind but this I could see them saying, he was threatening Malcolm with her mother’s gun. Jess was dating him (we lost those episodes thanks to Covid) It’s conceivable that he knew where she kept her gun in that room and I can absolutely see Malcolm planting the gun (which is still bad enough). It would be easy. Wipe the blood off Endicott’s fingerprints with some toilet paper (flush that) put his fingerprints on the gun and put it all down in the blood, let it seep in a little in case he missed any when he wiped it clean (and put his gun away in his room because if he had that…) She did it to save her brother. Jess would be savvy enough to realize if the police ask her about the gun that they know it’s there and would likely say yes Nicholas knew where it was. It might work
3. She could get off on diminished capacity and/or insanity plea. She was truly disassociated when she did it. For me this makes a lot of sense. Hell, if her dad goes to a psych ward for murdering two dozen people then we can easily imagine she could get off this way. Especially if she has been hallucinating like her brother has been and she admits to it
4. Keep in mind that Endicott has been buying and selling justice for decades. Sterling was just one of his lawyers surely. The DA is going to want to downplay this as much as possible. It could shred the city really. Hundreds of cases might have to be retried. This might make the DA very eager to bury everything and let her walk. (This is also probably how Martin gets back to Claremont, because dammit, I want more Mr. David. They can probably figure out those guards were bought off to frame Martin for the escape)

So how then can we maintain drama with Malcolm if he’s not hiding Endicott’s body? Oh, that’s easy.
1. He’s still tormented by what his father’s done.
2. He just watched his sister murder a dude in a vicious rage she can’t even remember
3. Malcolm is good at his job. He has to wonder will Ainsley do it again? He has to put the dots together and wonder is she the narcissist Daddy has always wanted? The evidence is there. Her interview mattered more than him and he knows it. She publicized his mental health issues (Ains, have you not heard of HIPAA?) which could have cost him his job if they think he’s not stable enough to do police work and just so she could get the interview she wanted. Not only that she recorded Jin’s surgery and didn’t seem to give a crap other than to get angry at him for dumping her over it. She didn’t see what she did wrong. Malcolm has to be wondering if his sister is faking emotions and she’s a psychopath too. That’ll keep him up nights.
4. For that matter, he’ll have a crap ton of guilt about Ainsley. Did she slip through the cracks because his issues were so big and so loud that Jessica (and by extension Gil and Jackie) gave him all the attention. We’ve had hints of that and we’ve seen the flashes of jealousy that Malcolm has their mother’s complete attention and she does not. He would feel like he was to blame for them missing that Ainsley too was suffering mental health issues, that he has empathy for even criminals but somehow missed his own sister’s pain.
5. He has a lot to deal with. He lost a woman he cares about (regardless how a big chunk of the fan base thought about Eve). He has a fractured relationship with Dani who was quick to believe his guilt and in spite of him being for her there in the hospital, there has to be some damage done. His better father is hovering near death. His real father could be killed in prison. His mother is probably going to unspool once she finds out what Ainsley has done.


That’s plenty of drama right there.
And oh

Nice cream colored couch that will need replacing. Look at the body language. he has DONE something to her beyond saying hey call your brother and get his ass here.

See what I mean? More like Jugular venous flow than Carotid arterial spray. Those curtains should be painted. The couch is toast so is that rug.


There goes the chair, the lamp, the end table, probably uncle's pic. And look at her face. Think Malcolm is NOT going to be night terroring his brains out to that expression?


ETA - if you came here from my twitter I think you can reply with open ID if you don't have a DW (which I'm betting a lot of you don't) or you can always DM me if you want on twitter.