Prodigal Son – Season 1 Episode 20 (The Finale) Recap & Review

Prodigal Daughter?

Prodigal Son has had a wild ride over the months. From the highs of the junkyard killer to the lows of the inconsistent episodes to begin this 20-episode run, Fox’s latest crime drama has consistently managed to deliver compelling drama. The finale is no exception with a wonderfully explosive and exciting final episode that leaves the door wide open for a possible second season.

After being imprisoned last episode, the season 1 finale of Prodigal Son begins with Malcolm starting to hallucinate, doubting himself and his sanity. Thankfully he makes bail before he completely loses it but is forced under house arrest, where he tries his best to break free and prove his innocence.

Endicott meanwhile exerts his authority and tightens up security on Martin, telling the guards he’s trying to leave, throwing him in with the prison population and placing a bounty on his head for the other inmates to fight over.

Despite Malcolm’s DNA being all over Eddie, the group discuss how out of character this is for our main protagonist at the morgue. Gil and the others hurry off while Edrisa realizes Malcolm is hiding in the shadows, having escaped from his house. After discussing matters with her, he realizes the lab results have been tampered with by Endicott.

After visiting Edward Sterling for crucial intel, Malcolm is visited by Gil and the others at his house who take him back down to the station where Malcolm gives his side of the story. Realizing that Martin holds the key to uncovering the truth and his life hanging in the balance, Gil begrudgingly allows Malcolm to visit him in prison to try and pin evidence on Endicott. Only, Martin doesn’t actually have anything to hold against him; this whole time it was a calculated bluff.

With time running out, Malcolm prepares to skip town with the help of Gil but before he goes, he plays the message from Eve again. In the background he hears dogs barking and this leads him to Connecticut after tracking down the origin of the call. That brings her to an animal clinic that holds Sophie Sanders. It’s here Malcolm realizes that she was the one who killed Eddie but he decides not to follow through with the investigation and lets her go, pretending he never saw her.

That evening, Endicott stabs Gil when he heads round to check on Jessica. Jessica hurries out the house and rushes away with a wounded Gil and manages to make it in time to save him. When Malcolm returns home, Endicott happens to be sitting on the sofa with Ainsley.

Malcolm is wise to what’s going on and tells him there are warrants to his offices. As Endicott continues to ooze his confident swagger, Ainsley suddenly snaps and stabs the man numerous times. While a riot breaks out inside the the prison, Martin finds a phone and rings home, where he learns what Ainsley has done. “My girl,” He says gleefully as the episode, and series, ends.

In the wake of what’s going on around the world, Prodigal Son’s finale is testament to what can be done with a bit of script tweaking. Unlike the infamous Heroes rewrite back during the Writer’s Strike (which effectively killed the show), Prodigal Son delivers a decent enough finale even if it does feel a bit rushed.

Given the circumstances though this was to be expected and it’s interesting to know this whole Endicott saga was scheduled to go on for 5 episodes. (source) What we get though is a pretty decent finale, one that has a poetic edge to the final moments and something that certainly leaves the door wide open for a second season.

I do hope Prodigal Son is renewed as there’s a lot to like about this show. There’s still a lot of the past left to be uncovered despite the Girl In A Box angle essentially wrapped up now and the ratings have been relatively steady too. For now though, the show bows out on a high and hopefully we don’t have to wait too long to get an answer surrounding the renewal of this one!