‘Prodigal Son’s Bellamy Young on Jessica’s Worst Nightmare Come True, Gil & More (VIDEO)
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Prodigal Son Season 2, Episode 10 “Exit Strategy.”]
The moment that we’ve been waiting for all of Prodigal Son Season 2 arrives in the April 27 episode: Serial killer Martin Whitly (Michael Sheen) escapes Claremont Psychiatric.
It comes as an influx of patients forces Dr. Vivian Capshaw (Catherine Zeta-Jones) to uncuff Martin so he can lend a hand in the infirmary. It’s all part of his plan, and he, Friar Pete (Christian Borle), and Hector (Armando Acevedo) leave their prison behind … just as Martin’s ex-wife, Jessica (Bellamy Young), who’s visiting, realizes what he’s up to.
“I am not the man I used to be. I’m not a killer anymore,” Martin tells his son Malcolm (Tom Payne) in a voicemail. “What I am about to do is not about murder. No, this is about family. Everything I’m doing, everything I’ve done, it’s all for you, for us. I hope you find me, son. You’re the only one who can. Because we’re the same.”
Watch TV Insider’s exclusive featurette above to see the cast discussing Martin’s escape. And keep reading as Young breaks down the episode, including Jessica defending herself from a Claremont inmate, and discusses a couple key relationships.
How does Jessica handle her worst nightmare coming true?
Bellamy Young: That’s exactly it: her worst nightmare come true. As she says to [Lieutenant] Gil [Arroyo, played by Lou Diamond Phillips], “You don’t understand. If the Surgeon is free, none of us is safe.” Does that mean that he’ll come after Gil after all these years for putting him away or he’ll come after her? Will it begin again, the whole cycle of killing and the guilt? Most of all, she’s afraid of going back to 1998. She becomes the prisoner. There’ll be guards outside of their house. She’ll have to keep watch on the children and wonder what horror [Martin] is wreaking on the world as she sits on her sofa with a bourbon in her hand. Her best life has been having him behind bars, and this has just put everything in a spin.
How do Malcolm and Ainsley [Halston Sage] handle it and how does that affect Jessica?
Malcolm and Ainsley have been evolving in different directions. As Malcolm becomes more worried and tries harder to understand his dad, solve crimes, save lives, we’ve watched Ainsley not only commit murder but become a little cavalier about it: “We’re the Whitlys, nobody does murder better than us.” It’ll be interesting to see how they each react.
Phil Caruso/FOX
Also, he was taken away from them when they were so young, particularly Ainsley, so how [will] she react to the possibility of having her father back in her life. Yes, he’s a serial killer, but he’s also her dad, the dad she never really got a chance to know and has only begun knowing as a journalist. Jessica is more than terrified about Ainsley’s interest and acceptance of her father. Jessica would feel a lot better if she could see that Ansley was revolted or appalled or horrified, but this equanimity and interest is chilling.
Jessica knows the key she found means something to Martin despite his protests. He’s coming for it, right?
Of course! Did you see his face when he saw the key? “Let me have that key.” And she’s like, “Oh yeah, you’d love that.” It means something enormous. I don’t think she’s even realized that she should be protecting the key right now; at first, she’s thinking about her kids. But in terms of unanswered questions and the things he might come for, that key is going to be right up there.
Talk about Jessica picking up the stabbing trend in the family and continuing the trend of using the heels as weapons. She threw one at the TV in Season 1, and she saves herself from Darryl [Sahr Ngaujah] with one while wandering around Claremont by herself.
[Laughs] I would be the first to say on behalf of Katie Riley, our amazing wardrobe designer, Jessica has killer fashion instincts for sure.
Phil Caruso/FOX
Everything went way out of control [at Claremont] and she was oddly left alone in Martin’s cell to see herself out. Then the penny drops and she realizes the only circumstance in which this would be happening is if something dire had happened and Martin can’t help but brag on himself, even in a cryptic way. Once she puts the rat and the poison together, the terror really sets in. It’s one thing to be alone in a locked psychiatric penitentiary, but it’s yet another to think that your husband has orchestrated it and he’s about to be loose. Then she just follows directions, bless her. Gil said, find something to use as a weapon. She had these fabulous Tom Ford pumps on. There’s no way those were not built as weapons and as shoes. Our wonderful special effects department built a fake one that looks exactly the same and I just stuck it right in sweet Sahr’s ear.
Jessica finally met Vivian and picked up on something between her and Martin.
With Martin, it’s always just, what is 5,000 levels above intrigue? She’s always sure that he’s working towards an end. When it comes to Martin, Jessica is always asking, “What’s going on?” Because he’s so hard to keep under control. He’s so smart and so amoral, so there’s always a plan. If she had more time to take it in, [she would] think, “Is she going to get him out? Is she going to become his protege?”
How much does Jessica hate how well she knows Martin? She reads him so well in that scene in his cell.
That’s the amazing thing about that relationship, right? People can pretend to be whoever they want to be. People do evolve, but then there are the people that you have known that you love, that you have loved and you know when they’re lying and you know their truth, even as it changes. It’s just incredible for her to be the one person [who knows him so well], even more than Malcolm who knows his father intellectually but didn’t live all those years, didn’t sleep beside him, doesn’t know how he sounds when he’s sick, how he breathes when he’s dreaming. It’s an incredible way in to be able to call him on his bulls**t. “You can spin that yarn for yourself if you need to, Martin, but I see through you.” I love those opportunities.
Phil Caruso/FOX
What would you say Jessica and Gil’s relationship status is currently? It’s very complicated?
[Laughs] Yeah, it is very full, because there’s so much history, there’s so much possible future. There’s so many complications in the present and yet they still just keep getting drawn back towards each other. At the end of the day, they know they can rely on each other, but they know it’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be straightforward, but they know that’s the call to make. There’s not a moment when she [wondered], “Who should I call?” She [knew], “I gotta call Gil because he’s the guy. And he’s the guy that’s always been there.” I love that for them. They keep trying to make it something simple. I don’t know that there’s going to be a simple answer, but life isn’t simple.
Yeah. They had that really sweet moment last week with the dance.
I know, I got to have like an ’80s film star moment with an ’80s film star. That was awesome.
Will the murder of Nicholas Endicott come back to bite the Whitlys in upcoming episodes? Or have they truly gotten away with it?
I personally do not think you can get away with murder. I know Shonda [Rhimes] tried to teach us all, but unless you are a sociopath, then that’s a different personality disorder and that’s something else that frees you from that particular thing. But in terms of public accountability or private guilt, I just don’t think that’s something that ever leaves. That sets them apart from Martin.
Phil Caruso/FOX
So we’re going to see it addressed in upcoming episodes?
I don’t think I should say.
Jessica tries to push Malcolm and Dani [Aurora Perrineau] in the right direction. What does she see in Dani that she knows would be good for her son?
I think she transfers a little of what she sees in Gil onto Dani, by virtue of Gil being her mentor and working with her, choosing her to be on his force. She infers stability, reliability, loyalty to something like a loving anchor in his life. Malcolm has always been so adrift and so separate. Mothers in particular are always guilty of projection. All the things she hopes for herself, she sees in the possibility of Dani and Malcolm, but she doesn’t know Dani, so it’s just one of those motherly ideas of a situation that might not be accurate, but what mothers are always right about is how things affect their kid. She sees how Malcolm is around Dani and she wants him to have more of that.
There was that heartbreaking moment early on in the season when she overheard Dani talking to Gil.
Oh yeah, but she would never hold that against Dani. Because all of that was true. She definitely takes that on as her personal shame, the curse of her life, the indignity of marrying Martin. I don’t think she’d ever hold that against Dani. Dani didn’t say it maliciously and she did not say anything sort of salacious or gossipy. She just [said], “Don’t do this, Gil, she’s cursed, this a terrible family. You cannot walk into that fire.” … I think she also worries that that may be how Dani feels about Malcolm.
Phil Caruso/FOX
What is coming up with Jessica’s book? Especially now that she got that box from the Never Ever Room?
She’s going forward very courageously. I also have had many years in my life that I just repressed and it takes a lot of help and work to stare that monster down. I’m so proud of her as she picks up her little memory orgy and goes to work. It’s just tricky because what I unearth in my past is one thing, but what Jessica is going to unearth in her shared past with a serial killer is something else entirely.
Have you shot any more flashbacks?
[Laughs] Again, I gotta let them tell that story.
So what can you tease about the rest of the season and the finale, especially compared to last season’s shocking bloody cliffhanger.
All the stuff that we have coming up is jaw-dropping. Every script was just like, “What?!” And having Catherine on the show just raised everything to a whole ‘nother level and how this season plays out with Vivian, oh man. I haven’t gotten to see them all. I’ve only seen 10 like you, but I feel like I’m going to want to watch these last few episodes in a row, a bunch of times. I also love watching Catherine and Michael together. They bring out beautiful things in each other. Martin’s sniffing the fresh air. That’s a whole new world.
Prodigal Son, Tuesdays, 9/8c, Fox
