‘Prodigal Son’ Puts the Focus on Relationships — Plus, What’s Next?

Prodigal Son Season 2 Episode 9 Killabustas Malcolm Dani Edrisa
Spoiler Alert
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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Prodigal Son Season 2, Episode 9, “The Killabustas.”]

The spotlight is put on the relationships of Prodigal Son in the April 20 episode. And it’s not just the already established or teased ones, but also a new one, between medical examiner Dr. Edrisa Tanaka (Keiko Agena) and a member of her web-sleuthing group, the Killabustas, Blaze (Michael Luwoye).

But there is a crime to solve as well: The Vulture, as named by Edrisa’s group, graduates from killing birds to murdering and dismembering one of the Killabustas. Blaze is a suspect, at first, but they soon realize it’s another member of the group, Ashton (Steven Boyer). Edrisa even gets to be part of stopping him and stabs him (with a knife from her new beau) as he aims a gun at profiler Malcolm Bright (Tom Payne).

“It was hard for her because she’s such a trusting person. Edrisa’s so open,” Agena tells TV Insider of that moment. “It’s difficult for her to be facing someone who she trusted so much and to realize that he was the person that they had been looking for this whole time. That betrayal is almost overwhelming.”

While Agena thinks this experience has changed her character, she points out that Edrisa has been “covering for things all this time,” so don’t expect to see anything too different from her on-screen.

Scroll down as we take a look at the key moments for the relationships (romantic and platonic) in this episode and season and check out scoop from Agena about a scene that didn’t make the cut.

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Michael Sheen and special guest star Catherine Zeta-Jones in Prodigal Son - Season 2 Episode 9, 'Exit Strategy'
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Martin and Vivian

Two doctors have been bonding in an infirmary lately. The only problem? One is the serial killer known as the Surgeon, Martin Whitly (Michael Sheen), and the other is Claremont Psychiatric’s doctor, Vivian Capshaw (Catherine Zeta-Jones). And after Episode 8 ended with her going to his cell and the two sharing a kiss, they go one step further this week.

“I cannot stop thinking about the other night,” he says when he sees her for the first time on-screen since their kiss. She sees it as a mistake, but he argues that their “electricity” is “what all great love affairs are made of.”

“No, it’s what true crime podcasts are made of,” she corrects him.

But later, after she’s had orderlies strap him down to a bed, she admits that they’ve met before — when he spoke at her medical school in ’95 at the height of his career. She wanted what he had, but things fell apart for her when she started her residency. That’s how she ended up at Claremont.

“They were wrong about you, Dr. Capshaw,” he tells her, but while she’s now more attracted to him, he tries to push her away. “You deserve someone who can help you make your dreams come true. I’m only good in nightmares.”

That doesn’t stop her from undoing his pants. And Friar Pete (Christian Borle) knows exactly what happened when she joins him on the elevator later. “Lust, Dr. Capshaw,” he says. “You reek of sin.” And he begins to sing “Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord).” (Thank you, Prodigal Son.)

Aurora Perrineau as Dani and Tom Payne as Malcolm in the “Killabustas” episode of Prodigal Son - Season 2 Episode 9
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Malcolm and Dani

Earlier this season, in Malcolm’s dream, he and Detective Dani Powell (Aurora Perrineau) were together. And it seems like he’s about to take a step towards making that a reality in this episode, only for a hallucination of his father, Martin, to interfere. (It’s a result of sustaining a head injury on the job.)

First, the two share a moment as she tries to get him to open up about the trauma of not being able to save the killer from falling to her death in the previous episode. “Trauma doesn’t just disappear because you want it to,” she says. “You have to face it. You don’t have to face it alone.”

Then later, Dani tries to get him to open up again, and he begins to. “What if I didn’t do enough to save Nat?” Malcolm worries. “What if I’m not really who you think I am?” She assures him that’s not the case.

“It’s just ever since Nicholas died, I feel-” he begins, accidentally bringing up the man that his sister, Ainsley (Halston Sage), killed, and whose body he dismembered and disposed of. He quickly corrects himself and says he meant Nat.

“It’s OK, I’m here,” she promises, and then his hallucination of Martin teases, “here comes the kiss.” Malcolm hurries her out of the apartment instead.

Lou Diamond Phillips and Bellamy Young in the 'Killabustas' episode of Prodigal Son - Season 2, Episode 9
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Gil and Jessica

Jessica Whitly (Bellamy Young) is struggling to write her book about the family because, as she admits to her son, she remembers very little about back when her husband Martin was arrested. So Malcolm decides to play matchmaker and sends Lieutenant Gil Arroyo (Lou Diamond Phillips), who arrested his dad, with the files on the Surgeon, to her. (Jessica and Gil were just about to start something at the beginning of the season when she put a stop to it.)

“I know she’d love to see you,” he tells Gil.

And it turns out he’s the right person to talk to Jessica. “When you came in for questioning, every cop in that precinct thought you were guilty, that you knew about his crimes,” Gil tells her. “But by the end, they all felt for you. Some still do.”

She initially insists on doing it on her own, but then she goes to him at the end of the episode. Jessica can barely remember the woman she was back then, she confesses. But Gil does: “Every time she walked into a room, time slowed down. It still does.” And with that, they dance.

Keiko Agena as Edrisa and Tom Payne as Malcolm in the 'Bad Manners' episode of Prodigal Son - Season 2 Episode 5
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Edrisa and Malcolm

As established in the series premiere, Edrisa has a crush on Malcolm and it can get a bit awkward at times, like when she dresses up for a date and he wants her to test if the blood on his sister’s shirt is human.

“I think she is in love with what Malcolm is able to do because she loves all of the things that Malcolm loves, but she isn’t able to put the puzzle together in the way that he is,” Agena says. “The fact that she can see someone do what she is obsessed with so easily is the aphrodisiac to her. Her brain lights up. She’s so enamored with him. It’s almost like she wants to consume him because she wants to be him. She never gets tired of it because he keeps being brilliant.”

Edrisa does open up to Malcolm about her childhood in this episode; she didn’t really fit in with anyone until the Killabustas. Agena hopes that going forward, we see “that dynamic change” and for him to perhaps open up to her.

Edrisa Gil Martin Prodigal Son Season 2 Episode 4
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Edrisa and Martin

Earlier in Season 2, Edrisa met Martin when a case brought them to Claremont, and she and Malcolm’s serial killer father kind of hit it off. In fact, we were supposed to see them together again in “The Killabustas.”

“There was a scene in this episode that we had to cut because of various reasons, where she and Malcolm go together to talk to Martin at Claremont,” Agena reveals.

“Her obsession with Martin is written into the pilot,” she recalls. “She is very impressed with the Surgeon and what he’s able to do. And so that has been building and simmering in her the whole time. He’s like a celebrity is her.”

But too many interactions between the two of them “would be so dangerous,” Agena continues. “Edrisa is the easiest person in the world to manipulate and he’s the master manipulator. What’s fair in that? But I think it would be super fun to watch.”

Prodigal Son Season 2 Episode 9 Team Crime Scene
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Edrisa and Dani

If you’ve been looking forward to seeing the two women in scenes together, you’re in luck: Agena shares that there’s one with just the two of them coming up.

Prodigal Son - Season 2 Episode 9, Killabustas - Tom Payne, Aurora Perrineau, guest star Steven Boyer, guest star Maria Dizzia, Keiko Agena and guest star Michael Luwoye
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Edrisa and Blaze

Sparks fly when the medical examiner and firefighter meet in person while Malcolm’s interrogating him. Malcolm and Dani even interrupt Edrisa and Blaze’s date — and the fun they’re having behind her kitchen counter — when they suspect he’s the killer.

“Everyone in her Killabusta web sleuthing group is someone that she has fun with and that she trusts. So that level of openness and trust is a base,” Agena says. “Blaze is someone that she can have similar interests with [who] is also very attractive, is attracted to her and likes her, and they have chemistry. It’s a fire that was meant to be lit.”

And she hopes that the two have a future. “I hope Michael comes back to our show because I think that Blaze and Edrisa’s chemistry should be seen again,” the star adds.