"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, October 14, 2019

Prodigal Son 1.4: Ainsley



The big step forward in Prodigal Son 1.4 is Ainsley coming to see her serial killer father at the very end of the episode.  He was certainly very happy about that, favoring her and us the audience with one of those Michael Sheen smiles.  As for Ainsley...

Well, we really don't know much about her.  She's played by Halston Sage, who did such a good job on The Orville.  So that in itself makes her character Ainsley ipso facto appealing.  In fact, that's one of the calling cards of Prodigal Son, with Sheen and Sage joining with Tom Payne and Lou Diamond Phillips to make one four-of-a-kind powerhouse of a leading cast.

But what's Ainsley's story?  Unlike Malcolm, she was apparently untouched by her father's psycho killings and her mother's acquiescence, which we also received confirmation of, tonight.  If it's indeed the case that Ainsley was shielded from what her parents were doing, that gives her a unique advantage in this narrative, a blank-slate counterpoint to Malcolm and everything he remembers, almost remembers, and one way or another knows.

But I have a feeling Ainsley knows more than that.  Her father's smile, I think, was more than just the smile of a father who is psycho glad to finally see his daughter again.  The bad good doctor likely knows something about Ainsley, someone we in the audience don't yet know, that is vitally important to his and this story.

Prodigal Son is already showing itself to be a complex drama with a lot more people in motion than just the son.

See alsoProdigal Son: A New Serial Killer ... Prodigal Son 1.2: Dreams or Memories? ... Prodigal Son 1.3: LSD and Chloroform

 

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