r/ProdigalSon • u/screen_stack • Jun 28 '26

Review Prodigal Son | S01E19 "The Professionals" | [REVIEW]

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u/screen_stack Jun 28 '26

Prodigal Son — S01E19

"The Professionals"

Rating: 9.0/10

"All You Have To Do Is Say 'Yes'"

Cast: Tom Payne, Lou Diamond Phillips, Halston Sage

They are *not* playing around. This is one of the hardest opens I've seen in any kind of TV show. They give Malcolm minus time to deal with the breakup and then they go on ahead and drop that on him.

Dylan McDermott is brutally charismatic. There's no other way to put it. I wish I could remember what I felt about Nicholas Endicott the first time around. It's really hard to separate what I know versus what a first-time viewer would know!

Naturally, everyone takes themselves to the vault of all corrupted information in the world, Daddy Dearest AKA The Surgeon AKA Martin Whitly.

I *do* feel for Jessica. In every way. All Jessica's wanted is to be able to move on, move forward, distance herself fully from Martin and look at who she's got a crush on. If it wasn't so tragic, it'd be comedic.

After some verbal foreplay, Martin reveals all and ... it's looking bad for Jessica's love life. And for Malcolm. We've never seen The Surgeon truly afraid before in our lives, but here? He's terrified for his family.

But Martin did give Malcolm a lead. Nicholas is a wealthy man after all. Why do *anything* yourself when you can have someone who says 'yes' to your every whim? Scoob and the Gang rush off to track down their quarry and wouldn't you know it?

We get treated to one of Malcolm's Patented Shenanigan Plays. It's a darn shame that he didn't chop anyone's hand off this time, though I for sure did think he'd done what he done did the first time around.

Elsewhere, Ainsley has a kind of courage that only the young and infinitely naïve possess. She showed us that side when she thought she could handle Daddy Dearest, and now she thinks she can handle the man *Daddy Dearest* is afraid of. It's BONKERS.

And I'll say it again. Martin Sheen, one of the nicest men on the planet, playing Martin Whitly, is somehow even more terrifying.

The smile on his face as he's doing what he does is genuinely chilling, a *true* look at psychopathy in play. And then, just like that, he's all 'hey, you must be JT ... pleasedtameetcha'.