Warning! The following contains spoilers from the Prodigal Son episode “Take Your Father to Work Day.” Read at your own risk!
With barely two seasons under its belt, Prodigal Son has already been filled to the brim with twists and turns. In the latest episode, Jessica (Bellamy Young) is trying to figure out what exactly happened to her antique rug, knowing that her children are making up lies. The actress compared those final moments to a scary movie, which is exactly what the series has been like.
Jessica’s revelation of what her daughter really did horrifies her. Bellamy Young told TVLine that the final scenes were similar to what you would see in a scary teen movie, living with a murderer all this time and not being able to do anything about it. The actress mentions that with quarantining during COVID, the Whitly family got even closer, which makes it even scarier. Bellamy explained,
Ainsley's always been the perfect child, and Jessica has spent these last 20 years worrying over, watching, side-eying Malcolm, fearing he was going to turn into his father, so it is just a gut punch to think the one she should have been worrying about all along was Ainsley. On top of that, it's been COVID, so we've been quarantining. It's like all those scary teen movies where ‘The call's coming from inside the house.’ She's been living with the murderer all along, so she feels guilty and absolutely gutted but also terrified to know she's under the same roof as someone who could do that to another human being again.
Towards the end of the episode, Malcolm (Tom Payne) could no longer keep up the act as Jessica kept pushing him to tell her the truth of what really happened that night. Bellamy Young's performance was a heartbreaking one when Malcolm tried to tell Jessica that he did it. She knew that her son was lying, which meant that her “perfect” daughter was the one thing she always feared: A murderer.
Throughout the episode, however, Ainsley (Halston Sage) kept getting flashes of what happened, almost remembering. When she couldn’t talk to Malcolm or even her own serial killer father, she did the next best thing: Looking through Martin’s (Michael Sheen) journals, detailing how it feels to kill. That scene, being paired with the terrifying revelation for Jessica, only made it seem even scarier.
When Ainsley came into her mother’s room at night after having a nightmare, Jessica reluctantly let her in, being almost too scared to say anything else. Then, when Ainsley laid down next to her, she was genuinely afraid of her own daughter.
Whether or not Ainsley will fully remember what she really did that night is still up in the air. But now that Jessica knows, Bellamy Young’s performance will surely be one to look forward to for the remainder of the season and how Jessica will react/behave.
