Fuck Yeah Prodigal Son

(SPOILERS)

TVLINE | Even though this episode ends with a cliffhanger, it felt — to me, at least — like it also worked as a series finale. As you wrote and produced it, were you planning the episode as a potential series ender? FEDAK | No. We were approaching it as, “What’s the most exciting way to end Season 2?” We also feel, like you do, that it is not a series finale that doesn’t work because we’ve been cancelled. It still does work… This isn’t like ALF being captured by the government before they were cancelled. It’s still a good and exciting story. SKLAVER | What COVID taught us is that you’re never sure what tomorrow is going to bring. When we knew Fox had ordered 13 episodes, we needed each one to feel like a finale. If we were only able to produce 11 episodes, then it would end with Martin in Vivian’s car, and that would be cool. If it could only be 12, then it would end with Martin and Bright on a sea boat, and that seemed like a pretty great finale. We kept pushing the bar and putting ourselves in these crazier and crazier situations. The finale really feels like we’ve earned everything that happens in that moment, but it’s pretty crazy to know, in 13 episodes, we were able to tell this story. We found it very satisfying. We have a whole Season 3 story locked and loaded, and we don’t want to stop telling this story. But we’re feeling good about how this ended on Fox. FEDAK | If you’re a network out there looking for a story, we have one. It’s ready to go. Sam and Chris will get on the phone. I feel like a rug salesman. “Come on down to Crazy Chris’s!” SKLAVER | I know. The fans are working so hard to get our show renewed. I feel like I need to do my part, as well.

TVLINE | To that end, what can you say about what was in store for Season 3? SKLAVER | Without sharing too much, it was going to be the best season of television ever produced. FEDAK | That’s true. That’s true. SKLAVER | [Laughs] No, we have a really fun Season 3 pitch. We don’t want to give too much of it away because we’re still hopeful of being able to tell that story. But Bright stabbing Martin at the end wasn’t going to make anyone’s life easier, and I think our show flourishes when all of our characters face adversity. Bright and Dani just kissed, but they’re not going to be able to get past this. Gil and Jessica are in a good place. There’s so many places that we could jump off from the ending of this season, and that’s what’s so exciting for us. FEDAK | And on a technical level, our plan was to include Michael Sheen in Season 3, so that gives you a little bit of insight into where we were going. He was definitely going to be a part of the show.

TVLINE | To what degree are conversations happening about bringing the show somewhere else? FEDAK | It’s not really Sam and I having those discussions. Those conversations are being had. I can’t speak to them, because it’s more of a studio thing. The one thing we’ll say is Warner Bros. has been an incredible advocate for the show. They’ve been great to us, and they’ve been very supportive, and they love the show. And Fox loves the show, too. The executives that bought the show and championed the show were all advocates and all gutted by the situation we’ve found ourselves in. So we’re hopeful, but it’s a studio thing now.

TVLINE | Assuming this episode does stand as the series finale, is there an interpretation of that final scene you want fans to have? Like, should we assume Martin dies in those woods? FEDAK | I like open-ended finales, but then again, I know there’s Chuck fans that still want to kill me. [Laughs] SKLAVER | Chris and I are both pleasers, as a personality trait. I would just like fans to be very happy with this finale. However they want Martin to be at the end — I know how I imagine Martin being in the end, but I don’t want to say something that makes someone less happy, you know what I mean? [Laughs] FEDAK | What a wimp. SKLAVER | No! I just want people to be happy when a son stabs his father in the gut. I hope that sparks joy for someone. [Laughs] I guess it is an open-ended finale, but I’m very happy with it, and I hope people are happy with it, as well.

TVLINE | So much of this finale centers on Martin’s capacity to change. Did either of you believe he truly could? Or did he simply want to believe he could change? SKLAVER | I’ll just say it: Even if Martin can change, he killed 23 people. And he can’t be in this world. That’s not up for debate. While the son in Bright wants to believe his father doesn’t have this darkness in him anymore, the profiler and the FBI agent knows, like Bright says, that Martin isn’t for this world. It’s not up to them to decide if Martin is allowed to be out. FEDAK | I totally disagree with Sam. [Laughs] I’d like to advocate for the serial killer in this version of the story. Can Martin change? I think the answer is kind of yes, maybe. But he is a psychopath. Michael [Sheen] had a very interesting take on this, even from the beginning of the show, which is that he can make the world what he wants it to be. It’s not like he feels tied to those 23 murders. He’s made a decision over time to say, “I’m not this person anymore.” But that doesn’t mean he can actually control it totally.

TVLINE | And a few scenes earlier, we see Martin come out of that cabin, having hurt The Woodsman, and he looks exhilarated by what he’s just done. Is that the moment when Bright realizes, “This is a lost cause”? SKLAVER | The scene before that is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting scenes we’ve ever done on our show, where Bright has to convince his father to hurt someone, when all Martin is telling us is that he doesn’t want to do that. It’s akin to forcing someone in recovery to take a drink. That scene is as consequential as what happens afterward. I’m not sure if Martin walks out of there exhilarated, in my mind, although he is in a place. He’s under a spell. But it’s a spell that, in some ways, Bright pushed him toward. There’s the reading you had, which is very valid, that this man will never change. But there’s also the reading of, “This man is in this space because I pushed him there,” and how that could affect Bright going forward is a very interesting story to me. FEDAK | You could look at that final confrontation, and Martin is so upset with his son, not only for calling the police but for getting him to hurt somebody. And you kind of understand why he’s mad! In a way, he’s been betrayed. SKLAVER | Bright wasn’t the best son. He was the best profiler. He found Jeannie Larkin and saved the girl. And that’s the problem with Bright: He’s always been a son and a profiler. And the need to save a life caused him to be a bad son, for sure.

SPOILERS!

After spending all season covering up Nicholas Endicott’s (Dermot Mulroney) death, criminal profiler Simon Hoxley (Alan Cumming) came to New York on the PRODIGAL SON spring premiere, determined to get to the bottom of the murder. But luckily for Bright (Tom Payne)—and the Whitly family—a link in the chain of people he used to dispose the body ended up being their possible salvation: after one of his connections snapped and killed the other people who transported the corpse, Bright was able to spin a theory that she killed Endicott, too.

With that wrapped up, Hoxley also left—after Bright convinced Ainsley (Halston Sage) to sit down with the Mind Sleuth for a one-on-one interview—and the Whitly family celebrated their narrowest escape yet.

But…are they really in the clear?

PRODIGAL SON co-creators Chris Fedak and Sam Sklaver tease what’s to come…

They got away with it! In your mind, is the Endicott case closed or are you leaving that door open for the future? Sam Sklaver: Bright has done a very nice job of [tying things up]. But when we were, early in the season, talking to our one of our advisors who specializes in serial killers, and we said, “What’s the best way to get away with a murder?” And he told us no body, no murder. And the problem is there is an Endicott body.

So I’d like to think that Bright and the Whitlys have gotten away with it…but history always has a way of catching up with the Whitly family. So I think it might just be one more thing to haunt them in the future. I can’t say that anything in the past will ever just stay in the past.

Is this something you’re looking to play with later in the season, or is that more something that might get explored in later seasons? Chris Fedak: We’re going another direction for this season. We have a couple of really exciting things coming up. For Endicott this year, we always like to have twists and turns—[Joking] and you should never trust us, let’s be honest, Sam and I are terrible, terrible liars—but we’re about to depart on a new journey of suspense…we have some new stuff coming up.

At the end of the episode, Martin (Michael Sheen) and Vivian (Catherine Zeta-Jones) kiss—which certainly does not seem like it’s destined to go well, frankly, for either of them. What’s in store for that dynamic going forward? Sklaver: You hit the nail on the head. I think most people who enter The Surgeon’s life, it usually makes their life not better, but worse. Vivian Capshaw is finding herself within The Surgeon’s gaze. So, I am nervous for her. I’m 100% nervous for her. I’m also nervous for her just because we’ve really grown to love Catherine; she’s so amazing on set. And just as a person and with the actors and with our crew—I’m terrified for her; I’m with you 100%. [Laughs.]

Should we be a little bit worried for him, as well? We know he’s dangerous, but she, in theory, does have the bulk of the power in this situation. She seems to be calling a lot of his BS and has been manipulating him, as well… Fedak: I think that’s a really smart perspective on it—she’s no wilting violet. She’s a strong, smart, very sophisticated woman who has a taste for the bad boys—and by which I mean serial killers. So it’s definitely a place where she knows how to to use her authority within Claremont to protect herself and to also keep things from coming out. That’s something that Martin has to be careful of, because he is a patient at Claremont, he is under her thumb, in a way.

Earlier in the season, we got to see Dani (Aurora Perrineau) and Bright coupled up, albeit in his twisted dream state. How much will we be seeing him examine his feelings for her in the rest of season 2? Fedak: We’re exploring the Dani-Bright relationship. [Episode] 6 was a great opportunity for us to remind the audience of it to kind of launch the second half of our season, with an idea of exploring who they are and can these two ships ever come together, or are they doomed? As we head into this side of the season, you’re definitely going to be getting more of Dani and Bright. And, also, like everybody in our show, he needs somebody to talk to. And I think that so often he hasn’t been able to talk to anybody this season because 1) Nicolas Endicott, and then 2) we’ve got something that’s going to kind of bind the whole team together. It’s coming up and it’s going to be huge. The enormity of this event is going to cause everybody to seek refuge and to seek help. And for Bright, that’s going to require him to talk to Dani. Sklaver: The events of episode 6 definitely left a mark in Bright’s mind. And so he is seeing Dani in a different way, which is very exciting for us. You just hope that life doesn’t get in the way, as it often does of his family.

What can you share about this very big event? Fedak: It has something to do with The Surgeon and his plans.

Is this something where fans will retroactively realize the seeds you planted for this story, will it come out of nowhere, or a mixture of the two? Fedak: I think that it is something that we’ve been laying the seeds for for quite some time. Sklaver: And I think it will shock everyone. I think we’ve been laying the seeds for it and it will shock everyone. Fedak: It’s also the second book of the Old Testament. [Laughs.]

Which is Exodus…Should we be expecting to see Martin, potentially, in a different situation than we’ve seen him the first year and a half? Fedak: Let me be even more cryptic: We’ve done a lot of testing hair color for Martin. We’re doing some interesting things.

Intriguing. On another note, how much will JT’s struggles with the force play into what’s ahead? Fedak: I don’t think it’s so much a matter of putting anything off. We brought some very important issues into episodes. And, for us, we ran into a couple of things having to do with production, that kind of changed our plans a little bit in regards to how we filmed the show. But none of those stories have been completed.

For us, our perspective is we want to tell a story that gets into the emotion and the reality of what our characters are going through, especially JT and Dani in regards to that story. We’re not playing out a story where we’re going to solve racism; that would be a not great [or realistic] story. But I think that what we’re going to show as we head toward our finale, and going forward in the show, is that these are a long tail, and that this story that we started here is something that we are going to be playing out in the future.

But it’s not the type of thing that can fit in 13 episodes of television. This story will work more like, this is a part of their lives, and it will come in and out. And it will affect them. And I think we’re going to come at that a little bit differently than we would, say, dealing with our Big Bad of a season or something along those lines.

Looking ahead to the finale, you had a very clear point set for season 1. With production so in flux this year, were you able to be as firm with where you end up at the end of season 2? Or did it have to be more flexible? Sklaver: It’s a mixture of the two things. We’re always flexible, because we always need to be flexible. But we have a very explosive finale, that actually we’ve already shot—we shot it last week. So once again, because of our scheduling, we have a finale, hopefully in the can already. And now we just need to catch up with other episodes. It’s very much the story we did set out to tell that season. And similar to our last finale, it really just sets up an amazing season 3 storyline that we’re getting very excited to tell, fingers crossed.