S01.E13: Wait & Hope

[Trini]

Malcolm takes a detour from his mandated vacation time when he finds out a killer on the loose is mimicking homicides from one his favorite children's books, "The Count of Monte Cristo." With added help from a very excited Martin Whitly, the NYPD trace the case back to a high society family planning one of the biggest weddings of the season, so Malcolm and Dani get dressed up to attend the event and track down their culprit. Meanwhile, Jessica scores an invite herself and is eager to make her return to the New York elite.

Airdate: Feb. 3, 2020

 

[Guest]

I’ve officially crossed the this is so bad its good event horizon.

The moment was when Malcolm hung up on his serial killer father and shot out the window before diving through it to escape a land mine that he had dived on to stop it from exploding.

The first time he went out a window (night terrors) I stopped watching or several episodes.

This time, I laughed.  I laughed genuinely and hard.  This show is so stupid.

Then Arroyo was looking out the window. I thought he was worried that Malcolm almost died.  Nope just that his car was smashed.

Then catching the knives.  And Malcom has a silver medal at knife throwing.  Of course he does.

Between bringing in the team to conversations with Dad and Mom seeing him happy working at the wedding, it seems like they’ve decided to just go with Malcolm having no sense of self preservation but at least he’s happy and that being enough.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

18 hours ago, Trini said:

Malcolm takes a detour from his mandated vacation time when he finds out a killer on the loose is mimicking homicides from one his favorite children's books,

I thought it was actually going to be a children's book (like Babar, or a Dr. Suess volume), not a childhood book, which is what The Count of Monte Cristo is.

If it is so complicated/takes so long to load a flintlock, why was the flintlock reloaded after the victim was shot and killed so that Malcolm could use it to shoot out the window? (I won't even bother with the complexity that was the knife device set-up, whose dismantling I couldn't even following, except to say, yeah, I guess the murderer could have been an engineer or architect.)

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by ItCouldBeWorse

[AnimeMania]

They keep trying to shove women in Malcolm's face, I would really like to see him go on a date with the Medical Examiner. Maybe have her meet his mother and have both hint at without either one of them ever telling his mother what she really does for a living.

[UnknownK]

The medical examiner has the hots for Malcolm but it doesn't look like he has anything for her.

From the looks of it Malcolm wanted to say something to Dani that was not case related (feelings of some kind) before he died but chickened out. I think we know where this is going.

There are different levels of childhood books and few parents probably care what age you are when they read stories to you.

Flintlocks don't take that long to load. Dump the powder into the barrel and ram it down. Get a lubed cloth and wrap it around the ball and ram it down. Since this is a pre civil war rifle without percussion cap you then then put a little powder into the primer plate and then aim and pull the trigger. You do all this while planning the murder so its ready. The flintlock was a double barrel job like a double barrel shotgun so if only one was fired (and both were loaded in case one didn't go off) you had one more shot left.

I don't get the landmine thing because the girl probably didn't want to kill anybody else besides the 3 people that directly harmed her. There was no booby trap on the second guy (and the falling blades must have taken days to set up) and the third was simple going to get shot up close and personal with no elaborate planning and she would not have much time to kill anyone else with that much security in the building.

Malcolm didn't have to catch those blades, all the cops had to do was tie a rope around the blades base and then tie them to the roof.

[Chaos Theory]

So this episode we get a convincing Saw movie trap and a bomb.

Whose joke about Malcolm’s  suit was your favorite?   I really laughed at Tanaka’s drug dealer joke.  
 

Malcolm and his fam...mother and sister continue to be the highlight of the show for me.   Jessica being excited about being invited back into high society even though it was with a late invitation and in the nose bleed section.  Then being basically ignored.  Only to have Malcolm called a hero and get a kind of poetic justice because they are who they are.   And Malcolm knows full well it is Ainsley who got mom the tickets to the dinner in the first place.   It was all so sweet.

Edited February 4, 2020 by Chaos Theory

[Lady Calypso]

So, this episode went back to the ridiculous stuff...but surprisingly, I was into it. There was something about them playing Under Pressure in the first act, ending with Malcolm, in a white suit,  ridiculously holding a bomb and then shooting his way out of the room and landing on Gil's car that made me go "ok, this was pretty funny." 

I notice they're really starting the setup on Malcolm/Dani...which I don't think I'm fond of. They've hinted at it before, but this episode was the first time they really took that set with "oh, we're probably going to go there." But I'm not really feeling it. I like Dani a lot and I like Malcolm, but I'm not sure about them being together. Malcolm has a whole lot of issues and I don't think him potentially being in a relationship is a good idea.

The family stuff was great. Again, loving the Jessica/Malcolm stuff. I laughed really hard at the reveal of the white suit. I also liked their end scene. I didn't mind the Malcolm/Ainsley scene at the end; it worked fairly well. The Martin stuff...is still a little odd to me. But it's more because I don't know about Martin. But I did enjoy Malcolm just coming out with asking him about the cabin stuff. Malcolm gets straight to the point, I'll give him that.

It was an ok episode, overall, but not that great. I enjoyed the second victim's sword scene.

[Darian]

This show is so well cast. I came for Lou Diamond Phillips and stayed for the rest. Bellamy Young is so good. Her pronunciation of Saigon didn't take her all the way to Moira Rose territory, but close. 

[nodorothyparker]

So the show finally achieved so balls to the wall crazy and implausible that you don't really have a choice but to just to go with it with this one.  There's something so nuts about the combined effect of that white suit, a Count of Monte Cristo-inspired killer who of course happens to plant random land mines in offices, taking phone calls from your serial killer father while "Under Pressure" plays before getting a shot off with a flintlock to go out an upper story window milliseconds before said land mine detonates that just worked in a what the hell did I just watch kind of thing.  But Malcolm's a silver medalist ax thrower.  Or catcher.  Or something.  Sure, why not?

The murder of the week was as ridiculous and secondary as it usually is even with the over the top Sword of Damocles bit and the huh, I guess the girl who died who this entire story hinges on is not only not dead but the culprit twist.  And so now the entire team finds it perfectly acceptable police procedure to be discussing the specifics of an ongoing murder investigation with their cohort's confined serial killer father, even if I did get a tremendous kick out of JT slouching down with "uh, nobody" when Martin was asking who he was speaking to.  JT's obviously seen enough movies to know that getting on a charismatic serial killer's radar doesn't tend to lead anywhere good and he was not going to be that guy.  That's what made Dani tagging along to see Martin seem so very odd in contrast, even if the show seems to be pushing for a pairing.  She's not stupid and she clearly knows enough about the specifics of the Whitly family backstory by now that I couldn't believe either she or especially Malcolm would think it a good idea to give him a new name or face to go on when Martin had already spent most of the episode so determinedly trying to worm his way back into Malcolm's life.  But can I just say how much I randomly love serial killer support group, whose members seem to be over both Martin and playacting elaborate father-son reunion scenes with Martin?  Michael Sheen must be having just the best time with this role.

I guess the ending takeaway is that Malcolm's really not entirely well and he's going to just keep being that way and that everyone's just going to let him?  Jessica seems like the kind of person who would just be exhausting to be around, but she always breaks my heart a little when she talks about how ruthlessly ostracized she's been since the whole I'm Mrs. Serial Killer reveal.  She's always so grateful for the smallest crumbs after all this time.

I'm inclined to believe Martin that if he had truly wanted to or meant to kill Malcolm, he would have done it.

 

[Regalbegal]

This episode was completely off the rails bananas and I loved it.  One of the things I like about this show is that it doesn't take itself too seriously, and this episode just took everything that is ludicrous about the show and wore it on its sleeve. Shine on you crazy diamonds. 

2 hours ago, Darian said:

This show is so well cast. I came for Lou Diamond Phillips and stayed for the rest. Bellamy Young is so good. Her pronunciation of Saigon didn't take her all the way to Moira Rose territory, but close. 

It really is a great cast from top to bottom, and I like that all of the character pairings/interactions are given their little moments. 

I liked the Dani/Malcolm scenes.  I am not sure he should be paired with anyone romantically given what a mess he is, but if he were she would IMO be the best choice as the one who gets him best (the ME is great, but she would be in way over her head, and there is something vaguely problematic about bringing on generic blond white lady as a love interest when there are two lovely women of color in the cast).  Either way, even as a friend I think it shows growth in the character for him to open up a bit to someone, it is nice to see. 

2 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Martin did have a point.  If he wanted his son dead he could have easily killed him.

 I don't think John was lying to Malcom about what Martin told him, but that doesn't mean Martin was truthful with John about his intentions. Sheen is playing Martin a bit differently than before solitary - definitely more unhinged - which is interesting.  I laughed out loud at: "because you killed people, and you're a dick".  Accurate. 

Any use of David Bowie's music is a win.  I thought the opening sequence was really well done. 

Edited February 4, 2020 by Regalbegal

[CoyoteBlue]

2 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

But Malcolm's a silver medalist ax thrower.  Or catcher.  Or something.  Sure, why not

Well, he actually challenged Dani to an axe-throwing match in an earlier ep, so I guess he puts the antique and unusual weapons in his collection to use.

2 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

I guess the ending takeaway is that Malcolm's really not entirely well and he's going to just keep being that way and that everyone's just going to let him?  

I think Malcolm's always just tried to find something that works for him, rather than thinking he can ever be "normal". And his team and family seem to be working for him, so... good? He certainly seems pretty self-aware when it comes down to it.

I hope they never get him together romantically with Dani - can we please just enjoy two friends and partners without the drama? She's already closer to Malcolm than Eve ever was.

[Chaos Theory]

I continue to think this is one of my favorite new shows because it is just so balls out crazy.   I don’t care about reality reality.   I never understood people who complain about a tv show not being realistic enough.   This is fiction.   If the show wanted to give Malcolm a pet dragon in his youth then all I would need was a believable reason that dragons existed.   Because of course Jessica would buy her son one.   I kinda like the fact that the show has given up any pretense that this is going to be a serious broody show.   I probably would have gotten bored by now if we were being drowned in Malcolm’s manpain.   Instead we have his mother and his friends trying to get him to go on a vacation and making fun of his white suit.  
 

I did like how quickly everyone was able to pivot from joking to serious and professional once the bomb was found.  

Edited February 4, 2020 by Chaos Theory

[saber5055]

9 hours ago, UnknownK said:

Flintlocks don't take that long to load.

Well, maybe one or two seconds longer than putting a bullet in a chamber, or slapping in a clip.

39 minutes ago, Regalbegal said:

there is something vaguely problematic about bringing on generic blond white lady as a love interest when there are two lovely women of color in the cast

The show already did that, and Malcolm tried to knife her after they had floor sex.

Malcolm taking Dad's call while holding down a land mine, then shooting out the window as he jumps through it and lands on the car lid was one of the best scenes ever in any show. I didn't notice if he got his suit dirty, but I'm guessing not.

Edited February 4, 2020 by saber5055

[Regalbegal]

1 minute ago, saber5055 said:

The show already did that, and Malcolm tried to knife her after they had floor sex.

Right, that is who I was referring to.  I have a feeling we have not seen the last of her. 

[the-grey-lady]

"But Dad, you kill people. And you're a dick."

This episode was balls to the wall crazy, and I loved every second of it.

[nodorothyparker]

As goofy as it is, I'm really enjoying some of the dialogue even in their dream sequences.

"Everyone's your best friend until they find out you're a serial killer and then poof. This cancel culture has gotten out of hand."

[Morrigan2575]

I loved this episode, it was just crazy fun

[ForeverAlone]

I hope the show continues to lean into the dark, gallows humor, because I think that is a good tone for this show. No need for dreary realism, when it can be batshit crazy fun. 

[Trini]

Well, this was hilarious; in unintentional ways, too. The main thing keeping me here is the likeable main character/actor.

 

[Risky Librarian]

On 2/4/2020 at 2:43 AM, AnimeMania said:

They keep trying to shove women in Malcolm's face, I would really like to see him go on a date with the Medical Examiner. Maybe have her meet his mother and have both hint at without either one of them ever telling his mother what she really does for a living.

Bonus points if Malcolm then meets HER mother, and it turns out to be Emily Kuroda. 

...I love/hate that idea in the best possible way. I am the most obnoxious of geniuses. 😄

[Hatshepsut]

This show is definitely at its best when it doesn't try and play it too straight. Malcolm shooting out the window and crashing onto the car as the room behind him exploded, all to the tune of under pressure, was just golden. And the role play scene in prison was some of the funniest tv I've seen ("I'm always Malcolm." "But dad, you kill people. And you're a dick."). I hope they do more like this. There are plenty of overly serious crime dramas on tv, I like this show because they play up the crazy.

[rove4]

On 2/4/2020 at 12:04 PM, Regalbegal said:

I liked the Dani/Malcolm scenes.  I am not sure he should be paired with anyone romantically given what a mess he is, but if he were she would IMO be the best choice as the one who gets him best

That's pretty much how I see it too.  I'm fine if they just stay friends but I'm not opposed to the show going there eventually if that's the plan.  The M.E. just seems so silly which, in a show that seems content to fly its silly flag high and proud, is saying something.  I don't see that she inspires any feelings in Malcolm beyond embarrassment. 

What I would like to see is more Gil and Jessica scenes.  😉

On 2/4/2020 at 12:33 PM, Chaos Theory said:

I continue to think this is one of my favorite new shows because it is just so balls out crazy.   I don’t care about reality reality.   I never understood people who complain about a tv show not being realistic enough.   This is fiction.  

My thoughts exactly.

Overall a fun episode. I was sold on the opening Under Pressure bit.  Loved JT's Miami Vice snark and Jessica's "I knew you would never join a conga line!"  😆

[hookedontv]

I haven't watched this episode yet but I decided to come here to read about it. OMG, I cannot wait to watch it. Just by reading the descriptions here, I'm laughing hysterically at people's comments. Balls to the wall crazy is just my style. And if I read correctly, the song Under Pressure was included. What's not to like? I'm 100% here for this funhouse ride!

[tennisgurl]

Every crack about Malcolm's white suit was absolute gold! "So you killed James Bond yet?" "Did someone bring their cocaine dealer?" I think I like this show best when it leans into the gallows humor, it gives it a more unique identity.

So Martin was acting out the most gruesomely violent parts of classic literature for Malcolm back when he was a kid? Maybe that whole serial killer thing wasnt that surprising...

Edited February 8, 2020 by tennisgurl

[hookedontv]

On 2/6/2020 at 9:13 AM, rove4 said:

Overall a fun episode. I was sold on the opening Under Pressure bit.

Same! And shooting out the window before leaping, not knowing what he would land on (I would have just assumped pavement) while Under Pressure was playing was so OTT I had to rewind and watch it again. So he lands on the car, and back at the precinct it doesn't even look like he has a scratch on him. This ep just made me laugh, especially about getting the Silver Medal in ax throwing. Of course you did Malcolm, of course you did. I'm a few episodes behind and will continue on. 

Ainsley continues to bug me. I also feel like she looks SO YOUNG (maybe it's because I'm so old?) The actress is about 26, yet I feel like on the show Ainsley looks like she's 17 years old. Maybe it's just me. 

[Roxie]

On rerun watch, I was just wondering - did Malcolm (or Jessica) pack his "travel" restraints in his bag?

Edited March 3, 2020 by Roxie