S01.E14: Eye of the Needle

[Trini]

Jessica continues to search for more information on the "Girl in the Box," but is confronted by the "Carousel Killer," who has a very public vendetta against the Whitlys. While the NYPD investigates families tied to Martin's victims, it's ultimately up to Malcolm and Jessica to track down the tip-line caller - turned killer - who is blackmailing her. Meanwhile, Ainsley receives a big promotion at work, but quickly realizes she may never escape the high demand for serial killer reports.

Airdate: 2/10/2020

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by Trini

[ItCouldBeWorse]

Is there only one hospital that the Surgeon could have been taken to, or am I missing something?

[Chaos Theory]

33 minutes ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Is there only one hospital that the Surgeon could have been taken to, or am I missing something?

Prison hospital.

The Whitleys sure has a day didn’t they?   Ainsley hoping for an easy first day ends up interviewing two killers on the air.   Jessica hoes on an adventure and bearku kill Martin but takes this fall for stabbing him anyway.  
 

That will be interesting once Martin wakes up because killing him off at this juncture holds little point.

It was interesting trying to draw a distinction between Martin Whitley  the surgeon and Martin Whitley “The Surgeon”.    

[ItCouldBeWorse]

23 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

Prison hospital.

I thought Malcolm said something about the prison hospital not being set up for such a surgery, but perhaps I misheard.

[mertensia]

I'm guessing there must be a specific hospital set up with locked wards and rooms for prisoners.

[AnimeMania]

Weird things I noticed:

News Lady says "The caller said the victim's prints had been burned off, that hadn't been made public." (Then how would she know that that is a true statement.)

Ainsley tells Malcolm "I am going to do whatever I can to help you catch this guy (except listen to your advice about how to catch the guy).

Where did mama Whitley get that money from? It looked like she pulled it out of one of her old G-strings from her stripper days or just freshly shoveled it out of her mattress, certainly didn't come from a bank. What if the guy wanted to count it to make sure it was all there? Certainly contrived for dramatic effect.

[LadyOracle]

5 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

"Where did mama Whitley get that money from? It looked like she pulled it out of one of her old G-strings from her stripper days or just freshly shoveled it out of her mattress, certainly didn't come from a bank. What if the guy wanted to count it to make sure it was all there? Certainly contrived for dramatic effect."

I was thinking the exact same thing! I was not expecting to see loose bills? I was thinking it was going to be strapped bills! lol

 

[AnimeMania]

15 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

The writers have certainly done a 180 degree turn on her character.  It wasn't all that long ago when it was all about her career, and getting the story, and back then nothing else mattered, not even her boyfriend at the time.   Back when he was stabbed or shot and her father had to save his life, and of course she had to have it on film.  Can't miss out on the story..   I don't know if she had a change of heart after her boyfriend dumped her or not.  She definitely isn't the same person.

It could be Ainsley wanted to interview Martin to jumpstart her career or it could be Ainsley wanted to get to know her father, she had heard the rumors but never met the man, or a little of both. She wanted to meet one serial killer in particular and will now be forced to meet several serial killers.  I think she is up to 3 serial killers already and I don't see it stopping anytime soon.

[Chaos Theory]

41 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

The writers have certainly done a 180 degree turn on her character.  It wasn't all that long ago when it was all about her career, and getting the story, and back then nothing else mattered, not even her boyfriend at the time.   Back when he was stabbed or shot and her father had to save his life, and of course she had to have it on film.  Can't miss out on the story..   I don't know if she had a change of heart after her boyfriend dumped her or not.  She definitely isn't the same person.

I don’t think it was a complete 180 though.  I still maintain what was she supposed to do at that moment?  Cry while holding  her boyfriends hand shutting off the camera promising never to interview anyone again if only her boyfriend live..,...

She made a choice in the moment.  The same choice Malcolm constantly makes and we commend him for it or at least laugh.  But somehow Ainsley is a muckraker only interested in a story because she kept a camera going.

Here she did the same thing but under more controlled circumstances and with a bit more experience.   I see a lot of growth in it.  Not a 180.

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Chaos Theory

[Roxie]

6 hours ago, mertensia said:

I'm guessing there must be a specific hospital set up with locked wards and rooms for prisoners.

Here in Columbus there are several hospitals, but only one under contract with the corrections system.  It treats all the prisoners; even has a set-aside floor with guards.

[nodorothyparker]

I assumed from what Malcolm said that the hospital they were using was close to the psychiatric hospital.  It's probably contracted and set up to house the occasional patient who ends up being stabbed for dramatic plot reasons.  I'm just glad that the attendant, Mr. David, who always has the best quiet nonreactions to Martin's craziness didn't turn out to be in on it.

So lots more nuttiness from this show, which seems to have given up any pretense that it's going to treat any of the procedural stuff seriously and is probably better for it.  Ainsley may have started out wanting to be all about career career career, but her father's no longer an unknown abstraction to her and she was nearly killed in her family home by one of Daddy Dearest's serial killer friends. Now her big promotion, as she said, basically saw her playing host to serial killer call-ins, and she has to have caught on somewhat that the renewed notoriety of the Whitly name, which she's directly responsible for with that interview, is the big draw, not her "star reporting."  I mean, she knew Daddy Dearest was calling Malcolm trying to insert himself in his casework,  What did she think was going to happen when she was parked accessibly behind a desk on a show that apparently does take those calls?

Jessica with the big bag o' cash blowing around while a guy is getting thrown off a building was a hoot.  I love that a guy can call into a show and label himself "the Carousel Killer" and everyone just shrugs and goes along with it.  At this point, this particular police unit has to be just rolling their eyes and going "oh, it's the Whitlys again."

While I'm curious to see how the showrunners write their way out of the plot corner of having both Jessica and Malcolm in the room with the attempted murder weapon, I have no doubt this will get handwaved away too because the crazy family dynamic doesn't work if Martin dies or Jessica or Malcolm has to be sent away for trying to kill him.  And we're still only in the first season.  I keep thinking someone should tell the writers to pace themselves a little as this is the kind of story that normally gets thrown in there when the newness of a show has worn off a couple of seasons in.  As it is, I was expecting Martin to do the honors and stab himself right up to the very last second and now expect that to be the story he tells to save his family and "make up" for the admission that he intended to kill young Malcolm but couldn't go through with it.  It's the kind of grand gesture he would love to further tie them to him out of a sense of obligation.

[rove4]

"...every time a Whitly goes rogue..."  🤣

I wonder if Martin will parley this side trip to the hospital into an escape, once he's suitably recovered of course. 

[sempervivum]

Jessica comments that Ainsley's brown plaid pantsuit looks like 'the carpet at the DMV'; I actually liked it (I'm old), but couldn't figure out why she was wearing bright pink lipstick with it.

I see that in addition to his Oriental rug 🙄, Martin has a small brass reading lamp on his 'work desk' in the prison cell. Apparently the crack prison security team hasn't considered the chance that he could bean a guard with that. 

Why do I feel that the writers are possibly walking back Martin's evil nature? He 'couldn't bring himself' to kill his son. He never (accompanied by his shocked face) harmed any of his actual patients. He helped save the hostage by letting Malcolm stab him in a safe place (anybody know if that's really possible?).

[nodorothyparker]

I don't know that they're walking back Martin's nature as much as they're adding some shading, because let's face it.  He wouldn't be nearly as interesting to watch if he was just unrelenting EVIL EVIL EVIL  all the time or even like John Watkins.  It makes sense to me that he wouldn't risk Martin Whitley, THE SURGEON, intermingling with Dr. Whitly, the respected surgeon.  I mean, patient records are a thing and had many of his patients also been turning up dead that would have likely been a huge tipoff that whoever investigates these things should be taking a closer look at him.  Everything else he does at this point is about maintaining access to his family and being included in their lives, by whatever means necessary.  If he knows of a way that he can reasonably safely be stabbed, and just importantly knows that Malcolm knows about it, to save the day so they'll continue to visit and Malcolm will continue to let him unofficially consult on his cases, to him that probably seems like a plausible thing to do and bonus that he looks like the hero for taking the risk so the hostage could live.

As gloriously goofy as this show can get, I did like the minor addition of the two brothers who initially went down for one of Martin's crimes.  I think the show does do a good job of throwing in those periodic little reminders that Martin hurt a lot of people, even beyond the 23 murders he's known to have committed, and thus will never be a good guy, no matter how entertaining he can be.

[AnimeMania]

19 minutes ago, sempervivum said:

I see that in addition to his Oriental rug 🙄, Martin has a small brass reading lamp on his 'work desk' in the prison cell. Apparently the crack prison security team hasn't considered the chance that he could bean a guard with that. 

That is the least of their worries since they let visitors bring in anything they want as long as it isn't made of metal, ceramic shivs, C4 explosives, matches, etc. Somebody search those purses and empty those pockets before you can visit your deranged love ones.

I really thought the attendant would have noticed all the drama going on in the cell before they stabbed Martin.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

1 hour ago, sempervivum said:

Why do I feel that the writers are possibly walking back Martin's evil nature? He 'couldn't bring himself' to kill his son. He never (accompanied by his shocked face) harmed any of his actual patients. He helped save the hostage by letting Malcolm stab him in a safe place (anybody know if that's really possible?).

Martin suggested the stabbing so that he could validate his "theory" that Malcolm takes after him and is capable of killing, not because he was concerned about the nurse.

 

 

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, AnimeMania said:

That is the least of their worries since they let visitors bring in anything they want as long as it isn't made of metal, ceramic shivs, C4 explosives, matches, etc. Somebody search those purses and empty those pockets before you can visit your deranged love ones.

So much this. For a max-security psych prison, pretty much anyone can come on in with whatever weapon they feel like putting in their purse or carry on that is never searched. I was waiting for Dad to grab the ice pick and stab Malcolm or Mom with it. Not that that would have progressed the plot any, but it would have been ... exciting I guess.

I'm for Dad escaping the hospital a couple of eps down the road. Now that really would be exciting.

[rove4]

3 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I really thought the attendant would have noticed all the drama going on in the cell before they stabbed Martin.

It's probably like white noise to him at this point.  I think, like Martin's therapy group, he's just over the Martin Whitly drama.  😎

[denise42]

I just can’t believe he did it, this show is so exciting you could see Martin goading him to do it.

[denise42]

It would be very scary if Martin escaped .

[CoyoteBlue]

So... did they film all of Tom Payne's younger self scenes at once in the beginning of filming or does he just grow stubble back very fast?

[dgpolo]

27 minutes ago, CoyoteBlue said:

So... did they film all of Tom Payne's younger self scenes at once in the beginning of filming or does he just grow stubble back very fast?

I had almost this same thought, except that I wondered if they gave him some botox and then filmed all the flashbacks.

[Trini]

I've already said that I want less of the family on the show, however, I thought this episode integrated all of the Whitlys in the plot really well.

I think the show has just about found it's groove. If they can keep balancing ridiculous dark comedy episodes (like the previous one) and Whitly family/Surgeon drama I think it'll be okay.

There are many things to nitpick, I'm sure; the one thing that got me was the killer sending a Polaroid photo to Jessica. Really? Where'd he find the film in 2020??

So - somebody's got to go down for stabbing Martin, right?

Oh, and I was surprised that Martin actually admitted to wanting to kill Malcolm. Poor Malcolm. 😞  But at least he knows the truth?

[mertensia]

Polaroid instant cameras have had something of a comeback

[Dbolt]

Why exactly did they need to actually stab Martin?  If they had faked it even with a dummy on the operating table the killer would have had to do just what he did, go in close and look. Plus once he saw he had been tricked he could have been followed back to where the nurse was. 

[Lady Calypso]

2 hours ago, Dbolt said:

Why exactly did they need to actually stab Martin?  If they had faked it even with a dummy on the operating table the killer would have had to do just what he did, go in close and look. Plus once he saw he had been tricked he could have been followed back to where the nurse was. 

Probably more for TV dramatics, but also because they wouldn't know exactly who would be the killer in the hospital, so Malcolm wanted to make it extra believable to save the hostage? Who knows, really. I mean, we also just had Malcolm accurately stab Martin in a place where he wasn't going to die in seconds, and Malcolm's not a doctor in any way...even with the flashback of Martin telling Malcolm about the guy getting stabbed, how would Malcolm be able to accurately stab Martin in the right place? 

Not a bad episode, overall. I liked seeing more of the family stuff (which is surprising, since I have mentioned a couple of times that I could do without Martin or Ainsley). Ainsley was actually on point, which is surprising to me, since I haven't been able to like her that much. I think they FINALLY balanced her out better. Having her interactions with Malcolm were good. Her scenes at the news station were great because she was walking a better line between career and family driven, and I liked that she was legitimately shaken by the serial killer and that she didn't necessarily want to talk to him at first. 

 

[saber5055]

22 hours ago, Trini said:

Where'd he find the film in 2020??

I was going to write a smarty reply, but decided to do a search first. Turns out one can buy Polaroid film on Amazon, eBay and even at Walmart. A 20 pack of Polaroid 300 Instant Color Film at Walmart is $18.99. That ruins my witty response but at least that part of the episode checks out.

[Simba122504]

Martin isn’t going anywhere. This only the first season and it’s Michael Sheen. The main relationship on the series is between Malcolm and Martin. People just walk in and out of this hospital like it’s nothing. I guess they thought they could get away with it since it’s not maximum security prison. Realistically, he would be in the latter. But it’s still silly how just walk in there like it’s nothing. 🤣

[tennisgurl]

This show just keeps increasing the nutty and it seems to be for the best. Its frequently over the top, but is also pretty self aware of its many tropes and seems to be really having fun with them. Even if Martin dying might be in everyone's long term best interest (especially if he escapes!) I dont think he will die, not even for a second. He is an integral part of the Whitlys family drama, which is an integral part of the show!

It seems like Ainsley has really learned her lesson about chasing killers for a story after the whole mess with her boyfriend getting hurt and then leaving her after calling her out for caring more about stories than people, as she really did seem to just want to have a normal first day, before she started getting dogged by yet another serial killer! She can still get the scoop, just she can be more professional and safe about it. I love how, not only can random crazies call into their channel and announce their evil plans, but Ainsleys reaction after Martin got off the phone was basically "Oh my God dad your so embarrassing!" 

"Who picked out that blouse, it looks like the carpet at the DMV." Jessica, on point as always. Looks like we can see where Malcolm gets his tendency to run recklessly into danger! Yeah, let me go meet this sketchy source who wants to talk about my murderous husband at this creepy empty amusement park! Let me to grab a big bag of my cash and bring it to the creepy weirdo who is murdering people! Classic Whitlys. 

As weird as it is, I totally buy that Martin would have never killed a patient on purpose on the table as a surgeon. As The Surgeon, infamous serial killer, oh yeah murders for days, but as Martin Whitly, respected surgeon? No way. I think that Martin does have some sense of morality, in a extremely bizarre and twisted way. He loves his family, even if its a twisted selfish narcissistic way (give or take a murder attempt) and he really takes pride in his skill as a doctor, and killing someone while in his role as surgeon would just seem...wrong. He really does believe it when he says that he would have never betrayed the Hippocratic Oath (despite Malcolm's hilariously incredulous look) by killing someone while he was working as a surgeon. Now what he did outside of the office was clearly a horse of a different color! 

I liked the part with the two brothers that were sent to prison for a few years after being wrongfully convicted for one of Martins crimes, its a nice reminder of what Martin did and the scale of it. When you have this complex charismatic killer types, it can be easy to get kind of sucked into their web and end up liking or even sympathizing with them, so an audience sometimes needs a reminder that "this is a bad person who did very bad things and killed people and ruined lives." 

Edited February 14, 2020 by tennisgurl

[foxfreakinmulder]

So mom carries a bag with a million dollars of loose bills? I don't think it's that easy to walk into a bank and withdrawal that large of an amount. And it's not even bank wrapped, did she keep it under her mattress, lol.

I've been having a problem with my HULU so I couldn't see the picture after Malcolm stabbed his dad and they arrested the guy working in the hospital but I could still hear. How old was Malcolm when he was having the conversation with his dad about stabbing someone in the heart? I thought he didn't see his dad after his arrest until after he started working with the police so when did this conversation take place?