What Could've Been For Prodigal Son Season 3
Okay, so I already made this post by reblogging to one of my other posts but I thought I'd make an official post for it so I can make more for the "other future seasons" lol:
Martin dies and things happen more or less the way they do in my fic "Carved in the Cradle" (yes, this is a shameless plug lol)
Martin is in a coma for most of the season.
Malcolm goes on a spiral and locks himself away from the world for months.
Dani and Gil, maybe with Jessica, go to have a real talk with him and Malcolm just looks disheveled. Not like he's been attacked, but he's just numb and self-loathing.
Dani is the one to ultimately bring him back by just saying the specific phrase, "Defending yourself against a serial killer doesn't make you a bad person" because she separates the fact that it was his father and focuses on the fact that father or not, Martin Whitly is a serial killer who tried to kill Malcolm.
Malcolm returns to work, and we get a couple of normal case episodes, maybe some focused on the rest of the team like Edrisa and her firefighter guy, JT struggling with being a tired new dad, maybe an episode about fathers and daughters and we get a flashback episode about the day Dani’s father died (I'm convinced it was an unexpected death), and of course, a Jackie episode.
All the while, Martin is in a coma but is completely in Malcolm’s head, like in 2x09.
We definitely get a Christmas episode this season, we get Brightwell moments until they have a cheesy kiss under the mistletoe moment and that's when they unofficially get together.
I say unofficially because they don't talk about how it changes things between them until the episode that would come after.
Malcolm also comes clean to her about what happened to Endicott. At first Dani is rightfully upset about being lied to but tells him to continue with the rest of the story because she knows it's been eating away at him. She gets legitimately angry when she finds out about Ainsley’s stunt with the pig's blood because messing with someone in that way is never okay, especially when that someone was just trying to do what they could in the moment. Malcolm tells Dani that he understands if she doesn't want to be with him now, but he felt wrong starting anything with her without her knowing everything.
And of course, Dani says that she still wants to be with him, to try this out between the two of them because all she's ever really wanted from him that he wasn't already giving was full honesty. She's still a little miffed at him for lying but she does understand why he did it, doesn't condone, but understands.
There would be revelations that call back to Season 1 and how perhaps Jessica, assuming that Martin was having an affair, wasn't completely off base.
An episode with Edrisa’s parents involved in a case or having useful info about their victim, but we also learn how she became who she is.
We have a theater episode and find out JT's mom is actually a successful Broadway actress and she's even more bombastic than Jessica. It makes Malcolm more confused when JT says that Malcolm’s mom has a good calm energy but then he meets JT's mom and understands.
A beauty pagent case episode for sure, and Dani and Malcolm both go undercover. They've been keeping their relationship under wraps (maybe only Gil knows because if they didn't tell him, he'd figure it out). There are a lot of Brightwell heavy moments, and Malcolm is reminded of his dream he had a year prior. Both Dani and Malcolm experience jealousy for the first time. It was different when they were just friends because neither felt like they had reason to be jealous but now that they're taking things slow, neither like the idea of someone else trying to get romantically involved with them.
Where is Ainsley in all this, you might ask?
She's taken up a six month job overseas to just get away from it all. She doesn't want to come to terms with the fact that Martin tried to kill Malcolm, she's mad at Malcolm for stabbing their father (again), and she's mad at Jessica because no matter how much she loves her mom, she always has beef with Jessica.
When she gets back after the New Year, she still will not talk to Malcolm and Dani can see that it hurts him.
Ainsley tries to get between Malcolm and Dani because how dare he even try to be happy when their father is still in a coma. It doesn't work, of course. This isn't the end of it.
If you were wondering about Gil and Jessica, no worries, they've been smooth sailings the whole time, even with the Jackie episode. It's revealed that Jessica never disliked Jackie but the reason she didn't go to her funeral was because she didn't want to see them put her friend and her son's second mother (the only one who could get him to actually eat anything when he refused to) in the ground, it was selfish but it hurt too much. She also stayed away from Gil because she had feelings for him and out of respect for both him and Jackie, she didn't want to seem like she was going after him immediately after Jackie passed but then the weeks turned into months and the months turned into years.
Gil and Jessica have a really healthy relationship now and that's what matters.
The season ends with an episode of a case of a young woman (can't decide if her name should be Lorelai or Katherine) who was almost murdered. She was raised by a single mother and she's also recently married, having married someone in the Whitlys rich circle of society. She's a bit of a social outcast because of her past (or her mother’s past) and she never knew her father, she doesn't even know his name.
They catch her attacker but not before they try killing her again but she does land in hospital. She's in need of a blood transfusion and Malcom happens to be the same blood type so he offers to help.
They find out a few important things.
The girl was born in either late 1999 or early in the early 2000 (I haven't decided yet lol), and she and Malcolm happen to share more than a bloodtype, they share DNA. The reason she never knew her father was because her mother never wanted her to know that dear old dad was arrested in 1999... for killing 23 people.
The season ends with Martin's eyes shooting open and man, he looks pissed!
