2x07 Face Value

I don't even know how to assess this episode because of so much going on. The case of the week has some fairly strong Promising Young Woman vibes but beyond that isn't exceptional. Which for this show is pretty darn good. Catherine Zeta-Jones pops in as a new doctor which is fine. She's playing the mysterious strict taskmaster which is fine. Again the adults are killing their spaces Michael Sheen as Martin Whitly (who seems to love his turn around answer the phone move), Bellamy Young as Jessica Whitly and Lou Diamond Phillips all hit their marks. Jessica's storyline was weak this episode, to the point where I don't understand why they included it.

The biggest reveal was Ainsley's. Tonight we find out how she got bloodied and whose blood it was. It was stupid. Her character deserves an emmy for going full out the way she did. I've never seen anything feel so excessively unnecessary. The timeline doesn't work for the motivations she's expressing. That said she does point out something that was pretty hilariously on the nose. Malcolm Bright has been gaslighting her. He the victim of gaslighting by their serial killer father. I've said before it made no sense to keep hiding the Endicott Murder from her. It's weird and outside of the immediate situation he should have sat her down and told her what happened. Especially when she started to remember. To then double down on the lie and insist she is remembering wrong is definitional gas lighting. How VERY bold of the show to acknowledge it. Ainsley like many women in TV is imo kinda poorly written (they can't all be Skylar White) but I respect her a little bit more here for what she says (if not what she does).

Plus we get a bonus reveal that we have a new character coming played by Eli from The Good Wife as a Holmesian detective. This show honestly has gotten better but remains bad. But their casting is to die for.