Summary
The second episode of The Irrational continues a run of good form from the premiere, with an unusual case of the week and more hints about the overarching mystery.
After a very confident pilot episode, The Irrational returns to NBC for “Dead Woman Walking”, which boasts a slightly more complex case of the week, some backstory for Mercer’s research assistant, and further, albeit scant, details about the bombing that left him disfigured. Our recap of Episode 2 unpacks all this and more, but beware of spoilers, won’t you?
The Irrational Season 1 Episode 2 Recap
When you think of Calvin Klein CK One, what do you picture? It’s probably not what the scent evokes for Alec Mercer, that’s for sure, since it takes him right back to the night a church bombing burned 60% of his body.
“Dead Woman Walking” opens with Mercer spraying this stuff directly into a Bunsen burner and wafting the fumes directly into his nostrils from about six inches away. And while I’m not prone to content warnings or reader advisories or anything of that sort, kids, don’t do this. Ever.
Mercer is a professional, after all. He thinks that the scent of burning cologne might trigger some vital memories from the evening of the bombing, and he’s inclined to try since the official investigation has yielded nothing besides an unclear CCTV shot of the parole hearing prowler, wearing a fedora and a trenchcoat like Humphrey Bogart. There’s probably a Groucho Marx mustache and glasses on the side we can’t see.
An unusual murder weapon
Anyway, case of the week time. Episode 2 earns its title by being about C.J. Wright, a journalist who believes she has been poisoned by polonium 210, the deadly isotope used to assassinate the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. C.J. reported on this, making her one of the few people who would recognize the symptoms.
So, who would poison someone in a manner that they would immediately recognize was poisoning? C.J. wants Mercer to find out, despite having previously written off his research as “junk science”, a viewpoint she has since retracted for reasons she doesn’t elaborate on.
The first and most obvious suspect, suggested by C.J.’s writing partner Gene, is Yuri, a Russian whistleblower whom C.J. recently had lunch with. You know how oligarchs feel about tell-tales, so this stands to reason.
However, after Mercer tricks Yuri into revealing his marina address by playing on his love of chess, he gets there to find a gunman having just shot Yuri in the abdomen. The shooter opens fire on Mercer himself, who true to form didn’t wait for Marisa and the FBI before entering the marina, and he dives into the harbor for safety, giving the assassin time to flee.
Gene incriminates himself like an idiot
Of course, this being a primetime procedural, there’s no way the first suspect was going to be the poisoner. So, the investigation takes a few turns – through a tobacco company publicist savvy enough to have rebranded smoking as a health-conscious choice in a roundabout way – that leads, rather inevitably, to Gene.
Gene is stupid enough to sink some of the drama in “Dead Woman Walking” thanks to how laughably easy he is to set up. When Mercer gets a whiff that he’s guilty, he gaslights him into giving a smug confession at C.J.’s bedside while he still has the chance to do so, and Gene takes the bait with ridiculous enthusiasm. C.J. records him and gets the last laugh.
She also manages to reconnect with her estranged daughter, thanks in large part to Mercer’s research assistant, Phoebe, who regrets never having had the chance to bond with her own mother before she passed. It’s nice to get a little more detail on our supporting characters and makes for a poignant conclusion to C.J.’s story too, as she begins the polonium treatments she initially resisted.
The Irrational Season 1 Episode 2 Ending Explained
As in the premiere, The Irrational Episode 2 ends by providing another hint about the circumstances surrounding the church bombing.
Alec’s efforts to jog his memory through specific burning scents – why hasn’t he thought of this in the intervening years? – yield some results when he drops some flower petals onto the flame. The smell gives him a vision of a van logo he saw on the night, pulling quickly away from the church.
Mercer’s sister Kylie recognizes he has the face of a man who just came to a realization, and he tells her he remembered something.
