Review of Professor T: Season 2 Episode 3 ‘The Family’

The Case: 

A woman is riding her bike into a large house. She’s here to do housekeeping, it’s notably quiet and the housekeeper can smell gas, she races to find the homeowner Dr. Hill. She then freezes as the Hill family are lying dead in the living room, their bodies are laid on the sofa.

The Cambridge police are called to investigate the crime scene, it is revealed that Dr. Hill was an outspoken advocate for euthanasia and worked in palliative care. They explore the idea that a this could be connected, 

Professor T’s lecture – Familicide 

Familicide is a rare but fast growing subset of homicide. It involved the killing of close family members before ultimately killing themselves. For 90% of spousal murder, it is the man who commits the crime but when children are involved it can equally be the woman or the man. 

Donckers wakes up to a sleeping Winters laying beside her. She is thankful to Winters for his help. Winters explains that Dina broke up with him because she thought that Donckers and Winters were too friendly to each other. 

Professor T unexpectedly visits his therapist Dr Goldberg, he claims he has a great deal of time to make up for and would like to see her for a session. 

At the therapy session, Dr Goldberg comments that there is hostility from the Professor and she learns his mother made him attend therapy when he was younger for his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It did not help as the therapists would simply parrot his thoughts back at him. Dr Goldberg mentions that hypnosis can help surface the Professor’s childhood trauma but to be aware that this method can lead to delusional disorders and plant false memories. This intrigues the Professor as his childhood experience of hypnosis could have planted false memories of his interactions with his father. 

Dr Goldberg further explains that it is possible that the Professor’s memories of pulling the trigger on his father are false. It may be a manifestation of guilt as it is common for people to blame themselves for their loved ones death as they believe they were not lovable enough to give them a reason to carry on living. 

His OCD is a reaction to the chaos of his formative years, he needs things to be in order to have some control in his life. 

Following the Professor’s therapy session he borrows Kafka from his mother as he can use Kafka to help with his phobia of intimacy and germs. 

On the university rooftop the Professor takes off his glove and Kafka eats his food off of Professor T’s hand. He is visibly uncomfortable but it is a huge step for the germaphobic Professor.

DS Winters meets up with his friend Calvin and the two drive a client around. Winters is quite curious about what the client is transporting in their briefcase. He asks Calvin to guess what it could be, to which Calvin refuses. 

After the job, Winters is paid £1,000 for his job which catches him by surprise. Calvin reassures Winters that is the going rate and it’s possible for him to make double if he does nights, which Winters agrees to. 

The Professor has company at his house, which delights his mother who only wanted to gift the Professor with his childhood toy Basil, in exchange for the Professor not using Kafka for his phobia therapy. She walks into the house and is informed that the Professor is interviewing for an intimacy coach. It’s not quite what Adelaide expected, but she is pleased at his willingness to work on his issues. 

Donckers and Winters are having a flirtatious night and she explains that one of them should ask for a transfer or look for another career as the two can’t date and work together. 

Back to the case, the team learns of a patient of Dr Hill’s, Stacy Holland, a national diving champion before she was paralysed from the neck down; she wanted to visit Switzerland for euthanasia. Her father, Kenny Holland, however refused and was notably angry with Dr Hill. 

Kenny is a suspect for the murders until DI Simon Lainsborough from the regional drug squad arrives and it is revealed that Kenny is under surveillance for another crime. They have to stop questioning him for the time being.

The episode ends with a dance scene between Professor T with his intimacy couch and Donckers with her father. 

Simon Lainsboroughis at a bar waiting for Christina, the two grin at each other. The scene when played next to Professor T dancing and touching his intimacy couch is bittersweet, we see the Professor’s devotion to working on himself which was spurred by Christina and the idea of the two getting back together may be long gone. 

The case for this episode was not interesting in the least, instead it is the surrounding storyline that really makes this episode. We are introduced to Simon who may cause some tension between the Professor and Christina, we were also able to witness Winters working in his second job and the dilemma he faces. This private security job gives him the money he needs but also the respect that isn’t given in his job at the police station.