Episode 17 of Prodigal Son finally confirmed who the girl in the box was and her mysterious connection to the series' mainstay, Eve Blanchard. All two seasons of FOx's hit crime thriller are now streaming on Netflix in the U.S., opening the door to the crime-solving exploits of an NYPD officer, Malcolm Bright (played by Tom Payne). Malcolm, while having devoted his life to upholding the law, is actually the son of prolific serial killer Martin "The Surgeon" Whitly.
Throughout the show's first season, Malcolm is met with haunting visions of this "girl in the box," a woman who was seemingly killed and left to rot in a small wooden fixture. Much of the mystery of the series, outside of each episode's crime-of-the-week, surrounds this girl in the box. In fact, it is entirely unclear at first whether the girl in the box even existed.
However, as the show's first season progresses, it becomes clear that, yes, she was real, and she harbors a deep-rooted connection to Malcolm's lawyer girlfriend, Eve.
A Flashback Pulls Back the Girl in the Box Layers
Season 1, Episode 17 of Prodigal Son pulls the curtain back on the show's central girl in the box mystery, adding a grim new wrinkle to the series' already macabre overall narrative.
To this point, Malcolm had been greeted with various nightmares associated with the girl in the box. This young woman haunted his dreams for week upon week. He eventually discovers that she was a real person and had some connection to his serial killer father.
A flashback in Episode 15 revealed as such, showing that Malcolm's father, Martin, had interacted with the young girl (who looks suspiciously like Malcolm's girlfriend, Eve) before she ended up dead.
Martin, known by the serial killer name the Surgeon, spotted the girl spraining her ankle while on a run in Central Park. As a doctor, he offered the girl his home phone to call for help while he could take a look at the injury. She, of course, obliged.
While in his home, Martin sneaks up on the girl, knocking her out cold. After his wife, Laura, arrived unexpectedly, Martin was forced to improvise from his usual killing routine, not disposing of the body in typical fashion but instead putting her in a box.
After Laura had gone and Martin was left with a young Malcolm, the supposed killer returned to the box in the back of his car to find that the girl was no longer there but had regained consciousness and was readying a knife to threaten her attacker.
She holds a young Malcolm at knifepoint before Martin seemingly takes control of the situation, killing the girl (at least, so we think).
Is Eve the Girl in the Box in Prodigal Son?
Episode 17 further explores this part of the story, confirming that the identity of the girl in the box was actually Eve's sister, Sophie Sanders.
This reveal comes about midway through the show's 17th episode, after Malcolm's mother and sister embark on a quest to discover more information on this girl in the box who has been haunting Malcolm for all this time.
It comes to a head as Malcolm is confronted by his mother and sister in his apartment, telling the former FBI profiler hero that the girl was named Sophie Sanders and has some connection to his father. Not only that, though. They also disclosed that Eve is not who she says she is and was actually adopted as a child.
The family she comes from is actually the Sanders family, and the girl in the box is her older sister. Sophie, who arrives around the same time as Malcolm, confirms the suspicions. She reveals she only got involved with the Whitly family to get more information on her sister, who went missing more than 20 years before.
Despite this, Eve claims her feelings and relationship with Malcolm were authentic but knows that this revelation likely means things are over between them as Malcolm has been betrayed by a loved one once again.
Did Malcolm's Dad Actually Kill the Girl in the Box?
As far as Episode 17 is concerned, Malcolm's father, Martin, was the killer behind Sophie's death. Even though the girl in the box escaped said box, the series makes it seem as though Martin still got the upper hand on his victim and killed her off. However, that is not the case.
It is later revealed that Sophie actually survived, with Martin sparing her life. In Season 1, Episode 18, a flashback shows that Martin could not go through with killing the young woman. This was after she told the killer that she was, at the time of her ankle sprain, on the run from another man.
This other man is one of the show's central villains and her former boss, Nicholas Endicott (played by former Marvel star Dermot Mulroney). Martin lets her go after hearing her out, only for her to be killed by an assassin hired by Mulroney's shady New York businessman to stop her from spilling his secrets.
Luckily, she opened up to Martin, who could then relay this information to his NYPD officer son, Malcolm, and pursue Nicholas to bring the character to justice.
