Death's Door

**\* GALLERY**

## Synopsis

When a body is found professionally preserved and embalmed, the NYPD teams up with Edrisa to go undercover at a convention of funeral directors. While there, they discover their top suspects - morticians Tilda and Dev - who used to be in business with the victim. Then, enter the mind of a serial killer as Martin revisits his past through a series of hallucinations.

## Plot

Malcolm is in the hospital looking at his father through the class having him just recovered from surgery. Dani arrives and makes an off comment about his father receiving his much over-due karma. Malcolm ignores her as he continues to stare longingly at his father.

Inside his own mind, Martin is having a hallucination of possibly the last woman he killed. He is walking home through the park and stumbles upon a girl that hurt her ankle. He introduces himself as a doctor and offers to check out her sprained ankle. He confirms it's fine just a little swollen. He offers to take her to his house a block away so she can call someone to pick her up. She agrees. Inside his house, before she can finish dialing the numbers he chloroformed her from behind. Before he is able to finish what he started, he is interrupted with the arrival of his wife Jessica. She walks in with her for her coat exclaiming how their plans got canceled and the kids are out. They embrace with a kiss as Martin is concerned about the body he stuffed in the closet.

Gil once again asks Jessica to exclaim what happened inside the Claremont Psychiatric Hospital. Both Ainsley and Gil are concerned, as Gil explains that Cory Wheaton is no longer collaborating her story and she might face possible jail time if her husband dies. Jessica isn't worried but Malcolm takes her aside and insists they changed their story to the truth. Jessica exclaims how incredibly foolish that would be, and is happy when Malcolm is presented with a case wanting him to keep his mind occupied.

Malcolm arrives at the crime scene with the rest of his team where they meet Edrisa. JT mistakes the body for a real person, only for the rest of them to realize the man is not only dead but has been embalmed and so perfectly made-up afterwords it is almost uncanny. Only Malcolm and Edrisa are impressed with the work done, as Malcolm begins to dive into his profile. Explaining whoever did this, possibly has a sexual motive but more importantly, is trying to preserve something they feel is special and important. And they are definitely a necrophiliac.

Not long after, Ainsley suggesting they use Martin's lawyer, the one who was able to ensure he not receive death row and instead got life in prison with medical consulting privileges. Jessica is absolutely discussed with this man and wants nothing to do with him, hanging up on him immediately. Hours later she is even more annoyed when Ainsley brings him by the house for a sitdown chat. He insists he can get hurt zero jail time regardless of whether Martin dies. She begins uncomfortably weighing her options.

Downstairs in the morgue, Malcolm, Edrisa and Gil are all analyzing the recently deceased, *Kevin Bagley*. Edrisa goes into further detail about how incredible the embalming was, and whoever did it had to absolutely be a mortician like herself. Luckily there are only a couple in the city, unfortunately, there is currently a convention going on which means there are now thousands in the city. Edrisa reluctantly agrees to go with them into a private memberships only event.

Before leaving Malcom runs into his sister Ainsley who is annoyed because she knows her brother and mother are keeping a secret. Malcolm confesses that it was him who stabbed their father. Ainsley isn't sure she wanted to know that information, but she is upset.

Before entering the conference, Dani goes over two possible suspects that used to work with their victim *Tilda Carp* and *Dev Sundaram*. All three worked together until years ago when the funeral home burned down. Inside they split up until Dani tracks down Malcolm, though he is still rather concerned for his father's pending life. Dani who has a clear disdain for Malcolm's father isn't very sympathetic. She brings up how her own father died when she was 16 and is rather short-tempered at his emotions towards his serial killer of a father. They are awkwardly interrupted by one of the people they were looking for, Tilda Carp. the question her about her relationship with Kevin. She is incredibly surprised to find out he died but insists the fire was the best thing that ever happened to her, she was able to move on and move up in her career making a lot more money. Gil and JT are questioning the second possible suspect, *Dev Sundaram* who is not doing as well, and is slightly more reluctant to talk. After looking over the makeup Dev is selling, Edrisa is able to confirm it is the exact stuff that was used on their victim earlier. Very high grade and very specific type.

Gil is able to get a warrant to Dev’s apartment but upon arrival, they find him unconscious and possibly dying in his own bathroom. Malcolm is able to talk Edrisa through what's happening to him, forcing her to remember her medical training. She is under pressure, and not used to working with living people. While she is continuously breaking down, Malcolm is able to get the information they need in order to counteract the anti-freeze with alcohol. Afterward, she takes a swig of the drink herself.

Martin is still in his hallucination, and after presumably killing and dismembering the girl he finds the box empty. He is mentally transported back to his living room where the female victim was able to call her mother to pick her up. Martin is horrified at how different events have played out. The girl confronts him, telling him she is going to go after the one thing he loves, his family. Martin rushes to his son’s room, only to find his bed empty. Instead, the woman has him with a knife to his throat. In real life, Martin's health takes a dip while Ainsley and Jessica are in the waiting room at the hospital. They message Malcolm to get there as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the mother and daughter have a conversation and Ainsley insists her mother take her father's lawyer up. Jessica doesn't want him and decides she wants someone better. Meanwhile, Martin is still panicking inside his hallucination and begging for the life of his son, but stops just as quickly and composes himself. He asks his son *"I'm not a regular person. Am I?"* and he answers *"You're a predatory psychopath"*. Now back in control, Martin is able to stab and kill the young woman.

Malcolm and Gil have Tilda in custody and are questioning her as she is the only remaining partner of their previously failed business. She insists again that her life is much better now, but brings up how they had a fourth silent partner. She never passed their exam so they weren't legally supposed to work with her, and that's why her name isn't on any of the paperwork. She instructs they go look for *Leanne Truitt*.

Malcolm calls down to the mortician's office and Edrisa tells him she is fine, but clearly doesn't want to continue talking. Malcolm sees this as a red flag given her infatuation with him and immediately goes down to the basement. There, he sees Edrisa being held at gunpoint by Leanne. He immediately calls the rest of his team and goes inside the doors to talk his way into the situation. Leanne insists she be taken to Kevin’s body but Edrisa refuses to let her violate the remains of a person, even under threat of death. Malcolm, wanting to control the situation, agrees they should go to see his body and slowly begins taking, whilst trying to start a conversation with Leanne. He tries to explain that this isn't the way and sometimes things don't work out. While having the gun pointed at him he adds when life gets hard you have to continue going. However, Edrisa interprets this as him giving her a message to stop the killer, knocking her over with a stainless steel pan. Malcolm initially scolds her, only to realize she misunderstood him and again congratulates her for her bravery. Edrisa is rather over the moon and proud of herself for taking such a chance as Leanne is handcuffed by the rest of the team.

Jessica is having a meeting with Eve Blanchard. She brings up the rather traumatizing experience she had with Malcolm last time she saw him. Jessica agrees that he has many demons but she's not here to talk about that. Jessica asks Eve to be her lawyer to defend her against a possible murder charge.

In the hospital, Malcolm comes to see his father. In that moment he opens his eyes and smiles at his boy.

## Quotes

**Gil Arroyo:** And if he doesn't see it as self-defense, criminal charges will follow. You need a lawyer, Jessica.
**Jessica Whitly:** We have a family lawyer that I trust.
**Ainsley Whitly:** But not a criminal defense attorney,- and we need one of those, right?
**Gil Arroyo:** You need the best one of those. What did you think was going to happen after you tried to kill someone?
**Gil Arroyo:** We just got a call from Edrisa.- There's a case.
**Jessica Whitly:** Oh, perfect. You need a distraction. Your father's in a coma, after all.
**Malcolm Bright:** I'm not even thinking about that.
**Jessica Whitly:** If only that were true.
**Malcolm Bright:** A necrophiliac's desire to get close to a dead body can come from a fear of rejection, coupled with a deep and very human need for connection. Wouldn't we all like that? Someone who's always there, sitting on the couch with us?. Without the weirdness.
**JT Tarmel:** And the homicide.
*(Trying to talk down Leanne Truitt)*
**Malcolm Bright:** Real relationships can be hard as hell, life is full of risk, and death is messy. But we can't run away from it. I can't run away from it. We need to face it. Maybe, maybe we can both face it, together.
**Malcolm Bright:** What do you say, Leanne?
*(Edrisa attacks her with a tray)*
**Malcolm Bright:** What was that?! -
**Edrisa Tanaka:** What?
**Malcolm Bright:** I'd almost talked her down.
**Edrisa Tanaka:** You just said life was about taking risks. W-W Weren't you talking to me?
**Malcolm Bright:** Of course.
*(During Martin's hallucination)*
**The Girl in the Box:** I'm going to kill your son. But first, you have to tell me something. Why?
**Martin Whitly:** Why?
**The Girl in the Box:** Why did you do this to me?
**Martin Whitly:** Oh. Well, I mean... I mean, that's up there with life's great questions, isn't it? What's at the center of a black hole? Uh, why do birds suddenly appear? Why did I put you in a box?... Because I *wanted* to.
*(Why Martin's a serial killer)*
**Martin Whitly:** It-it-it's this brain I was born with, or because my mommy didn't love me enough, or maybe she loved me too much, or because daddy did horrible things to me. Because, because, because!
*(During Martin's hallucination)*
**Martin Whitly:** I just realized something. Oh, this might be a nightmare. But it's my nightmare. And I'm not a regular person. Am I?
**Young Malcolm:** No, you're not. You're a predatory psychopath.
**Martin Whitly:** That's right, I am. And what does that mean?
**Young Malcolm:** That you're always in control.
**Martin Whitly:** Yes. I am.

## Notes

* Dr. Martin Whitly is suffering from a secondary to anoxic injury, *(coma)* which means there was a sudden cessation of oxygen to the brain after being stabbed though the heart.
* Dani Powell revealed her dad died when she was 16.

**Goof**

* Dr. Edrisa Tanaka was walking behind everyone when they began walking into the convention, but was in-front of everyone when they got inside.

## Cast

* Tom Payne as Malcolm Bright
* Michael Sheen as Dr. Martin Whitly
* Bellamy Young as Jessica Whitly
* Lou Diamond Phillips as Gil Arroyo
* Halston Sage as Ainsley Whitly
* Aurora Perrineau as Dani Powell
* Frank Harts as JT Tarmel
* Keiko Agena as Dr. Edrisa Tanaka
* Ana Gasteyer as Tilda Carp
* Brian Stokes Mitchell as Everett Sterling
* Kasjan Wilson as Young Malcolm
* Molly Griggs as Eve Blanchard
* Sathya Sridharan as Dev Sundaram
* Ashlie Atkinson as Leanne Truitt
* Richard Topol as Doctor
* Anna Eilinsfeld as Girl in the Box