This post contains spoilers from Prime Target episode 2 from this point forward.
Following the shocking reveal of Professor Mallinder's death at the end of episode 1, Prime Target takes us to the seaside in France to catch up with the person on the other side of the hidden cameras and the computer screens: NSA agent Taylah (Quintessa Swindell). It's the second point of view the show needed to let us in on, and doing so reveals a second layer of captivating mystery.
Elsewhere in the second episode of the new Apple TV+ thriller series, Ed and others are left reeling in the wake of Mallinder's death, with Professor Lavin no longer wanting to pursue the dig in Baghdad. Thankfully, she's one of the few people who still believes Ed and listens to his theories. But as Ed continues to push for his research, he uncovers more details that leave him looking over his shoulder.
Let's unpack everything that happened in Prime Target episode 2, including the next shocking death you didn't see coming.
Ed seeks the truth about his research
While everyone mourns Professor Mallinder, Ed continues to move forward. He wants to get into Mallinder's office to retrieve his research, but no one permits him access. When he returns to his room, he discovers the envelope on the mirror. Inside, there's a drawing of a series of connected triangles.
Later, Ed's walking the campus under cover of night and a dark hoodie. He scales the building and arrives outside Mallinder's office. He breaks the window and enters, determined to find his research. Finally, he discovers his scorched notebook in the trashcan. Ed throws a fit of rage and ends up getting caught by security.
No one's receptive to Ed claiming that Mallinder was trying to warn him about something and burned his work. Inevitably, Ed gets thrown out of Cambridge because he doesn't agree to apologize. He tries to call his dad, but he's not focused enough to take the call, so Ed finds a new apartment off campus.
He shows Professor Osborne the drawing left behind by Mallinder, and he recognizes it as an icosahedron. Osborne explains the Greek meaning behind the figure: "[Hippasus] made himself equal to the gods. And Pythagoras killed him for it because the knowledge was forbidden." Clearly, it's a symbol for Ed's research being too dangerous.
Unexpectedly to Ed, Lavin believes what Ed has been saying to everyone. She knows that the numbers on the tablecloth Mallinder burned meant something more. Ed doesn't understand Mallinder's warning message, but Lavin wants him to find out. In going through Mallinder's home office, he swipes a Cambridge ID badge and finds a paper with a logo that matches that of the one on the icosahedron paper.
Ed also learns that Safiya Zamil, the person in Mallinder's past that had attempted his same research (and who Mallinder might have been in love with, died 30 years ago. He reads an old paper of hers at the college and notices the icosahedron doodled in the margins. On a personal note, after so much bad news, Ed patches things up with Adam and opens up to him about what he's going through. There's even hand holding!
Later that night, Ed walks back home and feels paranoid that he's being followed. He rushes home and searches for the KI logo he spotted on the papers and finds the Kaplar Institute. Suddenly, there's a knock at his door. He doesn't open it, but there's and older man on the other side who slides his card under the door: Stephen Patrick Nield from the Kaplar Institute. They want to develop his work. That's a little too eerie, Ed!
Taylah theorizes a larger conspiracy
The surveillance agents stationed abroad check up on the smartest mathematicians via hidden cameras, collect screenshots and timestamps of their work, and send them on to higher ups through the Syracuse server. They're checking the algebra and the documents to look out for the next "digital weapons," as Taylah explains to the newbie.
Taylah continues to monitor the footage of Mallinder because something seems off to her. Even though she sent the footage, she keeps looking deeper. She sees him burning something (Ed's research) and follows his exit from campus and drive home from every street view. Eventually, she watches him pull into the garage where he died.
She continues to look deeper and deeper until she eventually watches Ed's freak out in Mallinder's office and identifies Ed from the dinner at the professor's home, scribbling on the tablecloth. Rather quickly, Taylah's putting all the pieces together and getting closer to the truth that Mallinder was covering for Ed.
When she listens to the voicemail he left his wife, she determines that the background noise was looped and his voice was digitally rendered. She also notices seconds of footage from his death scene were deleted. Under this working theory, Taylah believes that Mallinder didn't actually kill himself, instead she believes that he was murdered.
Taylah brings her theory that Mallinder didn't die by suicide to her boss, Olson. Begrudingly, he reviews the footage and fires off an email to the higher ups. The next day, Taylah talks to Olson and he breaks the news that the higher ups won't pursue her theory. As Taylah advocates for them to do something, Olson's shot and killed by a sniper. She runs from the person shooting at her on a motorcycle and dives into the ocean. Oh, this just got serious!
Watch Prime Target only on Apple TV+.