‘The Irrational’ Recap: ‘Another Man’s Treasure’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THE IRRATIONAL -- "Another Man's Treasure" Episode 210 -- Pictured: (l-r) Arash DeMaxi as Rizwan, Anjali Khurana as Yaahna, Jesse L. Martin as Alec Mercer -- (Photo by: Sergei Bachlakov/NBC)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 210 of ‘The Irrational’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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One particularly fascinating aspect about crime stories that feature brilliant investigators or characters with unique mental quirks that help them solve cases, is that those characters, simply don’t have a foil. They’re always the smartest one in the room, they’re always untouchable from an intelligence standpoint, and if by chance they have an opposite in the story, that villain is just pure evil. Someone that is deeply dedicated to chaos and suffering, and well… audiences don’t seem to mind the hero being perfect in that manner and that’s likely why no one has ever really challenged them with a heavy that can perfectly play and prey upon their skill set.

Which is why this week’s episode of The Irrational on NBC is of note. Because Dr. Alec Mercer met a foil of sorts in ‘Another Man’s Treasure’. But at first it just seemed as though, some clever thieves were throwing him for a loop. Because whilst Alec was following up on a harrowing and scary experience involving an angry mob that Riz and Simon were caught up in, he came to discover that a local museum was robbed in broad daylight. While the museum was open no less, and it seemed that this act was made possible by the very mob that spooked Riz and Simon to their core, since they served as a distraction for the thieves. Which was indeed a clever thing to do, but when something similar happened later that day, it became clear that something bigger was happening here.

For one of the artifacts was swapped out, and all of the suspects simply did not have a motive for theft. If anything, it seemed as though what was really happening here was an elaborate scheme to bring artifacts that were stolen from other cultures and nations back to their rightful owners. But soon it became clear… there was more to this than just making a culture whole once again. Because the items that went missing, were highly collectible and some fine digging from a digital standpoint made it clear that someone was using a bevy of distractions to throw law enforcement off of the trail, to accomplish a much more unique and selfish goal. In that, this person wanted those specific artifacts to be part of their private collection and were willing to use Alec’s line of thinking to make that happen.

Because they outright figured out how to use the irrational nature of people to create a scene that would indeed draw eyes away from an actual crime, and they used ideas and concepts that would make people do irrational things to help them with their ultimate goal. But alas, Alec figured out that was the case and that he was dealing with someone as skilled as he. Which allowed for him to guide Marisa through their clever traps to bring them to bear, with an assist from Phoebe, of course. As it turned out, a seemingly mild-mannered writer named Warren was behind this all. And he was able to pull this off because he wrote psychological thrillers where people were influenced to do their worst, and truly thought he understood people better than anyone. But he did not count on having to face off against the man that essentially wrote the book on human behavior.

Which made for an utterly delightful tale. One that really did offer up an immersive mystery for Alec and his team to solve, that featured a true foil. For this man knew how to use the same skill set as Alec, and that was quite the refreshing treat. Since it forced Alec to work harder than usual to solve this case and while we may never see Warren again, since he was clever, but not THAT clever, one cannot help but wonder if a true foil is on the horizon for Alec. Someone who can match him note for note and use that for their gain. Since it would take this story in a bold new direction. But even if that doesn’t happen, it was just nice to see a story like this, finally offer up that polar opposite challenge. It was also amazing; to see the story revisit Marisa’s confession and learn she’s made a bold decision about finding her child, and truly… it will be interesting to see if she reunites with her baby in the weeks to come and see what other unique moments await us as this wondrous season of storytelling continues along. Until next time.

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