‘Patience’ Gets Her Faith Restored in “The Timetable”

After last week’s incredibly entertaining episode full of meticulously plotted crime, this week’s “The Timetable” moves to a messy murder that was clearly not premeditated. When a young and predominantly non-verbal autistic girl may be the only witness to her father’s murder, signs initially implicate the mother killing her husband and fleeing – possibly to escape the stress of raising a child needing so much care. This case hits Patience where she lives, pushing all her abandonment issue buttons. What’s really lovely though is that by the hour’s end, Patience manages to grow and heal – even choosing to wear the locket her mother left for her (which she’d been vehemently against). 

We’re already at the rising midpoint of the season, and the crime team is starting to show cohesion. Things flow much more easily between them all, which Monroe nearly upends by implying that all autistic people are the same. She waves it away and tells Patience she doesn’t have time for her to get offended; she just needs her expertise. Patience pushes through, and not only does she find the girl when she’s missing, but she also earns her trust and gathers crucial information that helps crack the case. 

On the social front, after Patience mentions she likes Elliot’s friends, he wants to meet hers. By this point, the two are at the constantly-holding-hands stage, but Elliot admits that when he meets her best friend Billy (Connor Curren), he’s not sure Patience considers him her boyfriend. For now, they’re in an exciting but undefined relationship.