‘Professor T’s Finale Exposes Secrets & Sticks the Emotional Landing

It’s the end of Professor T’s lively third season, and we finally get our payoff: the truth about Jasper’s father’s death. Throw in a murder mystery where the victim of a car crash died of suffocation, add the surprising death of a main character, and it’s quite the finale. Ben Miller gets to flex his acting chops as Jasper rides several emotional waves. He has been making personal strides all season, addressing the traumatic memories of his father’s suicide and its effect on his behavior and relationships – especially his OCD. He even goes ungloved by the end of the episode, which is reversed in a heartbreaking moment when Jasper re-dons his gloves after the aforementioned untimely death.

Adelaide instructs the Dean to destroy a cache of her diaries and “that thing of Jasper’s.” Before the Dean can get there, Jasper meets Dr. Goldberg at Adelaide’s, and against her better judgment, Dr. G agrees to look in the attic. She locates Adelaide’s box of diaries. Jasper wants her to read them and report pertinent details, but she refuses. It’s up to him to betray his mother’s trust. He opts to put the diaries back, unread, and then notices a broken trophy in the box. Touching the trophy triggers a memory: his father’s feet swing in the air, and he can hear his father’s voice. Dr. G asks if it could have been someone else speaking. Upon closer inspection, the trophy is spattered with what may be blood. After returning the items to the attic and leaving, Jasper notices the Dean enter Adelaide’s house. The Dean later reports to Adelaide he burned her diaries and disposed of the trophy.

Jasper has been restored to his rightful place at Cambridge and begins a lecture on Narcissistic Personality Disorder to a roomful of students who burst into applause at his return. He calms them, then squirts sanitizer into his gloved hands, making them erupt into cheers once again. Jasper can’t help but smile. He gives us the theme of this week’s story: “The narcissistic parent will react with contempt, rage, psychological abuse, and physical violence when the objectified child unwittingly reneges on his obligation to act as the source of narcissistic supply.”