Author: Amber Dowling

September 21, 2016 10:10am PT by Amber Dowling

Giovanni Ruffino/NBC

Who is is in Sandstorm’s back pocket? THR examines the suspects.

If the second season premiere of Blindspot taught viewers anything, it’s that showrunner Martin Gero and his team of writers really do plan about a thousand steps ahead. Not only were there massive payoffs in the first episode back (nice to meet you, Shepherd, Roman and Alice), but several more puzzles were set up to keep everyone guessing well into the new season.

Perhaps the biggest new thread of the season came in the form of the episode-ending revelation: there is a dormant mole within the FBI ranks — someone Shepherd (Michelle Hurd) can call on at a moment’s notice when she needs information. Who is this mole and does the person know that he or she is a potential double agent? According to Gero, there have already been clues laid out for viewers who want to guess their identity, and there will be several more throughout the season as the storyline progresses.

Until then, THR has a few suggestions on who the most likely mole is and why. Below, we rank our suspects.

7. Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton)

There are too many emotional ties between Jane Alice (Jaimie Alexander) and Weller at this point for Weller to really be a knowing mole — the character was way too upset about Alice’s’s betrayal to be fostering that kind of secret. And thanks to his strong moral convictions it’s doubtful he’d ever get himself into the sort of jam where Sandstorm could have one up on him, either. If anything, it would be a family member or long lost buddy that would somehow twist Weller into working for Sandstorm, but he’d never knowingly work with a terrorist group.

6. Nas Kamal (Archie Panjabi)

Audiences still don’t know this CIA newbie very well, which means she could very well be up to no good — did anyone actually ever check her credentials? When Nas gave that speech about how her friend ended up being a mole she could have very well been referring to herself. The sticking point is that this show likes to pack an emotional punch, and having a new character serve as the mole seems highly unlikely. That’s why her ranking has to go just below Kurt.

5. Patterson (Ashley Johnson)

The smarty pants of the bunch definitely doesn’t get her fair share of action within the team since she often stays back to solve puzzles and do high-tech things with those crazy computers of hers. But what if that fringe-involvement is actually a clue for how involved she is in other areas of the FBI? She’s already proven to be a rule breaker (she did bring home files in season one, after all), and she has more access than most. Not to mention she hasn’t been the same ever since David’s (Joe Dinicol) untimely death.

4. Tasha Zapata (Audrey Esparza)

If the past is any indication, Zapata knows how to get herself into some pretty shady situations. Thanks to her massive gambling problem she hasn’t exactly set herself up as the most moral of characters; she’s been (reluctantly) willing to spy on Alice before when it suited her purposes. So why was she so upset at Alice in the premiere? Shouldn’t someone like that be more forgiving given her own past indiscretions? Or was it all an act? Maybe Zapata doesn’t even know she’s a mole yet, and that truth will come crashing down when a big favor is called in for her aforementioned gambling problem.   

Edgar Reade (Rob Brown)

Reade was way too calm about the whole Jane Doe situation in the premiere, even serving as Zapata’s voice of reason. Not to mention the fact that he broke up with Weller’s sister and stopped looking for Carter (Michael Gaston) pretty easily once he was threatened last season… maybe he realized exactly who he was dealing with and knew there was no way to win? Either way there’s definitely more to the character than meets the eye, which makes him a pretty likely suspect. The mostly likely of the core team, in fact.

FBI Director Pellington (Dylan Baker)

Blindspot has had its share of shady authority figures so this wouldn’t be unchartered territory. Pellington was also the one who was so intent on putting the Jane Doe investigation to rest last season; perhaps because he felt she was getting too close to the truth? Plus he’s assigned Weller to be in charge, which could be a bid to keep him—and the investigation—close. The only problem with the theory is that he’s not a beloved character, so it wouldn’t exactly pack an emotional punch if he turned out to be a bad guy.

Dr. Robert Borden (Ukweli Roach)

Think about it: this guy has access to every single one of the main characters during any given situation. Plus thanks to his formal training he can help influence thought and dig deeper than anyone else—all characteristics you want in a good mole. At this point there hasn’t been enough uncovered about Borden’s background to make an educated guess at what kind of mess he may have gotten himself into to be associated with Sandstorm, but he’s absolutely a character to watch closely in these coming weeks. Especially if the main team members begin signing up for more sessions.

Who do you think the mole is? Sound off in the comments below. Blindspot airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.

Twitter: @amber_dowling

Blindspot

September 21, 2016 9:30am PT by Amber Dowling

Courtesy of Mitch Haaset/ABC

Gearing up for another bloody season of the Viola Davis-led ABC drama.

It hasn’t been a good summer for the Keating 5. After spending their first school year actually learning how to get away with murder (over and over again), the How To Get Away With Murder students are back at Middleton University for their sophomore year trying as best they can to achieve some degree of normalcy in Thursday’s season three premiere.

When the ABC drama returns, showrunner Pete Nowalk tells THR that a big question will be answered at the outset before the series moves forward in time. “We’re going to skip over the summer of their lives and we’re going to go to the second year of law school. It’s really different,” he says. “They’re really different in their second year and it’s also weird that they’re still in law school. That’s the dilemma they’re all going to be dealing with. Do they want to be lawyers again and can they get back to normal? There’s a lot of self-interest in them trying to get back to normal.”

To refocus the show from the “study sessions” at Annalise Keating’s (Viola Davis) house and to the university, the show has hired several new characters including former Dexter star Lauren Luna Velez as the university’s president, and Brett Butler and Mary J. Blige in top-secret roles. Who they’ll play aren’t the only pressing questions on viewers’ minds following a blood-soaked second-season finale, in which Wes (Aflred Enoch) confronted his father Wallace Mahoney (Adam Arkin) only to watch him get shot, and Frank (Charlie Weber) disappeared after Annalise learned he was responsible for the car accident that killed her unborn child.

Ahead of Thursday’s big return, here are six big things fans want to know.  

What happened to Frank?

In the final moments of last season’s finale, Laurel (Karla Souza) went searching in Frank’s apartment where viewers half expected to find the character hanging in his closet or dead in his bathtub. Judging from the promos and the fact that Weber is still on the cast there’s reason to hope he’s still around and not “gone” as Annalise threatened to Bonnie (Liza Weil). But then again, this is a show that loves to play with time and perspective so anything is possible. It’s safe to say viewers will find out what happened to Frank pretty quickly on Thursday night, however.  

Who shot Wes’s father?

Poor Wes. Every time he seems to pick himself back up somebody around him is dying. His mom. His girlfriend. And now his father. Who was it that pulled the trigger in last season’s big finale cliffhanger and how will that impact Wes? Be warned though; as with everything else on this series, Nowalk is cagey when it comes to reveals. Should viewers trust Annalise? Whether Wallace is indeed Wes’s father and if he is indeed dead are two separate questions to file under this category.

“If Wallace is actually Wes’s father, that’s a huge person in the life of our show, so I would hope that we would see him,” Nowalk teases. We’re going to see Sam (Tom Verica) again. The great thing about our show is that even though it has murder in it and we tend to kill off some of these wonderful actors, we can bring them back in the flashbacks.”

What kind of timeline should viewers brace themselves for?

Part of Murder’s ongoing appeal is the constant way the writers jump around in time in order to dangle carrots and make small reveals to keep audiences hooked. The third season is no exception to that “rule of having no rules,” as Nowalk puts it, since it plays with the past, present and future.   

“I don’t like to always do what’s expected, so there are other mysteries that really propel the action,” Nowalk teases. “But the end of the first episode, you’ll see what our biggest mystery is and you won’t see it coming.”

Who will die this year?

According to ABC’s promos, “not everyone is going to make it out alive” this season. That means one of the Keating five, as well as Bonnie, Frank, Annalise, Nate (Billy Brown) and Oliver (Conrad Ricamora), are all in jeopardy of succumbing to what will inevitably be another bloody murder. Has that person already died when the show returns or is that something in store for later on? How it’s set up will obviously help determine the tone of the whole season, so it’s something to anticipate for sure.

“We get to return to the mystery within our people. I won’t say what that is but it’s about our people and who can you trust within the group and who is against who,” Nowalk says. “Sort of like how the first season was about Annalise and Sam, it was very personal with whether he was cheating on her and did he kill this girl. The third season will be a lot more personal like that for Annalise.”

Who is making up/breaking up/hooking up?

At the end of last season, the show’s main couple, Connor (Jack Falahee) and Oliver, seemed to be in jeopardy when Oli deleted Connor’s Stanford acceptance letter. Fans should rest assured that Oliver isn’t going anywhere anytime soon since Ricamora was promoted to series regular this year, but that doesn’t mean there are no bumps ahead for the couple.  

“They’re going to have to deal with that. When does Conner know about the email deletion and how is Oliver going to hide that?” Nowalk says. “And if he finds out, what’s going to happen between the two of them? It’s not going to be what people expect. They’re by far the healthiest relationship on the show and we’ll see if they can be healthy through this.”

Meanwhile, with Michaela (Aja Naomi King) and Asher (Matt McGorry) randomly hooking up, and Wes and Laurel growing closer last season, it seems like anyone could get with anyone else at any given point in season three.

Who is targeting Annalise?

Nowalk and Co. are hoping for another “killer” season of the Thursday night drama; as such they’ve upped the ante by having someone personally target Annalise when the show returns. As the promos indicate, someone is plastering posters of the lawyer around the school’s campus with the word “killer” on it when the show returns, a move that’s bound to put Keating’s new criminal law clinic in jeopardy.

“A lot of bad stuff has happened to Annalise,” Nowalk says. “Her reputation has suffered over the first two seasons so we’re going to see how she’s dealing with that and maybe how she has to try and pick up the pieces again. And how she has to maybe have the students pick up the pieces again. Their fates are all tethered together.”

Well, yes. After all, there is no bond like murder.

How to Get Away With Murder returns Thursday Sept. 22 at 10 p.m. on ABC.

What are you looking forward to? Sound off in the comments below.

Twitter: @amber_dowling

How to Get Away With Murder

September 20, 2016 8:00pm PT by Amber Dowling

Ron Batzdorff/NBC

The actor talks with THR about his new look and the emotional gut-punch at the end of the new NBC drama’s series debut.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from the series premiere of NBC’s This Is Us.]

For months Milo Ventimiglia has been walking around with a very different look than Heroes, Gilmore Girls and, more recently, Gotham viewers have been used to seeing: a mustache. The look has confused the actor’s loyal fans — as well as his friends and family — and now that the series premiere of Ventimiglia’s new NBC Dan Fogelman drama This Is Us has aired, he can finally explain the new look.

In Tuesday’s episode-ending twist, it was revealed that Ventimiglia’s Jack and Mandy Moore’s Rebecca’s hospital scenes actually took place in 1979, when one of their triplets died during childbirth. The on-screen couple then adopted a third baby after he was left at a fire station by his drug-addled father. Those three kids grew up to be the other characters audiences were introduced to during Tuesday’s series debut: Kate (Chrissy Metz), Kevin (Justin Hartley) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown). Ventimiglia’s mustache, as it turns out, was not only necessary to relay that time period, but to play around with as the show jumps around in time for future episodes.

To find out just how big of a time jump the show will take, how three babies impacts a marriage and how signing on to a project like this affects his view of parenthood, THR caught up with Ventimiglia.

What was your initial reaction to the twist at the end of the pilot?

When I read it, I was on an airplane and stopped and sat back and had to think about [and make sure] that I understood what Dan had written. Then I flipped back to the beginning of the scene and read everything again. Once I saw it, I accepted it and knew it. I was blown away. I got to the end of the script and immediately turned back to page one. Now I was reading it not for the first time of understanding how these individuals were playing out but then knowing how this family was built and the impact. It was a beautiful script but when I got to the end and knew how everybody was connected, it was a “I have to be a part of this show” moment. I read the script and had a meeting on the books. I’d had a friend that I produced a lot with who was buddies with Dan and my attorney also represents This Is Us directors Glen Ficarra and John Requa. I love the connecting tissue. I just wanted to hang out with them. 

Have you had a similar reaction to something on the page in the episodes you’ve shot since the pilot?

Fogelman and the writers have done an amazing job of taking very simple-to-digest issues — very simple concepts — but then making them so deep and so rich in a universe of life. Every moment that we have from like, his first day as a father on the show and dealing with three very different children, to trying to keep his wife and marriage happy and on track. The team of writers has just done an amazing job continuing that first episode feeling throughout the six that I’ve read.

How does Jack change in those six episodes?

We see Jack at different stages in his life and see him of course with three babies and then later out with three 8-year-olds. He’s a man that loves family, loves his wife and would do anything for them. And he’s an optimistic hopeful. He’s a man that tries to see the best in the situation and makes sure that his family is provided for and he’s doing the best he can for them.

How far ahead will the show jump — could you ever have scenes with Justin, Chrissy or Sterling?

That’s to be determined. The nice thing about the show is it takes these real topics, real-life moments and we’re hopefully going to see the way these characters all handle them and have to work through the trials and tribulations of life.

Is one time period easier to play than another?

I wouldn’t say one is easier but I’m enjoying all of them. Every moment of my life that I get older my circle of perception gets greater and I understand hopefully a little bit more about the world, about people and life in general. Bouncing around with Jack in time and knowing that he’s going from his mid-30s to a little further along in life and then even at one point I know we’re jumping back to I believe before kids. It’s kind of keeping the family timeline straight in my head, and with Mandy. Keeping the family understanding and that dynamic straight is probably the hardest part. 

What was it like physically crafting those varying looks?

When I was cast in the role, Fogelman and Requa said, “We want you to grow your hair out, grow your beard out, stop working out.” I was like, “OK. I can figure out doing all that stuff.” But it basically gives us an opportunity to have touchstones through different decades as well as showing change or difference. I know people have seen me walking around with a mustache and wonder what’s happening, but there’s a versatility that comes with facial hair and wearing different versions of facial hair. It helps us out a lot.

Did you actually stop working out? You don’t exactly have a dad-bod in this pilot.

No. That was one request that I said no I can’t do it. I have to keep healthy. But the idea was that with the show opening on my bare bottom and bare body, they wanted to make sure I didn’t look too modern. And I agreed. It was a different time for men’s fitness.

What can you say about working with Mandy? Did you have to create backstories with her for this marriage?

It’s all pretty much there. Mandy is amazing. If people aren’t already in love with her they will be. The character that she’s created beyond the words that Fogelman has written is just … when I’m in scenes with her she gives little speeches at times and I’ll often forget I’m in a scene because I’m just watching her give this beautiful performance. But we have every bit of information that we need. Dan pretty much read us through top to bottom. Because it helps; we are jumping around, we have more decades to play in. He wanted to make sure we had our family history and then it’s just down to us to plug it in when we needed it in any given decade.

How will their marriage be tested?

In any way that marriages are. You’ve got two people that are different from one another but love each other as much as two humans can. You’re going to go through all the trials and tribulations. And then you throw three kids of the same age that are three different personalities on top of that and it’s just … it’s stress and strain. It comes out in a lot of different ways.

Does playing this character make you look at fatherhood any differently?

I’ve got nieces and nephews so I definitely understand within my own family how they have managed being great parents and having good marriages. Plus seeing my own mom and dad … this job has impacted and influenced me but it’s also it gives me confidence. I get to play pretend for a few minutes, but I’m sure by the time I get around to having kids myself then I’ll be like, ah well. I went through grade school and junior high and high school and now I’m ready for college. Or not. Who knows. I may not ever be completely prepared for it.

What was filming the emotional pilot scene with Gerald McRaney in the hallway like?

I tried to make the moment as honest and real as I could; something that was genuine to the moment Jack was having. It’s something that wasn’t forced, it just kind of naturally happened. There’s this confusion that would happen in a moment like that where you have to be happy about the birth of two babies but you have to be able to mourn the loss of a third. And thank God for Joe McRaney; he delivered these words that Fogelman wrote so beautifully. There was no real preparation that either of us needed in that moment, but to sit there in that moment and have a conversation with one another. I could only imagine the pain and the confusion and elation that Jack was feeling.

Given the crazy reaction to the trailer and the fact that there is this huge twist, are you almost relieved for people to have finally seen the show?

Very much so. I know that for several months since the show was picked up it has been the want of all of us on the creative side to not spoil the experience of discovery that first time you watch the show. So once people see that first episode and get the lay of the land and understand exactly who these characters are with relation to one another’s lives, then oh man — I’ll stop explaining my mustache to people. 

This is Us airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on NBC. What did you think of the pilot? Check out our postmortem with Fogelman about that twist and the future of the series here.

Twitter: @amber_dowling

This Is Us