Author: Amber Dowling

September 14, 2016 8:00pm PT by Amber Dowling

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

Martin Gero reveals new clues about season-mystery and crafting Jane Doe’s identity.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Wednesday’s season two premiere of Blindspot, “In Night So Ransomed Rogue”]

If viewers were feeling antsy heading into Wednesday’s second season premiere of NBC drama Blindspot, odds are they left feeling pretty damn satisfied. The return picked up three months from where last season’s finale left off, with Jane (Jaimie Alexander) finally escaping the clutches of the CIA’s dark torture room and incoming character Nas (Archie Panjabi) convincing Jane’s former team to reconnect with her in order to bring down the terrorist organization now known as “Sandstorm.”

And that was just the beginning. Before the hour was up viewers learned that Jane Doe’s real name is indeed Alice Kruger (as avid fans deduced), and that Roman (Luke Mitchell), who was previously seen as a younger kid in a flashback, is actually Jane’s brother. Oh, and Shepherd — the supposed mastermind of it all? Turns out she’s actually Jane’s foster mother (Michelle Hurd) and she’s not convinced that Jane isn’t a double agent.

At this point, it’s unclear if Jane herself knows which side she’s on, but to make matters worse, viewers also learned there’s a mole inside the FBI. And it’s one of the show’s established characters. Topping it all off were two quick snapshots at the very end: One of Jane in a soldier’s uniform, and another of Shepherd and Roman overlooking a giant rocket.

To stop heads from spinning and find out what else could possibly be in store for the second season, THR sat down with creator and showrunner Martin Gero. Here he breaks down the planning that goes into these clues and those types of twists, what fans need to know about the mole, and crafting a midseason finale that may blow everyone’s minds.

How long has Sandstorm been in your back pocket?

Since the beginning, we’ve always known. You can’t do a show like this and not know what’s going on. We always knew Jane’s backstory and the shape of the organization behind her. We didn’t have the name until this year. We kept calling them the Island of Misfit Toys. And then that became The Misfits, but that didn’t sound like a great name for a show like this. And then one of our writers, Chris Pozzebon, came up with that monologue that Nas has about why she gave them that name. It was great; we got to learn a little bit about Nas and it was a badass name.  

How far in advance do you actually plan with this show?

We are hyper planners. It’s one of those things you can say and then nobody believes you because mostly that turns out to be a lie. But we start our room about a month and a half before most writers’ rooms start up. Coming into season two, we spent the first week and a half talking about season three, just so that we make sure we’re teeing everything up properly. There’s an enormous amount planned from the beginning.

Part of that is just the climate. When you’re pitching these shows nowadays you can’t just have a bunch of dangling threads. When I pitched the show they wanted to know, well, who is she? What’s going on? You can’t just say you’ll figure it out; networks have gotten really wise to great pilots that don’t necessarily make great series. At the time, it felt like an exhausting amount of work to do for just a pitch, but now that we’re actually making the show, I couldn’t be more thankful because we’ve had a solid playbook from the beginning.

How do you keep track of all that?

I work with an astoundingly smart group of writers; if you came to our office it would look like we’re planning a massive attack. Every episode is laid out all the way up until episode 22 — working backwards, what plot elements we’re going to reveal and when. And then we have the stuff we need to layer in to make season three work. It’s a big group effort, so it’s not like it’s all stuff that needs to just fit in one person’s head. That’s why all writers rooms are just covered in wipe boards. There is so much information that we’re constantly tracking and trying to fit in and streamline.

How will Jane’s brother and mother factor into the season going forward?

Roman is in every episode. Shepherd is kind of the leader so she’s not in every episode, but she’s certainly in a lot of the opening ones so that we can start to create a relationship between her and Jane. I don’t want to give too much away, but Luke is here for every episode. Jane has been struggling to find an actual, tangible connection with somebody since she came out of that bag in the pilot. Roman is that guy; she has a history with him. They’re blood relatives. That’s a very meaningful moment for us when he gives her his blood. They’re deeply connected, these two. The problem is that he’s a maniac. He’s kind of like her before the memory wipe. She sees him take out six cops without blinking an eye. That’s a terrifying person to suddenly have a connection with. And so she’s got to be careful, but it has an enormous pull on her.

Did having a brother figure also purposefully keep you away from another love triangle?

A love triangle made sense for season one but it didn’t make sense for season two. We wanted somebody who had a stronger bond than just a fiancé. Family is family and that’s what she’s been searching for this whole time, both metaphorically and literally. To just give it to her was a powerful thing to do.

At the end of the episode, was that a nuke Shepherd had underway?

It was a rocket… I’m not going to tell you what kind of rocket it is. There’s no way to know what the payload is. It could be a nuke, but it’s a pretty giant rocket.

How does the coin Alice receives from her brother factor in?

It’s not a massive thing or a plot thing; it’s more of a character thing that we’ll revisit. It’s a memento or totem that’s important to them as characters and something that is between the two of them. It will make more sense as you learn their back stories. It’s something very personal to them.

Is there a metaphor for two-face in it?

The two sides of them is not something that was lost on us. Jane in a lot of ways is going to try and save Roman this year, and Roman is feeling like he has to save Jane from herself. So there is a fascinating tension between the two of them. But it starts from a place where they love each other a lot. It makes Jane very dangerous, to be honest. She doesn’t exactly have a great relationship with the American government. The opening of season two is one of the biggest things we’ve ever done production-wise and it gives away a huge piece of Jane’s back story. It starts to mess with Jane’s head because these bad guys that she has vilified start to make a lot of sense to her. And that makes Nas really nervous.

Is there significance behind the name Alice Kruger?

There’s nothing hidden in that name. For us it’s like Alice through the looking glass kind of thing, and Kruger is just a very common South African name.

Were you surprised fans were able to figure out the name so quickly based on your clues?

Yeah, I was shocked. But to be honest, I’ve stopped being surprised at how smart our fans are. They just invest so much into it and it was just a cool, fun little thing for us to do — scattering the letters out there. They really put it together. We thought a name would be a bit harder but they figured it out. A lot of them, too. You can only ever trust the first couple of responses because then people can be like, copy and paste. But it’s pretty amazing.

Does that weigh on you when you’re creating things like this — how quickly the audience can decipher the clues, or does it challenge you to make them harder?

It’s so exciting, it means they’re engaged. That’s what you’re doing as a storyteller, making them care about stuff. If they care enough to spend hours deciphering titles and little clues, it means they’re really being pulled into the world. That’s very exciting for us. David Kwong is a phenomenal puzzle and magician master. All of us are pretty big puzzlers too so it’s just a really fun thing to do. It’s a show about trying to figure stuff out so to have these little secret things built into the show makes it more fun.

Another premiere reveal was Jane in the soldier suit. Does that open up the door for flashbacks to that time?

Yeah, we’ll see exactly where that picture comes from.

We now know there’s a mole inside the FBI. Have you always known who that person was going to be and does the actor know?

Oh yeah. And the actor knows. I’m using the term actor in a genderless meaning of course.

Will there be clues so that the audience can figure it out on their own?

We certainly don’t want people to feel like, “Hey what the hell? That’s cheating…” Not only will there be clues, but there have been clues.

Structure-wise, what’s the timeline like on that? Does it follow the first season of one big mystery pre-midseason and another post?

I don’t want to say when we’re giving away big turns, but I will say we give away stuff a lot quicker than you think. And we really do treat our one season like two mini-seasons. The pace of storytelling has accelerated because most shows people are watching now are cable shows or streaming shows. The volume of these six-, 10-, 13-episode shows are everywhere. We don’t want to be seen as a show going at a slower pace than that.

We just submitted the script for episode nine, which will be the midseason finale, and people read it and said, “Are you sure this isn’t the finale?” It is huge. We’re giving away a lot. There’s a ton of stuff happening. It’s going to be a massive episode.

Until then, what kind of structure are you using between mythology and case-of-the-week?

We’ve always liked a balance. We don’t want to mess with what worked last year so there will be a balance of mythology and case-of-the-week cases. Bringing back old, fun characters like Rich Dotcom and stuff like that. The fun thing is that we’re able to find a greater balance of the mythology and some of the interpersonal stuff this year, so it doesn’t feel like it’s just kind of throw in. It feels more interwoven. It’s not hugely noticeable but it will make it a little more fulfilling.

Next week, Blindspot moves to its regular timeslot on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.

What do you think of the premiere? Sound off in the comments below. 

Twitter: @amber_dowling

Blindspot

September 14, 2016 7:03pm PT by Amber Dowling

Shane Mahood/USA Network

Aaron Korsh reveals what almost happened, why it didn’t and restructuring the show for the final six episodes of the season.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Wednesday night’s midseason finale of Suits, “P.S.L.”]

For anyone wondering whether Pearson, Specter, Litt could be saved in its current iteration on USA’s Suits, that question was clearly answered in Wednesday’s midseason finale. After spending most of the current season trying to get her firm back and then defending an innocent death-row inmate, Jessica Pearson (Gina Torres) made the moral decision to leave it all behind and head to Chicago for a fresh start with her on-again, off-again flame Jeff Malone (D.B. Woodside).

In real life, actor Gina Torres had asked to leave the series in order to spend more time in L.A. (Which may explain to viewers why Torres booked an ABC pilot this past development season despite Suits’ continued run on USA.) Behind the scenes, the producers had been strategizing that exit for two seasons — but it didn’t quite pan out the way they had originally hoped.

To find out more about the deadly storyline that almost was, where Jessica’s exit leaves the firm and what’s next for Harvey (Gabriel Macht) and Louis (Rick Hoffman) without their partner and mentor, THR caught up with creator and showrunner Aaron Korsh.

At what point was the decision made for Jessica Pearson to leave the firm?

Towards the beginning of season five, Gina expressed that due to personal stuff going on in her life she needed to be in L.A. more. We formulated a plan at that point to try and gracefully exit her from the show. She said at the time that if Suits were shot in L.A. she’d be on it forever, and if I had my way she’d be on it forever. But we tried as best we could to require her in Toronto as little as possible during season five and in season six we were just going to ratchet her episodes down. She ended up getting a pilot, and part of the requirements of having her be the lead in that was for us to not have her in first [position] for the back six [episodes] of this season. So her exit ended up being in episode 610. Her pilot ended up not getting picked up, but at that point we had the storyline sort of locked.

When you were crafting Jessica’s exit, did you want to leave the door open for her return or did you consider something more dramatic like killing her off?

It was out there that Gina had taken this pilot, so people knew that if the pilot went, there was a good chance she’d be leaving. In my mind, Jessica was going to make this decision to go off into the sunset with Jeff Malone, and that father Larry Marsden (Colin Glazer), who was a little bit crazy and accosted Rachel and got broken on the stand, was going to bring a gun and go nuts and kill her. I didn’t think we were going to see it; we were going to hear about it. It was going to shatter everyone and we were going to do a two-year time jump afterwards.

The inspiration for that partly came from M*A*S*H*. When Henry Blake — the Colonel (McLean Stevenson) — left that show, they had an emotional goodbye for him that was incredible. And then 10 minutes later, it came out in the OR that the Colonel’s plane was shot down. It was so emotional; you never forgot that. I thought that would be a twist you wouldn’t see coming. You might have seen that Jessica was going to choose to leave, but not her death on top of it. It would have been baked into the show — this guy already went nuts on Rachel and he’d paid off a witness… he was an unstable character.

What changed?

The network didn’t want that to happen and they kind of let me know that. They’ve always been good at being collaborative and supportive and hearing me out on something I wanted to do if I felt very strongly about it. But we were so under the gun with timing that I didn’t really feel like planning two endings. When we got into the writing of the episode, we just decided to let her have a happy ending. And it does absolutely leave the door open for her to come back. The door was still open for her to come back because we do flashbacks; they’re in the DNA of the show. But I don’t feel like we give happy, unfettered endings in Suits that often so it was sort of unexpected to end episodes eight, nine and now 10 with a happy ending.

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Where does this leave the show when it returns for the back half?

We’re picking up right where we usually do, where we left off. Had we gone with that other ending we would have picked up years later; it would have been too devastating not to. But as it is now, all of these characters have a lot going on. Mike has to figure out what he’s going to do. Harvey, Louis and the firm have to figure out what they’re going to do logistically and who’s going to run the place. In addition to that, what are they going to do when the woman who has kept them from sort of killing each other all these years leaves? The last six is about that — to some degree it’s about people figuring out what they’re going to do in this time of change and uncertainly. Then hopefully at the end of it, we land on something that gives us somewhat of a paradigm for moving forward for next season. 

What does Harvey and Louis’ relationship look like without Jessica as a buffer, and are you looking for anyone to replace that kind of figurehead?

We aren’t really thinking in terms of casting someone to replace that figurehead at the moment, but there’s no doubt she was a buffer. They’re sort of forced to self-buffer. Metaphorically speaking, it’s like what do you do when you leave your parents’ house? Each of them, over the course of the next few episodes, behaves as you would expect them to behave, but also not as you would expect them to behave. They’re going to have to figure it out, and hopefully they can.

At this point, there are two engaged couples. Is a wedding in store?

There could be, but we haven’t gotten that far yet. I don’t have a preference on who yet. … We’re writing them one at a time, even though we have a rough road map. There are other things that are more pressing right now, whereas something like a wedding gets figured out more naturally and falls in place. We have to see what we have room for and what we can do. 

In terms of Mike’s prison release, Frank Gallo (Paul Schulze) is technically getting out in five years. Should Mike and Harvey not be worried about his retribution?

Yes, they probably should be. I don’t know that we’re still going to be on the air at that point so let’s just pretend that our guys will live happily ever after. (Laughs.) It’s possible that Frank Gallo will take retribution on them in five years. They did the best they could with what they had. Five years is a long time and you never know what’s going to happen. Someone else might take up Frank’s revenge mindedness. They at least bought themselves peace of mind for the next five years.

Mike declined a return to the firm in the finale. Does that make it harder to write scenes with Mike and Harvey together?

Mike said no, but Harvey told him to take a few days and think about it. When Mike brought it up to Rachel, he didn’t know what he was going to do. Harvey isn’t a guy that takes being said no to lightly or easily. That question has not been dropped. But it’s a struggle for Mike, because when Mike gave that speech to the jury about having a gift and he was wasting it, he meant that stuff. He got out of prison early and he doesn’t want to just go back to corporate law. He wants to try and help people. Unfortunately, he’s a convicted felon. It’s not going to be that easy for him to help people. So that’s his struggle.

Was Harvey and Donna (Sarah Rafferty) holding hands at the end of the episode a hint that their relationship is back on the table, or was that more an act of friendship and solidarity?

It remains to be seen. I try to be super cagey with the Darvey stuff because any answer I give I just get in trouble. And I prefer to let what we do speak for itself. Harvey lost an important figure in his life and I love the way they did that last scene. It was very intimate. We’re not going to completely ignore it going forward, but it remains to be seen what kind of affect it’s going to have on their relationship.

Do you have anything to add?

As much as you’d imagine it would affect Harvey to lose Jessica, it affects me that much to lose Gina Torres. I cannot imagine a better combination of talent and attitude and work ethic and professionalism. There’s no person you would want to work with more — she is such a class act, I can’t express that enough. The Suits family onscreen and off are going to miss her terribly and we hope to have her back from time to time.

Suits returns for the second half of season six in 2017.

What did you think of the finale? Sound off in the comments below.

Twitter: @amber_dowling

Suits

September 13, 2016 10:15am PT by Amber Dowling

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

Leading man Sullivan Stapleton previews a “lighter” Weller and a “bigger and better” second season of the NBC drama.

When viewers last left Blindspot’s Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) at the end of season one, he was in a pretty dark place. Between watching his father die, Mayfair (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) going missing and finding out that the real Taylor Shaw was dead, emotional turmoil only began to describe what he was going through. It was only natural that he arrested Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander) the second he saw her.

When the NBC drama returns for its second season in its new night and time Wednesday, three months will have passed since Weller and Jane (Jaimie Alexander) have seen one another thanks to some CIA interference. But it won’t take long for them to reunite in “In Night So Ransomed Rogue,” thanks to the arrival of The Good Wife grad Archie Panjabi’s Nas Kamal. And when Weller and Jane finally come face to face again, it’s fair to say that tensions will be plenty high.

To find out more about their altered relationship, what Weller as the FBI’s new assistant director looks like and what kind of changes are in store for season two, THR turned to Stapleton to get the scoop on season two of the Martin Gero-created series.

What’s it been like playing Weller in this second season compared with the first?

Toward the end of the first season there were a few twists that happened and then we found out about Kurt’s dad and about Jane. That’s really affected him. It has driven a wedge in between Jane and Kurt and that friendship, but also finding out about his father — those are hard-hitting events. We start the second season trying to answer those questions. It was great to play that and to try and mend bridges and clear those questions up. But also in this season we’re seeing a bit of a lighter side to Kurt, which has been fun to play.

How is he lighter?

In season one we introduced those characters and it was very story driven but now we’re actually exploring these characters and what affects them. How they are together and you’ll see a bit more humor with him. But then also maybe he’s lighter or more sensitive.

Are there plans to bring his family back into the fold?

Yeah, I hope so. We’re on the fifth episode but we have the whole year to go.

What does Weller in charge as the assistant director look like? Does he have to deal a little bit more with politics?

He’s sort of been a leader from the start, but it works well into real life. He deals with it a little bit; obviously we’re introducing a few new characters and that sort of draws a bit of a leadership battle or power struggle between them.

Is that between Weller and Nas, specifically?

Yes. That’s just at the start; it’s like introducing a new member to the family. So it’s us trying to find where we fit in and how to work together. It’s awesome [having Archie]. She’s a great girl. We have a lot of fun and she’s an awesome actress and she fits right in.

Is there still hope for Weller-Doe fans out there?

There’s always hope. It’s like, they hurt each other and they’re disappointed … but they can apologize. It’s always possible.

What was your reaction to some of the bigger storyline twists in the premiere?

That’s the great part of this job; it’s exciting stuff. It’s exciting to find out what’s going on and follow these characters and these emotions. I love it. To have that opportunity as an actor and to explore these characters is always great. The premiere is great stuff; it’s even bigger and better than the first season.

There were lots of physical scenes in the premiere, did you have to beef up your training?

I’m always trying to keep up my strength just to get through the year and also so that you can do these fight scenes. We have a great coordinator and that’s the fun part of the work. No injuries yet. Some bruises and scratches or whatever but that’s fine. You’re fighting, it’s expected.

Rich Dotcom is coming back this season, what’s it like working with Ennis Esmer?

It’s great; they’re very different episodes. He’s a funny, scheming little character and I can’t wait to have him back and see what we get up to. He should work for the FBI.

Blindspot returns Sept. 14 at 10 p.m. and moves to its regular time slot starting Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. on NBC.

Twitter: @amber_dowling

Blindspot