‘Mr. Robot’ Star Carly Chaikin Talks Darlene’s Deadly Decision and Elliot’s Surprising Absence

August 24, 2016 8:08pm PT by Josh Wigler

"It's one of my favorite scenes I've ever done," Chaikin tells THR about Darlene's moment of vengeance. Michael Parmelee/USA Network

“It’s one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever done,” Chaikin tells THR about Darlene’s moment of vengeance.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers through season two, episode seven of Mr. Robot.]

Madame Executioner has been executed.

In the latest episode of the USA Network drama’s increasingly bleak second season, fsociety co-founder and current shot-caller Darlene (Carly Chaikin) crossed the point of no return and claimed her first life: E Corp attorney Susan Jacobs (Sandrine Holt), a woman Darlene has blamed for all of her life’s problems since she was four years old. After weeks of using the vacationing Susan’s New York City apartment as fsociety’s new base of operations, the so-called Madame Executioner finally returned home, catching Darlene and her allies red-handed. While the team debated the best course of action against Jacobs, Darlene took it upon herself to kill two birds with one stone: in killing Jacobs, Darlene kept fsociety’s cover intact, and also scratched an itch for vengeance several decades in the making.

Darlene’s deadly decision comes at the height of a dark journey throughout season two. She’s been leading the hacker society on her own while her brother Elliot (Rami Malek) serves a prison sentence for an as yet unrevealed crime. (Indeed, Elliot isn’t just absent from Darlene’s life, but from Mr. Robot at large; this week’s episode marks the first time Rami Malek and Christian Slater have sat on the sidelines for an entire installment.) Now, with murder added to the list of crimes she’s committed, not to mention the external pressures of both the Dark Army and federal authorities breathing down fsociety’s neck, Darlene’s isolation and paranoia are poised for all new depths of despair.

For more on this week’s episode, THR spoke with Carly Chaikin about the current state of Darlene, the show’s brief exploration of an Elliot-free world, and more.

It’s been a dark season for Darlene, and this is her darkest hour yet. What was it like, pushing Darlene to this place where she kills Susan Jacobs?

This was the episode that I was looking forward to the most. When I read the scene with Susan Jacobs… it’s one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever done. Even the moment after, when I tell [the members of fsociety about the murder]. I never really paid much attention to that scene until we were shooting it, and then I think it became, going into that mindset, was one of the darkest that I’ve been in. It was pretty hard to get out of. Before we started, when [creator Sam Esmail] first told me that I was going to kill her, I was like, “Wait, I’m a murderer now?” And when I got the scripts, and started getting into it, it feels like she makes this decision once she’s down there. It’s not something she’s planning on doing necessarily. But Susan is the face of everything that’s happened to Darlene — of E Corp killing her dad, and everything like that. Susan is the face of the situation. I think many of us have had those times where we’ve felt, “If I ever see that f—ing person again, I’m going to kill them.”

Hopefully most people aren’t crossing that line, but yes.

And to be put in that situation when you’re four years old, having this person in your head as the epitome of everything that’s destroyed you… most people put in that position wouldn’t actually do it, but it really is Darlene at the lowest point of not having an option. If they do let her go, they’re all screwed. But also, it shows the place she’s in, and who she’s become, to get to that place of detachment and desperation. She’s come face to face with the person she put all of this onto. Darlene’s whole story and progression this season has been hitting that low. What does she have to lose?

There’s a bit of a “heavy lies the crown” element to Darlene’s story this season, where she’s left to lead fsociety while Elliot is in prison, and it’s not exactly going well. Was it inevitable that Darlene’s leadership position would bring her to actual violence?

It’s doing whatever it takes. At this point, that’s the only option when you’re really hanging on by a thread, when you’re desperate to see this whole thing through and when you’re so in over your head. It’s hard. People always talk about how Elliot is the lonely one, and him being alone. But what’s interesting about the show is that every character he’s surrounded by is so much lonelier than he is. At least he has Robot. Really, with Darlene, all she really has now is kind of Cisco. Other than that, it’s this young girl trying to navigate her way through having the world on her shoulders.

You mention Darlene as a young girl, and in this episode, we find out that she’s been nursing this grudge against Susan Jacobs since she was four years old. That’s a very long time to carry around so much anger and vengeance. 

One of the other crazy things is when Darlene tells Susan that no one saw her smile but me. I just picture her being four years old in the living room, seeing that, and having this moment of thinking, “Did anyone else just see that?” And no one else did. She’s been alone in this situation of holding onto that. After her dad died, it really was the downfall and destruction of her life. Most people, like Angela, have E Corp as a whole to blame. I think Darlene put Susan Jacobs’ face to the situation. It’s one of those things that people fantasize about: facing that person and what they would say and how that would be and what it would actually be like. You have what it would be in your head, versus how it plays in reality. Coming face to face with that is such a big deal. For me, I wanted to play that moment really intimately and really quiet, instead of yelling at her, and coming at it with screaming and rage — but instead having this moment to connect with her and really look her in the eye.

Darlene sets the tone of Susan’s final moments by saying, “Let’s keep this friendly.” But she doesn’t have friendly intentions; she’s already made up her mind.

I don’t know if her mind is necessarily made up from the beginning. It’s one of those things that throughout the conversation, it’s having that moment of waiting for something to stop her, and it just… it doesn’t. Susan says, “I’m sure we can figure something out.” And Darlene laughs in the same way that Susan laughed at her, and just makes up her mind.

Earlier, you mentioned the show’s exploration of loneliness, and how Darlene doesn’t have many people she can trust right now, save for Cisco. But by the end of the episode, Darlene learns that Cisco and the Dark Army have been making moves behind her back — leading to Darlene knocking Cisco out with a baseball bat. What’s swimming through her mind as she’s processing all of this double-dealing?

It’s interesting. Originally, half of my storyline from this episode was in episode six, and then they combined it all into one [episode]. When I originally read this, it was like having Cisco go through all of this with her, and finally feeling like she has someone, and then seeing [the betrayal]… it’s so beyond devastating. She finally felt like she had one person she could trust, someone who would be with her through all of this — even her killing someone — and then that sense of betrayal, which she’s been dealing with from everybody, between fsociety backing down and Elliot backing down, to now finding out that she’s been betrayed by Cisco. It pushes that loneliness even further, I think. It’s a huge blow.

This is the first time that Elliot has been completely absent from an episode. How do you think people will respond to an Elliot-free hour, and what does it say about the state of Mr. Robot that it’s confident enough to explore an episode without its lead character?

When they told me that Elliot and Mr. Robot weren’t in this episode at all, I was very surprised. But I also think it’s incredible. It says a lot about this season. Elliot, of course, is the anchor of this show and the narrator of this show. But it goes to show you how much else is going on outside of Elliot. I think it says a lot about the characters that Sam has developed, that they’re so strong and that they can hold their own. These are important and pivotal characters. It’s exciting to be trusted enough to carry an episode without [Elliot and Robot]. I am curious to see what the audience has to say.

It’s a bold time to move away from Elliot, given the reveal in last week’s episode that he’s been in prison this whole time. What was your reaction when you first learned about the twist?

Christian, Rami and I knew about it from the beginning. When I read even the first episode, I knew about [the twist] going into it. It was so crazy, and I was just like, “Holy shit.” I was always wondering what it would be like to read that script without knowing it, and then finding out later on. It just shows how smart the audience is, that they immediately picked up on those clues. I don’t think any of the other cast put that together before it came out. I remember Portia [Doubleday] being like, “What the hell? Who is this dog? Who are these people? It’s so weird!” (Laughs.) I can’t imagine what it would be like to see it without knowing. But I thought it was so cool, and so in line with the show, and so in line with who Elliot is. It felt very true to the tone of the show and the person that Elliot is, being in this situation and creating his own world in order to survive it.

Speaking of Elliot creating worlds, and just to explore a tangent for a moment, can you talk about your experience shooting the season’s sitcom sequence? Of course, Darlene was unconscious for most of it…

It was very weird and it was really funny, with Sam and everyone trying to figure out how to shoot a sitcom, which seems so different and simple, but is so out of everybody’s realm. We were all so excited to film it, and then it turned out to be one of the most miserable things to film. (Laughs.) We were all so excited, and then everybody — especially me — didn’t find it that much fun. You’re sitting on a stage under these huge lights that are pounding on top of you. It feels like you’re cooking in an oven. Being in the back of that car, where you can barely fit into it… I was just so hot and cramped. 

Seeing Alf didn’t cheer you up?

Well, that’s the thing. I was knocked out! I was lying down! I couldn’t see anything. Everybody was laughing, and I kept wanting to poke my head up. It was funny. It was cool, too, because they had all of the old cameras and old monitors in the same way we saw it, as well as some monitors that were more new age. It was a very interesting and cool experience, but it was not fun.

Elliot’s incarceration must have greatly informed your work as Darlene throughout the season. Is this the biggest stressor in Darlene’s already very stressful life?

I don’t even think it’s necessarily about Elliot being physically gone, as much as it’s about him not being with her in this anymore. Emotionally, Elliot being like, “We can’t do this, we need to stop.” With the flashback scene, we saw Elliot telling Darlene everything that she’s now regurgitating to him. We’re holding onto all of the words that he said. Just this whole idea of them being in on this together and him starting this movement, and me following… this is supposed to be our thing. But last year, with Darlene realizing that he didn’t even know who she was this whole time, and now him being the one to back off, I think that’s the biggest thing. All she wants is her brother to be there, to be there emotionally and to be on the same page, doing the things they were supposed to do together. I think that’s the biggest weight: not having that support anymore, and having to do this alone.

At one point in the episode, Mobley tells Trenton about the 5/9 Hack and the fsociety cause: “What we did was colossally f—ing stupid. We can’t afford not to see that anymore.” Is there any part of Darlene that feels the same way? Is she starting to think that the revolution against E Corp was a mistake?

I think that’s been her struggle from the beginning. People have these ideas about revolution and changing the world, and thinking that they have the answers, and if this was just the case then everything would be fine. … In season one, she was going into this kind of naive, with this idealistic vision that’s almost like a fantasy. Now, going through with it and seeing the reality of it and the aftermath of what happened, and the world completely shattering… I think the biggest fear right now and why she’s having her breakdowns is because she’s wondering if what she did was wrong. But if she doesn’t stand behind it, and if she doesn’t see it through, she’ll feel like the biggest monster there is. The idea of this being wrong and being so f—ed up and the worst thing we could have done, it’s not even an option for her to consider. Right now, the only thing she’s holding onto is this: if we can just see this through and get to the other side, it’s all going to work out. It’s not an option to leave the world as is, to have done more damage than good. And I think that’s her battle: seeing the consequences of her actions. That’s what she’s fighting through this whole season, not being the monster. All she can do now is stand behind it with all her might.

Follow THR‘s Mr. Robot coverage all season long for interviews, news and theories.

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Josh Wigler

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‘Game of Thrones’ Star Maisie Williams: “Nothing Will Prepare You” for Season 7

August 22, 2016 4:29pm PT by Josh Wigler

The Emmy-nominated actress teases the HBO fantasy show's penultimate season with hyperbolic glee. HBO

The Emmy-nominated actress teases the HBO fantasy show’s penultimate season with hyperbolic glee.

Winter has arrived in the world of Westeros, but when Game of Thrones returns for its seventh season, get ready for some scorching heat.

That’s the fiery forecast coming from Maisie Williams, who earned her first Emmy nomination for her work on the series this year as Arya Stark. Williams revealed on Twitter that she’s read the scripts for Game of Thrones season seven, the penultimate installment of HBO’s award-winning fantasy franchise, and has made her reactions very public.

The three-word summary? According to Williams: “shit gets REAL.”

“I’d start preparing yourselves now,” she added. “Scratch that, nothing will prepare you for this.”

 

Not that Thrones ever lacks for high-quality shocks, but Williams’ reactions to the season seven scripts jive with how the story wrapped in season six: Jon Snow emerged as King in the North, following the revelation to viewers that he’s secretly the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen; the woman who we now know as Jon’s secret aunt, Daenerys Targaryen, has finally set sail for Westeros, alongside an incredibly powerful armada of allies; and Cersei Lannister viciously destroyed many of her enemies in a glorious burst of wildfire, prompting her son to commit suicide, paving the way for Cersei to claim the Iron Throne. And that’s not saying anything of the White Walker threat still marching its way toward the Wall, threatening to bring the Seven Kingdoms to its icy doom.

In other words, Williams is almost certainly right: no amount of preparation will prepare viewers for the turbulent road ahead — certainly not without another entry in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, at least.

Watch our season seven predictions in the video below:

Follow THR‘s Game of Thrones coverage for more news, interviews and analysis.

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Josh Wigler

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‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Boss Breaks Down the Midseason Premiere and the Twists Ahead

August 21, 2016 7:00pm PT by Josh Wigler

"The obvious place to go would be that they're all fractured, so now how do we bring them all back together? Ultimately, that's not really the driving force," Dave Erickson tells THR about the zombie drama's second half. Richard Foreman Jr/AMC

“The obvious place to go would be that they’re all fractured, so now how do we bring them all back together? Ultimately, that’s not really the driving force,” Dave Erickson tells THR about the zombie drama’s second half.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for the midseason premiere of Fear the Walking Dead.]

Nick Clark is a long way from home.

As it resumed its second season, AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead doubled down on the fractured dynamics at play within the story. Rather than start to bring the scattered Clark-Manawa clan back together, after their dissolution in the midseason finale, the story is pushing this blended family even further apart — not just for the characters, but for viewers as well.

In “Grotesque,” the first new episode since FTWD hit pause in May, Frank Dillane’s shaggy-haired character embarked on a solo road trip toward Tijuana, finally finding solace in a community by the end of the episode. But he brushed up against his fair share of death along the way, nearly killed at the hands of walkers, the jaws of dogs and the guns of men at multiple points throughout the hour. His situation became so dire, in fact, that he hydrated himself with his own urine. Desperate times and all that.

The episode also shelved the core cast in favor of focusing entirely on Nick, with the lone exception of Madison appearing in the episode’s flashbacks — a series of scenes that culminated in Nick learning of his father’s death in a car accident. Expect this structure to continue as FTWD pushes through the second half of its second season; while not every episode will be entirely focused on one storyline, showrunner Dave Erickson confirms that the fractured storytelling structure will be a prominent part of the season.

Read on for Erickson’s breakdown of the midseason premiere, and a preview at what’s ahead:

What’s the origin story for this episode? Why was this the right way to come back into season two?

It’s a couple of things. We took on a pretty significant amount of story in the first seven episodes. We made a conscious decision to slow things down a little bit in the back half, to let people settle into specific locations and not feel like we’re moving from port to port and from sanctuary to sanctuary quite so rapidly. It felt like, especially after the midseason finale and Nick’s decision to abandon his family and move on, we owed a solid story that was Nick centric. Those are the two big reasons. We also just wanted to do something very clean with a specific line that would give us more insight into Nick. That’s something we’ve done with other characters in flashback. This was an opportunity to do that here. 

The episode plays out as almost a survival movie showcase for Frank Dillane. What was the thinking behind that decision?

Nick more or less ends the first half of the season telling his mother that he’s immortal. The suggestion is when he walks among the dead, he can’t die. We wanted to test that idea over the course of 208 and see what it launches us into for the rest of the season.

Throughout the episode, Nick brushes up against some very deadly situations. A dog bites him; he’s nearly shot. Do these incidents reinforce Nick’s belief in his inability to die, or will they cause him to come back to Earth a little bit?

In the beginning of the season, having survived that, there’s still an element — and you’ll see it in future episodes — there’s still a certain element of recklessness in his choices. I think he comes off of this episode feeling like his sense has been reaffirmed to a certain degree. It’s almost as though if that journey didn’t kill him, nothing can. But he’s going to come back to Earth over the course of the back half of the season. He ends up in a much different place by the finale.

The episode features flashbacks to Nick’s past, specifically the moment he learns about his father’s death. Why show this moment now?

For Nick, he’s somebody who … it’s not the death of his father that made him an addict. He was using before his father died. But it definitely spun him off into a much darker place. We speak to a level of disconnection between him and his dad, and it’s something he’s always been looking for. He has this very strong, co-dependent relationship with his mother. And the reality is that he also has a bit of resentment toward her. Whenever you have a family dynamic where one parent seems weaker than the other, I think there’s a tendency to side with the weaker unit. I think he’s still confused about why his father lost himself the way that he did. He’s very much in search of some kind of connection that’s going to replace that. That’s something we partly hinted at, but never fully realized — and may have a chance to in season three — in his relationship with Strand. Then he meets Alejandro at the end of the premiere, and there’s this possibility there. You see this pattern with Nick, where he dances around these stronger male father figures, and this is what we’re leaning into: one, talking about when the turn came for him, and when he really began his downward spiral; and also to speak to something absent in his life, and something he may still be looking for.

You bring up Alejandro, the leader of the community Nick reaches by the end of the episode. Who are these people, and what are you planning to explore thematically through this new group?

We set things up in the first half with this idea represented through Celia: “The dead are not monsters. This is a continuing evolution. They are not something to be feared. They are not something to be dreaded.” I think Nick starts the season trying to find people who are like-minded in that respect. Also, bare in mind that this is a guy who once an addict, always an addict. Just because he’s not shooting heroin anymore … this was Madison’s great fear last season. He’s replacing his drug with the dead, essentially. As much as he speaks to the spiritual, as much as he seems to be operating on some higher level, there is something very fundamental and base about his fascination and fixation and how it makes him feel and the adrenaline rush that comes with walking with the dead. What we wanted to do in the back half of the season is lean into that idea, and potentially Nick will find out that his expectations are a bit too high and not everything will be as it seems with this community.

Luciana, the new character played by Danay Garcia, is one of the key members of this community. Now that she’s in the mix, what more will we learn about this character and her role in this world?

Luciana is a believer. She’s someone who adheres to the idea, and she articulates it fairly clearly in episode nine, that she believes that this is sort of a purging, essentially. That’s one of the fundamental things this group believes. They believe that the dead have risen. They are not monsters. They’re to be embraced and protected to a certain degree. When this time passes, those who remain and are faithful will essentially be able to inherit the Earth. If you break it down, it’s sort of a “meek shall inherit the Earth” mentality and spirituality. She’s somebody who is a devotee of Alejandro’s. She’s incredibly devoted to these people. There are certain things we learn about Alejandro in episode nine that will challenge our notions of the apocalypse and the rules of zombie-hood. She’s a mouthpiece and the main agent for Nick in terms of introducing him to this world and making him understand what her people believe in. There might be an interesting relationship that develops between the two of them beyond the spiritual and beyond the dead.

Given that the premiere focuses almost only on Nick, can we expect this structure to play out through the remainder of the season — isolated episodes, mostly fixated on specific characters?

Yes. We had a situation in the first seven episodes where our entire family was together, and it sometimes felt there were certain storylines that were not being served in specific episodes. By breaking up the family and fracturing the unit, it gives us an opportunity to spend more time and do more of a rotation. So, yes, this is a very Nick centric episode. In subsequent episodes, we’ll lean more heavy into Madison and Strand, or Travis and Chris, and ultimately we’ll begin to bring them back together by the end of the season — but we won’t see a fully uniform family until somewhere in season three. Possibly!

Looking at the other characters, Madison is with Alicia, Strand and Ofelia right now; something of an unlikely combo. What can we expect from this group’s story this season?

There’s an interesting chemistry between Madison and Strand. We’ll see that relationship deepen, and this friendship begin to build. It’s also an opportunity for Alicia. She’s always felt like the odd girl out. She’s mystified in a way by her mother’s devotion to the sibling who leaves and abandons. By separating them from Nick, it affords us an opportunity to dig deeper into the Madison-Alicia relationship. We’ll start to get a better understanding, and more importantly Alicia will get a better understanding of her mother’s relationship with her brother. She really goes through an education of her. She learns her mother in a different way. Then Ofelia is in a strange place right now. She’s lost her father, or so she believes. She lost her mother last season. Now she’s found herself with this group. Her father always said that family is family, but the truth is, these people are not her family. They’re people she was forced to live with. So she’ll make some choices about what to do with her future.

Travis and Chris are together right now. Chris is pretty troubled, to say the least. It’s not the father-son road trip Travis might have had in mind before the apocalypse …

Travis is very much still in fixer mode, and he’s realized that his son isn’t going to course correct by himself. He’s recognizing that his son is suffering and feeling completely alienated and disconnected. There’s a potential of him going to a very violent and dark place, as we’ve seen. Travis feels it’s his responsibility, not just to Chris but also to Liza, Chris’ dead mother, that Chris is taken care of. He’s protecting Chris from himself to some degree, and he also feels like keeping him apart from the rest of the family protects them. It’s something of a father-son road trip, but it’s going to take on an even darker complexion as the season plays out. In some respects, for Travis, it’s really the education of Travis Manawa. He’s going to have to come to terms with the reality of this new world and what the apocalypse actually means. I think we’ll see the student become the teacher over the course of the back half.

There are three main stories in play: Nick on his own, Travis and Chris together, and Madison with Strand, Ofelia and Alicia. What’s the guiding theme across these different threads? What’s the thematic north star for the second half of season two?

In the back half, it has a lot do with place and home. We’ll see Madison attempt to create something, not only to protect Alicia, but also the thing about Nick is that he’s left before. Pre-apocalypse Nick would leave for weeks on end, but he always had a place to come back to. At this time in their relationship, there isn’t. Madison is going to look for a home base and something for her son to return to, which will be challenging for Alicia. She’ll force Madison to confront this notion that she keeps backing the child who leaves, and I don’t, so what’s that about? For Nick, it’s similar. He’s looking for a place where he’s at home, at a certain comfort level, and people understand where he’s at. That’s much of what his relationship with the colonia comes down to. And the thing about Chris, the thing he fears most, and it seems almost insignificant in the face of some of what he’s done and what this world is — the thing that he’s most afraid of is not having a structure surrounding him. He’s always been alienated, and now, faced with a family that thinks he’s a killer, which he is, it makes him that much more confused and that much more upset and enraged at times. For Travis, it’s really about finding a place in which he can heal. It’s not so much about… the obvious place to go would be that they’re all fractured, so now how do we bring them all back together? Ultimately, that’s not really the driving force. It’s about how do we settle in and create some architecture and safety. Thematically, that’s what we were stretching to reach across these three storylines.

You’ve teased that we haven’t necessarily seen the last of Daniel Salazar, despite his explosive ending in the midseason finale. Will his fate be teased at all in the back half of season two?

I would lean toward season three. The value of any character death is that there’s an impact on the audience, but really the characters and family members and friends on the show. For us, Ofelia was always the dutiful daughter. She gave up a big chunk of her life in order to take care of her parents. She came to realize in season one that they were far stronger and easier to adjust to different circumstances than she ever knew. She looks back on that with a certain degree of resentment. Now that they’re gone, it’s a challenge about how is she going to continue? Towards the end of the midseason, Daniel actually became the man she thought he was, which means, he needed her. He started to break down and lose himself. It’s the first time he was somebody who was vulnerable and fragile. I think Ofelia found a modicum of forgiveness by the end, and then he was taken away. So the back half is really about how it impacts her and what she chooses to do with that. What’s important is that she believes Salazar is dead, and my hope is that we can explore a line in season three and see the resurrection of Daniel.

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