Yvonne Strahovski Explains the Season Finale of Teacup & If There’ll Be a Season 2
Warning: Major spoilers for Teacup’s season finale.
Many parents will tell you that, from time to time, young kids say some pretty spooky shit. Mother-of-three Yvonne Strahovski can attest to that. “My oldest one, when he was three, he would say stuff about flying an airplane in Japan and being a pilot,” she says. She’s seen those documentaries about children who believe they harbor memories of a past life. “They’re extraordinary.”
I asked because her character’s son, Arlo (played by Caleb Dolden), in Teacup, Peacock’s new sci-fi horror series that’s a loose adaptation of the novel Stinger by Robert R. McCammon, also says some pretty spooky shit. “I do know one thing,” he tells her in a deep voice after being attacked in the forest by an unknown entity, “we need to go, away from here.”
Teacup follows a group of people on a farm in rural Georgia who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat to survive. Strahovski plays Maggie, a veterinarian and the Chenoweth family matriarch, who’s just discovered her husband, James (Scott Speedman), had an affair. It’s a conversation we never see, but we do witness its fallout. “Immediately, we’re in a zone of distrust, which then blows up even further because of the horror and thriller aspects of the show,” she says. That cloud will hover over Maggie and James until the very end. Spoiler warning ahead, we’re talking the finale here.
In this final episode, Maggie and James are sitting on the floor of their bedroom and it feels like they’re on the cusp of understanding each other. Can you walk me through that scene?
I think the breakthrough factor is the fact that he’s finally being super honest about what was going through his mind and why he decided to have an affair. The problem is, what he says and what he is honest about, is such a slap in the face. And I remember thinking, “Wow, that’s just shit.”
I mean, yeah, he’s almost blaming her for it in a roundabout way.
This is why I love my job; you delve into all the gray areas of psychology, and it felt very much like the dysfunction in their dynamic at that moment was being revealed. He was blaming her for something; she doesn’t see herself as being in control all the time, as he puts it. So therein lies this strange dynamic that they’ve probably never really discussed.
He asks her if they can ever make sense again. Do you think Maggie wants them to make sense?
I think there is a part of her that wants that for sure because she’s still in the throes of understanding what happened and grieving. But I don’t know that she’s fully ready to let go of their relationship.
We have to talk about the scene with Meryl (Émilie Bierre). After Assassin inhabits her body, Maggie has to drown her own daughter to release them. And, with a bit of luck, she’ll be able to resuscitate her. You’re so brilliant but I imagine it takes a lot out of you.
Yeah, those scenes are exhausting. There’s no way around it if you’re doing a scene where someone that you love is dying, or you think they’re dying.
This is why I love my job, because you delve into all the gray areas of psychology, and it felt very much like the dysfunction in their dynamic at that moment was being revealed.
Yvonne Strahovski
How long did this scene take to film?
I think it was a couple of days.
Woah.
It was really technical because with Émilie being underwater, we had to be super particular and safe about holding her down. We had a spectacular female stunt coordinator, Gaëlle [Cohen] and she was amazing at really pinpointing every single beat of this particular scene for us. It was almost like the rhythm of a dance. It’s, “Hold 2, 3, 4, she’s going to come up. 2, 3, 4.” We’re all counting in our heads while we’re performing. Everything went really smoothly and to be honest, it was really fun to shoot.
And then in really quick succession, Maggie has to kill Assassin by trapping James in the freezer.
That scene was really more about the emotional sequence of knowing what the character was going to do, then doing it, and then reacting to that. Because it’s so heightened and exceptionally emotional, it was helpful, at least for me, to map it out in a way so that I could save some energy because it’s an all-day affair again.
Earlier in the episode, Maggie gets an opportunity to shoot James as he’s headed toward the barn and she hesitates. What’s going through her mind in that moment?
I think the difference is that to cold-blood shoot him, A), it feels too brittle, and she can’t do it, but B) it wouldn’t really solve the problem, right? Assassin would still be a threat. Arlo is the key. Right before the freezer scene, he reminds her, “The teacup, the teacup, you have to trap Assassin.” It’s not about killing them.
There’s not a lot of time for Maggie to process what’s happened at that moment because they have to escape the trap. Is processing James’ death something you’d like to explore in a second season?
Oh, for sure. If there were to be a second season, there would be a lot of how that grief and anger would play out. I think it would be really interesting to see how it affects not just Maggie, but also how Meryl and Arlo sit with the fact that their mom Maggie did it, and how the dynamic between mother, daughter, and son might change. I think that’s really complex.
It’s not lost on me that the two cheaters in the group are the ones who get killed. Thoughts on that?
[Laughs] That’s definitely more of a question for [writer] Ian [McCulloch].
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
