‘Teacup’ Finale: Yvonne Strahovski Unpacks Maggie’s ‘Horrific’ Life and Death Decisions, and That Drowning Scene
Note: This story contains spoilers from the “Teacup” Season 1 finale.
Yvonne Strahovski’s character Maggie and her husband James (Scott Speedman) have to make some truly heart-wrenching decisions that impact their entire family in the Season 1 finale of the Peacock sci-fi series “Teacup.”
TheWrap spoke with the actress about the “horrific” day that unfolds as Maggie tries to determine which one of the trapped humans are possessed by the hostile alien Assassin so she can protect her son Arlo (Caleb Dolden), who is Assassin’s target since he is also host to the benign alien Harbinger.
Assassin jumps through several hosts in the final episode, ending up in Maggie’s daughter Meryl (Émilie Bierre). Maggie and James already know that the only way to defeat Assassin is to drown the host and then try to revive them. Both don gas masks so Assassin can’t jump into their bodies and set about the grim task of drowning their daughter. The drowning works and Meryl lives — but not before Assassin jumps to James, which means Maggie now has to kill her husband.
TheWrap: That was a pretty traumatic finale. Did you film that all in one day?
Yvonne Strahovski: Very traumatic. It took a few days, especially the drowning sequence. They built the bathroom separate from the original bathroom set to get those specialty overhead shots.
How emotionally draining was it to do that?
It was fairly emotional … you’re investing everything into this moment of what it would be like to put yourself through something as horrific and unimaginable as drowning your own daughter and then having to revive her. So yeah, it was a pretty tough day. I think it goes down in history as one of the heavier days [in my career].
The finale ends up being a bit like the John Carpenter movie, “The Thing,” where nobody knows where Assassin is, and everybody suspects everybody else.
Yes. It’s definitely the theme of the show, not being able to trust anyone. And I thought it gave us a great starting point into that theme that Maggie and James are already at odds, and she doesn’t trust him because he’s been unfaithful. It added to the stakes of all the other craziness and horror that occurs throughout the season.
I was not expecting that twist where Assassin goes into James and he tries to fight it as much as he can. Can you talk about the scene when Maggie realizes what’s happened?
It’s really complex, not an easy moment. Before all the craziness happened, when she found out that he had been unfaithful, she probably did want to murder him in her mind. But under the weird circumstances of what’s going on, they’re oddly united again in their one common goal to protect their children at all costs.
I think there’s a very sad and tragic understanding between them of what actually has to occur, at the end, when they both realize that he is now Assassin. And there’s that one fleeting moment where Maggie runs out of the bathroom and sees James in the kitchen, transforming, and he has that one final cognitive moment, James gives her that look, and that was so, so powerful in that moment, because that’s the last time he’s really James.
And then her recently revived daughter is begging her not to do it, which makes it extra difficult.
I imagine this family needs to have a hell of a lot of therapy in Season 2 — if there’s a Season 2 — to move past all these horrible things that have happened, especially the kids. It’s unimaginable. What would you do in these kinds of scenarios? That’s the fun of being on a on a show like this, you’re trying to marry family drama and real relationships with these very farfetched ideas that happen in a genre piece like this. You’re toeing the line between those two elements.
Have you had discussions about what a second season would be like?
We’ve talked a little bit about the “what if” of it all, and the idea of the world expanding a bit more. Season 1 was all about this contained farm, contained family, and everyone that was involved within the scope of that, [Season 2 would be about] what it would mean to expand further into the town.
And there’s more twists there at the end, where we meet friends of McNab (Rob Morgan) and think everything is fine, and then these two other people show up and take them out, and again, the main characters don’t know who to trust.
It’s exciting. We have the introduction of this new character with a megaphone who gives us a speech. And suddenly the problem is a lot bigger than what they have anticipated. It’s devastating for all involved, but hopefully exciting for an audience watching to go, “Okay, this is a much bigger problem.”
As far as we know, Harbinger is still in Arlo. Is that your understanding too?
Yes, Harbinger is still in Arlo and Assassin is out there somewhere.
Can we assume that James is definitely dead?
I’m 99% sure he’s dead, but anything is always possible. [Showrunner Ian McCulloch confirmed to EW that the character did die in the freezer trap.]
What would you like to see in Season 2, if it happens?
I think expanding into the other characters and getting a bigger understanding of what exactly is going on. Now that they have an understanding of the various different puzzle pieces, it’s about putting the puzzle together and then trying to figure out exactly how to combat what’s going on.
All episodes of “Teacup” are now streaming on Peacock.
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