Carrie Bell

Gerald McRaney as . Katowsky and Milo Ventimiglia as Jack (Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)

Warning: This recap for the “Kyle” episode of This Is Us contains spoilers.

After an unwelcome break last week, This is Us and all its glorious, relatable, hysterical, and gut-punching family drama returned and all was right in our TV world again. As the family and their extended loved ones dealt with awkward surprise visits, secret deals, postpartum depression, regretful past decisions, negative test results, fear of failure and relationship stagnation, many of the characters — especially the male ones — were left feeling out of sorts.

Jack and Rebecca

It started with a flashback montage that showed how Randall’s biological dad, a wannabe poet everyone called Shakespeare, met his biological mom. Things eventually soured as they got hooked on smack and she died. The last scene showed William holding a baby as the bus passed the fire station. After we learned they’d assigned the trio K names as a tribute to the good doctor, Rebecca noticed William hanging around outside as she was leaving the hospital to take the babies home for the first time.

Faithe Herman as Annie, Mandy Moore as Rebecca, and Eris Baker as Tess (Credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBC)

Back in the present, Rebecca’s surprise visit threw off Randall’s plan to keep William a secret for any longer. “I’m going to put on a fake ass smile and tell her something that is going to completely and utterly devastate her,” he worried. But Rebecca was full of surprises of her own. After asking to speak to William alone, she drops a bomb. “We had a deal. It will break him knowing that he could have known you and I kept him from you. My son who I raised is going to put everything he has into trying to save you because that’s who he is. It is going to come in front of his job, his marriage and his time with his kids so you better damn well be worth that.”

Related: Catch Up on ‘This Is Us’ With Our Recaps

Turns out Rebecca tracked him down in an effort to connect with the baby she did not birth. A peek at their early days with three newborns was not pretty — the house was a mess, all of them were crying, and baby Kyle was not taking her breast so she worried they needed to put him on formula. “He feels like a stranger,” she lamented. She tried to tell Jack about William, but he assumed she was going to come clean about having second thoughts about the adoption. Jack coaxed, “We have to treat them the same. They are our babies. He’s our baby. And they’ll be in college soon.”

Mandy Moore as Rebecca (Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)

Her disconnection ran deep in those first weeks, so much so that she skipped a checkup. Jack unloaded on the doc. “I think the babies might have broken my wife. I was hoping you could tell me how to fix her.” Always full of sage advice, he replied, “She lost a baby. You can’t just dismiss that. You willed yourself forward with positivity. She is going to have to do this her own way. You have to give her the space to find her way.”

Her way, as it turns out, was to find William and see where the baby came from.

William told her about Kyle’s mom and the poetry and assured her the baby “came from love.” He suggested that he check in on the child occasionally and she nipped that idea in the bud. “I wanted to know his story and that there was good here. I also need to know that you’re not going to come back for him. I need to know that I can move forward. He will have your blood and the blanket you wrapped him up in. That’s it. That’s the deal. I’m not bonding with the baby. I want to love him like he’s my own, but every time I look at his face…” William suggested giving him his own name instead of the one that would have gone to the dead triplet.

Mandy Moore as Rebecca (Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)

She returned to Jack and sold the name change idea as her own, but used the last name of William’s favorite poet. (Side note: The book he gave her that day appears on Randall’s bookshelf, but there was no explanation about how it got there or if he knows it came from his dad.) The trick seems to work as the closing scene has her successfully breastfeeding the newly christened Randall.

Randall

Being a perfectionist and a control freak, it was killing Randall to not know what his mom was talking to his bio dad about. He also was clearly irked about her and the stepdad’s unannounced visit.

He excused himself to retrieve his father to go to the oncologist only to find an empty room. He managed to chase him down in the car and confronted him about bailing. “I had to kiss up to the biggest d-bag at my firm just to get you this,” he pleaded before demanding that William had to get the second opinion. “Then I will give you permission to hobble off like hobo Joe without so much as a goodbye.”

Related: ‘This is Us’ Star Milo Ventimiglia Didn’t See That Pilot Twist Coming Either

William tried to reason, “You are trying to stop me because you were raised to be a good man. But I wasn’t the one who raised you that way. I was reminded of that today. You have parents. I just can’t step in 40 years later and enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor.”

Sterling K. Brown as Randall and Susan Kelechi Watson as Beth (Photo by: Paul Drinkwater/NBC)

Before relenting, William cracked, “I’m starting to not feel so bad about leaving you at that fire station.” Unfortunately, the specialist didn’t have any good news. The cancer had metastasized and there was nothing to be done. The bad news put Randall in a funk. When Beth tried to talk to him, he acted like he was upset on the kids’ part. “I should have looked for him years ago. The girls could have had a grandfather all these years instead I brought him home so they could fall in love with a dying man.” Beth, who is turning out to be quite the voice of reason, pointed out that it probably wasn’t really the kids he was worried about and that William had only been at their house for a week, but Randall hadn’t gotten to know much about him. With no time like the present, Randall went to his room to have a heart-to-heart that started with planning to tell the girls William’s true identity and inquiring about how his biological parents met.

Kate and Kevin

After their night of drunk shenanigans at the Hollywood party, Toby awoke on Kate’s couch unsure of what had transpired. He followed the singing coming from the shower to inquire, but wound up with a punch to the nose when he startled Kate. While nursing his wound, he asked if they’d done the deed. “No, there was a lot of vomiting but not a lot of anything else.”

With that settled, he moved on to the subject of her singing and why she doesn’t take her “good, not karaoke good” voice on the road. She sadly said, “I grew up and I grew and I try to avoid the spotlight.”

Related: Is ‘This Is Us’ for You? Probably.

As if on cue, Kevin blew in like a hurricane without acknowledging Toby and started wreaking havoc. “I am pumped about our move to New York. There’s no way I would do this without you,” he said to Kate. “We are not moving all the way to New York City so I can do some lame off-Broadway comedy. I’m only interested in doing heavy drama and I won’t do anything where I have to show my penis.”

As he listened to her make arrangements for her boss brother, Toby suddenly felt like a third wheel and fretted over losing her. To show her that she should stay and take care of her needs, he planned a big day out to prove she was a star too. There was a red carpet, a chauffeured black SUV, paparazzi roleplaying, and a surprise show at his aunt’s assisted living facility. She was still hesitant, but Toby persisted, “I booked you in a prime slot, 3 p.m., right after Jell-O but before their nap. Most won’t remember this tomorrow and most lived through World War II so no matter how bad you are, they have seen worse.”

Chrissy Metz as Kate (Photo by: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)

Her “Time After Time” was rusty at first, but eventually she let go of the nerves and sang with all her heart. Meanwhile, Kevin had been calling the whole time from his closet as he felt very overwhelmed packing his beanies. On a high from her first public gig in years, Kate took Toby to the supply closet for a quickie. It was, of course, interrupted by Kevin who had tried to soothe his nerves with a booty call from Insane Elaine. After sleeping with her and telling the crazy ex-girlfriend his relocation plans, she started tearing up his joint while he hid in the closet waiting for his sister to come over to get rid of her. “I have to go,” she said to a deflated Toby who got an earful after suggesting she let him clean up his own mess. “We’re twins, We’re not like normal people. When I was a kid I broke my arm and he cried out in pain 10 miles away. We’re that connected.”

Justin Hartley as Kevin (Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)

Toby had had enough. “I am not some nut job who performs grand gestures for every girl I go on a few dates with. I like you Kate. I like you a lot, but I can’t play second banana to your brother.”

The ultimatum didn’t work and Kate wound up in the closet at Kevin’s to tell him the coast was clear. He’d read the plays she gave him and liked one so much that he immediately decided he wasn’t worthy and started self-medicating his panic attack with the bar cart he keeps in his walk-in.

When she explained that she’d answered the phone despite being on her way to indisposed and started rationalizing ending it with Toby so she could focus on losing weight and going with him, Kevin finally had a great moment of self-awareness and promptly fired his sister. “Maybe it’s time we go at it alone for a little while. We need to grow up.”

She admitted, “I don’t know who I am if I am not your sister.”

As she convinced Toby to forgive her by presenting a condom, Kevin left her a message. He’d booked a redeye to cut the cord. “If we keep talking about it, I’ll never go. You’ll never stay.”

However, his sudden exit and her post-coital coma were no match for the twin telepathy. As his plane hit an unexpected bump, she shot up in bed and answered Toby’s are-you-ok inquiry with “he’s ok.” Undoubtedly, this scene was added to drive the point home that this is a family-first show and the topic isn’t likely settled for good.

  This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC. Watch clips and full episodes of This is Us on Yahoo View.

Warning: This recap for the “The Big Three” episode of This Is Us contains spoilers.

After the pilot’s big twist ending took nearly everyone by surprise last week (more on that here), it was unclear if the story would flash forward, backward, or both — and how much overlap there would be between the parents and present day. The second episode certainly started to fill in the gaps of the show’s structural game plan for viewers and, more importantly, given how equally funny and teary it was, it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have all found something to fill the  Parenthood-sized hole in our hearts. Here’s what went down with our new favorite TV clan this week.

JACK AND REBECCA We opened on family breakfast circa the late eighties with young Kate already struggling with weight and being made to feel different (read: lesser) because of it. Mom, who ultimately means well, makes her daughter eat cantaloupe stuffed with cottage cheese while her brothers eat sugary cereals, and it clearly is already weighing on her.

Photos: NBC

When dad walks in, he turns up his nose at her mediocre meal and with the simple act of sprinkling some fruity loops on her plate we see that Jack is the good cop in this parenting duo. It also becomes clear after an exchange about the empty coffee pot that some hefty tension has developed between Jack and Rebecca that didn’t exist eight years ago in episode 1. (Nor did Jack’s bad Tom Selleck ‘stache, by the way.)

Related: ‘This is Us’ Star Milo Ventimiglia Didn’t See that Twist Coming Either

Fade to Jack downing whiskey at the bar minutes after work lets out and complaining to his best friend Miguel about his less-than-perfect home life. Randall is being called “Webster” at school, the boys are fighting, and Jack isn’t getting much quality time with the woman he married now that she is constantly busy with the kids. Miguel warns him to come correct and reminds him that he married way above his station. “I would be careful not to give her a reason to notice,” Miguel says. He later calls and retracts his caution, feeling that he overstepped and reminding Jack how much he loves the couple.

It turns out Jack’s bar bro was right, though; Rebecca has clearly had enough when Jack misses yet another shift of putting the kids to bed and she confronts him. He tries to make it all better with an expensive gift, but Rebecca stays the course. “The drinking has to stop,” she tells him. “You have to rein it in, because I won’t have it in my house. Be a man and fix it.”

After a night spent in the doghouse (actually, outside their bedroom door) Jack makes a lot of promises: “No more drinking. I can for you. When I was a little boy, I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I never had a good answer until I was 28, the day that I met you. I wanted to be the man that made you happy. I’m going to be an 11 for you. Screw that, I’m going to be a 12 for you. I’ll be an 11 for the kids.”  

KATE AND KEVIN Kevin meets with his team to strategize after his Jerry Maguire-style tirade went viral. His agent is not sympathetic and reminds him that she took the least funny person on the entire planet and got him commercials, soaps, and eventually a job that pays almost $3 million a year, “making [him] so famous that [he] can wear a ski cap when it’s 80 degrees outside and no one would say a damn thing.” The outlook is grim: He is contractually bound to The Manny for the next two years, the network could bankrupt him, and he’s legally unable to work for the next two years in television or film. In an effort to fix things, the agent has organized a party that night at her home for the purpose of Kevin’s mea culpa with the studio head (a great Brad Garrett cameo).

Kevin heads over to Kate’s for advice and to plead that she come to the party with him for moral support. Though Kate’s anxiety about her size immediately kicks in, Kevin clearly doesn’t notice because it seems it has and will always be about him.

Later that day at support group, Kate hulks out on the anorexic girl and another group member with a positive story. Toby takes her aside to find out what’s making her so angry. Kate admits she doesn’t want to go to the party. She’s hangry. She has nothing to wear. Toby really wants to go with her — to make Kate feel more comfortable, but also because he’s a total showbiz junkie. Naturally, Kate agrees. 

  At the party, Toby — wearing a vintage suit and fedora that Kevin makes fun of — takes Kate for a spin on the dance floor and she sees people staring and laughing. He gets her drunk to help her let it roll off her back, but eventually she can’t avoid the truth. “It is always going to be about the weight for me,” she says, in one of the episode’s most heartbreaking scenes. “It is at the core of who I am. Eight tequila shots can only mask that for a couple of hours.”

Kevin’s talk with the network bigwig is way less successful. He apologizes for the way he handled himself, but suggests they let him go with God and just move on. No such luck. Mr. Big first cuts him down to size and then throws in threats for good measure. He snarls, “Would I have known you from one of the waiters had she not pointed you out? No. I don’t care what happens behind the scenes of my network’s third-rated show. I am building a home on St. Maarten and my favorite wife and I are going to move there. I plan on drifting through the next two years like I’m on morphine. Replacing a lead on a show is not drifting. Take the money kid and ride out the next couple of years. Otherwise, I will Nagasaki your life and career and make you a bigger laughing stock than you already are.” 

RANDALL While in bed together, Beth tries to work up the courage to ask the tough questions. Randall says they should not start censoring themselves after 17 years together so she drops the bomb: “How long is your crack addict biological daddy going to be sleeping in our 6-year-old daughter’s bedroom? What is our endgame?” Randall’s first goal is to get his dad to a Thursday appointment with a specialist and reminds her that he’s a former crack addict. 

  The next morning they wander into the kitchen to witness grandpa’s lecture to the kids on vices, telling them that his vice was drugs. He later apologizes for oversharing with the children, but admits, “I really enjoy being here. It fills me in a way that I don’t deserve.” He asks for bus money, but is cagey when asked where he is planning to go. He returned very late and went straight to bed, making Beth suspicious. Just as she’s about to ask the “questions he will be too polite to ask” like what he does with the money he borrows, where he goes, and if he is really sick, Randall walks in. His bio dad admits he returns to his place every day to feed his ugly cat named Clooney. He didn’t want to tell them about the cat because he knew Randall would suggest bringing Clooney back to their place, but one of the kids has asthma and he didn’t want to ruffle feathers because he is enjoying his time there so much. “Six months ago, a doctor told me I had three to live,” says grandpa. “I never thought I’d have anything to care about again other than an ugly cat.” 

Beth sighs. “Well, now I feel like a bitch.” 

THE WHOLE FAMILY The episode ended with the first real overlap of the siblings. Kevin calls Randall from the mixer for advice, but Randall is stiff in a way that we haven’t seen before. “Because you care what I think,” Randall scoffs. Kevin’s honest answer is accompanied by a flashback that reveals he continued to choose the mean boys over “Webster.” “Because I care what everyone thinks,” he admits. “I was not a very good brother to you, was I?” 

“No,” says Randall. “But you still got time.” And when his brother says he plans to go inside and eat crow like “the whore that I am,” Randall isn’t hearing it: ”Mom and dad didn’t raise no whores.” Inspired, Kevin decides to move to New York and do theater.

And because a shocking cliffhanger is apparently going to be This Is Us’s jam, unexpected guests arrive at Randall’s door. His children scream that it’s grandma and grandpa, but when Randall gets to the foyer, we see an aged-up Rebecca. She’s still sporting the moon necklace Jack gave her so many years ago, but she’s accompanied by none other than Jack’s bar buddy Miguel. What the what?

When you’ve recovered from the shock, let us know what you thought of episode 2 in the comments.

If you are anything like us, you never saw that twist coming in the This Is Us series premiere. Here’s our guide on how they cleverly kept up the charade -- and to the few clues that you likely missed while wrapped up in the drama. Related: ‘This Is Us’ Postmortem: Milo Ventimiglia Didn’t See That Twist Coming, Either And if you missed it, watch the series premiere of This is Us on Yahoo View. This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.

The twist

SPOILER ALERT! You shouldn’t feel ashamed of yourself for not figuring out that Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) were the parents of Kate (Chrissy Metz), Kevin (Justin Hartley), and Randall (Sterling K. Brown), or catching that their storyline is happening in 1980, not 2016, because the team behind the new Parenthood did everything it could to conceal it until the episode’s final act reveal. (Screenshot: NBC)

Boxed in

The show opened with a montage of shots of the interior of a house filled with boxes, including one that said “family photos ‘75 to ’79.” (Figured they were really organized scrapbookers or had inherited a box from their parents upon moving into a place with enough space to store stuff.) The bed sheets were basic white, not an ostentatious ‘70s pattern. Most of the visible pieces of retro furniture could easily have been excused as collectibles or the expected hand-me-downs found in a first home of a couple just starting out and expecting triplets. They avoided showing the outside of the residence or any cars that might have been a dead giveaway of the decade. If you were really looking, you’d have noticed a vintage wall heater and an old piece of hard ‘70s luggage. (But again, even in 2016, both of those things could exist under your roof.) (Screenshot: NBC)

The naked truth

One of the shrewdest strategies they employed to keep the secret was showing Ventimiglia streak to the bedroom. Who pays attention to the plot, let alone minute details, when celebrity crack is being flashed? His Jack then covers up on the bed with his birthday present, a Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towel. This, too, is also a clever misdirect. While the rally prop was introduced in December 1975 and Steeler mania would have been high in the characters’ hometown thanks to Super Bowl wins in 1979 and 1980, non-sports fans, millennials, and people who reside outside of Steel City were likely not very aware of the gimmick until the NFL team’s return to glory in 2006 or Wiz Khalifa’s 2010 “Black and Yellow” music video. (Screenshot: NBC)

Whale tale

Moore's Rebecca might not be naked, but her outfit is also purposely bland. Not much has changed in the world of grubby house clothes chosen for full coverage and comfort in the last few decades either. Also the shock and silliness of seeing a bra on the outside of someone’s clothes while they mock sexy dance moves tends to keep viewers from digging deeper. Calling herself "Shamu" was also a time-unspecific pop culture reference, as SeaWorld’s original Shamu debuted at the theme park in the late 1960s. The name was trademarked by the company and then given to many of their star orcas at all of their sites over the years. Despite all the recent controversy surrounding orca shows, one can still catch the 50th anniversary Shamu’s Celebration: Light Up The Night at three parks. (Screenshot: NBC)

Waiting game

After Rebecca’s water breaks, we jump to a stark, plain hospital room with basic midcentury business furniture. Anyone who has spent any time in a hospital has likely come across the torture devices they call waiting-room and bedside chairs, and many could stand to update their look in general. Jack’s now clothed, unfortunately, but his flannel shirt, jeans, shaggy hair, and bushy beard are just as common a sight on a 2016 hipster as they were on a 1980 blue-collar working man. (Screenshot: NBC)

Time machines

As with the chairs, hospitals have not made many changes to patient gowns or scrubs over the last 36 years either. When the doctor (Gerald McRaney) arrives, he’s wearing standard old guy togs and a lab coat. But if you looked closely enough at the equipment/monitors (usually partially hidden behind Jack or a nurse), you might have been clued in that this was not a modern-day birthing suite. (Screenshot: NBC)

Fashion backward

This scene was the biggest clue that this story was not unfolding in present-day Pittsburgh, as the hospital hallway Jack has been banished to after his wife’s delivery takes a scary turn is filled with folks in ‘70s and ‘80s garb, including thick, weirdly colored pantyhose, a Members Only jacket, and a plaid A-line skirt. Of course, everything is new again, and chunky heels and blouses with neck bows are currently in the midst of a comeback and trending for fall. Plus, by this point, if you don’t have a black hole where your heart is supposed to be, you’re fully invested in finding out if Rebecca and her trio of babies live. They also crop in close for the heart-to-heart Jack has with the doctor about losing one child and how the doctor can relate, having lost his own, so the setting falls away. (Screenshot: NBC)

Picture-perfect

Flash-forward to Brown's Randall in his living room talking to his bio dad, William (Ron Cephas Jones). William pointed to a photograph and asks about his adoption. Randall holds the picture of his adopted parents and explains that a fireman took him to the hospital, they were already there, and they felt it was meant to be. The wording is very careful not to mention that they lost a baby that night or that they were even in the maternity ward. With all of the frames facing away from the camera, we also do not see that his parents or his siblings are white. (Screenshot: NBC)

Whose line is it anyway?

Metz's Kate is trying to comfort her twin, Hartley's Kevin, who has just gone viral for throwing a fit on the set of his lame sitcom The Manny and ultimately quitting. She tells her brother to remember what their dad always said about turning lemons into something that resembles lemonade, which was the advice the doctor had given Jack during his pep talk in a previous scene. (Screenshot: NBC)

The final reveal

The scene quickly jumps to Jack standing at the nursery window next to the fireman who brought in Randall. If you still haven’t put two and two together, the fireman offering Jack a congratulatory smoke inside the hospital should seal the deal that this is certainly not happening in 2016. Over his shoulder, you can spy the old-time vending machines, including one that doles out cigarettes. The camera pulls back to reveal multiple visitors smoking and old TVs showing the news about Iran and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Times haven’t changed all that much. Iran and the rest of the Middle East are still the subjects of much of the evening news.) (Screenshot: NBC)

We are family

Warning: This story contains spoilers from the Season 2 premiere of Scream Queens, “Scream Again.”

When Lea Michele found out her character, Hester, was the mastermind behind the murders of Scream Queen’s first season, she was elated … for about 10 seconds.

“It was pretty cool to go from being good girl Rachel Berry to a murderous, scheming Hester [Ulrich]. I was so happy when we finally found out at the last minute that I was behind it and I got the Chanels blamed for it,” Michele tells Yahoo TV . “But then I immediately freaked out. I said to the producers, ‘I am happy to be the killer, but I want to make sure that I still get to come back next season.’ I just want to work with Ryan Murphy forever. Because [exec producers] Ryan and Brad [Falchuk] see things for me that I don’t see for myself. Playing a killer was never on my acting bucket list, but it clearly should have been.”

Luckily for her, the Chanels did take the fall for the crime spree at Wallace University and the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority house that she, her brother Boone (Nick Jonas), and her certifiably crazy adopted mom, Gigi (Nasim Pedrad), planned and perpetrated, so she lived to fright another season.

Yahoo TV: The first season was so well received. I’m not sure you guys can top it. Lea Michele: We are certainly going to try. Partly for selfish reasons because I had as much fun, if not more, making it than everyone did watching it. I’m working with some of my best friends. I’ve known Emma [Roberts] for many years. And having gone from Glee to this, I have such a great working relationship with Ryan and Brad, so coming on to do this show was so exciting. We filmed in New Orleans last season. I honestly think Scream Queens, that first season, is going to be a cult classic. That first season is going to be watched and passed from friend to friend for years down the line. They had a lot to top in the sorority season. But so far I am pretty positive that this season is going to be just as loved.

We have a new location. There are some great new and handsome actors coming in, like John Stamos and Taylor Lautner. We’ve only done one episode so far, and I have high hopes. I laughed a lot, and I can’t wait for the fans to see what we have up our sleeve.

Were you excited to do something scary and gory with Jamie Lee Curtis, an icon of the slasher/horror genre? I am obsessed with horror films. I have been watching them since I was a little kid. Sitting on the couch with pizza and a glass of wine watching Jawbreaker or Halloween or Evil Dead is a perfect night for me. It has been a real treat getting to know and to work with Jamie, who between her and her mother [Janet Leigh] have such an amazing lineage in the genre. I rewatched Halloween on Halloween last year, and I sent her pictures throughout. We are following in the footsteps of Halloween 2, which was set in a hospital. I think it is cute that Ryan is continuing to pay homage to the movie and other classics in the genre.

What can you tell us about this season? That is the frustrating part. I cannot tell anybody much about my storyline. I am so grateful to Ryan and Brad and [creator] Ian [Brennan] for giving me such fun stuff to play with as an actor for the last eight years. I got to play someone so feisty, so naughty, and a little bit evil last year. This year I am just bats*** crazy and there is nothing I like to play more, as it turns out, than f***ing bats*** crazy.

I will say that I have worked with Niecy Nash already, and that was a highlight because she ad-libs a lot and they really just let her play. I can’t wait to see how they edited that scene together and which of the crazy stuff she said made it. Brad directed it and he just stood back and let her have fun.

We know the girls you framed get exonerated and released from the mental hospital. Are they out for revenge? So far there’s been no attempts at revenge against me. The girls are just happy to be out and free. They are working in the dean’s teaching hospital. I am somewhere else entirely. I am not working with the girls in the hospital. Obviously, if they are no longer to blame, someone else has to be. When a new killer shows up at the hospital, Jamie Lee Curtis comes to ask my thoughts on what is happening, as she knew I was the killer last time. That is a little tease on what I get to do this year.

Last year, they kept the killer’s identity a secret until the very end. Did you like getting information on a need-to-know basis? Do you hope you are the bad girl once again? I didn’t know it was me until I got the script for the last episode right before we filmed the finale. I am glad I didn’t know it was me; I would have played it differently. I genuinely did not think that it was me. I thought she was weird and a little dark, but I did not think she was one of the killers. I went along completely unassuming. I think they will handle it the same way this year and keep it completely under wraps from us actors until we need to know. They even released the finale script but held back the last few pages until the very end. That made it more exciting for all of us. You never knew if it was your last week or if you were a red devil. I will be happy just to be back whether I am up to my old tricks or innocent this time around.

Jamie told us that she was so impressed by how well the cast gets along. These girls are my best friends. Everyone can see on social media that even when we aren’t working we are spending our free time together. They are all great actresses. I’m 30 now too, so I feel like a big sister sometimes. I know Taylor was really nervous about joining the cast because he’s never done anything like this and we are already all friends, but literally within one day he felt at home. We love him and he is a part of the crew now. He and John came and fit in immediately. And who doesn’t want some nice eye candy walking around set?

Are you happy to be filming in Los Angeles this season, where you live, instead of relocating to New Orleans again? We loved New Orleans. It is a great town ,but our personal lives are here and it is good to be home. Billie [Lourd] and I go to SoulCycle. Emma and I are together doing dinners all the time. I get to sleep in my own bed. And for me it is an extra homecoming, as we are back at Paramount using the same soundstages as we did for Glee. They look very different.

The show is know for its biting insults and one-liners. What has been your favorite line? The one-liners are already incredible, but it will be hard to top my best line — “Be man enough to attack my crack” — from last year. But, writers, please try.

Can we expect the costumes to be as outrageous and as glamorous as last year? At the moment, Scream Queens is a little more accessible costume-wise this year. The Chanels have had some hard knocks so they are not quite as glamorous as last season. There’s less fur and fewer baubles. It is funny to see them in that position. But they don’t follow rules and they definitely aren’t just going to wear whatever hospital uniform they are given as is. They are still the Chanels, no matter how far they’ve fallen.

As for my wardrobe, I am not a Chanel on the show at the moment. I’m not back to the Doc Martens or the neck brace, but am going more simple with jeans and tees and an eye patch. But I will move into a different uniform that is more interesting than the neck brace. I can’t say any more. I can’t wait for [the premiere] so we can stop keeping secrets. My life will be so much easier then.

Tricia Helfer and Tom Ellis (Credit: Fox)

On the season finale of Lucifer, Mr. Morningstar, in a panic to save Chloe and Trixie after being shot, cut an unspoken deal with his absentee father, God. In return for being healed, he’d have to find and reimprison one of his former captives in the underworld. Cut to binge drinking and the devil’s supersad/scared (but still sexy) face as he revealed that the runaway was none other than his mom.

It’s pretty safe to say Lucifer’s convinced that mommy fearest is hell-bent on revenge, but Battlestar Galactica alum Tricia Helfer, who will portray his parent/prisoner, hints that the devil did make her do it but possibly not for all the reasons viewers or her son might expect. Helfer chatted with Yahoo TV exclusively last month about mum’s possible motivations, why she wanted to join the cast, her character’s hatred of humans, and the devil’s tight Prada pants problem.

What made you want to take this part? Well, I thought the first season was a lot of fun. The tone of the show is a hard one to get right as it is part procedural, part mythology. It’s based off of a comic and it’s its own thing as well. And a lot has to be said for everybody involved, but Tom Ellis, who plays Lucifer, he brought such a charm to the character, to the devil, who you’re supposed to dislike. It was just a really fun show to watch. They really found their stride in the second half of the season. And the way that it was set up [to introduce] mom, obviously, intrigued me right off the get-go.

Us too. There were just so many ways to go with the mother of the devil, who had been his prisoner in hell. To be honest, my concern was, is she just going to be evil and kind of one-note? Sometimes those type of characters can be. I sat down with one of the writers/producers/showrunners, and she talked me through the first five or six episodes. I was drawn in immediately by the layers of the character. She has an agenda. There’s a lot of different things about the character. She’s not just the mother of the devil coming in and trying to seek revenge. She’s a mother who loves her son and wants what was taken from her. There’s a lot of comedy to the character and we get a lot of heart.

Does she escape with a purpose or does she just want to take a sinful vacation from hell as Lucifer did? Does she have an agenda? Yes. Do I know all of it yet? No. But I honestly believe some of her motivation for escaping is to make up for lost time with her kids.

Tricia Helfer (Credit: Michael Courtney/Fox)

Lucifer has tons of daddy issues. In the season finale, they made it seem like his relationship with mom is no walk in the park either. What can you tell us about their history? Well, I can’t divulge too much. What I can say is there definitely are mommy issues there. One of the fun things about the show, I think, is even though you’re talking about the devil and celestial beings and so forth, they are at the end of the day like any normal dysfunctional family with daddy issues, mommy issues, and brother issues. They’re just to an extreme. There definitely is a lot of miscommunication between Lucifer and his mother that we will reveal in episode 2. There have been a lot of unresolved issues between them. He definitely is under the impression that his mom will be out for revenge. Not only with him, but against humanity. So there are definite reasons for his anxiety and concern surrounding his mom getting out. They definitely have quite a history.

I immediately wondered, when he said God asked him to find and return his mother back to hell, if eventually he’d make a deal and form a partnership with his mom because I am guessing she probably ended up in hell in the first place because of her baby daddy. He definitely likes to make deals, often to benefit himself, and just like there’s mommy issues and daddy issues with Lucifer, there are also mommy and daddy issues against each other. She’s unhappy with dad. I mean, he did put her in hell. So mom certainly does have an agenda, but I think one thing that’s really interesting about the character and that people may not be expecting is that there is a very maternal side to her as well. She loves her children. I’ve only read scripts of five at this point, so I don’t know [what happens] past that, but I feel some stuff’s coming that gets the story further along what she is planning. She’s been held in hell; she didn’t put herself there. It would be reasonable to assume she’s mad about it and doesn’t want to go back. A lot will be revealed in Episode 2, including a lot of Lucifer’s daddy issues. When you meet mom fully, there’s a big heart-to-heart that ends up happening between Lucifer and his mom where the audience will then understand a lot of the crux of where these issues are stemming from.

Tricia Helfer and Tom Ellis (Credit: Michael Courtney/Fox)

The showrunner teased a sure-to-be-delicious moment where one of the kids winds up accidentally flirting with mom because she has taken over such a gorgeous body. Yes, there has been quite a few of them already. I think me coming in a similar age [as the sons] is confusing. Obviously, the body mom took over was not the way mom always looked to them. So it’s fun to play with. There’s a little joking about Oedipal complex going on. The scene that Joe [Henderson] was talking about was definitely fun to shoot, but there’s been a lot of really fun moments. She’s not setting out to be funny, but there’s a lot of comedy that I’m getting to do with the character that is more situational. There’s actually, in Episode 5, strong parallels with my own life. So I was giggling away, excited to play the scene. When I told my husband about it, he was like, “You’re not even going to have to act there.”

It was good because I had a scene with Lucifer alone and I had scenes with Amenadiel [D.B. Woodside] and mom alone together before we had scenes all together, which was nice for us as actors to kind of suss each other out and figure out how they would be with mom because a parent’s relationship with each child is different. We, obviously, know from the first season that Amenadiel has always followed his father quite strictly and Lucifer rebelled more against his father. So it’s interesting with mom now in the picture what that does to the brothers’ relationship as well. Amenadiel is going through his own issues; he’s having some trouble with his immortality as well. So it’s interesting to see the mix.

To have birthed those two, I figured they were going to have to cast someone quite striking. You certainly fit the bill, and that has to feel validating. Ha. I certainly don’t look at myself that way, but what has been nice is they’re both tall and I’m tall. And I think in some way that also helps us and will help viewers meet and accept me as mom. Even though, again, this isn’t the way she looked to them. She’s taken over a body. But in the first couple of episodes where there are some real come-to-Jesus moments, and the fact that I’m there eye-to-eye with them, standing my ground, that can help when you’re having a harder conversation with someone. For me, that was nice to be able to be eye-to-eye with them and have a feeling of, “Yes, I’m their mother.” It’s a funny thing as I played a robot and a serial killer for many years, but I was a little concerned about pulling off a celestial being and having that kind of strength over these two strapping men. But I sat back and went, “But I did play a Cylon. I did play a serial killer. I’m neither, but it’s about getting into the character and finding out who she is. In the fifth episode, or sixth, we’re going to meet some more characters, possibly even other family members, and we’ll understand a lot more about how I could have birthed both D.B. and Tom. It’s a really fun element that they’re bringing in.

D.B. Woodside, Tom Ellis, and Tricia Helfer (Credit: Brendan Meadows/Fox)

Do you think Six from the Battlestar Galactica reboot or the devil’s mom is more evil? They’re in a completely different space. I think their similarity is in that they both feel their thinking or their side is right always. They both have a dislike for humanity. But with Six throughout the seasons and with each individual model of Six, her interactions with humans helped shape what she thought of them. Ultimately, some of them ended up helping the humans. She didn’t always hate them. That may occur with mom as well. I don’t know. But at this point, right off the get-go, I’d say Number Six is stronger and generally more of a bad guy, but I think there’s a side of mom coming out that’s hinted at that could change that balance a little bit.

You are quite the tomboy. You ride motorcycles and like to do stunts when possible. Do you get to use any of that? We haven’t yet. At this point, I don’t see mom doing that, but who knows? It would certainly be fun if I got to. I’m personally pretty much a tomboy. I grew up on a farm, fixing farm machinery, driving quads, and things like that. Mom is definitely not that. Mom is a little bit more, proper is maybe not the right word, but this isn’t her normal form so there’s a bit of awkwardness with her. She’s got a distaste for the form that she is in right now.

Has there been a particularly funny or weird or interesting day on set? Tom split his pants in the first scene I did with him, and someone said that was his sixth pair to split. The suits are so tailored to his body, within an inch of his life really, so that little fashion emergency is so common that they keep count. It really helped break the ice for us, though.

Welcome back to the O.C., bitch!

Back in 2003, troubled loner from the wrong side of the tracks Ryan Atwood moved to the aforementioned affluent Southern California county, where he failed to fit in, got in his fair share of fights, fell for a girl who was out of his league, and built a family, all in the name of a brighter future. This fall, Fox will once again invite viewers to the land of concrete, cars, and coastal communities to tell another just as heartfelt (not really!), dramatic (nope!), and soapy (impossible!) fish-out-of-water tale. Zorn, like Ryan, just wants to get the girl, connect with his family, find a job, and be liked. And just like that pimply protagonist, Zorn will face many foes, frenemies, and obstacles along the way, will likely get in a brawl or two, or 10, and will surely learn important lessons about life along the way.

Related: Fall TV Preview: The Scoop on 35 New Shows

“You nailed it! We were inspired every day by The O.C., a truly important show,” Son of Zorn executive producer Phil Lord (The Last Man on Earth) joked to Yahoo TV at a June open house event on the set at the Fox lot in Los Angeles. “They are basically the same, with the exception that our hero is a weird Saturday-morning-cartoon-barbarian type who has been away fighting bloody battles and defending his island nation of Zephyria, and he has come back to Orange County to get his nonanimated ex-wife back and reconnect with the son he left behind. Our guy carries a big sword, flies on a giant bird, has fivesomes with trolls, wears a loincloth.”

Zorn voiced by Jason Sudeikis and Johnny Pemberton as Alan (Credit: Kevin Estrada/FOX)

Lord’s longtime collaborator, executive producer Christopher Miller, continued the bit. “So, yeah, same basic show. We only hope ours will go on to become as game-changing a series as that one.”

The ironic thing about this phony comparison is that the producers, and in turn the actors involved on the show, kind of wish they really could use that trademark teen soap as a starting point when describing the animated live-action hybrid.

Related: Fall TV 2016 Schedule: Print Out a Premiere Dates Calendar

“First, it was pitched to me over the phone, and I was thinking, ‘That sounds weird and crazy, and I’m not sure this is my kind of show,” Cheryl Hines (who plays Edie, the ex) recalls. “Then they sent me the script, and it really made me laugh. The writing is so sharp, really smart, and very silly. But it was still really hard to picture what it would look like, and it is really hard for me to describe what the show is about to people. It’s such a visual spectacle [that] no one’s seen before on TV. It’s hard to imagine one animated character and the rest of the people are normal until you see it.”

Cheryl Hines as Edie and Zorn voiced by Jason Sudeikis (Credit: Fox)

As bizarre as the premise is, Hines promises it’s “oddly relatable,” since the show covers issues most people have dealt with, like high school bullying, marriage, divorce, stepparents, workplace dilemmas, first dates, and more. At its heart, Zorn (voiced by Jason Sudeikis) is a deadbeat dad trying to earn his way back into the life of his mopey, awkward teen son Alangulon/Alan (Johnny Pemberton) and win back the heart of Edie. To show he means it, he gets an apartment and a job at Sanitation Solutions as a “diversity hire.” (He’s the only unreal employee.) Hines continues, “The reality is heightened. For example, there’s an episode where Alan is getting picked on at school. That’s relatable; a lot of people go through that. But as his dad is a barbarian warrior, he wants to go murder the kid. He suggests we pull his skull out and pop his eyeballs. And we all have to talk him down. Alan has these three sort-of-oddball parents giving him advice. And anybody who’s ever been a teenager has probably gotten weird advice from parents they think are idiots. The fun is that Zorn gets to act out all the things that we feel sometimes. You say that you want to kill your neighbor. He will actually kill your neighbor for you, so you have to beg him not to.”

Tim Meadows had a similar experience when being wooed to play Craig, a psychology teacher at an online university who’s Edie’s new fiancé and therefore Zorn’s newest adversary. “Now I can tell people to watch the YouTube trailer, but at the beginning, the concept and how it would work was confusing to me and then extra-confusing when I tried to tell other people about it,” Meadows says.

Related: ‘Son of Zorn’ Preview Clip Finds Barbarian Doing Battle on the Toilet

Fortunately Lord and Miller’s résumé was enough to color him intrigued. “The Lego Movie blew me away. I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it was. I took my kids to see it. I figured I would eat popcorn and go to sleep. But I was digging it. And it surprised me. And Last Man on Earth also turned out to be this really weird, cool show. So I was an easy sell, because if anyone could make a weird partially animated comedy work, it would be those guys.”

Zorn voiced by Jason Sudeikis and Tim Meadows as Craig (Credit: Kevin Estrada/FOX)

Even with their impressive credentials — Lord and Miller also directed Clone High, the Jump Street movies, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and are currently hard at work at the helm of the Han Solo Star Wars spinoff — there has been quite the learning curve on Zorn. “This is a really hard show to pull off from a technical standpoint, and we have been in production for a long time,” Lord says. “We have table reads that establish a baseline and what is and is not working. We shoot in L.A., sometimes with a very tall stand-in to get the eyeline right and to give the actors something to work off of. Sometimes we use a green screen or a green glove holding a real object or a green mannequin. We have sketches and animators on set to show everyone what it will look like after the animation is added in. We have to make props to get the weight right. There’s a lot of trial and error.”

According to Miller, it is a constantly evolving show. He continues, “All of our actors are good at improv, so there is a lot that comes up and changes on set. Jason records his stuff in New York. We have rewritten scenes in the booth with Jason, and then we go back and do pickup shots. It is superinefficient, but the good news is you get a lot of bites at the apple.”

Zorn voiced by Jason Sudeikis (Credit: Fox)

Finding the perfect voice for Zorn was integral to making the conceit believable. Sudeikis was the first choice and not just because they had worked with him on Last Man’s last season. “I know it is a better story to say that we loved working with him so much that we hired him for this, but it’s not true,” Miller explains. “He is really talented, so he was the first name on the list. He has a deep, manly voice, but it is still comical and he can improv and do all the things that you need on a show like this.”

Related: Ken Tucker Reviews ‘Son of Zorn’: A Cartoonish Sitcom That Needs Work

Lord concurs, “He is on the shortlist of everything we do. People were auditioning for the project without knowing it, because we are always listening to the voices of everyone we work with and everyone we like.”

Fine-tuning the tone has also been a process. “It can’t just be all weird all the time, because that gets boring. We have to ground it in reality. But being able to push the envelope on normal everyday feelings and experiences is the kernel of the show,” Lord says. “We have to take advantage of how weird it would be to have He-Man as a dad or a co-worker. Or we take something very pedestrian, like a parent trying to win over his kid by buying him a car, and reconceptualize it in a Zorn way. Zorn wouldn’t buy a car. He would buy a giant attack bird.”

Tim Meadows as Craig, Cheryl Hines as Edie, and Zorn voiced by Jason Sudeikis (Credit: Fox)

Meadows adds, “Yeah, he does crazy things, like put his cream cheese on with a sword or drink out of a chalice at the water cooler. There’s another episode where he sets Mecha-Zorn — the robot he would send into battle for him occasionally when he didn’t feel like fighting — loose in our family, and we think we are talking to Zorn. He has a lot to learn if he wants to stay in our world and in Alan’s life.”

Four living legends — Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw, and George Foreman — and their bagman, comedian Jeff Dye, were sent to experience everything Asia has to offer and prove that it’s never too late to try new things. To that end, this exclusive clip of a scene from next week’s finale of Better Late Than Never gives new meaning to the quarterback sneak when the NFL Hall of Famer Bradshaw meets the blond bomb-her in Thailand.

The country-crossing trip’s last stop lands the sojourning seniors in Phuket on Bradshaw’s 67th birthday, and they’ve gone out to celebrate. Dye announces that he has a special surprise gift for his new pal, and in comes a pretty-in-pink performer, one of Thailand’s traditional drag entertainers, with a giant lollipop. Watching the performer lip-sync an old-timey song and dance through the crowd, Bradshaw is immediately amused and confused. 

Yes, yes, it is.

Related: See Henry Winkler’s Behind-the-Scenes Pics From ‘Better Late Than Never’

Eventually, she makes it over to Bradshaw’s side of the table and plants a few on his cheeks — and turns her head just in time to trick the Super Bowl MVP into locking lips. Fortunately, the conservative Louisiana good ol’ boy rolls with the punches and declares, “Tonight, America, on my 67th birthday I ended up kissing a guy… and I liked it. Who cares? I am still smiling.”

Guess you can teach an old dog new trick plays.

The season finale of Better Late Than Never airs Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 10 p.m. on NBC.

This summer, TV land has been chock full of mysteries: Why are so many of the Olympic favorites sporting similar pepperoni-like bruises? Is Barb really dead on Stranger Things? Who stabbed Andrea on The Night Of? What isn’t Better Late Than Never’s Terry Bradshaw afraid of?

And then there’s the biggest head scratcher of them all: American Horror Story Season 6, about which almost nothing is known despite the fact that the next installment of the FX franchise is slated to premiere in a week. Historically, creator Ryan Murphy never plays it this close to the vest.

“The show is in its sixth season, and we’ve always done everything by the book. Come January or February, I announce what the theme is, and then we announce the cast,” Murphy told to The Hollywood Reporter in a late August interview. “We wanted to [create a] different experience for the fans this year.”

Related: Fall TV Preview 2016: The Scoop on 58 Returning Shows

To that end, 25 mini-trailers have been released to date, touching on just about every possible theme you can think of, including scary houses, maniac doctors, supernatural beasts that crawl out from the fog, bloody baby dolls, wicker men, swamp things, red tides, B-movie tropes, mummies, creepy children, creepy crawlies, aliens, even evil farmers. But before you start counting how many times insects show up or how many times sepia tone is put to use, you should know that FX CEO John Landgraf told reporters at last month’s Television Critics Association semiannual press tour, back when only about eight teasers had been released, that the network’s marketing team (with help from Murphy and other AHS producers) “made many more trailers than you’ve actually seen for hypothetical seasons” with “different genres, different places.”

“A lot of them are accurate. The others are all misdirects,” Landgraf proclaimed. “Every year, we’ve basically laid out the themes, the new genre that Ryan’s going to be approaching, and we just thought [this year] it’d be really fun to keep it a mystery. So, we are. The scripts come in, and they’ve got my name emblazoned across them and there’s only one script that comes into the company. Everything’s blacked out that might give away the [setting].”

Related: ‘American Horror Story’ Attraction Set for Universal Studios

There’s still no confirmed subtitle — unless Rotten Tomatoes knows something we don’t. The aggregate review site updated the show’s page on Aug. 29 with The Mist as a subtitle, but quickly changed it back to the more generic American Horror Story: Season 6. (FX did not respond to Yahoo TV’s requests for comment on whether this was a clerical error, hoax, or marketing ploy.)

Most of the anthology’s usual cast members have been unusually silent, with the exception of a few nondescript posts on personal social media pages like this trailer shot from Lady Gaga. And speaking of last year’s AHS: Hotel leading lady (and Golden Globe winner), rumors suggest that her part will be significantly smaller because she’s been busy playing the Democratic National Convention and recording her new album. (Its first single, “Perfect Illusion,” drops five days before the premiere.)

Back to work! #ahsseason6 #ahs #acting not the countess but…who???????

A photo posted by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on Aug 9, 2016 at 10:43am PDT

Many other regulars haven’t confirmed their return, although Murphy extended the invite to “every darling” (Sarah Paulson, Cheyenne Jackson, Finn Wittrock, Wes Bentley, Matt Bomer, Kathy Bates, Denis O’Hare, and Angela Bassett) who joined him at the PaleyFest panel last March. Even those who have, like Paulson, Bomer, Evan Peters, and Leslie Jordan, are providing scant details about their characters, although Bassett relayed some Golden Globes night chatter to Entertainment Weekly saying, “[Murphy] did tell me that I would imbibe a little bit too much and yet I was very intuitive also and maybe Sarah was somehow the boss of me.” O’Hare, who has appeared in every season so far, admitted to Yahoo TV in an interview in June that he was due back to set at the end of summer and that he was under strict orders not to speak a peep. “I’m not even sure I am supposed to tell people I have a part next season,” he said. There has also been talk that Cuba Gooding Jr., who made quite the splash in the Murphy-verse’s newest addition, American Crime Story, would join the troupe.

Related: Emmy Talk: ‘AHS: Hotel’ Star Denis O’Hare on Liz Taylor’s Creation, Love Story, and Fate

Murphy hasn’t remained entirely mum. At PaleyFest, he said the team was mulling two possible storylines, a first, and both conceits included “elements of children.” Murphy teased, “If you look at horror tropes, the innocence of children, that sort of wide-eyed entryway into some world is always very dramatic and satisfying.” Many of the trailers feature children, babies, products associated with kids like dolls or mobiles, and youthful, freaky chanting/humming a la Nightmare on Elm Street.

In a different Hollywood Reporter story published last October, after he had confirmed that all of the seasons are connected, he also mentioned, “It’s weird because one idea that I think we’re going to do is an idea that we started talking about in Season 1. So the clue for Season 6 is not just in the material we’re doing now; it’s from way back in Season 1.”

Landgraff also went on record at the last TCA winter press tour saying that it would be “set in the present” with “echoes of the past,” which breaks from the normal pattern of even-numbered seasons like Asylum and Freak Show taking place in the past. He added, “It’s set in two time periods, but principally in the present.”

Of course, none of the red herrings, lack of validated intel, or actor gag orders have stopped diehards from looking for clues and trying to solve the plot puzzle. Here are the prevailing theories so far:

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

This theory seems to be the most popular thanks in no small part to the alleged set photos TMZ posted at the beginning of August along with claims of seeing folks in Pilgrim gear congregating near 16th century farmsteads. The gallery featured photos of log cabins, colonial houses/churches, wood gates, old-timey tools, and the word “Croatoan” craved into the side of the tree. History buffs will instantly recognize that word as the one found at the deserted colony site in 1590. English settlers had successfully set up shop on Roanoke Island off North Carolina three years earlier. Their overnight disappearance remains one of American history’s biggest unsolved mysteries, but Native American curses, aliens, and supernatural foul play have long been on the table as possible explanations, and all have certainly come into play in AHS.

Roanoke was referenced in Season 1. Psychic Billie Dean Howard (Paulson) told Violet Harmon (Taissa Farmiga) that a Native American chief banished the ghosts of the dead Roanoke settlers with a curse. By Billie Dean’s account, he used the word “Croatoan” to seal the deal, which is why it got carved on the fencepost. Violet tried the word on an evil spirit without success.

(Credit: FX)

It also has the children’s angle covered as the colony produced the first English child born on New World soil, Virginia Dare. They would have been a heavily agrarian society, so that could explain the many references to sickles, scythes, pitchforks, harvests, and cornfields in the videos.

Maybe a present-day historian or family has moved to the site and weird things start to happen.

The Anti-Christ

Given that finales are often where Murphy deposits clues for a following season and he mentioned Murder House as containing a hint, many people hypothesize that this year will be all about Satan’s bouncing baby boy. Connie Britton’s Vivien Harmon was knocked up by the Rubber Man and gave birth to a monster in that mansion (as did Lily Rabe and Lady Gaga), which was adopted and named Michael by Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange). She observes that Michael is “a remarkable boy destined for greatness, in need of a remarkable mother, someone forged in the fires of adversity who can guide him with firmness and with love.” This little hellion is then shown smiling with blood on his cheeks after he killed the babysitter.

(Credit: FX)

Murphy may have also fanned the flame of this theory himself. He told THR in the aforementioned 2015 interview, “We’ve talked about [the anti-Christ baby] in the writers’ room. We haven’t committed to it, but he might show up at that hotel.” He could have been hinting at what would become the countess’s bloodsucking bundle or maybe they saved the idea for this year.

A devil/Damien concept would certainly explain a few of the video teasers like Lullaby and the most unsafe mobile in history as well as the creepy toy in Baby Face and the voodoo doll, human tooth wind chimes in another. Even the walking haystacks seem to be commanded by a preteen in The Harvest. It is Season 6, and when you add two more sixes, you’ve got the devil’s calling card.

Bugs are also common signs of possession, haunting, general evil, and a coming apocalypse (i.e. The Bible, The Amityville Horror, Poltergeist, etc.), and the trailers include spiders, beetles, and millipedes.

The Killing Fields

Lots of true-crime tales and scary stories combine bucolic splendor and bloodshed, and the producers have long been inspired by both. Think Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Jeepers Creepers, The Hills Have Eyes, Ed Gein, the Wineville chicken coop murders (which were woven into Hotel’s plot), the scariest X-Files episode ever. After all, it is easier to get away with murder without the prying eyes of passersby and with plenty of land on which to hide what’s left of your victims. Throw in the usual religious fanaticism, sexual dysfunction, and incest and cannibal clichés, and again we are knee-deep in AHS’s happy place. Upon seeing a family with glowing eyes taking a sunset stroll and a desolate farmhouse with chainsaw sounds and a healthy smoke plume in clips, Deadline suggested this chapter could be inspired by the Bender Family, who ran an inn pre-Civil War in Kansas. They murdered nearly a dozen guests, dropping victims into the cellar through a trapdoor in the dining room. Which leads us to the Descent video, which feature stairs going down to the basement and hands reaching desperately at bare feet.

A rural setting, which often features train tracks (The Mist), could also be a great place to practice unsanctioned surgeries (Post Op) or for aliens to deposit crop circles (The Visitors). Even the unhappy camper is being beamed up (Camp Sight) in a location that has similar mountains and fields.

Everything Else

Other possibilities that have been bandied about the Internet include an abandoned summer camp cabin in the woods (could explain Camp Sight and the schlocky swamp creature-ish trailer) and the more modern Slender Man myth. O’Hare shot down the latter in a 97.3 WMEE radio interview.

Of the rest, the guess that holds the most water would be probably be Charles Manson and his murderous cult. Murphy admitted that Season 3 was almost about Manson back in 2013 and was quoted as saying that he “might go back to the Manson thing in some regard one day.” Fans of this idea are trying hard to make it stick, pointing out that the crib and knife in Lullaby could be a reference to Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant when the Manson Family followers stabbed her. Some people also believe the weapons in the mobile spell out “pig,” which was smeared in blood at the scene of the Tate murders in 1969, and point out that Chuck created arachnid art. But this seems like a more fitting theme for American Crime Story and way too soon after the failed Aquarius.

Scene from new season of American Horror Story vs message Manson girl Susan Atkins left in Sharon Tate's blood. #AHS pic.twitter.com/rqQEGUgdDG

— Creepy Catalog (@CreepyCatalog) July 30, 2016

Photos: FX

Warning: This post contains spoilers  for Season 3 of The Strain.

When The Strain returns Sunday, the battle against the bloodsuckers for New York City wages on. Yahoo TV chatted with the good doctor himself, Corey Stoll, to find out if the humans will finally get the upper hand on The Master and his whip-tongued minions this season. After all, the Setrakian has the Lumen, Dr. Ephraim Goodweather has developed a bio weapon, and the human-strigoi hybrid warrior Quinlan has joined the fight.

When season 3 starts, Nora is dead and Kelly has taken your son to The Master. What headspace does this put Eph in? He’s pretty much at bottom and he is not interested in the what the rest of the team is doing or in being part of any effort to fight the strigoi. He’s really pretty depressed and he stays fairly intoxicated at all times. But he is knocked out of that ennui pretty quickly because being in the middle of a vampire apocalypse demands one’s attention.

Related: ‘The Strain’ Season 2 Catch-Up Guide

I would think there wouldn’t be too much time for a pity party. Yeah, I think one thing that Carlton [Cuse, executive producer] has been really great about is always making sure that there’s positive, affirmative thing to build towards instead of just survival. This takes it from being just a horror show to more of an adventure show. There is a bigger picture, a mission, and there is a solution out there. It’s just very difficult to attain and the environment in which you’re trying to find it is very scary. He’s absolutely heartbroken by Nora’s death and determined to get his son back. And that is the arc of the third season for Eph. It’s a lot of close calls and just searching for Zach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XW16IwvloM

He came up with a weapon to fight the strigoi at the end of last season, but Cuse told Yahoo that they are continually evolving and outwitting their strategies. In the previous season, it was all about the bio weapon, and while it was successful at first, the strigoi are very adaptable and they found ways around that. So we have to look for more ways to fight and kill them. He and Dutch team up on the next science-based way to defeat The Master. Now, it’s about harnessing the hum The Master makes that can paralyze his victims. They’re finding a way to turn that around on him.

Related: Ken Tucker Reviews ‘The Strain’ Season 3

It seems like the possibility of retrieving Zach leads Eph to betray some of his team. In terms of seeing the greater good versus his own familial duties, he’s left the Hippocratic Oath far behind. When the series started off, [it was about] my duty as doctor, as a public health official needing to protect the citizens,  [This fight] moved on to something very personal for him. When weighing the possibility of getting his son back versus [those he betrays], it’s a tough choice. But in the end, it was never really close. He can’t leave the possibility of getting his son back on the table.

As a dad yourself, could you understand the motivation? I became a parent at the beginning of last season so it’s not hard for me to imagine doing any number of immoral things in order to protect my son. It’s human nature. I think also that it’s a recurring theme of sorts — the mythology versus science. Even though, obviously, everything is conspiring against his continuing to believe in a rational science-based world, he still can’t fully get on board with the more mythological world view of vampires.

How has portraying the character changed from season 1 to 3? I think there is a consistency of character in terms of his curiosity. No matter how knocked down he gets and how far he’s fallen, in terms of his self image and also just in terms of the tragedy that he’s witnessed and experienced, he has this insatiable curiosity. He, even in the middle of a vampire apocalypse, is able to really geek out on some new theory or technology. That’s always fun to play and sort of speaks to what I was saying before about this being a way to make an affirmative choices as opposed to just running and screaming. But he definitely, over the course of the episodes of the season, has gone from being a winner, in everything that he’s ever done to failing. He’s this real boy wonder in his career. He’s shown limits of his expertise, ability, and intelligence. And I think there is a degree of humility and empathy that Eph has now that he didn’t have in the pilot.

You guys are constantly in the sewers or in hospital rooms where heads explode. What was the creepiest or grossest scene you’ve had to film? For some reason, this last season, we were spared a lot of the really gross locations. In the first couple seasons, we were in the subway a lot. We were in real dank tunnels and around things that were just unpleasant. Maybe I just lucked out of not being in them this season. But there has been more use of the feelers this season. It’s my new-found low. Maybe because I have a child myself now, fighting and killing and beating these small children sometimes gets to me. Even though they are having so much fun. The kids who play the feelers, [their] energy is really infectious. But definitely between “action” and “cut” when you’re shooting them or beating them, it’s a brutal, queasy feeling. [Story creator/executive producer] Guillermo Del Toro is really a master of taking things that are supposed to be one way and making them another way. And that’s what’s scary about them. Like in Pan’s Labyrinth, that character has eyes in the middle of his palms but eyes are supposed to be in the middle of your head. It’s just a slight difference from the regular world that he can somehow make incredibly disturbing. He’s a master of finding these small perversions.

The series has diverged from the books in some cases like when they decided to kill Nora off last season. Imagine that makes you feel like no one is really safe from being killed off. I think it helps with the storytelling. Like in The Hurt Locker when Guy Pearce dies in the first scene. Then Ralph Fiennes dies. Anybody who’s at all famous in that movie dies. It made it more real and thrilling. It can be a problem having people who you know because they’re on the poster or they’re famous or because they’re one of the main characters [because the audience assumes] that the situation isn’t really that dangerous. Whatever happens, they’re going to find some other way to bring them back to life. It takes away the tension. It takes away the stakes in storytelling. So I think it makes perfect sense to kill off a main character unexpectedly. As an actor, the insecurity of having a job is a given any way. Whether the character dies or the show is cancelled, every job ends. You just keep on doing it until you die [laughs]. But for the most part, most actors outlive their jobs. That’s just the life of the actor.

One death I welcomed was the death of your wig. Did you keep it for posterity? We actually shaved the wig. We took a clipper to the actual wig. I didn’t think it would work, but it actually stayed on and stayed against the lace. It still shows up from time to time. The flashbacks are pretty essential to the show, so if we ever see me before the events from the first season, I have to wear one.

Do you miss it or prefer to work bald? I think in this particular instance, it was clear that it was a distraction so I was glad to get rid of that distraction and move on. But in terms of with the wig or not, it’s like asking if I prefer to work with one costume or the other. It really is about what’s most effective at telling the story the best. It was clear that that wasn’t the case with this whereas when I played Hemingway for Midnight In Paris, I needed the wig. It would have been strange to see a bald Hemingway. It’s really situational.

Obviously we can’t expect you back on Homeland or House of Cards, but any luck Dill Harcourt will make an appearance or two in the finale season of Girls? We’ll have to see if I turn up. I loved that character and that whole set. Lena is a lot of fun and a brilliant writer. I would welcome working with Andrew again too. But I don’t know. 

Jeff Dye, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman, and Henry Winkler. (Photo: Paul Drinkwater/NBC)

The Fonz, Capt. Kirk, a two-time heavyweight champion, an NFL Hall of Famer, and a standup comedian walk into a Japanese bar.

What sounds like the beginning of a bad joke is actually one of many heartwarming and hilarious scenes that make up NBC’s new reality series Better Late Than Never, a fish-out-of-water concept based on the South Korean hit Grandpas Over Flowers. It sends four famous elder statesmen (Henry Winkler, William Shatner, George Foreman, and Terry Bradshaw) to explore Asia for a month without personal assistants, publicists, limousines, presidential suites, translators, or any of the other creature comforts that their life in the limelight normally provides.

“You learn a lot about yourself when you travel and when you step outside your comfort zone,” Winkler, who also produced the series, told Yahoo TV after a Los Angeles press screening of the premiere episode a few weeks ago. “I never want to be too old to try new things. I also thought there was real potential for it to be funny.”

Shatner, who had never ventured anywhere more exotic than Australia, explained during the post-screening Q&A that he hopped aboard the BLTN train for the “challenge of going with four people you don’t know to a place you’ve never been.” He was especially sold when he heard who his fellow tourists would be.

“I thought, ‘If I could ever catch a pass from Terry Bradshaw’ … I watch football and analyze it all the time. I get groups of people coming up to my house for Monday Night Football, and we tear the game apart. And I thought, ‘If I could ever get in the ring with George,’ because I used to box a little. And Henry’s a very funny guy, [so] he could make me laugh. Wow, what a bucket list.”

And what about Jeff Dye (I Can Do That, Last Comic Standing), the relatively young buck who joined them on the journey? “We needed somebody young and strong to carry the luggage,” Shatner quipped dryly.

Shatner, Foreman, Bradshaw, Dye, and Winkler. (Photo: Paul Drinkwater/NBC)

Dye told Yahoo later that afternoon, “And they needed someone who could use Google Maps and get us to the right bus and find an online translator. They would have been so lost without me. In all seriousness, I would have carried all their baggage for the whole trip if that’s what I needed to do to be invited to participate. I am fine being the butt of their jokes. These guys are just barely living legends.”

The quintet stops in Tokyo, Kyoto, Seoul, Hong Kong, Phuket, and Chiang Mai before heading home. Bangkok was on the planned itinerary, but the on-site production team rerouted them after a bombing occurred in that city. They appear on a Japanese game show, attend parades and ceremonies, visit historical and scenic sites, get tossed around the ring by a sumo wrestler, drink in robot bars, and eat porcine private parts (except Dye, who is a vegetarian). They also possibly almost jump-start an international incident at the demilitarized zone between the Koreas.

Shatner (Photo: Paul Drinkwater/NBC)

“We went because it’s very much a part of Korea. It was really interesting. We saw the tanks, and then [Jeff] thinks he has to take a picture,” Winkler teased at the press conference. “I cannot tell you what happens for fear of my life.”

Winkler would much rather talk in detail about the day he met an elephant in Chiang Mai. “This 15,000‑pound elephant looked me in the eye, and I looked the elephant in the eye, and I started crying. You felt the dearness. I have a picture on my phone, in my house, in everywhere. You see the elephant leaning into me like he was a puppy. This is not hyperbole. It came out of him like a river, this emotion. It was one of the great moments of my life, outside of my children, grandchildren, and family.”

Dye’s favorite city was Kyoto. “It is rich with tradition and felt like nothing I’ve ever known before,” he said. “When I travel, I want it to be different than anything I know. Tokyo is beautiful but just reminds me of New York.”

Shatner recalled interacting with locals as a highlight, even the ones who got away. “We had a water fight with colored water taken out of cesspools, and they were fired at us. During this fight, I had my mouth open, and this kid shot this long arc of water into my mouth. I’ll never forget that kid. That child’s face is emblazoned in my mind.”

Dye almost fell off his chair laughing at the retelling. “Your favorite encounter was a kid who wronged you?”

Foreman, Shatner, Winkler, Bradshaw, and Dye. (Photo: Paul Drinkwater/NBC)

He and Winkler recounted tales of far friendlier people. “I was deeply touched by the children in each village,” said Winkler. “We met children everywhere we went, and there was no language between us. You could just have this wonderful circle together of nonverbal communication. George would sit down, and all of a sudden these children, who had no idea who this gigantic human being was and didn’t understand him, could have been his grandchildren. They found games to play, and punching, and sitting, and jumping. It was truly emotional.”

Cesspool squirter aside, Shatner actually felt hope despite the negative reinforcement delivered seemingly daily via the nightly news. “There were a lot of people friendly toward us Americans. And they didn’t know who we were because the shows — certainly the shows I’ve been in — weren’t playing in Asia.”

Both Dye and Shatner agreed that Winkler was the one most often recognized. Dye observed that public attention was occasionally a sensitive issue. “You have four people who are very successful in their fields, and while they respect each other’s success, I don’t think they are used to sharing status,” he told Yahoo at lunch. “They are used to being the center of their universe, and now they are traveling with three other famous people who are having people come up to them and ask for a photo or an autograph. It was almost like they kept a mental scoreboard. Sometimes it would cause flare-ups, and I think they will likely show that onscreen.”

Not everything was bon about their voyage. Dye lost/broke more than one phone. (At least one was claimed by the rocky road leading to a castle; another became part of the aforementioned international incident.) Most of them did not fit into the beds at the pod hotel. Shatner mentioned “lumpy mattresses and bad food.” And Winkler practically shuddered at the thought as he remembered the weather. “Honestly, the worst memory of the show was that from morning to night, it felt as if you were wrapped in plastic, head to toe. It was hotter than hot, wetter than wet all the time. You could see the air.”

Shatner admitted the lengthy journey presented some physical challenges. “Age does bring a certain number of ills, like sore knees and hips, and even endurance. The physical demands on all of us and dealing with [them were] a consideration. There’s something really opulent about going under the aegis of a studio who manages everything. You don’t have a worry in the world. All you have to worry about is getting to the train.”

And just like with every extended vacation you’ve ever been on with your friends or family, no matter how much you love them, eventually you need some alone time. Dye told Yahoo TV, “Most of the time, everything was great, but we spent a lot of time with each other, and sometimes you just get irritated and need space. It does not mean you don’t love your family. It was very hot, and some of the sleeping arrangements were terrible, and we would take trains or buses that were not comfortable, and we’d all turn into grumpy old men.”

Shatner, Winkler, Bradshaw, Dye, and Foreman. (Photo: Paul Drinkwater/NBC)

But at the end of the day, they never went to bed angry, and Dye said they grew from being strangers to good friends who helped each other face fears and climb mountains — sometimes literally — and had many deep conversations about life, work, aging, and even death. “I went in thinking of them as huge stars, and I left knowing they were also just four men, four husbands and dads that I can call friends,” Dye said. During the Q&A, he added, “I enjoyed just sitting back and watching them interact with each other and [listening to] the stories they would tell at dinners and those hangouts. I have the greatest stories that I’ll have for the rest of my life.”

Winkler added, “Our relationships start to change as we really get to know each other and [get] more comfortable with each other. I was able to go into the editing room and see what was going on. And each time I did, I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I want to be with those guys.’ And I’m in it. It was so delightful. I think that [viewers] will have an extraordinarily good time with us.”

“My only criticism of the whole project was that the cameramen would have to sleep at some point,” Dye said. “Because it’s a hilarious time 24 hours a day being around these guys, the people that come up to them, and just the things they share. They wake up early, and they argue about who was working out and who’s in the buffet. Terry and George were always up super-early battling on the treadmill.”

And Shatner promised that watching the series, if nothing else, “will take your mind off of Trump.”

Jacqueline Toboni, David Giuntoli, Russell Hornsby, Bree Turner, and Reggie Lee (Credit: NBC)

At the end of Grimm‘s fifth season, things were looking, well, grim for the Grimm gang. Nick’s mom was beheaded. The love of Nick’s life went full Hexenbiest, and their confrontations ultimately ended with her dying in his arms. He thought that the royals had recaptured Diana, and her mom/his archenemy Adalind, the witch responsible for cursing Juliette, was now pregnant with his child.

Ultimately, Season 5 proved that the monster hunters of this modern fairy tale are no closer to their happy endings. Here’s a guide to how the story unfolded as a new big bad intends to make a power play next season. (Warning: There are most definitely spoilers ahead.)

1. The Revolution Will Be Televised

Hinted at in the fourth installment, Black Claw, a well-organized and well-funded Wesen group, is recruiting monster members and trying to establish a new world order by any means necessary. Tired of living in the shadows, they devise a plan to infiltrate the government at all levels. Standing in Black Claw’s way in Rose City are Nick and company, as well as Hadrian’s Wall, a heavily armed resistance group led by Meisner that recruited Trubel.

2. The Witch Is Back

Actually, both of them are.

Juliette isn’t dead after all, but she now goes by the name of Eve. Hadrian’s Wall patches her up, breaks her down mentally, and teaches her to focus her rage for their cause. She blocks out all emotion and refuses to engage with Nick about their past life together. She needs to stay sharp and unattached if they are going to have any shot at winning this war.

Adalind and Nick welcome Kelly — a son named after his mom — move in together, and somewhere between trying to gentrify a warehouse neighborhood and co-parent, they wind up falling in love. When Rosalee’s druggie ex shows up and threatens them, Adalind’s powers return involuntarily. Even though she begged Rosalee to let her tell Nick herself, Adalind keeps it a secret for weeks. Eve, who is psychically connected to Adalind, senses the comeback, warns Nick and threatens her nemesis. (Uh, oh, Eve, a little bit of your Juliette side is showing.) She returns to working at the evil law firm and kicks off her search for daughter Diana once again.

3. Keys to Success

With five of the seven Crusade knight keys in their possession, the Scooby Gang narrows down the treasure’s location to somewhere in the Black Forest. Nick and Monroe go to Germany and eventually find the ancient box and unwanted attention. Monroe is bitten and develops blood poisoning. When they return home, they are able to pick the locks and dissolve the seal with Nick’s Grimm blood. A seemingly plain wooden shard is wrapped in a cloth inscribed with a super-ancient version of Latin that warned of miracles and danger. But it heals Monroe with one touch. Only the inner circle knows about the stick. Hadrian’s Wall, Renard, and Adalind had been kept in the dark.

4. Hairy Situation

Wu gets scratched while pursuing a murder suspect/infected Wesen and contracts the Lycanthropia virus. After a series of weird dreams and possible sleep hunting, he develops the ability to morph into a cavemanlike primal version of himself. He is attacked by a Black Claw operative, loses control and ends up killing the guy before blacking out. After seeing a taped transition, he begins to learn how to control his beast mode.

5. Campaign Trail

Just like in the real world, it is an election year in Portland. Renard is helping an old friend/muggle run for mayor, but Black Claw has other plans. They have the human candidate assassinated and then groom Captain McChesty to step in. With a horizontal push from his sexy ginger campaign manager, Renard’s monster instincts kick in and he joins the opposing team.

Diana, who is pretty darn powerful now, has also joined their ranks. She is shipped into town to get her parents back together because politicians need families. Between her big blue demon seed eyes, Renard’s manipulation, and Claw’s threats against Nick, Adalind leaves with Kelly under the cover of darkness and joins Renard onstage for his acceptance speech. The Black Claw co-founder, Conrad Bonaparte, a full-blown Zauberbiest, wants Adalind to do more than keep up appearances. He puts a cursed wedding ring on her finger. Diana also wants to see the exes reunited and uses her power to take out the ginger competition and her voodoo dolls to make her parents kiss.

6. Finale Fireworks

Black Claw ramps up its efforts to eradicate the Grimm problem, including putting someone undercover as Hank’s girlfriend and framing him for murder. It leads them to Hadrian’s Wall’s secret lair, and Conrad starts killing Meisner slowly and painfully. Renard, who owes a lot to Meisner for getting Diana away from the royals a few years earlier, shoots him out of compassion. But that is the last straw for Nick, who attacks Renard at the precinct and gets himself thrown into jail. Black Claw-affiliated police officers take him to Conrad, who first offers Nick the option of joining their cause and then tortures him to find out the whereabouts of the Grimm ancestry book. Eve takes a glass shard to the stomach during a showdown with Conrad. Nick takes her back to the loft and touches her with his magic stick. (Hey, minds out of the gutter!) She heals, then woges, then seizes.  She feels weird and weak. We’re thinking maybe she has been cured of her Hexenbiest side.

Conrad is also done with playing around. He strangles Adalind until she reveals Nick’s address and sends soldiers. Nick sends his friends into the tunnel to escape and stays behind to buy them time. Nick fights everyone off until the last man standing shoots him. Renard and Conrad show up to gloat, but Nick has been healed by the magic stick in his pocket. Just as Conrad had attacked him, Renard stabs him through the heart, and a quick cut reveals Diana, with her voodoo doll, had made him do it. No one hurts her mom.

7. Silver Lining

There is one small bit of good news. Rosalee and Monroe are expecting a baby beast.

Watch the full Season 5 finale episode:

Attention, shoppers: Stars and the fictional characters they play are just like us when it comes to Olympic fever. Case in point: superfan Matthew McConaughey enthusiastically cheering on Team USA all over Rio. Need more evidence? On Aug. 19, tune in to a Games-themed special episode of Superstore, which features former gold medalists Apolo Ohno, Tara Lipinski, and McKayla Maroney, following NBC’s coverage of the competition. (Fun fact: This is a special “time hop” episode of the comedy, which is why Nichole Bloom’s Cheyenne is still pregnant. Season 2 in September will pick up where Season 1 left off, after Cheyenne gave birth.)

The Olympic-themed episode also features Saturday Night Live’s Cecily Strong playing Amy’s (America Ferrera) childhood hero, champion gymnast Missy Jones, who the clerk comes face to face with thanks to a Cloud 9 promotion. As seen in this exclusive clip from the “Olympics” episode, Amy is thrilled about her meet and greet, while Jonah (Ben Feldman) recalls his less-positive brush with fame. (Apparently, dinner with NPR’s Fresh Air host Terry Gross was not all it was cracked up to be.)

Related: Which Olympic Sport Has Stressed You Out The Most?

But given that this is a sitcom, the brush with greatness is likely to go awry. Judging by the scene’s end, comparisons and the inability of living up to the gold standard set by Missy Jones has already taken a toll on poor pregnant Cheyenne. In other departments, Olympic spirit causes Glenn (Mark McKinney) to suffer a case of extreme patriotism, Jonah discovers some dirt in Mateo’s (Nico Santos) past, and Dina (Lauren Ash) tries to plan a Closing Ceremony.

Let the games begin.

Warning: This interview contains spoilers for the second season of Outlander, including teases about the finale, which will air on July 9.

Sorry Charlie, your days are likely numbered. Given that it appears history is going to unfold just as it did before with the bloody Battle of Culloden, the fall of the Jacobites and no return to a Stuart reign, we’re guessing that likely means Andrew Gower, the actor who plays the rebellious royal, is also not long for the world of Outlander.

With Season 2 coming to a close next week, we tracked Gower down by phone in England — where he is doing a play and was on his merry way to get a haircut — to ask about all things Bonnie, from wigs and catchphrase drinking games to how he researched the role and his favorite scenes.

How familiar were you with Outlander before you got the job? I was lucky enough to work with Stephen Walters in Morocco of all places last year. He had talked about this series he was in that had an amazing, dedicated following and a really interesting story. We stayed in touch, both of us being from Liverpool. When I came home, I weirdly had a meeting to play Bonnie Prince Charlie in my email account, and the rest was history. And Stephen and I were lucky enough to share a little moment together in Episode 10. It is very interesting how small the industry can be and how coincidental.

Related: ‘Outlander’ Costume Designer Terry Dresbach on Season 2′s ‘Remarkable Fashion Show’

How has life changed since becoming a part of a show with such a dedicated fanbase? Do people recognize you when you are in your modern-day look? Stephen had told me how loyal the following was, and I have been lucky enough to experience it firsthand now. It feels validating. I don’t get recognized on the street. I would be worried if I did, given that I wear a wig at all times on the show and have quite a different wardrobe, and the facial expressions I pull even. The day I start getting recognized as Charlie, I will be worried. There’s been none of that. But virtually over Twitter, it has changed tremendously. I have so many more followers now. And all good, positive interactions. I am quite happy that I can still walk down the street every day in a pair of jogging bottoms and my woolly hat, and no one knows who I am. That’s nice.

You play a historical figure, Bonnie Prince Charles Stuart. Did you do much research on him? A hell of a lot. The Frank McLynn biography became my bible basically up until recently when I lost it on a flight between Edinburgh and London. It was so important to read his letters and to know more about his relationship with his father and his time in Italy and Paris. When you are playing somebody who did exist and there is good source material on them, whether it is a biography or archives or experts, you would be stupid not to delve into them. But there is a point in the process where you leave the books alone, and instead, you focus on the script and creating your version.

What was the most interesting or surprising thing you discovered? I have to be honest that before I took on the job, apart from the name and the basics, I had no real idea how he fit into history. I had no idea about the Jacobites or those battles. Growing up in Liverpool, we studied the British side of history, and we only would barely briefly touch on Scottish history. So everything was, for me, a big revelation. The fact that he was born in Italy was a lovely discovery. He was at war as a 15-year-old boy. That he used to dance in front of the groups of soldiers to entertain them.

How would you describe him to people? He seems like he has daddy issues to me. Like he needs to please him by winning this rebellion. Totally a daddy’s boy. I think he is having an identity crisis. He doesn’t know where he belongs or who he belongs with. He has aspirations to sit on the British throne and thinks the way to that is this war, but as far as who he is, I think he struggled with that. He is forever aligning himself to different people and beliefs to figure out any way to get into power. And he is very devout in that way, that he believes God wants him to be King.

Related: All Hail ‘Outlander’ Star Lionel Lingelser!

And he also seems to be mostly kind and ambitious, at least tries to think long-term like with his theories about how the British should be treated. Being removed from British society and living in Europe, he doesn’t understand the divide. There is a naivety to him, having been isolated in Italy for his whole childhood. When he arrives in the Highlands, there is a sort of childlike innocence on how British politics actually works, and he doesn’t understand how much anger there is on the part of the Scots toward the British.

He also seems, especially in the last few episodes, like he really has a desire to get in the fight and stand alongside his men. Even though when they finally decide to let him join in this episode, he gets lost and screws up their shot at a surprise birthday attack. He sure means well, but it doesn’t always work out for him. I think he probably did have the desire to do his part, but he is far from a warrior. I have really liked that the details about the rebellion and the battles have been historically accurate — things like the secret path, the conditions, the introduction of the generals — but that the show has built their story inside of that framework and taken some artistic liberties for the sake of story. I have taken some license with Charles, and I do hope that people appreciate that we are trying to link the beginning of the series with the end of the series.

I’m wondering if his catchphrase “Mark me” is based on research, or was that just something that came from the book or from the writers’ minds? There is no mention of that particular phrase in my bible on Charlie. It has become such a part of the character. Quite interestingly, it was in a first draft and read-through for my first-ever appearance on Outlander. There was a speech in the brothel, and from that point I wanted to build on that. I kept adding a few more “Mark me’s” because it felt like his way of demanding attention and saying, “This is my moment. Pay attention.” I took it also as a very military phrase, and he is a guy who is interested in that as in, “Mark my gun” or “Mark my sword.” In a way, for me in trying to play someone with a lack of identity, I wanted to give him a phrase that he routinely uses and that speaks to who he is. The scenes where I have not used it, I was a bit more raw and emotionally cut up. I have enjoyed the collaboration with the directors and writers on deciding when to throw one in or when to cut it out. It was a nice thing to add to the character.

Did you ever count how many times you said it? I have not. But I heard it has become a drinking game. I’m worried if people are drinking with every “mark me.” I’m worried for their heads on a Sunday morning.

Did you have a favorite scene of Season 2? Definitely the bedroom scene where I climb through the window and I’ve just been bitten by the monkey. That was a direct adaptation from a scene in the book. That was a fun scene to film. The other scene I really loved is more a whole episode of scenes. I loved Episode 10, where I was wearing my tartan outfit and leading my Scottish men and looking out over the English. Working opposite Dougal [Graham McTavish] and the other Scots was fantastic.

What took more getting used to — the wig, the kilts, or the high-neck bows and ruffles? The wig. Definitely the wig. Although I do not have the knees for kilts either. If I do come back, I am going to have to work on the legs. [Sam Heughan’s] legs put mine to shame.

Can you tease the finale? I am going to give you very short, mysterious clues — wax, an unfinished battle, and more God. It is going to be a great, great episode. Not to be missed.

Outlander airs on Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Starz. The finale, titled “Dragonfly in Amber,” will air on July 9. It is a an extended, 90-minute episode.

Warning: This postmortem contains spoilers for the “The Hail Mary” episode of Outlander, which aired June 25.

They’re dropping like flies in the Outlanderverse. This week we said goodbye to two important characters — Alex Randall and Colum MacKenzie — and with the Battle of Culloden now seemingly unpreventable and looming large, it’s highly unlikely that the morbid trend will reverse when the Season 2 finale airs on July 9.

“The Hail Mary” episode put the final pieces together on how Alex, Black Jack, and Mary Hawkins all figured into Claire’s future husband Frank’s family tree just before the kind gentle Randall brother drew his last breath. It was devastating to watch, but at least Alex got to put his ducks in a row, request a final favor of his sick-and-twisted sibling, and make sure his baby mama and unborn child would be provided for.

Related: Emmy Talk: How ‘Outlander’ Costume Designer Terry Dresbach Designed Season 2’s ‘Remarkable Fashion Show’

Dougal MacKenzie (Graham McTavish) was not quite so lucky when it came time for his deathbed confessional. The long-infirm Colum, the older brother and MacKenzie clan leader with whom he has consistently butted heads for two seasons, arrived in Inverness and Dougal temporarily rejoiced, thinking that his brother had finally come to his senses and was ready to join the Jacobite cause. He had not. Instead he had come to make his wishes known about the future of the clan (Jamie Fraser would take the MacKenzie reigns until his son came of age instead of Dougal) and to add insult to injury, Dougal would not be in charge of mentoring Colum’s son who is actually Dougal’s offspring. Dougal felt like it was just one more way Colum was punishing him, but Gary Lewis (Colum) interpreted the move differently.

“No anger, retribution, or malice in Colum’s business with Dougal,” Lewis tells Yahoo TV. “Colum seeks to understand the developing situation and makes decisions based on what he thinks will be best for the clan, many years down the line. He sees that Dougal is incapable of that. Dougal is more about instant gratification. No thought or foresight. Graham says that Dougal is ‘complicated.’ Whereas he is really just a havering arse driven by his knob and his pride. So Jamie is the man.”

Related: Hey Emmy Voters, Nominate These Actors!

This was not the first time they disagreed. Quite the contrary if you will recall the Geillis affair that ended in an offspring, the revolution, what to do with Claire, and so on. “They had an extremely complicated relationship. They are at each other’s throats a lot but at the end of the day they are brothers and they mean a lot to each other,” McTavish explains. “And it all leads to that moment. Very much so. That scene with Gary where Dougal tells him how he really feels in particular was a very challenging, interesting one for both of us. What I brought to it or tried to bring to it was relating it to my own life experience and particularly the regrets that you have when someone dies, regrets of things you could have said to them or asked them. I thought of my own father and, in that case, those are regrets that I have. For Dougal to pour his heart out as he does and talk honestly, possibly for the first time, and then for his brother to die while he is doing it and for Dougal not to realize what has happened until it is too late. It is utterly heartbreaking. If he himself didn’t die later in the series, he really would have been consigned to a prison of his own making.”

Unlike the audience, Dougal had no idea that Colum had asked Claire for some sort of potion to help him end the suffering. “As he sees it, it really is time to go. He faces challenges at every level; physical, familial, political, but he plays the hand he has been given,” Lewis says. “Think about what might have happened if he made all those decisions then stayed around. His body was near the end. Sin didn’t come into it. Better to take care of everything then leave. He cares for the lives of his people beyond his own life as he is essentially good hearted.”

And if you are anything like us, you were hoping he at least heard some of the heartfelt discourse before shuffling off that mortal coil, but Lewis shot down that wishful thinking. “I never heard a word of the speech. I was gone.”

Both actors walked away from the scene reminded that life is short.

“I suppose the lesson is, make that phone call. Don’t wait until it’s too late. But hey, that’s Dougal all over. No thought. No foresight,” Lewis says.

Related: ‘Outlander’: Graham McTavish on Dougal and Jamie’s Changing Dynamic

McTavish agrees, but also points out that Colum and probably everyone who has ever lived and loved in the history of humankind is just as guilty. “It’s heartbreaking because you can’t take it back. It’s that moment in King Lear where he says, ‘Never, never, never, never.’ In that case he is realizing that he will never be able to speak to Cordelia again. He will never have that chance to tell that person how he feels again and this scene reminded me of that. It is a reminder of what’s fundamental and important in life and Dougal is as guilty as anyone in real life of forgetting that along the way. As is Colum. It was a powerful and really beautifully written scene.”

Both Glasgow gents who came up together in the industry and theater also share the opinion that these intensely rich characters only benefitted from their longtime association. “Working with Graham was a bonus. We get on very well and were able to create and feed a few extra rivalries and verbal clashes into the work,” Lewis says before adding that there will be a lot to miss after his on-screen death. ”Great people. All of them. What a cast and crew. Great work. I hang onto the memories.”

Outlander airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Starz.

Warning: This postmortem contains spoilers for the “Vengeance Is Mine” episode of Outlander, which aired June 18.

The first half of season 2 was rough for Dougal diehards. While Clamie joined French high society in an effort to change history and save the Highlander way of life, the war chief of Clan MacKenzie was left to hold down the fort back in Scotland. But as the rebellion has ramped up, so too has quality Graham McTavish screen time. When he isn’t grasping for a return to his glory days in change of the soldiers or working Claire’s last nerve, he’s pulling off heroics on horseback and putting his foot in his mouth in front of the prince with his Scottish bros before foes mentality.

Related: Hey Emmy Voters, Nominate These Actors!

And McTavish, who called Friday from New Zealand where he is currently filming an indie called The Stolen, promises there are more juicy bits to come as the doomed freedom fighters march toward the battle on Culloden Moor. He also chatted at length about his character and Jamie’s changing dynamic, getting physical and topless, Dougal’s motivations and morals and how they shape who he is and how he acts, and what went wrong with the first attempt to capture the Highland charge on camera.

It’s so cool to get a call from the future. So on theme. Yes, in true Outlander fashion, I have traveled in time and am calling you from the future. I can tell you it is very similar to what you are experiencing at the moment where you are. No massive changes to report from Saturday. The world is still here. 

Given Dougal was in Scotland while Jamie and Claire tried to alter the future in France, viewers had to wait many weeks before they got their Graham McTavish fix. Did it feel like you guys picked up right where you left off? Yeah definitely. There have been so many great scenes and challenges since everyone returned from to Scotland. The last few episodes have been action-packed. But the key change for Dougal is that these characters come back from this extraordinary experience in France, which he has been no part of, and he expects for things to just carry on from where they left off. It is almost like no time has passed as far as Dougal is concerned. He has just been waiting, chomping at the bit to get started on the rebellion.

And therein lies the problem. He expects Jamie and Claire to return as the same people but Jamie has buddied up to the Prince and they have both experienced so many things that have changed who they are and it seems this power shift creates a lot of tension between him and Jamie especially. Jamie arrives and Dougal fully expects him to fall in line and off we go. ”Here we are. We’re ready to fight, et cetera, et cetera.” But then he realizes that something fundamental has changed in Jamie, which is that Jamie has grown into a real leader, and that throws everything off. Their dynamic is totally changed and it will never go back to the way it was. That contributes so much to the good meaty scenes I have gotten to take part in this season. They are a result of the change in that dynamic. On the one hand, he is very proud and pleased that Jamie is joining the rebellion, but at the same time he is a little bit put out that he is not the one leading the charge and calling the shots anymore. It’s classic Dougal really, but amplified by 10. He has good intentions and wants to do these things for the right reasons and because he believes in the cause, but on the other hand he can’t help but let his ego get in the way.

He attempted to correct the course in his favor by manipulating Claire once again, but she wasn’t having any of that and instead called him out on his BS. I loved that scene. She is really letting rip. She lets him know how she really feels and that is so relatable if you have ever had that moment where someone had pushed you too far and you aren’t capable of taking it anymore. She just turned around and let him have it. But I loved also the way that the writing flips it at that point and lets him make his point. Yes I may be a narcissist. I may be all of those you just said, but the one thing you have forgotten is that more than anything I am this. I am proudly Scottish. That is what guides Dougal through all of his dealings with anybody — how can they help me achieve what I really want which is restoring the Stuart monarchy. That’s it. There are the other things  like the sexual intrigues. He is obviously keen on Claire and she doesn’t feel that way toward him and he has his ambitions with the clan, but above everything else the rebellion and the restoration is his guiding star that he follows above everything else.

I think it helped to remind people that he is not so easily dismissed as a bad guy. I know there are people who see him as a villain and I can’t see him that way. Really Dougal is very human. He is neither perfect’ nor a monster. He is well-intentioned and has a strong moral compass, but there are flaws in his personality that trip him up like his vanity, his ego. He can’t help but try to manipulate people for his own gain. Those are flaws in his character but they don’t define him. That complexity is what makes any character interesting to play and hopefully to watch. They are not just a villain or a hero. They are shades of perfect and imperfect… Even Claire, our heroine, has blood on her hands. The dilemmas that all of these characters face are complicated and tragic and push them to the edge. It is a gray area. There is more of that to come. They might find themselves on different sides of an issue or a plan before the season is through.

The last several episodes have also been much more physical with the fighting, horseback riding, Highland charging, wrestling in the mud. Has that been a part of this series that you have enjoyed? Love that. Me and Sam, Duncan, Grant, and Stephen were just dying to get into that stuff. It was fun. What’s not to enjoy? You are dressed up in great outfits and allowed to run around wild and just be kids. I remember talking to the director when we were doing the battle at Prestonpans and he asked, “How do you not hurt each other?” I said, “It is exactly the same as when you were a child. You had your stick and your friend had his stick and you’d attack each other but you wouldn’t hurt each other. It was just play.” That’s exactly what we were doing. It was cold a couple of times. They made the Highland charge the last thing they shot on a very cold day. We had to strip half naked on the top of the hill and run down over and over again. They had a camera on a quad bike and we had to chase the bike. The first time we did it the guy driving was a little overenthusiastic with his speed. We were really sprinting to try and keep up with it so it took some time to get it right. 

When you realize you are going to have to do the charge without your shirt on, do you instantly start eating only almonds and doing sit-ups or do you just use what you are working with already? How does one prepare? I’ll tell you what you do, you get in a good warm-up. You get in a good stretch because in those situations is where you will pull a hamstring. That’s where you can really get hurt because your body is so cold. When you get to my age, you can’t just suddenly turn on a 100-yard sprint without warming up. That’s asking for a tear or sprain. So we did plenty of that. There was lots of hilarious sights of men half naked and covered in mud leaping around and trying to get themselves warm. Not very Highland of us. I don’t imagine the actual Highlanders did a group aerobics class before Culloden. I don’t see Charlie leading them in some sort of Jane Fonda-inspired workout. Maybe if they had, history would have turned out differently.

You have a lengthy résumé and have gotten to do some very cool stuff including Creed, The Hobbit films and your current gig on Preacher. Where does Outlander rate? Hugely. It was enormously enjoyable for so many reasons; not just for being able to play a truly interesting complex character. From an acting point of view, that is a great gift. But I also got to do it in Scotland. Being back in my home with my family, who came with me, and experiencing Scotland together was a gift. And the people were amazing. Spending time with people who I had grown up with in theater in Scotland who came in to do guest roles was great. As a working experience, it was hugely helped by the other cast members. Sam, Cait, Stephen, Grant, and Gary especially will be friends for the rest of my life I imagine. We see each other on a reasonably regular basis, time zones permitting. That building of great friendships, forging links, is what I hope to take away from any job. That was the case on The Hobbit and I really hope that happens on Preacher next.

Denis O’Hare in ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ (Suzanne Tenner/FX)

As we enter Emmy season — nomination voting runs though June 27 — Yahoo TV will be spotlighting performances, writing, and other contributions that we feel deserve recognition.

Many, many moons ago, someone gave Denis O’Hare a piece of advice: “If something scares you, you have to do it.”

Those words never seemed more prescient or applicable to his career than when American Horror Story creator/executive producer Ryan Murphy first filled O’Hare, one of the series’ regular players, in on what part he would play in the fifth season. The first Murphy missive described O’Hare’s AHS: Hotel character as someone inspired by a drag queen who died in a fire at a German discotheque in the ‘70s, whom Murphy had discovered during his background research. A few months later, Murphy had further honed that initial sequined spark of inspiration into something, or should we say someone, else.

“Ryan gets a very strong visual sense of a character or a setting and he builds from there, and that was certainly the case for Liz. He told me that she was a transgender woman with a shaved head, bold lip, Cleopatra eye, gorgeous, worked in the hotel,” O’Hare tells Yahoo. “Liz Taylor ended up being a very special character for me. I didn’t really necessarily think she was going to be when we started the season. When he first described the character, I got nervous and a little bit scared, even though I trust Ryan and I love all of my Horror Story characters. I never thought of playing a transgender part. I’ve never explored that side of myself. I’ve never worn high heels or put on a dress. So those weren’t things I was comfortable doing. Then I remembered [that] advice.”

So O’Hare, who also appeared on The Good Wife and The Comedians last year, jumped in bald head first. “As we started exploring her costumes, I started to find my way in. By the time I had my head shaved, she had arrived and I started to see how wonderful she was going to be to bring to life,” O’Hare says. “I remember very clearly one instance of feeling that: I always dress for rehearsal, and I was wearing this long, flowing chiffon cape and Ryan loved it. Because he saw me walking in that number, he got an idea for a low angle shot of me walking down the hotel halls with the robe behind me flowing. I took that and ran with it. That affected the character’s walk from then on.“

Related: Read our ‘AHS: Hotel’ Recaps and Postmortems

As for how the story would unfold, O’Hare learned more about Liz as the season went on, and while Murphy and other producers and writers have a strong vision at the start, O’Hare thinks they also refine and adjust ideas as they go along. “Our show is unique in that it is not created in a vacuum. We are filming while they are writing it, and they are being broadcast while we are working. There is an interaction between the writing and the audience reception, and also with what the actors are bringing to it. It is definitely a dance, a constant conversation. They put it down; we create it. They see what we create; it inspires them. It is. By the finale, she was this incredible creature who had a full backstory, love story, and finally a very beautiful death story. It turned into one of my most favorite acting experiences of my life.”

In fact, he loved Liz so much he experienced another first after the finale wrapped. “When I left the lot on the last day of playing her, I was really sad and had a very difficult day the next day. I was emotionally in a very bad place,” the two-time Emmy nominee (both for AHS parts) recalls. “I had to slap myself. ‘This is not who you are, Denis. You are not that kind of actor. Walk it off.’ I loved her journey of discovery and story of redemption. The character was so powerful that I got a little lost, and that was a new one for me. But she is a very difficult character to leave behind. I will go on to do whatever they tell me to do happily in the seasons to come, but I will always have a huge part of my heart with Liz. I will never feel like I need to go back and repeat that character because she got all her ends tied up, but she will be a hard one to top.”

It was hard for us, too, to accept that her witty reign at reception had come to an end. Our TV lives are a little less fabulous for it. Even now, months later, we miss her and Iris (Kathy Bates) kvetching about the Countess, their respective sons, the monster baby, and annoying hipsters, which is why we think O’Hare deserves to be thoroughly considered for a third time, Emmy voters. We asked him to reminiscence about his three favorite episodes.

Episode 5: “Room Service”

While Liz helps Iris deal with the Halloween-hating social media influencers demanding pâté by arranging a can of cat food on a platter, Liz explains how she came to be on staff at the Cortez. The flashback shows her as an unhappy husband and father in the Midwest and as a secret crossdresser who comes to the hotel on business. The Countess finds him at this low, vulnerable point and helps him embrace transformation and christens Liz Taylor.

Denis O’Hare: It is an extraordinary episode, because I am actually playing three characters. We see Liz in her current incarnation — totally comfortable with who she is, sassy, snarky, confident, smart, oddly kind. She has taken pity on Kathy Bates’s character by not ripping her head off when she asks stupid questions and is helping her try to find her own strength in dealing with Darren Criss and his awful girlfriend. It is a great scene in the kitchen. Then we get to see Liz Taylor before she started living as a woman. We see the male incarnation at home with his wife and child, where he is being a failed father and husband. And then we see him in LA in his hotel room on the business trip as he attempts to explore this side of him. We see the nascent budding version of a transgender person. He is not there yet, and that is a distinct third character — that is whom Gaga’s character [the Countess] encounters and helps him create. It is almost a fourth character when he runs down the hallway with his ice bucket all dressed up as a woman and dares to let himself let loose for one second. There is a glimmer of a real transformation there. It is an incredibly complex episode in terms of how many layers there were to it. Emotionally, it was a minefield. It was very intense to play all those parts of him over the course of the episode. He also is confronted by his two workmates and has to feel their rage and disgust at him, and then there’s the shock as Gaga kills them so violently. He didn’t think it was going to go there. He is thankful and also freaked out, but now he’s in.

We don’t ever shoot in order, and we often crossboard, which means more than one episode can be going on during the same day or week. I think I was shooting the death scene with Tristan around the same time as I was shooting the transformation scenes with the Countess. It was incredibly taxing.

Yahoo TV: Wow, they don’t cut you guys any breaks, do they?

It is not on purpose. It is just a crazy world, and there are so many moving parts and actors with so many schedules. That is when it really comes in handy that we have all gotten quite comfortable with the directors and writers and the crew, and mostly with each other since we tend to all recur from season to season. Gaga is such a great collaborator and takes such great care to give you what you need in a scene. It is such an emotional scene, where we are shaving my head and listening to “Bette Davis Eyes.” We were doing that in the room. It was all I could do to not break down. Powerful stuff.

Do you use your own emotional history or the fact that you are a parent in your work?

I am a Stanislavski actor. That’s how I was trained. You are using the character, not necessarily yourself. You say things like, “What would that be like if this was my family?” But in that scene, I am not Denis at all. I am the character. I am creating their lives and their experience. That is the character’s son. I don’t need to superimpose my son’s face on his son’s face to get there. That being said, being a parent, you often open up that well inside of you. You don’t even have to think about it. You can call up those kinds of universal things without thinking about it because you know how it would feel. The kid playing my son was a beautiful, heartbroken boy, so all I had to do was look at his face.

I used an acting shortcut to make my job easier for the scene where my son comes back [as an adult]... I didn’t meet the actor playing him first. I didn’t socialize with him during breaks. There was no small talk or getting to know him. I wanted to see this person and have him be my son who I did not know and had not seen in years. I felt terrible. Only after we finished the day did I sit down and chat and tell him what a great job he did. I think it was the right call to get the scene right.

Episode 6: “Room 33″

The audience learns that Liz and Tristan (Finn Wittrock) have fallen in love while no one was paying attention. There’s passionate lovemaking. There’s sharing of feelings. There’s a showdown with the Countess in which Liz and Tristan come clean about their affair and ask her to let them have each other because she has so much and she can’t possibly need Tristan as much as Liz does. She seems convinced for a hot second, and then she proclaims, “I don’t share” and slits the immortal model’s lovely neck, making way for a heartfelt goodbye.

O’Hare: Liz’s life was like a mini opera, and this episode has a little bit of everything including love, tragedy, happiness, grief, and redemption. This is an example of how things are constantly evolving as we shoot the show. We were shooting episode 3 or 4, and Ryan buzzed by my ear and said, “I think you will have a thing with Tristan. Don’t tell anybody, but I want you to try to find moments to catch his eye.” Because we were not going to be able to create and film a massive backstory to those two falling in love, we had to try to find ways to hint at it. Knowing that Finn and I were going to have this major life-altering love affair made our on-screen interactions different, even before that was revealed to the audience. It made our interaction different off-screen. When I saw him in the trailer, I paid him attention in a different way. He was more gentle with me. We only got one great love scene, but it was a fantastic scene. And then he died, and I didn’t know he was going to come back until the very end. I was hoping. I would tell the writers that it would be so great if Liz could get Tristan back, but they don’t always listen to us. When I finally got him back in episode 12, it was so rewarding for Liz.

Finn only joined the cast last season for Freak Show, and you guys did not have any real scenes together, yet you were expected to film a risqué sex scene.

He came in to the freak show at the very end, when I was in the cage with my arms and legs chopped off and I was now the chicken man. He hears my clucking. That was it. It is funny to imagine we went from that to being in bed together rolling around naked.

The funny thing about that is I am extraordinarily sensitive to the other actor’s comfort level in that kind of scene, and I have to fight my tendencies to take care of others and instead take care of myself. Because it is vulnerable for me, too. Finn and I both love that scene. Funny enough, the lovemaking part was probably the most technical part of the scene. We were frank about saying, “Okay, what are we doing here? Is it full-on anal sex? Is it foreplay? Are we cuddling? What are we showing?” Very no-nonsense. And the director was so good about it. He would say, “Okay, Denis, we’re going to start with your hand coming up on his chest. I want to see your nails coming up his body. Then maybe you riding him, and then we will flip over and have him on top." So I said, “Are we finishing?" You have to have the exact details and shots so you can figure out the physical architecture of the scene. You establish the choreography like hands, hands, hands, riding, riding, riding, flip over, rolling, rolling, kissing, finish, cigarette. I will never forget the first rehearsal. Finn thought we were shooting, so he really went for it. There was a mess of hands and body, and they didn’t yell cut, because there really wasn’t a place to do that, and then they finally said, “Okay, looks like you’re ready, so let’s shoot one.” The look on Finn’s face was priceless. He was like, “Oh god, that was just the rehearsal, wasn’t it?”

It is also the sort of thing that you don’t want to talk about too much. You just do it and get it done, and that’s what we did. He is a very brave actor, and I enjoyed every moment of it. And the scene afterward was so powerful. We felt like we could do it all night. We did like 10 or 12 takes, and every take there was a new discovery. Every take we found new depth. In the middle of it Tristan asks, “Do you love me?” And I basically tell him yes, but the third time I really saw him ask the question and I suddenly realized that Tristan needed to be loved and he needed to know that answer, and it was so touching to know his character needed my character to fill that need. There were just so many layers to that one scene. It was a really extraordinary day of shooting.

Was it easier to film the lovemaking or the death and heartache?

Both require different things. Film and TV acting are different than theater acting in that you are going to do the same scene 10 or 15 times in the space of two or three hours, and you have to figure out when you are going to be empty and worn out and how do you pace yourself? What’s the shot? If you are at the back of my head, I am going to power down a little and save my resources for the extreme close-up. There was this intense scene where I was looking into a compact mirror, weeping, and then trying to get myself put back together. We shot a bunch before lunch and got it. It was a really difficult scene and then we came back from lunch and they said, “We are just gonna grab a close-up for that scene from before lunch.” I was like, “What? Now it is out of my mind. I am nowhere near that emotional space now. I need the makeup guy. I need some menthol for tears.” They couldn’t find makeup, so I went in the corner and tried to find my way back. Everyone sat quietly and no one spoke. I gave a little finger to say I’m ready, and everyone stayed quiet and we shot it. I was able to weep on cue again, and that’s the shot we used. I was so glad we couldn’t find the guy. I felt like I accomplished something.

Episode 12: “Be Our Guest”

O’Hare handles voiceover narration in this wrap-up episode in which viewers are treated to a rarity in AHS land — a happy ending. Liz and Iris take over the hotel, remodel, get the ghost problem under control, and actually make the place successful again. Liz also becomes the business face of Will’s fashion line and a grandmother. She has patched things up with her son and gets along swimmingly with his wife. But as one of the only mortals left in this terror tale, she is diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and chooses to become a ghost. The Countess reappears to kill her “fondest creation,” and Liz is reunited with Tristan, who had stayed hidden because Liz “had more living to do.”  

O’Hare: I thought it was a fantastic way to end the season and her story. It was a surprising evolution, because I don’t think you see that character walking down the hall in episode 1 and think that will be the character you will end up identifying with. They do a very good job of following their instincts and adapting the story to go where the strengths are. Liz became such an interesting character and demanded attention. She had integrity and a moral center. She wasn’t a gentle soul or always sweet to people, but she was a truth-teller. She was a prophet in that way. She was truly trying to find her home and her people and live her life. Because her motivation and heart were pure, it is only right that she was rewarded.

It was so interesting, the timing of a transgender character given Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox are in the news.

Her being transgender and that she has gone on this journey of discovering is central to this character, but it is also oddly irrelevant. She is just a person. The facts of her arrival and her gender are not the most interesting things about her. Her sense of fairness, her loyalty, her convictions, her humor were more interesting pieces of her — and those are what the viewers ultimately responded to. I don’t think the viewers are watching and connecting with her because she is a token, metaphor, or a symbol.

What was your own personal take-away?

Every character teaches you something. She gave me a certain sort of edgy confidence that I never had. I feel like an outsider in Hollywood. I don’t feel known or accepted. I don’t feel like part of the club, especially at awards shows. There was a little bit of “f*** it” that Liz brings to everything that I brought to the Golden Globes [O’Hare wore heels with his suit, and makeup]. I learned to care a little less and have a good time. I am going to do what I want to do. That particular thing is not a trick I will likely repeat. But the confidence that Liz gave me is here to stay.

O’Hare at the Golden Globes (Todd Williamson/Getty Images)

Read more Emmy Talks:

Emmy Talk: ‘Better Call Saul’ Star Rhea Seehorn Breaks Down Season 2’s Big Confrontation

Emmy Talk: ‘Master of None’ Co-creators Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang

Emmy Talk: ‘People v. O.J. Simpson’ Star Sterling K. Brown

Emmy Talk: ‘The Americans’ Star Alison Wright

Emmy Talk: ‘Jessica Jones’ Star David Tennant

Emmy Talk: ‘The Grinder’ Fred Savage

Emmy Talk: ‘Silicon Valley’ Star Thomas Middleditch

Emmy Talk: ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Songwriting Duo Rachel Bloom and Adam Schlesinger

Emmy Talk: ‘House of Cards’ Star Joel Kinnaman

Emmy Talk: ‘Jessica Jones’ Star Krysten Ritter

Photo: Starz

Warning: This postmortem contains spoilers for the “Prestonpans” episode of Outlander, which aired June 11.

All wars come with a body count — even fake ones on TV — so it was to be expected that not everyone was going to make it out of Outlander season 2 alive. Possibly a little more shocking was just who fans were forced to say goodbye to in this week’s episode — the fiercely loyal and unapologetic horndog Angus Mhor, and in turn his real-life counterpart actor Stephen Walters.

Although Angus and his ale-bellied bro Rupert appear in the Outlander books, they play much less significant and different roles in McKenzie clan life. In the series, the characters became ride-or-die fighters for Dougal as well as much-needed comic relief. The highlanders managed to heckle their way into our hearts as well as that of author Diana Gabaldon, who called them the “1800s version of Laurel and Hardy.”

As we are sad to see him go, but appreciate what he accomplished while he was here, Yahoo tracked down Walters in Calgary, where he was about to start the next chapter in his career on a new TV show, to talk about his time in Scotland.

How familiar were you with the novels? I have to plead ignorance. I’d never heard of them so I went into the audition quite blind. But I think it is important to stay a bit green during that process.

Given that the character is so different in the series that probably wasn’t an issue. Yeah, he’s nothing like the character in the books, physically anyway. He really doesn’t feature in the books that much. Angus is more brought out in the adaptation and I’m glad about that. Credit to the casting director in London. I guess she felt I could bring something to the character that might be a wee bit different, yet still embody the character. Once I got the part and read the book and the scripts, I realized the character wasn’t as prominent and it was a nice bonus to find out they wrote so much more in the scripts.

Related: Emmy Voters, Nominate These Actors!

Gabaldon said Angus and Rupert were her favorite change that was made in the adaptation process. That’s high praise.   Indeed. We must have done something right. I think she called us the Laurel & Hardy of Outlander.

Well, you provided some much needed comic relief in a very intense story. I’ve said it before and I will ay it again, I never saw the humor initially when I read the first scripts. But I think some of it can be explained by the unspoken chemistry thing. Grant [O’Rourke] and I got on very well and the fans seemed to enjoy our banter. 

Given that, was the humor a result of improv, or do you think the writers saw the response the characters were getting and upped the humor? I hope that maybe they saw some of that and thought they could develop that tone more. You get a sense of how things work at the read throughs and I like to think tat they gleaned little nuggets from that and said, “Well hang on. Maybe there’s something here we can do more with.” But you’d have to ask the writers to know for sure. It did seem like they started to write us in more often as the season went on and then we had a lot to do once Jamie and Claire returned to Scotland. The scenes seemed to get funnier. 

Was it fun to play the raunchy, feisty, name-calling guy? Yes. I normally don’t play that kind of part to be honest. I normally play some killer or something. It was still intense, but it was a ridiculous intense. They would argue over a piece of bread, a drink, or a prostitute the way somebody would take something that was really serious. The comedy came out of the fact that they take something silly so seriously. 

How close did you and Grant O’Rourke actually become since you were almost always seen together? Did you know him before? No. I don’t think I knew anybody on this job. The secret truth is I love him and he hates me. No, we both have small children so that’s a great conversation. He is really relaxed person and easy to get on with. I think because most of our scenes were together, we tried especially hard to make the most of the moments we had to make them stick. 

Related: ‘Outlander’ Costume Designer Talks Claire’s Red Dress

It was also a very physical part in the last few weeks especially. What was the hardest part to get a grip on for the role — the swordplay, horse riding, the running shirtless, the explosion aftermath, always being covered in mud? I certainly wasn’t a natural on a horse. I had to see that on screen to believe it. If you give someone a sword or a horse or anything physical as an actor, it would be a lie if they told you that they didn’t enjoy it. I enjoyed being muddy and the blood and fake smoke and choreographed fights.

Its intense, but it is fun intense. You got a bunch of sweaty, highly-charged men swinging swords and running around so you have to be careful as well. It can get carried away.

I remember Sam [Heughan] telling me way back on episode 5 that he had a horse that was a pill to work with. They say a workman always blames his tools. It was very handy to have the horse to blame for something going wrong because I was a crap rider. I am being slightly cynical. Everyone came out of this a better rider. In the end, I ended up galloping which for me was amazing considering I’d never been on a horse before.  Everyone improved a thousand fold. 

When did you find out that you were going to be killed off? I read it in the script one morning in an email. I thought it was Duncan [Lacroix. “Murtagh”] winding me up.  Then I found out it wasn’t a joke. Because it was an important battle, it needed to be a character the audience would care about losing. He needed to be sympathetic.

The scenes in the hospital with Rupert and eventually your death were quite moving. Someone had to die and it was me unfortunately. But it was kind of nice in a way. It was a solid end to my character. I got my own arc instead of dying generically in battle. The writer wrote me some really nice moments. I like all of the stuff in the hospital between Angus and Rupert and eventually Angus’ death was quite moving.

I think it is indicative of how much viewers have come to like Angus and the journey he went on from being suspicious of Claire to defending and helping her and Jamie in numerous situations. The manor in which Angus dies ties up the loose ends. He really did love his friend. That’s how he goes out. He made the ultimate sacrifice. There is a real sort of undercurrent of warmth and loyalty. It was a clever trick of the writers that you are under the illusion that it is Rupert that might die and then surprise it’s Angus. He was the first one to fight for Claire’s honor so it is a nice arc that he dies in her arms, especially considering how much initially he mistrusted her and mistreated her and spoke down to her.

What was your favorite scene during your tenure? I enjoyed the scenes where I am goading and baiting Claire. The scenes with Rupert were all great, but I had some really nice moments with Cait [Balfe]. The port scene was quite funny and there was a scene where I walk in on her pissing in a bucket and I drag it out. We were laughing so much doing that one. And the actual death scene when Cait was playing that. It is very hard to die on camera. What was nice for me and quite touching was watching Cait be emotional and very involved during the filming of that scene. When we finished, she was really crying, she was.

Well, in a sense they were losing someone they had come to like and rely on, because I don’t think it is likely he would be back as a ghost. You never know. Maybe in the next book, Diana will have Angus come back to haunt Claire in her dreams. I will miss this group of course, but I have a pragmatic way of looking at this work. I always quote George Harrison, “All things must pass.” It is on to the next one. The memories are in the bank and they’re all good. I won’t miss the horse and I don’t think he’ll miss me. I always thought I could feel the horse thinking every time I got on to ride, “Dickhead’s on my back again.”

What’s next for you? I am in Calgary working on a contemporary Western TV show.

Uh-oh, does that mean another horse? No thank god, it is a modern story and I have a four-wheel drive instead.