Paul's Goodbye: http://t.co/hazPKunGFK #OrphanBlack pic.twitter.com/5mo9jyFBb3
— Orphan Black (@OrphanBlack) May 24, 2015@MsLDavison @askob I was excited that he righted all the wrongs he committed. #AskOB #OrphanBlack
— Dylan Bruce (@DylanBruce) May 24, 2015In the aftermath of such a huge hour in the middle of the season, is the show going bigger in the final season three episodes? Or will it be quieter as the loss plays out?
For me, it was like, let's have a big, emotional, climactic midseason thing around episode six. This was always the discussion. And then let's have an episode that's just lighter. Where we could have an episode where you can laugh a little bit, there's not a bunch of emotional high stakes, conspiracy this, conspiracy that. So we wanted to follow it up with something smaller and lighter. But after that, we still have [episodes] eight, nine, and ten to carry us through our build up for our season finale. That's structurally how we looked at it, from a writing point of view.
While Sarah was MIA, Felix crossed a few lines in how hard he interrogated Rachel. How will his actions impact him going forward?
I love that scene a lot. Everyone -- Mrs. S., Felix -- they're very wound up. No one knows where Sarah is. It's interesting to see how far Felix will go to get his sister back. It's nice he takes this a little too far. And because of that, it's great to see Rachel -- who has been so stoic and kind of strong in the past -- have a little breakdown under Felix's wrath, is a really wonderful scene.
How will Rachel acknowledging her own vulnerabilities change her path this season?
That is one of the things we really love about the show: Taking characters we've come to hate, and then giving us another side to them, or giving the audience something they can feel sympathy for, that shows their humanity. It's something we tried really, really hard to do on the show. It's good to see Rachel have some vulnerability.
For me, it was like, let's have a big, emotional, climactic midseason thing around episode six. This was always the discussion. And then let's have an episode that's just lighter. Where we could have an episode where you can laugh a little bit, there's not a bunch of emotional high stakes, conspiracy this, conspiracy that. So we wanted to follow it up with something smaller and lighter. But after that, we still have [episodes] eight, nine, and ten to carry us through our build up for our season finale. That's structurally how we looked at it, from a writing point of view.
While Sarah was MIA, Felix crossed a few lines in how hard he interrogated Rachel. How will his actions impact him going forward?
I love that scene a lot. Everyone -- Mrs. S., Felix -- they're very wound up. No one knows where Sarah is. It's interesting to see how far Felix will go to get his sister back. It's nice he takes this a little too far. And because of that, it's great to see Rachel -- who has been so stoic and kind of strong in the past -- have a little breakdown under Felix's wrath, is a really wonderful scene.
How will Rachel acknowledging her own vulnerabilities change her path this season?
That is one of the things we really love about the show: Taking characters we've come to hate, and then giving us another side to them, or giving the audience something they can feel sympathy for, that shows their humanity. It's something we tried really, really hard to do on the show. It's good to see Rachel have some vulnerability.
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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First off, sir, tell me how and when you learned of Paul’s doom and the end game here.
DYLAN BRUCE: I knew the writing was on the wall for Paul. My intuition told me that a major character was going to die this season, and Paul just seemed like a logical choice. And I talked to [co-creator] Graeme Manson, we had a couple of beers at Comic Con [last July] and I just looked at him—I think we were at the Nerd HQ party— and I said, “I’m dying this season, aren’t I?” He looked at me and goes, “Yes.” (Laughs) It wasn’t that much of a shock to me, but I was like, “Holy crap. Okay, okay.” And then when we got back to Los Angeles, he had a house in Hollywood that he was renting, and he invited me over and we had a glass of wine. We kind of just talked about it and he was very forward and open to me about what they wanted to do with the character and why Paul was going to die.
But my only request upon learning of Paul’s demise was, “Please make it impactful, Graeme. Please do right by the character. Let the audience see this guy was cut from the good stuff.” The questionable things and tactics he used in the first two seasons were for a reason—to cure these men that he cares about. And when he finds out that Cody’s trying to weaponize the virus, and her reasons are iniquitous, that’s when he knows he has to right all the wrongs he did. Not only for Sarah and her sisters, but for the greater good. Aubrey Nealon just wrote a fantastic script and when I read it, I was like, “Okay, thank you for listening to me, Graeme, and doing right by this guy.” You learn so much about Paul in that episode, and I just think they couldn’t have written his exit any better than they did.
Sarah has a line early in the episode where she tells Paul, “You’re the worst of them because I don’t even know where you stand.” How often during these three seasons did you even know where Paul stood because he was the ultimate “is he good or bad” kind of guy?
As they’re writing—and with any TV show—it’s very malleable. It’s changing and it’s always altering. I knew my arc from the beginning to the end of this season so it was much easier for me to flesh out the character and make strong, meaningful choices. When playing the double agent in the first two seasons—I didn’t even know I was a double agent—and not knowing the character’s direction in the first two seasons, it was much more difficult. And I always had to play things very close to the vest, very emotionally uninvested. So it seems like he was doing all this stuff—you didn’t get why he was doing it and you’re like, “What the hell is this guy doing? It seems like he’s flip flopping left and right.”
But when this season finally came around, I was like, “Okay, he loves these Castor boys. He’s doing everything he’s doing to cure these guys.” So it made a lot more sense in the first two seasons once you watch season 3, but while I was filming it I was kind of like, “What the F man?! What’s going on? What is this character doing?” So I mean it was really hard for me, but that’s why I just love this season because I knew my arc from the beginning to the end and you could flesh out the strong character with strong choices. It was such a different experience for me, and I loved it.
DYLAN BRUCE: I knew the writing was on the wall for Paul. My intuition told me that a major character was going to die this season, and Paul just seemed like a logical choice. And I talked to [co-creator] Graeme Manson, we had a couple of beers at Comic Con [last July] and I just looked at him—I think we were at the Nerd HQ party— and I said, “I’m dying this season, aren’t I?” He looked at me and goes, “Yes.” (Laughs) It wasn’t that much of a shock to me, but I was like, “Holy crap. Okay, okay.” And then when we got back to Los Angeles, he had a house in Hollywood that he was renting, and he invited me over and we had a glass of wine. We kind of just talked about it and he was very forward and open to me about what they wanted to do with the character and why Paul was going to die.
But my only request upon learning of Paul’s demise was, “Please make it impactful, Graeme. Please do right by the character. Let the audience see this guy was cut from the good stuff.” The questionable things and tactics he used in the first two seasons were for a reason—to cure these men that he cares about. And when he finds out that Cody’s trying to weaponize the virus, and her reasons are iniquitous, that’s when he knows he has to right all the wrongs he did. Not only for Sarah and her sisters, but for the greater good. Aubrey Nealon just wrote a fantastic script and when I read it, I was like, “Okay, thank you for listening to me, Graeme, and doing right by this guy.” You learn so much about Paul in that episode, and I just think they couldn’t have written his exit any better than they did.
Sarah has a line early in the episode where she tells Paul, “You’re the worst of them because I don’t even know where you stand.” How often during these three seasons did you even know where Paul stood because he was the ultimate “is he good or bad” kind of guy?
As they’re writing—and with any TV show—it’s very malleable. It’s changing and it’s always altering. I knew my arc from the beginning to the end of this season so it was much easier for me to flesh out the character and make strong, meaningful choices. When playing the double agent in the first two seasons—I didn’t even know I was a double agent—and not knowing the character’s direction in the first two seasons, it was much more difficult. And I always had to play things very close to the vest, very emotionally uninvested. So it seems like he was doing all this stuff—you didn’t get why he was doing it and you’re like, “What the hell is this guy doing? It seems like he’s flip flopping left and right.”
But when this season finally came around, I was like, “Okay, he loves these Castor boys. He’s doing everything he’s doing to cure these guys.” So it made a lot more sense in the first two seasons once you watch season 3, but while I was filming it I was kind of like, “What the F man?! What’s going on? What is this character doing?” So I mean it was really hard for me, but that’s why I just love this season because I knew my arc from the beginning to the end and you could flesh out the strong character with strong choices. It was such a different experience for me, and I loved it.
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TVLINE | Is Paul definitely dead?
I don’t know, man… [Laughs] He blew himself up. I think that’s cool. I like the fact that Paul is a character that we have not really been able to trust. We never knew where we stood with him. Was he a good guy? Was he a bad guy? Why is he doing the things he’s doing? And we’ve come through the last bunch of episodes to realize why he’s making the decisions he’s making. And, at the end of the day, he makes the right choice and heroically throws himself on the bomb. Literally. It was the way we wanted to see that character depart.
TVLINE | This is the first series regular character to be killed off. What was it like deciding to say goodbye to Paul and Dylan?
[This] was our plan from the beginning [of] plotting out Season 3. We knew. Dylan knew. It was a bit sad on set, though, I have to say. It was a little sad to see him go. [There were] a lot of feels on set, if you know what I mean.
TVLINE | What was important for you to accomplish in that moment, in terms of portraying Beth and her message to Sarah?
It was interesting having conversations with Tat [Maslany] about that. We spoke about it at length. We both decided this was Sarah’s version of what she believed Beth would be. It’s not a ghost. She’s obviously having a kind of dream/hallucination, vision-y thing. Is this Beth? Is this actually what Beth was like? I don’t know. That’s open to interpretation.
I don’t know, man… [Laughs] He blew himself up. I think that’s cool. I like the fact that Paul is a character that we have not really been able to trust. We never knew where we stood with him. Was he a good guy? Was he a bad guy? Why is he doing the things he’s doing? And we’ve come through the last bunch of episodes to realize why he’s making the decisions he’s making. And, at the end of the day, he makes the right choice and heroically throws himself on the bomb. Literally. It was the way we wanted to see that character depart.
TVLINE | This is the first series regular character to be killed off. What was it like deciding to say goodbye to Paul and Dylan?
[This] was our plan from the beginning [of] plotting out Season 3. We knew. Dylan knew. It was a bit sad on set, though, I have to say. It was a little sad to see him go. [There were] a lot of feels on set, if you know what I mean.
TVLINE | What was important for you to accomplish in that moment, in terms of portraying Beth and her message to Sarah?
It was interesting having conversations with Tat [Maslany] about that. We spoke about it at length. We both decided this was Sarah’s version of what she believed Beth would be. It’s not a ghost. She’s obviously having a kind of dream/hallucination, vision-y thing. Is this Beth? Is this actually what Beth was like? I don’t know. That’s open to interpretation.
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