[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Rabbit Hole Season 1 finale “Ace in the Hole.”]
Unsurprisingly, the Rabbit Gap finale was one reveal after one other.
Among the many massive ones: John’s (Kiefer Sutherland) ex-wife is an operative; his actual spouse left him after his competitor kidnapped her. He, Ben (Charles Dance), Hailey (Meta Golding), and Homm (Rob Yang) do cease Crowley’s plan. However, because the finale ends, Ben, after killing Crowley, finds a comm in his ear…
Sutherland does a deep dive on John on the finish of the season.
The primary season was so good, and I have to see extra with these characters.
Kiefer Sutherland: Thanks a lot. John [Requa] and Glenn [Ficarra] definitely did a tremendous job with creating all of these characters, and they’re so wealthy. It’s so humorous, if I run into somebody on the road, the very first thing that they appear to speak about is, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t see this coming” or “that shocked me.”
However the factor that made me actually gravitate in the direction of the story and the concept have been that each one of those characters have been deeply flawed at the start of the present, and because the circumstances worsen, they change into higher individuals. I discovered that type of wonderful. We’ve seen that definitely in our historical past, and I believed that they tapped into that actually effectively. Actually with reference to John Weir, when all the issues that he usually depends on — not trusting anyone, being remoted and alone, realizing that he may then be in management — when he begins to lose his management, when he has to begin to depend on different individuals and he has to start out trusting individuals, he truly inherently turns into a a lot better particular person. I feel that’s one of many causes that I used to be so fascinated with enjoying him, was that he actually developed through the course of even one season.
We see that within the finale, which reveals simply how a lot John was as much as that the viewers had no concept about. The reveal about his ex-wife!
Yeah, and that’s one of many issues, as an example, that was by no means clear. We had the primary 4 episodes earlier than we began taking pictures, and I definitely knew sufficient that the girl who was pretending to be my spouse, I knew that she wasn’t. I knew that she was an operator, however I didn’t know the remainder of it. [Laughs] And in order that was a kind of type of moments whenever you go, “Oh, OK, effectively, let me digest that for a second.” I had not less than realized as an actor sufficient on 24 to offer your self room to maneuver left or proper, in order that the writers had room to write down, and that served me effectively in that second as a result of that shocked me as effectively.
Is there extra that he was as much as that we as viewers didn’t see? The top of the finale units up a possible Season 2, and I really feel like extra might be revealed.
I feel extra could be, and I feel you’re going to seek out that Ben’s doubtlessly been as much as a little bit greater than he’d been upfront about as effectively. And so I feel what’s actually vital, going again to the character factor and the evolution of those characters as they went from A to B, let’s say, is that John has been basically modified by this expertise. I feel his relationship with Hailey is sincere and earnest. It doesn’t imply that there aren’t issues that had been completed earlier than which may must be handled or lined up or managed. However I feel inherently he’s an individual who’s going to method stuff from a really totally different manner.
Marni Grossman/Paramount+
Having stated that, there’s quite a lot of chance that his father is a creature of behavior and goes to at all times manipulate conditions and which may change into a battle down the street. John and Glenn have left quite a lot of choices on the desk for themselves as writers to maneuver in a wide range of instructions. However I feel that the true change for a Season 2 can be that John and Hailey’s dynamic is actual and that’s one thing that an viewers can truly actually maintain onto. And I feel that’s vital over time.
One thing I preferred was how a lot the finale remembers what we noticed John doing at the start of the sequence — controlling the narrative and enjoying on what’s actual, what’s true, what’s not, what he’s manipulating. However can he return to that life that he had at the start?
I don’t suppose so, no. I feel he’s basically modified. I feel his relationship with Hailey basically modified him. I feel his worry of not realizing if every thing was going to work out… He misplaced his crew, and he misplaced his crew as a result of his father didn’t do what he stated he was going to do. So, there’s quite a lot of belief points that may nonetheless be with that character, however how he trusts has been basically modified as a result of the dynamic between he and Hailey, I feel, could be very sincere and actual and has subsequently modified his type of life.
So no, he’s by no means going to finish up with that workplace on Wall Avenue and operating company espionage video games once more. I feel it’s going to be rather more type of fluid as circumstances type of come up versus a enterprise.
Talking of his relationship along with his father, to say it’s difficult is an understatement. However it additionally looks like he may need moved items into place in order that Ben might be the one to confront Crowley one thing as father wanted to do, which is type of a twisted however becoming reward. How would you say their relationship is on the finish of the season?
You’re going to have to return to the truth that his entire crew was worn out as a result of Ben screwed up. It’s not that that’s not attainable to be forgiven, it’s simply not going to ever be forgotten, in order that’s an element. After which John does say to his father, “You’re welcome. I’ve given you what you needed all of your life.” I feel there’s an understanding definitely on the finish of the season that it didn’t go in addition to hoped, however this was one thing that needed to occur, this was one thing that wanted to be handled, and there’s an understanding between each of them why they’re the best way they’re. However it doesn’t imply that issues will probably be forgotten.
The daddy-son relationship, even in the perfect of all worlds, is difficult and it’s arduous, so in any dynamic, in any relationship, except the daddy simply type of gracefully says, “OK, you’re taking up,” there’s going to be an influence wrestle there. [Laughs] I’ve watched sufficient lion documentaries to see it within the rawest kind that Mom Nature has to supply. After which I’ve seen it in virtually each father-son relationship that I’ve recognized my entire life, whether or not it’s associates of mine who’re fathers or as sons, that one’s simply at all times going to be a wrestle. Ben and John are as aggressive with one another and towards one another as any father-son relationship that I’ve ever seen.
Marni Grossman/Paramount+
One thing that struck me is what you stated about John and Hailey and the phrases “sincere” and actual” as a result of I nonetheless don’t belief her.
[Laughs] Good for you. For me as an actor, after I was enjoying John, I dedicated to the truth that I did. It doesn’t imply that I don’t discover out someplace down the road that I used to be mistaken, however I feel in enjoying that character, I had to select and I felt that he actually did fall for her in a manner that was actually sincere and real and that he does the truth is belief her and consider her. That is likely to be his nice Achilles heel and we’ll see, however from the character’s viewpoint and from my viewpoint because the particular person enjoying him, you needed to go a technique or one other. And I simply felt very strongly about these previous few scenes and the type of stage of intimacy that had been created that that was not one thing that John Weir, within the weak place he was at, was going to faux.
I’m not saying within the story that they’re going to be advantageous. I’m simply saying from my character’s viewpoint, he’s in one hundred pc along with her. And which may come again and chunk him. [Laughs] What’s actually humorous is we let our guards down for issues we wish, not issues we all know, proper? He desires that relationship to work. He’s fallen in love with somebody. The final particular person on this planet he ought to have and needed to fall in love with, he did. However there it’s, it’s occurred. So when somebody desires one thing unhealthy sufficient, they inform themselves the narrative they wish to hear, and he’s no totally different and we’ll see what that does to him.
One of the attention-grabbing dynamics your entire season was John and Madi’s (Enid Graham). To make his plan work, he needed to belief not less than a bit, and she or he’s a fed! Why did he?
As a result of I feel within the very starting, even when he talks about her and he makes enjoyable of her, he does consider she’s straight and she or he’s sincere and she or he’s an excellent cop — if there’s the truth is an excellent factor in his world as an excellent cop. I liken it to the connection — do you bear in mind the Looney Tunes cartoon the place Wile E. Coyote and this massive sheepdog and their checking in within the morning they usually stamp their time clock and it’s like, “Good morning, Ralph,” “Good morning, Sam,” after which the sheep canine simply beats the s**t out of him all day lengthy? After which at evening they take a look at and it’s like, “Goodnight, Sam,” “Goodnight, Ralph.” That’s the connection. That’s their factor. The reality is, I feel they actually like one another, that that is the dynamic and it’ll at all times be the dynamic.
So I feel to her nice amusement, she is going to try to go after him once more, and to his nice amusement, he’ll try to get away from her once more. It’s simply a kind of type of nice traditional archetypes the place they might be searching one another for, let’s simply say, in absolute creativeness, 10 seasons down the road. They’re nonetheless searching down one another, however she’ll even be the one to save lots of him and he’ll even be the one to save lots of her as a result of it has to remain throughout the tips of what they suppose is their sport. And I feel that’s born out of a mutual respect for one another.
It looks like now could be the time that John is absolutely going to have the ability to course of Miles’ demise as a result of he is aware of every thing that led to that second. Is he prepared to do this as a result of he’s opened himself to others?
No, I feel it’s the one factor that’s dangerously able to pulling him backwards as a result of his buddy mainly killed himself to guarantee that John can be secure. I don’t understand how you recover from that type of sacrifice with out having mentioned it, with out having agreed to one thing like that. So I feel that’s one thing he’ll stroll away from that will probably be a horrible, horrible wound, and particularly provided that it’s the one person who helped him navigate a few of the emotional problems that he suffers from and the psychological well being points that he suffers from. That’s going to be the factor that haunts him ceaselessly.
All these flashbacks have been so good to point out their relationship.
Yeah, and usually, I’m not an enormous fan of flashbacks and I’m not an enormous fan of in depth voiceovers, however I feel John and Glenn made it such part of the telling of this story. It wasn’t simply at the start to launch one thing, it was one thing that type of carried on all through, and it was an actual model level that I used to be very impressed with what they did with that as effectively.
Rabbit Gap, Season 1, Streaming Now, Paramount+
