Warning: This article contains plot details from episode 2 ofBig Sky,which aired Tuesday.
Could this phone call spell doom for Cassie when Legarski had previously seemingly decided to spare her?
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: At episodes end, Rick got some news that Cassie is probably on to him.
Credit: Darko Sikman/ABC
How worried for her life should we be?
JOHN CARROLL LYNCH:The pilot proves that anybody’s fair game.
There’s nobody who’s safe, including Rick.
Everybody is in a life-and-death situation, even though they may not necessarily know it.
The character has proven that he is capable of anything.
And the question is how far is he willing to go to protect himself?
It’s interesting to play a character that doesn’t have a boundary in that way.
Youve played some bad dudes before, including famous serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
Where does Rick rank in terms of evil, from Gacy to all-around nice guy Mac McDonald?
It’s obviously a sliding scale from Mac McDonald to John Wayne Gacy.
They think of themselves as different than the rest of us.
But I don’t think Rick Legarski has that gear.
As the episodes unfold, there’s a cost to these crimes that build up.
If you’re willing to shoot somebody in cold blood, there’s a level of evil.
But he’s still a human being.
Gacy was a human being too.
I just don’t think he thought of himself as one.
He was a very disturbing dude to play.
I find Rick less disturbing, if that makes sense.
He tells Ronald he chose him, so is he the leader of this ring?
How high might he be in this operation were starting to get shaded in for us?
Part of the interest is how deep is this organization?
Are we talking about an actual syndicate or is it mom and pop?
In this case, it would be pop and pop, I guess.
It’ll unfold over the course of the season.
We do discover to some degree what made Rick single Ronald out.
He is obviously a horrible person.
But he is capable of kindness, and, in a weird way, heroism.
And capable of love.
That is expressed later on in these episodes, and I think it’ll be surprising.
My dream is that it’s uncomfortable.
Was there any part of him considering ending that scenario the same way in that moment?
Where does the string end?
He had an expectation that he could nip it in the bud.
And that was clearly not the case.
Once you’ve found yourself to be capable of doing it, then it’s an option.
In that scene, he waxes on about pulling the trigger and the choices cops face.
He says hes never shot someone before.
What’s the juiciest choice?
What’s the most dramatic choice?
And then make it that.
That creates a reverberation in the episodes.
He has created a reason for this behavior around the slavery.
But then what are the ramifications of that?
And how much blood is he willing to shed?
That’s one of the interesting things about a mystery where you start out knowing who the murderer is.
Then there’s the other element: We’re in a Wild West.
To some degree, you’re on your own out here.
That creates a situation in which Cassie and Jenny have no backup.
And if they do, it’s very far away.
This is his home turf.
This is his patch of road.
They’re playing in the opposing team’s field.
And he has a major home-field advantage.
He talks a lot about protecting his pension.
It’s a cover and it’s true.
Once he retires from slavery, how’s he going to be able to pay the bills?
There’s always a sense of that.
Legarski’s been a state patrolman for a long, long time.
He’s well past his 20-year retirement.
And he’s still out there.
So, the legacy of his pension, he’s already got that.
There’s a lot of cover in it.
It’s also a sense of an underestimation.
I loved that because bears are really cute until they’ve got their claws in you.
I liked that juxtaposition of the harmlessness with which Legarski seems to run and his vicious side.They coexist.
I think that the cover of the pension is an example of that.
He’s worried about his pension like anybody would be.
At the same time, he’s wondering if he should shoot her or not.
That’s part of the weird discomfort of being in his head.
His ex-wife, Emily, seems somewhat invested in protecting him or at least tipping him off.
Might we get a better sense of that relationship?
From my point of view reading it, she’s telling the truth.
Being married to him is like being bored to death.
And that was enough.
She didn’t see any sense of him being capable of what he has become capable of.
I think when they were married, he was not capable of what he’s capable of now.
A lot of people are raised for a world that doesn’t exist when they get to be adults.
You didn’t expect it to be as confusing in all ways as it really is.
Rick is trying to arrange the world in the way a child would arrange the world.
He’s watched this area of the country, and it’s fallen into disrepair.
Rick’s felt powerless.
And then he gets an idea that maybe he could help a little bit.
Which is extraordinarily sad and disturbing.
It’s definitely not legal.
But in some way, he’s decided it’s right and that’s really pathetic.
Because it’s such a sad choice to be so selfish and self-centered.
He tells Ronald, Things are about to take an uglier turn.
It gets pretty ugly.
It’s a bad patch of road we’re on.
It’s not going to smooth out anytime soon.
Let’s just put it that way.
For those three women, they’re very close to being erased in one fashion or another.
That’s obviously what Cassie and Jimmy are trying to stop and Cody was trying to stop.
It’s going to get pretty dark.
It’s a particularly dark show for web link [TV].
It’s particularly dark for ABC.
They were very brave to put it on.
How would you tease next weeks episode?
Rick starts to really consider what the cost of this behavior is.
Grace, the character that Jade Pettyjohn plays, is just simply unwilling to comply.
It’s another thing when you have three of them.
That makes itself pretty clear in the next episode of how unwieldy these mistakes are getting.
Mistakes begin to compound themselves and the cost of those mistakes begin to grow.
