Yvonne Strahovski in the drowning scene, Hope season 2

Note: This story contains spoilers from the Teacup Season 1 finale.

In the season 1 finale of the sci-fi series The Peacock, Yvonne Strahovski’s character Maggie and her husband James (Scott Speedman) have to make some truly heartbreaking decisions that will affect their entire family. “Teacup”.

TheWrap spoke with the actress about the “terrifying” day that unfolds as Maggie tries to determine which of the captured people are possessed by a hostile, murderous alien so she can protect her son Arlo (Caleb Dolden), who is targeted by the killer because he also hosts a benign alien Herald.

In the final episode, the killer jumps over several hosts, ending up in Maggie’s daughter Meryl (Emily Bier). Maggie and James already know that the only way to defeat the Assassin is to drown the host and then try to revive it. Both don gas masks to prevent the Slayer from jumping into their bodies and undertaking the gruesome task of drowning their daughter. The drowning works and Meryl survives—but not before the Slayer jumps to James, meaning Maggie must now kill her husband.

TheWrap: That was a pretty traumatic finale. Did you shoot it all in one day?

Yvonne Strahovski: Very traumatic. It took days, especially the drowning sequence. They built a bathroom separate from the original bathroom suite to get those special overhead shots.

How emotionally draining was it to do that?

It was quite emotional… you put everything into that moment, what it would be like to go through something so horrible and unbelievable, like drowning your own daughter and then bringing her back to life. Yes, it was a pretty rough day. I think it will go down in history as one of the hardest days (of my career).

The finale is a bit reminiscent of John Carpenter’s The Thing, where no one knows where the Assassin is and everyone suspects everyone.

yes This is definitely a theme of the series, the impossibility of trusting anyone. And I thought it gave us a great starting point for the theme that Maggie and James are already at odds and she doesn’t trust him because he’s been unfaithful. This added to all the other craziness and horror that happens throughout the season.

I didn’t expect this twist where the Assassin enters James and he tries to fight him as much as possible. Can you talk about the scene when Maggie realizes what happened?

This is a really difficult, difficult moment. Before all this craziness happened, when she found out he was unfaithful, she probably wanted to kill him in her mind. But under the strange circumstances of what is happening, they are strangely united again in one common goal to protect their children at any cost.

I think there’s a very sad and tragic understanding between them of what really has to happen at the end when they both realize he’s now an Assassin. And there’s that fleeting moment when Maggie runs out of the bathroom and sees James in the kitchen transforming and he has that last cognitive moment, James gives her this look and it’s so powerful in that moment because it’s the last time he really James.

And then her newly revived daughter begs her not to, which makes it difficult for her.

I think this family needs to go through a lot of therapy in Season 2 — if there’s going to be a Season 2 — to get over all these horrible things that happened, especially the kids. It is impossible to imagine. What would you do in such situations? It’s fun to be a part of a show like this: you’re trying to combine family drama and real-life relationships with these very far-fetched ideas that happen in a genre like this. You walk the line between these two elements.

Have you had any discussions about what season two will be like?

We talked a little bit about all that “what if” stuff and the idea of ​​expanding the world a bit more. Season 1 was about this closed farm, the family and everyone involved, (Season 2 will be about that), which will mean further expansion into the city.

And there are twists at the end where we meet McNab’s friends (Rob Morgan) and we think everything is fine, and then these two other people show up and take them out, and again the main characters don’t know who to trust.

It’s fascinating. We introduce this new character with a megaphone giving us a speech. And suddenly the problem becomes much bigger than they expected. It’s devastating for everyone involved, but hopefully exciting for the audience watching, “Okay, this is a much bigger problem.”

As far as we know, the Harbinger is still in Arlo. Do you understand that too?

Yes, the Harbinger is still in Arlo and the Assassin is out there somewhere.

Can we assume that James is definitely dead?

I’m 99% sure he’s dead, but anything is always possible. (Showrunner Ian McCulloch confirmed to EW (that the character did die trapped in the freezer.)

What would you like to see in Season 2 if it happens?

I think we’ll get a look at the other characters and get a better understanding of what’s going on. Now that they understand the various pieces of the puzzle, it’s time to put the puzzle together and then try to figure out exactly how to deal with what’s going on.

All episodes of Teacup are now streaming on Peacock.