What To Know
- Saga makes a risky move to get closer to Jurek and the killer leaves a troubling note about Jonah in the latest Nocturne.
- Liev Schreiber, Zazie Beets, Stephen Graham, and executive producer John Hlavin explain those major moments and more.
As the search for Felicia nears the two-week mark (it’s days 10 and 11 now), Saga (Zazie Beetz), undercover as a patient in the psychiatric facility where serial killer Jurek (Stephen Graham) is being held, makes a major move on Nocturne. TV Insider spoke with Beetz, Graham, Liev Schreiber, and executive producer John Hlavin about that and more. Warning: Spoilers for Nocturne Season 1 Episode 4 ahead!
Saga picks up on something being off about Karl (Rory Culkin) and, using the cameras she knows the others are watching her on, makes sure Nathan (Gary Carr) sees and gets his name off his badge. Nathan then alerts Quinn (Poorna Jagannathan) that they may know who’s been passing along messages for Jurek. If they’re right, they can get Saga out of there.
However, Saga’s then switched over from pills (which she can pocket or throw up) to injections and Jonah (Schreiber), while visiting Jurek, lets her know the clock is ticking. Saga then attacks the nurse, Lloyd (Micah Peoples), who has been bringing her meds, but he had it coming for what he’s said to her and his behavior, and Beetz agreed.
“He really did deserve it,” she tells TV Insider. Hlavin adds, “He’s also a lovely actor, by the way. That was a very hard scene for him to shoot.”
Saga makes it look like she’s trying to escape the facility, using him, and for that, she’s brought to the restricted housing unit (RHU) and put in a cell next to Jurek — all part of her plan. She makes sure Nathan sees her say “sunshine,” meaning everything’s OK, as she is.
That was the plan “from the jump,” says Hlavin. “When she first talks to Jonah, they make it clear to each other that she has another agenda. And although he’s not exactly pro, he also knows if you don’t do it, we’re not going to get the information we need. You’re not going to really find out. Now, if getting her inside would’ve equated to solving the problem before she had to go into RHU, he would’ve been very happy to do that.”
He continues, “Because it became apparent that wasn’t going to work, then I think he was sort of nodding at her in a way, saying, ‘It’s time. If you’re going to do it, you need to do it now because otherwise they’re going to pull you out.’ He was thinking, ‘If you’re closer to him with that level of protection of the concrete wall, we have a better chance of finding Felicia.’”
But while Saga has found a way to control some things while undercover, “I don’t think she’s really prepared” for what’s coming next, Beetz admits. “I think she’s really skilled and good at what she does, but I do think emotions play a huge role in how you handle something. And I think also Jurek is smart, and what’s nice is it’s a nice character flaw to play with, pride, and how that gets in her way and how she needs to face that throughout the show. And so, yeah, I think she underestimates a little bit what’s coming for her.”
Meanwhile, on the outside, Jonah, Quinn, and the others follow Karl as he drops off another note for Jurek, but when Jonah searches the building, someone chloroforms him. By the time he comes around, that person is gone, and the FBI has looked at the note: “Jonah planted my DNA.” Uh-oh!
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“I think he’s worried the legality could stop him from catching Jurek. I think all of these characters are carrying big secrets as those secrets are revealed over the course of the arc,” says Schreiber. “Given the circumstances, Jonah wants to take Jurek out by any means necessary. He has to eliminate him. And I think that he felt that way initially at the trial, and it’s a chess match with Jurek and he didn’t want to lose round one, so he did something a little sneaky.”
We can’t forget that Jurek offered that “truth for a truth” deal to Jonah before. According to Graham, that’s “a key little phrase.”
“It’s like, I know he’s lied. I know he’s lied. I know he knows he’s lied. So it’s my pursuit for the truth and in order for him to try and tell the truth, because then, as you see in later episodes, the whole journey I’m on is to find the truth. So it’s that kind of side of it,” he explains. “It’s not like we’re two immovable objects in this particular case. It’s the fact that I know that he’s lied and he’s not being truthful. And yet if he upholds the law, should he not be truthful? So there’s that kind of twisted sense of ambiguity to it.”
Nocturne, Fridays, Apple TV
