Eddy Chen/TNTIf you've been watching TNT's Animal Kingdom, you knew something terrible was coming. The Cody family is terrifying, ruthless and totally ripped (look at all the abs!), and the first season of the sexy summer drama has built up to the heist that went down in tonight's penultimate episode.
But while everything went smoothly as the Codys broke into Camp Pendleton and stole a whole bunch of money, something else went horribly wrong. Smurf (Ellen Barkin) suspected that Catherine (Daniella Alonso) was talking to the cops, and sent Pope (Shawn Hatosy) to investigate. Pope, who'd loved Catherine as a kid and spent three years in prison fantasizing about having a family with her, realized there was something to Smurf's suspicions and killed Catherine—while having sex with her.
It was a brutal moment, and that's before Pope methodically disposed of her body. Ahead of the sure-to-be explosive season one finale next week, E! News caught up with Hatosy to discuss the terrifying twist and how the Cody family will cope with Catherine's death.
E! News: Did you think Pope was capable of something like this?
Hatosy: I guess so. Just being that our source material was the film and where that went, I imagined yeah, certainly it could happen. But in the manner that he's tasked with carrying out a very awful deed—it's somebody he's loved, it was probably his first love, and it's somebody that he has fantasized about in prison for three years, so much so that it's become a real narrative for him.
I think Pope, being the most loyal, he's going to do what has to be done for the family. But he did his investigation and the work to find out if what was being said of Catherine was true, and throughout his investigation it breaks him because she lies to him and once she did that, I mean, he had to perform the murder.
Is that something he would have been capable of before spending time in prison?
I think the motivating factor for Pope in murdering her is the fact that she lies to him and he sees it in her that she doesn't love him, and I think that was the boiling point. He's been told to do it and the family comes first, so he's going to do what he has to do to protect it. Once he sees that she did take the money and he believes that she is going to run and then her little spiel about going to Belize and that Pope was always the one that she loved, it triggers him. He gets her into her most vulnerable position and the lie when she says she loves him in the midst of this moment of lovemaking is the trigger.
What will Baz's reaction be? He'll have to realize something's up very quickly.
He's going to know that something is up. He's treated her in such a way for nine episodes that I have a hard time believing that he's really fully in that relationship. It's going to be really engaging for the audience to see where he is, where Pope is, and how they're going to get through this because the answer's going to come out eventually, I would think, and what is that going to do to the Codys? I do believe that Catherine's murder is going to change the dynamic of the show going forward. It's never going to be the same. And I think that's a really wonderful thing.
How will it change Pope going forward?
It's scary when I think about the future for Pope because within our animal kingdom, I think the only way that he gets healthy is to either have it out with Smurf and come to some sort of understanding, or go it on his own. Once you go out you become a lone wolf [and I'm not sure he would survive that], so I'm really excited to see where they take us for season two and how we remedy the dysfunction in the relationship.
How will the finale set up season two?
I know Pope is a scary guy and he comes off as creepy and dangerous, but he's programmed. I always enjoy finding the moments of heart, because they're there. They're hard to see, you have to brush back a lot of crap, but I think in episode 10 Pope starts to realize that he's been programmed and that he is a consequence of Smurf's upbringing. He's going to brush back against that a little bit and that's going to take season two in a new direction.
It's also going to change the dynamic of their relationship. This show is about the relationships and the dysfunction and they're always evolving, and Smurf plays each kid differently against each other. Episode nine is the most dramatic script we had. It's powerful, we learn a lot about the heist, there's action and then there's Catherine's untimely death, but episode ten, to me, is a transitional episode that answers a lot of questions and really dovetails into what's going to happen in season two.
Animal Kingdom's first season finale airs Tuesday, Aug. 9 at 9 p.m. on TNT.