While the rest of the world was likely watching The Walking Dead midseason finale last week, ABC’s Resurrection pulled a game changer by killing off one of the show’s main players – Mark Hildreth’s Pastor Tom.
Tonight’s episode picks up with what happens next, and it is appropriately titled “Aftermath.”
We spoke with members of the show’s cast as they were filming tonight’s episode, for some insight on how the characters and the actors who play them deal with the tragedy.
“It was kind of a stunning thing,” Matt Craven (Sheriff Fred Langston) told us. “Professionally, you understand when you do a job, that there’s always a chance. Especially today [with shows like] Game of Thrones, where main characters die. The model has changed quite a bit. We all sort of know that going in, but you don’t expect it to happen. So I think we were all a little bit shocked. Tom had a very specific place in our world, and a very specific point of view,” he continued.
For Frances Fisher, who plays Lucille, it meant carrying a lot of emotion all episode which left her emotionally exhausted. “Lucille is trying to keep it together for her son, to be strong, because it’s scary for kids to see their parents cry. His reaction to it is very different, also. He appears to be cut off from the actual experience of losing him, and it’s been hard to get through to him, because he says ‘He was a grown up. I didn’t really know him. He’s not my old friend that I lived with back then.’ So it is heartbreaking, because he has yet to actually grieve,” Fisher told us.
Omar Epps (Bellamy) agreed. “It’s going to be a big deal, emotionally,” he said. “Pastor Tom was the first person that Bellamy told that he was a Returned, and I think there was a trust there beyond the title of Pastor or whatever. You just felt that this person was genuine. And then they had the connection with Rachael and trying to fight for that. We’ll see what happens with that. This is a show about dead people returning, but real death still happens,” he teased.
“I think when something like that happens to a small town, it reverberates. That’s just the nature of a small community. Since he was such a fixture in the town, I think it just brings more questions about death. We’ve been dealing with the returns, and disappearing, and coming back, but this is a person. A person that we’ve known for a while. It just brings forth more questions about mortality, and what we are doing while we’re here,” Devin Kelley (Maggie) added.
The actor who played Pastor Tom, Mark Hildreth, will also see his absence felt by the rest of the cast. “Cast-wise, he was very popular among the cast, especially with myself and my wife, and I know Frances was close to him, but I think out of everybody, Landon who plays Jacob, he was particularly close to Mark [Hildreth]. It’s sad when you lose somebody at work – you know, when somebody leaves. Friendship wise. I will definitely miss him,” Kurtwood Smith (Henry) said.
Even with that, Matt Craven does see a good side to the situation. “It’s kind of great, because it forces all of us to deal with ‘oh my God. It’s not just this thing.’ This is now, in front of us, one of our community has just been killed. So death takes on a different color. It’s not about the returned; it’s more immediate. I think it’s really impactful, and I think people are going to freak out,” he enthused.
“It certainly heightens the stakes and your time in this realm,” Samaire Armstrong (Elaine) said about the death. “For Elaine, she has gotten to a place where you roll with the punches, and you continue to serve your drinks, and make do, because that’s life, right? It’s so cool, because there’s a scene between Henry and Fred, where Henry’s acknowledging how much losing his son changed him, and Fred says ‘well, that’s life.’ That’s life. You either hold on to it, and it takes you apart, or you let go, and you grow from it,” she says.
“Aftermath” airs at 9PM tonight (December 7) on ABC. You can find some preview images from the episode below:
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RESURRECTION - "Aftermath" - Arcadians mourn the loss of a beloved member of the community. The stem cells from Rachael's baby do provide the cure for the virus, but when Rachael suddenly goes missing, Bellamy and Maggie turn to an unexpected source for help. Henry learns the truth about Margaret and his family's role in the factory fire, on "Resurrection," SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7 (9:00-10:01 p.m. ET) on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Guy D'Alema) DONNA MURPHY
