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[Thisstorycontainsspoilersfrom[Thisstorycontainsspoilersfromheaven The seventh episode of season two, “The Final Countdown.”]
Last week heaven It ended with the highly anticipated moment where Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) finally sets his eyes on the wife he’s been searching for ever since he discovered she was actually alive. This week’s episode picked up directly on that suspense to play out their long-awaited reunion.
Xavier believed his wife and the mother of his two children, Terry, played by Enoka Okuma, had died in the horrific event that kicked off the hit Hulu series created by Dan Fogelman. He finds out at the end of the first season that she actually survived, and he leaves the safe haven to go and find her in the second season. Against all odds, Xavier found Terri, and tracked her to the location where she had contacted via radio. However, this episode shows how Terry’s friend (Cameron Britton) misled Xavier into believing Terry was in danger as a ruse, given that Gary also loves Terry. Xavier and Terri have to deal with Gary, which they do, before setting off on their mission to return to the bunker in Colorado.
Each of them now has an extra child in their care when they reconnect and vow to go have their own children – Xavier is looking after Annie’s (Shailene Woodle) baby in hopes of reuniting her with her father Link (Thomas Doherty) and Terry now comes with a boy named Bean (Benjamin Mackey), whom she has protected since the day the world changed. “I never stopped trying to find my way back to you,” she told him, “You found me first.”
“We learned that Terry was as strong as Xavier,” says executive producer and writer John Hoiberg. Hollywood Reporter About how Xavier and Terri have changed in the three years since The Day. “They both have this irresistible power. When they are together, they are almost unstoppable.
For Brown, who is also an executive producer, the comparison between the present day and the cute silliness of their encounter was a fun, engaging color, he says, for Season 2’s flashbacks. “Finally, after we’ve been through so much, to be together again… I hope there’s a sense of relief that the audience feels when they get a chance to see these two find each other again,” he says. THR“Because that’s what I felt: relief. Like, ‘You’re here.’ I didn’t know if you would be here. There are many things that prevented me from reaching you. I have reached you. I love you. Let’s go.”
less, THR I spoke with Okuma about when she found out Terry would be entering the current story in such a big way, what it was like filming Terry and Xavier’s reunion, and what she knows about the already renewed season three.
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What did you know after Season 1 about whether this meeting between Terry and Xavier would happen in Season 2?
I had no idea how or if it would ever happen. I knew Terri would play a bigger role and that you would get to see her world, but I didn’t know how. Especially when I read the beginning of the season and watched that flashback episode, I thought about that [Dan] Fogelman style – I’m going to be in a lot of flashbacks. So it was a nice surprise to know that we’d be delving into what happened to Terry on the outside, but of course that wonderful seventh episode was a nice surprise too!
Did you have a conversation with creator Dan Fogelman and the writers about Terry’s story beforehand, or did you find that out as you were receiving scripts?
He mostly discovered it from reading. But once we shot, we were able to talk to our directors and Dan about exactly that. How long has it been since these two have been missing each other?
Were you raining sterling k. Brown with the questions that led to this?
Oh, he knows everything [as an executive producer also]. I was always asking him, but at the same time I didn’t want any spoilers. So he didn’t tell me, he just looked at me and said, “This is good. It’s going to be good.” So I would just trust that it would be great.
What was your reaction when you got to the end of episode six and read that they’re finally looking at each other, but Gary is potentially standing in their way?
I was so worried. As actors, we all have our fears and insecurities. I wanted to do it justice. As an audience member, I was hoping for these two to get together, so I wanted to do it justice and was putting extra pressure on myself. But once we got ready – and it was very hot! Plus there are trains, explosions, and hundreds of extras. It was so huge. The stakes were so high that all I had to do was give up and bend to the see-how, and everything was good and normal in the end because it was as if the stakes were actually happening.
Did you shoot their reunion scene in one day?
No, we didn’t. In fact, the tearful encounter – the second part of the encounter – was filmed in the studio. We did everything outside a week ago. That informed everything that was happening in the tent, but it also gave a lot of time to really sit with that second level. Everything is so crazy when they see each other for the first time, so I love that the writers gave us that moment to really connect. There’s a lot of sadness and loss for the time that passed, the time they didn’t spend with each other and how they couldn’t be with each other. Giving those characters that moment was great.
Up until this point, you and Sterling have only filmed flashbacks to establish their relationship. What was it like updating and filming their relationship now?
That was very enlightening about how these two are leaders in their own way, in their own worlds. So coming together now was, in many ways, a return to the pattern of their identity as husband and wife. But then it became two people with a mind of their own and doing their own mission. Terri won’t be told what to do, and she runs things in her own camp. So it becomes a dance of leadership.
How would you say their time away from each other has informed their ability to step up for each other and for their families by the end of this season?
I think they’ve been apart for a long time, and for them to come back together as a unit, regardless of that — regardless of the butting of heads, as far as leadership — shows that they’ve found each other and that’s what union is. They’re moving forward together and now it’s about getting the rest of it [family] They get back together, while the world collapses around them. I think you see very quickly the chemistry they have and how they work together.
It’s an incredible story, a one in a million story of them finding each other again. What do you hope viewers take away from their hopeful love story?
They both don’t give up, and that’s what makes the story so special to me – they are steadfast in their faith and belief that they will get back together. I read the story of their confrontation with Gary in a sarcastic way, and thought: “Well, they’ve just gotten back together and this is how you’re going to die.” Maybe my heart is a little dark! But I love that this was the fire that was fueling both of them. My love is there, and I must find them. I have to be with them again. I think it’s a beautiful message of hope and strength, and the fact that they came together is confirmation that it can happen.
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heaven The season 2 finale releases on Monday. He reads THRCoverage.
