Spoiler alert! This post contains details from FX’s Grotesquerie finale.
It looks like Lewis may never make it to Florida.
FX’s Grotesquerie finale felt, in some ways, like the ten episodes had come full circle, with Niecy Nash-Betts putting aside her plan to start over in Tarpon Springs in favor of donning her detective hat once again to try to solve the same heinous crimes. She’s been investigating her own liminal condition – except this time it’s happening in real life.
After Lois is called to the scene of a family’s brutal murder and placed meticulously around the kitchen table, she begins to feel suspicious. However, when she finds herself once again at the church altar, she stares at a bloody reenactment of the Last Supper, this time with her doctor (who was the church’s priest, and ultimately the killer in the events that occurred while she was there). Zombie, at the center, knows she can’t escape to Tarpon Springs until she gets to the bottom of this.
Meanwhile, the doctor who interviewed Lois about her borderline condition tries to convince her that she is the one doing the killing this time. After all, she was losing track of time. Who can know the nature of the killings from her absent imagination besides the two of them?
For your information, NashBates wants answers to all these questions and more, too.
“If everything is perfect, we’ll have a second season to unpack it,” she told Deadline. “If not, that means I’m sitting at dinner with Ryan [Murphy] For hours as he told me where he planned to go in this story.
In the interview below, Nash-Betts reveals the final episode of Deadline, speculates on Season 2, reflects on Grotesquerie’s social commentary, and explains why Lewis resembles Vice President Kamala Harris.
DEADLINE: The finale casts doubt on Lewis’ reality once again. What do you make of it? Is she really awake and alive?
NIECY NASH-BETTS: Yeah, I think everything that happened up until Episode 7 was Louis being in a coma. On the flip side of that, after she woke up from the coma, someone, a copycat killer, started acting out her dreams.
DEADLINE: So you don’t think Lewis is the killer?
Nash Bates: No, I didn’t say that! I didn’t say who I thought was the killer.
DEADLINE: Do you have a theory?
Nash Betts: You know, I think in Ryan Murphy’s world, you always expect the unexpected.
Deadline: Very vague. What was your reaction to the final episodes when you first read them?
Nash Betts: Oh, I loved it, because as an artist, everyone in the cast had to play this duality. My daughter, played by Raven Goodwin, was portrayed as one-way – her mother wasn’t proud of her and was wasting her life away when in fact she’s a high-performing doctor with dual degrees. The same was true for every character. Sister Megan, played by Michaela Diamond, was a nun. In real life, she is the chief of police. So we all have to live in this world where the dream as an actor is to be able to play multiple sides of a character. So this was very delicious for us.
DEADLINE: How did the dynamics switch between all of these characters midway through the season? They all have very different relationships than they were first introduced to.
Nash Betts: Let me tell you, we loved it. What we love most about him is giving Travis Kelce a hard time with that mullet. I think everyone [Eddie] He was so sweet and so adorable, but he was like, “Ah ah.” Not in real life.
DEADLINE: Now that you can talk more fully about his character, what was it like working with him in this kind of dual capacity?
Nash Bates: Oh, it’s great to be able to rely on the duality of everything. I’m definitely a strong supporter of Travis and any new actor. You want them to win. You are rooting for them. So, just being able to watch him look at himself and he looks so different… I posted a little bit of BTS of him and the cowboy boots and the mullet. So I said to him: Boy, looks like you need to ride the tractor.
DEADLINE: How did you figure out what kind of person Lewis became after coming out of that coma?
Nash Betts: I had a lot of conversations with Ryan Murphy to understand her mental state and where she is now. What does it all mean? Does she still drink? Or is she recovering? Many things had to be unpacked. What is the root cause of her feeling crazy and being admitted to a mental hospital? All of these things, we just had to have a lot of conversations about them to make sure we got to the right cruising altitude for Lois and her waking life.
DEADLINE: I found Lewis and Marshall’s relationship very interesting. It’s controversial after you wake up. How did you work with Courtney? [B. Vance] To know all that?
Nash Bates: It’s interesting, not just Courtney, but Lesley Manville, who played Nurse Reid as well. We have very different relationships in our waking lives. She thinks Marshall is on life support and in a coma, only to discover that it’s Lois who’s in the coma — and how conflicted his relationship with her is, and how he really views her. Courtney is such a good guy, the times he would have to say mean things to me, I mean I would start laughing, because I would say, “Who are you?” You’re not even that person. We get along great. We’ve worked together on a couple of projects before, but we’ve never had to be mean to each other. So, in the end, we had to be mean, we would always say, “Are you okay?” Are you good? Because he wasn’t feeling well.
DEADLINE: So, in the end, Marshall suggests to Lois that they and Reed all move in together.
Nash Bates: Did you see that?!
DEADLINE: What did you make of that scene?
Nash Betts: I was like, “What’s going on?” But you never know. Maybe some people live that life. I just know that for Lewis, in that moment, she was like, ‘Everyone, get the hell out of here.’ Honestly, in her waking life, her husband said, “Can we all live here together?” You know, it was crazy.
DEADLINE: I find it really interesting that, even at the end, audience members are still wondering what’s real and what’s not real.
Nash Betts: I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me and say, “What’s going on?” I don’t understand what happened. Wait a minute. Is this real? Is this not real? Wait, what happened? A lot of people have tried to wrap their heads around this and see what they think. There are some groups that are all connected and have large chat rooms dedicated to the show and their theories on the show. I feel like we’ve definitely nailed our ending to Season 2 so that the audience will still be along for the ride.
DEADLINE: So, do you think there’s room for more?
Nash Bates: Absolutely. You don’t even know who Grotesquerie is yet. This is a big unanswered question.
DEADLINE: Are there any unanswered questions you’d like answered in a potential second season?
Nash Bates: The main thing I think I’m looking at is who the Grotesquerie is, because right now during treatment, the doctor says that the Grotesquerie is a combination of all the evil that’s happened in the world. [her] Mind, but then these crimes start happening, literally. So wait a minute. So, what does that mean? There are still some questions I’m waiting to answer, and since all is well, we’ll have a second season to unpack. If not, that means I sit at dinner with Ryan for hours and he tells me where he has this story going.
DEADLINE: So, you don’t think Lewis will go to Florida?
Nash Bates: I don’t. I don’t think so, not after she gets back on her feet after getting out of the mental hospital and says to Cranburn and says to Megan, “Meet me in my old office.” I know who the killer is. I don’t think it will make it to Tarpon Springs any time soon.
DEADLINE: What was your experience like as an executive producer, where you were able to provide more creative input on the series?
Nash Bates: Ryan is a great collaborative partner. So, we worked together on everything from story ideas to casting and maybe recasting things after we shot something. And it’s like, “Wait a minute, this is pointing me in this direction,” or “Maybe there’s a shift we can do here.” What are Lewis sugar levels? Is it plastered? Is she hungry? Where is her illness? So we held hands and collaborated a little. I love being Ryan’s new muse.
DEADLINE: What are some of your favorite hints or Easter eggs that Lois was in a coma, before the reveal?
Nash Bates: The two things that stand out to me are when my daughter Merritt is filming her video for a TV show, and she sees an orderly person walking across the frame. It draws Louis’ attention away. Then she said, “Wait, what?” And then when she’s having a conversation at her desk with Sister Megan, and the printer sounds like the machine it’s plugged into is beeping.
DEADLINE: This series is full of commentary on the current state of the world. How does it feel to have the finale airing just one week before the very important presidential election?
Nash Bates: We touch on a lot of topics. We touch on climate change. We touch on women who have agency over their bodies. We touch on different types of evils that exist in the world. And in many ways, I feel like Louis and Kamala [Harris] They are the same, both trying to save the world from evil.
