Taylor Handley says there may be hard feelings between the McLusky brothers in Season 4 of Mayor of Kingstown, but the siblings will always try to have each other’s backs.
“It’s really complicated with his brother,” Handley told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
“Mike definitely didn’t keep his word, in a sense. He tried, but he didn’t,” he said. “At the same time, they are all they have left. They’re all they’ve got.”
Airing Sundays on Paramount+, the Taylor Sheridan-produced series follows Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner), the powerful liaison between police, criminals and the prison of a Michigan town where everyone has ties to at least one of the three.
Handley plays Mike’s younger brother Kyle, a police detective sentenced to prison time for shooting a dirty cop who was about to murder someone in cold blood.
MIke tries to organize protection for his brother inside the prison walls, but is only barely able to keep him alive.
Richard Brake plays Merle, the sociopath housed in the cell next door, manipulating Kyle every chance he gets because he has a grudge against Mike.
“A hurricane hits him out of nowhere,” Handley explained.
“He’s really out of sorts and then he hears a friendly voice on the other side of the wall. Kyle gets kind of spun in his web and as the information kind of gets to him that it’s Merle, terror sets in because Merle has the lore being just the worst human ever,” he added. “You hear about how evil Merle is the whole time. But, really, this season, you are really able to see how diabolical he was, which I thought was really well done.”
Brake likened filming the prison cell scenes with Handley to acting in a two-person stage play where Merle is a spider and Kyle is his prey.
“Eventually, Kyle kind of breaks his web away or escapes from it and, of course, Merle doesn’t want that, so he’s an angry spider at that point, just seeking retribution and revenge on the two of them,” Brake said, referring to the brothers. “Merle just loves messing with people.”
Brake said Merle hates Mike so much because Mike turned his back on the guys who protected him when he was in prison years earlier.
“He stabbed us in the back. So, from Merle’s standpoint, he is just the lowest of the low. He was in the brotherhood and now he’s betrayed us,” Brake added.
Asked what he will do if Merle actually ever does kill Mike, the actor replied: “Merle’s a very wise man, so there’s probably a little plan beyond that. First and foremost, what he wants right now is revenge on everyone.”
Last week, Merle escaped from prison and murdered Kyle’s wife, Tracy (Nishi Munshi), while she was holding their infant son, Mitch, and speaking to Kyle on the phone.
“All is lost, he’s in complete shock,” Handley said.
“Even watching that scene, it was hard for me to sleep that night, just the way that it all came together,” he said. “I think that that was a really smart move for the show. It pulls no punches. I know some people aren’t happy about it. But I think that it makes a series stand out.”
The big question that arises as the season comes to a close is will Kyle be able to put the pieces of his life back together and be able to care for his son?
“I don’t think he’s thinking about anything,” Handley said. “As far as my prep went, all I would kind of listen to was just a droning hum. That’s all I could I think that’s going on in his head — just a shocked, droning hum,” Handley said.
So, what happens if Kyle, the show’s moral compass, doesn’t recover and becomes corrupt and jaded like all of the other characters?
“He’s always kind of been a beacon of hope, or at least, I think people watch him and are hopeful for him and his wife,” Handley said.
“I’ve been reading some comments people may be upset about what happened in [Episode] 8, but what’s always great is a comeback story. I think what will be interesting — if the story goes on — is to see if Kyle is really going to let Kingstown take him down or will he rise up and get the hell out of there?”
Despite the crushing horror Merle visits upon Kyle, Handley said he and Brake are actually very good friends in real life.
“In between scenes, we’re just hanging out, chatting, laughing, talking about life,” Handley said. “It was a real pleasure getting to work with him and getting to know him.”
Brake said he had great fun with Handley, too.
“We had so much in common,” he recalled. “We’re talking about so much and I’m thinking, ‘I’m doing the worst thing that you can do to this poor man’s character, at least, in three weeks time.’But we got on so well. It was wonderful.”
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