[This story contains spoilers from the Mayor of Kingstown season three finale.]
When plotting what comes next, sometimes you have to close an entire storyline. Even if it was one that seved the series well.
That’s what Mayor of Kingstown’s co-creator Hugh Dillon, along with co-creator Taylor Sheridan, did in the recent finale of season three’s Paramount+ series about peacemaker/fixer Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) running a fictional prison-industry town.
For three seasons, McLusky’s toughest nemesis was the Russian mafia, who infiltrated the fictional Michigan border town with drugs, guns and sex trafficking. He had to battle two of the Russians most ruthless and violent bosses — Milo Sunter (Aidan Gillen) and Konstantin Noskov (Yorick van Wageningen) — and protect a sex-trafficked young woman known as Iris (Emma Laird), referred to by the brutal Russian gang as a broken angel.
But by the end of the season three finale, all of those characters in the Russian mob arc that McLusky hated (and the one he cared for) were wiped away in the same bloody, brutal or melancholy way they first came into Kingstown. First, viewers found out that Milo had actually escaped the boat at the end of season two, which had bags of stolen bonds and bombs hidden there by McLusky. And then, that Milo forced Iris to kill Konstantin (the boss who gave her the name) in a deal with McLusky that would give her freedom.
McLusky makes Iris take the deal, and she kills Konstantin. Once Iris reluctantly leaves McLusky, he overpowers Milo and shoots him to death for making disrespectful comments about his relationship with his deceased mother Miriam (Dianne Wiest). Then, in one of the final scenes, Iris is alone on the back of a fleet bus. When the driver walks back to check on her, Iris is cold and lifeless, her eyes opened wide after a drug overdose.
The Hollywood Reporter recently spoke with Dillon about closing the Iris chapter, the emotional wrap of season three for him and the crew — after their lead, Renner, came back to work following his near-fatal accident — and his hope for continuing the story of Kingstown, as Paramount+ has yet to hand down a fourth season renewal.
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So, the finale went out with a metaphoric firework.
I just love it. The show means everything to me. I was just talking to Jeremy [Renner] this morning, and it just seemed like so long to get there. And then all of a sudden, it’s the finale! But it is profoundly satisfying to get here, and I couldn’t be more excited for Jeremy, and his family, just to get to that ending. What that guy has done behind the camera and in front of the camera is nothing short of spectacular in every regard.
With the deaths of Milo, Konstantin and Iris, is it safe to say that is the end of that arc in the Kingstown story?
Yeah, I mean it actually follows any pattern of authentic criminality, because what that does, what it always does, is leaves a vacuum. And it will be filled, it’s human nature.
Iris’ death was heartbreaking, and took many viewers by surprise. Yet, some think it made perfect sense, as she wanted to be loved and didn’t want to be alone. Why have Iris take her own life?
She didn’t take her life; it was an accidental overdose. You know, that’s part of the authenticity of the show and where I grew up. I had struggled with heroin early on in my life, and I’ve had a lot of friends who passed away from [that]; opioid addiction is a real thing. What Taylor [Sheridan] has taught me is to talk about what you know, and don’t pull any punches. And that’s what we did. Life is brutal and unfair, and we wanted to tell real stories. And we wanted to have an impact. And that is as real as it gets.
But I will say, what Emma Laird did with that character was extraordinary, beyond the page for sure. When you saw that last sequence, like you said, it broke your heart. And that’s what we wanted it to do. She worked so very hard on the series, and she was asked to do really difficult things, and she brought it. She left everything on field. From the work she did in season one; it was just a fully developed character. And we are very grateful for her as a person and as an actor. For someone like you to say it broke your heart, we did our job.
Why did you decide to bring Milo back?
Aiden is just a force of nature, and to have that part of that whole story wrap up. Our showrunner, Dave Erickson, he killed it. He saw the way forward, and Taylor had made sure, that out of season two it was like, you have to really look carefully and follow the end to be like, “Oh, he did make it off that boat.” It was just poetry. It tied all the stories together so brilliantly, and when the bubble popped, it also opens, as you say, with the future of this giant vacuum. Because now all this wall of criminality has fallen.
Jeremy’s family was there during that scene with Milo, when Milo was talking about his [Mike McLusky’s] mom. I watched it in real time and looked at the monitors; what Jeremy expressed in his face in that scene was all of it. Miriam [his mom]; is gone, dealing with Milo; the Iris part of it. Renner is just so capable of being able to pull that all together in facial expressions and a couple of words. It is poetry.
Let’s talk about Jeremy. How would you say his strength, mentally and physically, built up as filming on season went on?
He came out with a bang! That opening, that’s where it all started. And, just physically to be in Pittsburgh in the wintertime, was just so challenging. Everybody wasn’t sure where we would land. But we knew that we had great scripts, and he was excited when we shot. We had Taylor to make sure we had a great team, and with Christoph Schrewe shooting the hell out of it, that was the start. And then it just seemed to be like a tornado to get to the end, right up to the finale on the bridge. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, all the pieces fall into place and it takes on an urgency, and I think because everybody was so geared towards being there for Jeremy, it just picked up speed and Jeremy was able to do what he does best — kill it in front of the camera, and support the other actors.
Why does Evelyn Foley (Necar Zadegan) have a bullseye out for your character, Ian Ferguson, and what does that look like going into a potential season four?
Well, I think he’s just collateral damage, because she’s after Robert Sawyer [SWAT leader played by Hamish Allan-Headley]. And what’s interesting is that a lot of these characters are from this town. They are townies. When I grew up in Kingston [in Ontario, Canada, on which the series is based], there are people who are from Kingston and people who went to school and got a job in the town. And we’re going to get into it, hopefully, once we see how everything rolls out — these characters have known each other since they were kids, and they went to school together. And so did Evelyn. There is so much baggage that now, as professionals, people remember every little thing or know everything that is in their history.
Evelyn has been on the Robert Sawyer campaign from day one. She believes he should not be a police officer, and she’s looking to get to him. And she says it, that she’ll shoot through a wall to get to him. “What is this serial killer shooting and where were you?” So now, she is investigating me, and she said from day one she has a problem with the KPD.
But she said she will follow the rule of law, and I think that’s what’s fascinating about her character. And that is the tension in her relationship with Mike, because Mike is existing in a grey area.
What are some of your thoughts and plans for season four?
Season four, from your lips to God’s ears! (Laughs) And you know, God is fan of the Mayor of Kingstown.
It is exciting to be part of Mayor, and show up and deliver these characters. A big driving force is to see the satisfaction with Jeremy Renner. He’s gone out of his way, he made a giant come back and to see him be artistically satisfied. The scripts are great, the characters great. And that’s what we want to do. We don’t want to leave any stone unturned. This show is very much rock ‘n’ roll.
Mayor of Kingstown season three is now streaming on Paramount+.
