‘Long Bright River’ Showrunner Breaks Down That Dark but Empowering Finale Kill

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Long Bright River” Episode 8.

The twisty thriller series “Long Bright River” unpacked more than just the murder mystery plaguing the Kensington community. The Peacock limited series unveiled truths behind a familial drama with everything from addiction to estrangement.

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, “Long Bright River” follows Mickey Fitzpatrick (Amanda Seyfried), a homegrown Kensington cop whose method of patrolling looks a little different than her male counterparts. When a series of murders takes place, targeting sex workers on The Avenue amid the opioid crisis, Mickey drops everything to find her estranged, unhoused little sister Kacey.

The eight-episode series not only reveals truths about the murderer’s identity but also about Mickey’s clouded past. The straight-laced, do-good officer has a traumatic history that informs her sometimes questionable decision-making. In a series of twists, we learn that Mickey’s son Thomas is not her own but actually her younger sister Kacey’s from a teenage pregnancy. And it is revealed that the killer is Eddie Lafferty, Mickey’s new patrol partner from the first episode.

Showrunner and executive producer Nikki Toscano revealed that above all else the series is about the sisterhood between Mickey and Kacey and the lengths they would go to protect the ones they love.

Mickey proves this in the finale when she and several of the women from The Avenue confront Lafferty and end it once and for all. As Mickey is searching for Kacey, the women with her sister in tow beat her to the chase and seek justice for their friends’ murders, shooting and killing the officer. But Mickey sees this opportunity as a chance to stand up for the women, who have protected her sister when she couldn’t.

“It’s about the empowerment of these women — these women that have been largely discounted and dismissed in society and giving them a voice,” Toscano told TheWrap. “I think the power of that moment is to allow them to have that voice and to have that win, even if it meant compromising [Mickey’s] own place on the force, her place in society. It was worth it in the end for her.”

Mickey takes the gun from the women, wipes it down and shoots the final shot, taking the blame for the murder.

“It’s a defining moment for Mickey that she, at that point, has realized her own complicity in what’s happening in two different ways, both familially and professionally,” author and executive producer Liz Moore told TheWrap. “So ultimately if she wants to redeem herself, she has to kind of take ownership of the actions that transpire.”

Toscano co-wrote the series alongside author Liz Moore and also made her directorial debut, directing the sixth episode of the limited series. Moore added that, even though she knew what was coming for the finale, bringing it to the screen was technically challenging, so not to spoil the reveal. 

Seyfried said it was “cathartic” for Mickey to finally see people for who they truly are, “as opposed to who she’s afraid they might be.” Though Seyfried knew where the story would lead, the Emmy Award-winning actress said filming the sequence itself was thrilling.

“Being an actor with a gun and killing up somebody and demanding the truth is empowering and exhausting and thrilling,” she told TheWrap. “But I imagine it also must feel good for women in those circumstances to know that hopefully there are women like Mickey looking out for them.”

Though Mickey sought justice for the women’s murders, her story did not have a complete fairytale ending. She and Truman’s partnership turned more-than-partners love story ended when Mickey falsely accused him of murdering the women and lying to her face.

“From the get go, I think that we knew that Mickey was going to pull a gun on him, and that it was something that they’d never be able to come back from,” Toscano said. “Which is so incredibly heartbreaking, because he’s kind of the only man who’s ever understood her.”

The unlikely couple was a change from the book to the screen, Toscano added.

“Mickey and Truman’s relationship was a little bit different in in the book, and we thought that it was more interesting to bring them together, though we never had any intention of them staying together,” Toscano said.

Another change that Toscano and Moore landed on for the limited series was Mickey’s dream job. In the book Mickey wanted to be a history teacher, but the writing duo changed it to be a passion for music in the series. Seyfried even learned French horn for the role.

“Ultimately, I think that what brought us all into this is that at its core is it’s a story about family and the length will go for the people we love,” she said. “Though loving people that suffer from addiction can be very heartbreaking, because you’re constantly wondering when the other shoe is going to drop, I think what we come to realize at the end, and what we wanted you to leave with, was the hope that the these two sisters and their love for each other can transcend the hooks, the poverty, the addiction that have tried to pull them back down.”

“Long Bright River” is now streaming on Peacock.

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