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Q: Electricity came on for just a brief moment, and you're going to rip
it back out of everybody's hands.
Eric Kripke: I'm going to rip it away.
Q: Tell us about that.
Eric: Well, you know, if there was endless power on our show, it would,
pretty much, be an episode of Friends. It would be like a goofy group of
people. We'd start dealing with, will they, won't they, or should they
date. We don't want to do that.
Look, I think what's core about the show is: how would any of us
survive in a world without power? How would all of us survive in this neo-
primitive United States. For a show that is, arguably, defined by it's lack
of power, there was an incredible amount of power at the end of last
season.
Even me. Believe me, I'm the most critical viewer out of anybody, and
I was watching episodes I'm like, 'huh, lot of show in this show without
power. What's it about exactly again? Can someone remind me?'
I was actually relieved to rip it away, and to make the landscape of
our show, even more dangerous and more destabilized. The nukes dropped, we
lose two American cities. The Monroe Republic and the Georgia Federation
are for all intents and purposes, gone. They're thrown in such disarray and
The east coast is totally destabilized. It's even a less organized
world than it was in season one. Refugee camps and people are scattered
everywhere. It's in that more dangerous landscape that our heroes still
have to deal with Monroe. They still have all the same villains, but now
there's more villains because Randall was working for these guys who came
up out of Cuba, these guys we call the 'patriots'. These patriots are
coming in out of Cuba and they're organized and devious.
There's this deep level of conspiracy of what they're doing here. On
top of that, our heroes definitely dicked with the laws of physics when
they were playing at the tower. They have to deal with the consequences of
There's a lot of interesting mysteries, and a broader canvas that
isn't simply about, should you turn the power on or off/
Q: Since we have now the Cuban American coming into the picture...
Eric: Yes, the patriots.
Q: Is that going to bring the people we know closer together and
fighting maybe on a more level playing field with each other, or the new
villain?
Eric: Yes, well, the idea was create a villain who's so bad that even
the enemies in our show, ultimately have to join forces. That's what these
patriots are.
Even though they say, 'I'm the president', even though they have US
flags, and they have very American iconography, that's a mask. It's a star
spangled mask. The more you know about them, the more insidious and awful
they are. They are not the America we know and love. Something very dark
and twisted happened in Guantanamo Bay over those 15 years.
What's coming up is basically a very, very dangerous invading force.
They're very smart, and they are scary. They have plans for the continent
that are not good. They have all been rolled out there in a very slow and
interesting way.
Exactly what their conspiracy is. What do they want? How are they
intersecting? How do they got their fingers in all of the different story
lines on the show, all starts to unfold.
Ultimately, it's going to be a really big bad that even Monroe and
Miles are going to have to team up to fight. Neville's going to have to
join. We are ultimately going to bring everyone together. They're all
scattered in the beginning of this year, across the whole country.
Charlie's away from her mom. Neville's elsewhere. Rachel and Miles
are in Rachel's hometown. She almost lost her mind after the tower. How can
you not? They all start working their way together as they realize that
this threat that they're up against is bigger than all of them.
Q: Even Miles can't fight them off.
Eric: It's bigger, scarier. What I wanted to create, this year, was a
threat, that took more than just a sword. They're smart and they're
devious. You don't even know who's in with them, and it's much more about a
conspiracy and a mystery this year, than it is about just running toward
someone with a sword.