‘Mayor of Kingstown’: Taylor Handley Reveals Exactly Why Kyle Is Doing Mike’s Bidding Now

[Warning: This post contains MAJOR spoilers about Mayor of Kingstown, Season 3 Episode 7, “Marya Was Here.”]

Things are getting even more complicated on Mayor of Kingstown. Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) has been struggling to keep the peace between Bunny (Tobi Bamfeta), the Aryans’ new boss Callahan (Richard Brake), and the Russian mobster Konstantin (Yorick van Wageningen), and it’s caused him to make some conflicting moves. Raiding the Russians and one of the Crips’ suppliers? And having the SWAT team execute both on command — including his own brother, who’s been morally conflicted about the family business from the very beginning but now is fully on board? And someone’s out there drowning a bus full of girls anyway? What gives?

TV Insider caught up with Taylor Handley, who portrays Kyle McLusky having this moment of waning morality, to dig into the big changes to the character this season and find out what’s really motivating him to go all-in with Mike nowadays on Mayor of Kingstown.

It seems like Kyle’s kind of getting even further into doing Mike’s bidding — what with the Russian raid last episode, and then Bunny supply raid this time. How does he feel about becoming kind of an arm of this organization that he’s tried to run away from before?

Taylor Handley: Well, I think there’s so much going on for Kyle right now with the death of his mother and him being responsible for it, and he’s trying to keep those secrets at bay. He’s trying to deal with those. He’s compartmentalized them and put them deep down. And so I don’t think he’s trying to think about any of that. I think he’s just trying to do — in a sense, maybe him working for SWAT, he’s running from his problems. And as he said in the last episode, it’s really hard to get anything of good merit done in Kingstown because there’s such corruption. And so he thinks that possibly, he will be allowed to return to some semblance of normalcy if he can actually make a difference. And so I think that his intentions are good, being, as you said, at the tip of the spear, running SWAT. He wants to make a difference. He’s always wanted to make a difference, and it’s just it’s really hard to deal with Kingstown, so that’s why he wants to be at the tip of the spear.

At the tail end of the episode, he gets warned by Evelyn about Robert Sawyer and what it means to be on the SWAT team, but he kind of brushes that off. Do you think he takes it to heart, or is he trying to put on blinders?

I think he’s always taking in the information that’s given to him, like we all do. However, he has his own goals. He thinks that this is the right way forward for him to make a difference and to hide the things that he’s trying to get over, the tragedies he’s trying to get over, but it doesn’t go unnoticed. And as you’ll see, there’s a certain unraveling that happens with a certain character. And I think because of this conversation, he looks up and becomes more aware that things are unraveling.

Dennis P. Mong Jr./Paramount+

You mentioned that Kingstown is just a place full of corruption and really doesn’t have a possibility of peace. So what do you think Kyle’s ideal future is for him and his family?

Well, in Kingstown, everybody’s trying to do the best that they can with what they have. And there are people there, the citizens of Kingstown, these are people who can’t run from the problems. That’s why, I think, personally, when I watch the story — because I watch the show because I love the show, I’m a fan of the show — that that’s why Mike is there and doing what he’s doing. He knows that. I mean, he’s really trying to do a service for the people who can’t escape Kingstown. And I think that Kyle feels the same way. And so Kyle’s whole M.O. is to be there and try to be the best person possible and make it as safe as you possibly can for his family. I mean, they were all raised in Kingstown and so if anybody knows how to do it, it’s Kyle. They know the lay of the land. And he knows what to do to make sure his family is taken care of, and he’s going to do his best at trying to do that.

It seems like things are kind of getting dicey with Tracey, with her looking into like how a female prisoner got pregnant and then getting threatened. How is that going to affect her relationship with Kyle?

Conflict and drama. That’s what it’s there for. All the stuff that’s happening with her as she dives deeper into the corruption and seeing it… I mean, it’s nothing new, but when it’s so blatantly in her face, I think that she can’t help but to investigate and try to get to the bottom of it. I mean, she wants to make change, too. I mean, these are good people living in a bad town.

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More broadly, what can you tease about the last remaining episodes of the season?

It just gets better. It just gets better. And the finale is fantastic. We have such an amazing group this year making sure that we’re firing on all cylinders. It’s a really well-oiled machine.

What’s it been like for you to see Jeremy Renner come back after such a near-fatal accident right back into form?

Nothing short of inspirational, really. I mean, it was almost a year to the day from his accident that he was back on set, a year, one year. I mean, it’s incredible. He’s a marvel. He’s a beast.

Hugh Dillon told me that he and Taylor Sheridan have a seven-year plan for the show. Are you digging in for the long haul of this?

I know it was a 10-year plan! I’m pretty sure it’s a 10-year plan. It’s a 10-year plan. [Laughs] I love the show because, again, it’s not only because of the talented group of filmmakers we have but the amazing pedigree of actors that we have. I’m a fan of the show. I want to watch the show. I love the grittiness, the hard-hitting [nature], the rawness. It seems to me that we’re the only show really doing that right now. And I just read an article the other day on Deadline, like we were Top 10 in streaming minutes. People are really finding the show. People who love the show are just die-hard fans. I’m a die-hard fan. And so, yeah, when I hear the seven-year plan, I get very excited because I know that I’m going to be entertained for at least another four more years.

Dennis P. Mong Jr./Paramount+

(Stay tuned for another segment of our interview with Taylor Handley on Monday.)

Mayor of Kingstown, Season 3, Sundays, Paramount+