‘Countdown’: Elliot Knight & Derek Haas Discuss Bell’s Instincts & Tease Dangers Ahead in Finale

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Countdown Season 1 Episode 12 “This Is His Signature.”]

The sniper at the center of the second investigation of Countdown‘s first season now has seen the members of the task force — uh-oh!

The penultimate episode sees Meachum (Jensen Ackles), Oliveras (Jessica Camacho), Finau (Uli Latukefu), and Bell (Elliot Knight) follow a lead to a bar, where they go in undercover, before realizing that the person they’re after wanted them there, specifically to get eyes on them. Yes, “Todd” (Grant Harvey) now knows who’s on the task force. That puts the team in significant danger.

“All bets are off for the finale,” creator Derek Haas tells TV Insider. “Him knowing who they are will definitely put team members in harm’s way.”

Knight shares that he “loved” playing Bell undercover in the bar — especially since it meant getting out of Bell’s suit! At the beginning of the series, after getting into Bell’s clothes, he’d expected to see everyone else in similar clothing. “Then I walk onto set, and everyone’s in boots, leather jackets, jeans, sunglasses hanging off them,” he says. “So that scene for me and for Bell was really fun because it’s the first time you actually see him a version or expression of him where he is a bit more relaxed and rough and ready to go, and that is a look and a vibe that I can really see suiting Bell and him growing a liking to and growing into. So it was fun to try that on for a bit like Bell gets to see everybody else do a bit more. I think it was new for him to be undercover, but exciting as well and something he could definitely get used to.”

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That fits with what Bell wants: to be in on the action. “He wants to be actively enacting justice. He doesn’t want to be sat back at the office on the computer or anywhere other than where the action is happening,” Knight explains. “So I think it’s really cool to see him get to be in that environment and I hope for him that he gets to be in it more.”

Before that, the task force got a major lead from a local deputy, Tooks, at one of the crime scenes: He noticed that “Todd” put something into a victim’s car. It’s information he tells Bell when he calls the FBI agent to his house late one evening … just as Oliveras begins worrying that “Todd” is either in law enforcement or getting help from someone who is, given he knew the police’s response time and some of his other actions. Haas wanted the audience to wonder about Tooks and if Bell was in significant danger in his house alone.

As the creator points out, the audience knows that “Todd” is the sniper. “So then the question is, can you make something tense and the audience question, ‘Do I know everything that’s happening here?'” he explains. “And so anytime you do that, when you’re leading the audience along — and I did want that to be almost like a horror movie when Bell is walking up to that house and what is Tooks up to — then I always like to flip the expectations. He is actually a good cop. He is obviously shy of getting his own opinions out there, which is a little bit of what Blythe is talking about with Meachum, so, there’s parallels there.”

According to Knight, “you felt it in the room and when we were filming that scene. It was very creepy. Bell is really driven to be the first Black director of the FBI and he’s a third-generation federal agent. His grandfather and father before him were agents, too. And so I do think that there is this drive and this pride in his cultural heritage and in his identity to represent that ability and that passion and that achievement is really important to Bell. So my take on it is there’s definitely an acknowledgement with Tooks when they’re at the crime scene where he sees another man who happens to be like a Black officer who’s driven. That drive might not be clear in that moment, but that’s something that you’re definitely going to step up and respect and want to support when you feel like someone shares a fellow purpose and identity with you.”

Knight was glad that it all turned out well for Bell. “That was a really nice moment to see, especially in the show without having to put too hard a point on it. But to see two Black men striving to do good in the world and commit to their purpose is a really beautiful and real representation of what’s going on a lot of the time, and it was nice to see that moment of support and encouragement,” he says. “And I think that you see that in Tooks and I thought he played that really well, especially at the end of that scene, the gratitude that he feels. Yeah, that’s real.”

Elizabeth Morris / Prime Video

Elsewhere in the episode, Shepherd (Violett Beane) gets a surprise visit at work from her sister, Molly (Michelle DeShon), who insists that she recognizes she’s been partying too hard and needs a reset to get her feet back under her. She insists that she’ll be home and not out when Shepherd gets home that night … and to the agent’s surprise, Molly is! The sisters share a nice moment listening to music together.

It was “very” hard for Shepherd to trust Molly, says Haas. “I think when you’ve dealt with someone like this, the surface answers are not taken at face value. So I don’t think she trusts her at all. I also thought it would be, again, interesting, the audience goes there thinking, ‘Oh, is she alive? What’s happening there?’ And then you push open the door and her sister did tell the truth and is trying to turn over new leaf, to me, is the surprise that makes for a good moment.”

It was a moment that the sisters, especially Shepherd, needed, he agrees. “I think Molly as a looming dark spot in her life has been around for a long time and sometimes you don’t think you’re getting through and so you can see what sisters they probably were even as little girls in that scene,” he says. “sometimes with your family, you just need a reset.”

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