‘The Terminal List’ Cast Unpacks Episode 6’s Brutal Torture Scene

Warning: The following post contains discussions of extreme brutality, torture, and sexual assault. 

When an episode of The Terminal List opens with a warning about graphic scenes involving torture, you know things are about to get ugly. And Episode 6, “Rats in a Maze,” directed by Ben Wheatley, certainly delivers. James Reece (Chris Pratt) finally gets his hands on Jules Landry (Luke Hemsworth), the corrupt former Marine responsible for manipulating him into killing innocent people. But getting answers out of Landry requires some particularly brutal interrogation methods, and what he reveals is far more disturbing than anyone expected. Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Terminal List Episode 6, “Rats in a Maze.”

The episode begins in Athens, where CIA agent and Russian mole Oliver Grey (Jeremy Bobb) is preparing to disappear into Russia after his plan to expose Landry goes sideways. Unfortunately for Grey, Landry is already onto him. During a confrontation at a shipyard, Landry produces the severed fingers of the men Grey sent to follow him and demands his money. Grey complies, but Landry’s victory celebration is short-lived. After drugging a woman at a nightclub and taking her back to his room, he is ambushed by Reece, who subdues him and delivers him to a secret detention facility in Kurdistan.

The brutal interrogation of Jules Landry begins

With Landry in their clutches, Reece and Mo (Dar Salim) begin interrogating him in a cell that Mo and Landry once built together using methods they learned over the years. With a recording of Taylor Holmes reciting Rudyard Kipling’s 1915 poem “Boots” playing over the loudspeakers, Landry is subjected to alternating extreme heat and cold, deprived of food and water, and repeatedly revived whenever he loses consciousness.

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Still, Landry refuses to cooperate, demanding immunity in exchange for information. He also attempts to get under Reece’s skin by bringing up his deceased mother, Judy, and former teammate Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch), who betrayed Reece for money. Nothing seems to affect Landry, and Reece realizes it’s the drugs. Landry is an addict, so the brutality of the torture is dulled for him.

Reece decides to fight fire with fire. He administers a powerful combination of drugs designed to shut down Landry’s respiratory system while leaving him conscious enough to experience the suffering of suffocation. When Landry flatlines, Reece revives him and continues the interrogation.

Landry’s shocking confession reveals his dark past

The tactic breaks Landry, who reveals a disturbing secret about his past. When asked about why he joined the military, he confesses he grew up with a girl named Jenny Bertrand, whom he claims he loved. They attended the same church, but one day, Landry raped her, admitting that there was something dark inside him. Following the assault, an agreement was made that he would join the Marines and never return home. His military career, it turns out, began as a way to escape the consequences of his crime.

Landry’s disturbing backstory wasn’t a last-minute addition. According to the show’s creative team, they mapped out his storyline according to the books, planting clues in The Terminal List: Dark Wolf from the original material when they first introduced the character. “We had Jack [Carr]’s book as our guide, and we knew that Season 2 was coming after Dark Wolf,” showrunner David DiGilio explained to TV Insider. “We thought a lot about these Easter eggs that we could set up in Dark Wolf. And remember, we’re jumping forward about seven to eight years from Dark Wolf to Season 2 of The Terminal List.”

However, Luke Hemsworth’s performance nearly convinced the creative team to change Landry’s storyline. “Luke Hemsworth is just amazing, and what he brought to the character of Landry was just next level, off the charts,” producer Jared Shaw admitted. “I selfishly wanted to change the storyline, but got outvoted.” Ultimately, they stuck with their original plans, promising audiences would be “shocked and not disappointed.”

But why is James Reece being targeted?

With Landry finally talking, Reece demands information about the next terrorist attack. Landry reveals that he provided passports and travel documents to two snipers, Tariq Nizar and a Chechen known as Tasho, who were traveling aboard a tugboat. Although he claims not to know their destination, he insists that Oliver Grey does. Landry then reveals that Grey’s entire operation was designed to get to Reece, suggesting that the former Navy SEAL has been the real target all along.

But Landry isn’t finished tormenting him. He brings up the traitorous Ben Edwards, as well as Reece’s murdered wife and daughter, insisting that Reece isn’t the noble patriot or protector he believes himself to be. Instead, Landry declares that Reece is a killer, just like him. The accusation sends Reece into a rage, and he begins brutally punching Landry until Mo intervenes, reminding him that Landry is not his to kill.

Before the interrogation ends, Landry finally reveals the snipers’ destination: Odesa, Ukraine. However, he offers the information with a warning. Whatever is being planned is already in motion, and he believes Reece and his allies are powerless to stop it.

Mo gets his revenge…and one final confession

Mo takes over Landry’s interrogation for one final round. Earlier, he revealed that Landry had ordered him to attack an American military base in Morocco, costing him all his men, and was framing him for attacks on civilians. Now, face-to-face with the man who turned him into “the very thing I hate the most,” Mo is ready for revenge.

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A naked Landry is balancing precariously on a stool with his penis tied to piano wire. One slip, and he will be castrated. Mo is conducting the torture, and he wants to give Landry one more chance to prove himself useful. Landry reminds Mo that he saved Mo’s life in Austria, but the man is unmoved. After all, this Landry is far removed from the one that used to be his brother in arms.

Mo wants to know what all this has to do with James Reece. Why is Oliver targeting him? And earlier, when Landry told Mo in the heat of the moment that his “real master is not in DC,” he revealed that Grey isn’t his boss. Who is his boss? “Who is spinning the web around all of us?”

Landry knows that he is a Russian. He’s Mafia, but not just Mafia: The Black Hundreds. The ones in power of the ultra nationalists. They want to restore the Russian empire and bury America. And all Landry knows is his rank, not his name: The Colonel.

He never met him. He called to congratulate him after the NATO convoy attack in Belgium. As to why James Reece, he doesn’t know.

With nothing more to offer, Mo kicks out Landry’s support, severing his penis from his body and leaving Landry bleeding out on the floor, writhing in pain and screaming. Revenge for all he has done.

Mo calls Reece. Someone called the Colonel is planning to hit America. “And you. Watch your back, my friend.”

“It’s an epic scene in the book,” said actor Dar Salim to TV Insider about creating the graphic scene. “It’s a very special scene, and you know, fans of the book look forward to it. And we were talking…is this possible to do on TV? To do a scene like that? And it turns out it is.”

“It’s one of those things that the imagination of Jack Carr, I mean, I don’t know where he gets it. So it was something that was built up. It was something we were looking forward to, and I think they did it in a very. It’s graphic, but not too graphic, so you get the picture, but not too much. And I don’t think I’m ever gonna do a scene like that again. I don’t think any of us are,” explained Salim.

Salim was also quick to praise his scene partner: “Luke is amazing in it. You almost feel sorry for the guy towards the end. He pulls that off, which is kudos to him.”

Why Ben Wheatley was the perfect director

TV Insider spoke to DiGilio about the brutality and impact of Landry’s torture scene, and what it took to bring it and its savage brutality to the small screen.

“I had worked with Ben Wheatley on my last show [Strange Angel] and had been trying to get him to join us on The Terminal List each season that we had made. He was always off making features and was unavailable. We knew from the book that Episode 6 was going to be one of our darkest, trickiest, most internal episodes of the season, but also one of the most thrilling,” explained DiGilio. “So, to take these two amazing actors, Chris Pratt and Luke Hemsworth, put them in this situation, have other incredible actors surrounding that…the point of view on what is happening is so key, and your director is the person who really establishes the point of view for the audience. So Ben and his background handling both action and psychological thrillers — he was the perfect person to step in and tackle this amazing episode.”

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Exec producer and star Chris Pratt credits director Ben Wheatley for making the scene work. “As we continue to do seasons of this television show, I feel like we collect teammates that we don’t want to let go. And Ben is one of those guys,” he said. “Anytime we go back into production, should we be blessed to be able to do so, he’s one of the first guys we’re going to call to check his availability. He’s incredible.”

Chris Pratt reveals how realistic Landry’s torture scene really was

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While Wheatley helped bring the brutal interrogation sequence to life, Pratt also emphasized that the torture methods depicted in the episode were grounded in real-world intelligence practices, even if the show took some creative liberties.

“The enhanced interrogation techniques used on this show aren’t just made up by somebody who doesn’t have experience in this world,” Pratt explained. “This is written by a Navy SEAL, and we also had consultants who were CIA Ground Branch operatives. Not that Navy SEALs are out there applying intense enhanced interrogation techniques, but this is less about Navy SEALs and more about the CIA. So we made that incredibly authentic.”

However, Pratt acknowledged that the series pushed things further for dramatic effect. “There’s a certain element to it, especially toward the end of Episode 6, where the lengths to which Reece takes things were fictionalized. But we kind of live by this 80/20 rule, which is that as long as it’s 80 percent authentic and the other 20 percent serves the story, then we’re good.”

The episode ends with Mo calling Reece to warn him that the Colonel is planning an attack against America and that Reece himself remains a target. Although Landry is finally dead, the conspiracy is only getting bigger, and the man pulling the strings remains a mystery.

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