‘The Catch’: Is Margot A Mommy? Who’s the Baby Daddy? Sonya Walger Weighs In
Margot Bishop, Mother of the Year?
That may be a stretch given Margot’s villainous ways in the ABC series The Catch, but she was thrown for a loop (as were viewers) when it was revealed in last week’s episode that the person who’s been trying to kill her claims to be her 15-year-old daughter, Tessa (Philippa Coulthard).
Needless to say that there are more probing questions into Margot’s past than usual going into this week’s episode but Sonya Walger, who deliciously plays the compelling character on the Shonda Rhimes TGIT series, gave us a peek into what Margot will do to find out if this daughter is the real deal and whether her growing closeness to Danny (Jay Hayden) could actually be good for her.
How did you feel when you found out Margo may or may not have a daughter?
I was so excited. Allan [Heinberg, executive producer] had pitched it to me from the beginning of the season and I just loved my whole arc this season. I think between hooking up with Danny, which feels so unexpected yet somehow great when it arrives, and then this, which just pulls her just as she thinks she’s escaped Ben and all of the trappings and all of the pain and the heartbreak of that and that maybe she’s finding something new. Suddenly, this pulls her back in towards Ben and pulls them into this incredibly awkward triangle. I thought it was inspired and great to have the person out to kill Margo be her own daughter.
Let’s talk about Danny for a second. I feel like he could actually be good for Margo if she’ll let him be good for her. But what do you think?
I agree. I think it’s so unexpected. Not that she would find him physically appealing. Obviously, he’s gorgeous, but that she would find him emotionally appealing. And I think it’s because he is so unexpectedly challenging and defiant and there’s a piece of goodness in Danny that I think Margot bizarrely recognizes and is drawn to. There’s an upright quality about him, a willingness to stand up to people for his beliefs. I think you’re right. I think there would be something very good for Margo there if only she would let herself.
I’m guessing if there’s a potential daughter on the horizon with Tessa, there’s also going to be talk about who the father is, right?
Yes, that absolutely comes into play. I think everyone has their deep suspicions about who it is and Margot’s absolutely determined not to go on suspicion but to go on actual scientific proof for this one. There’s too much at stake for it to be a maybe. So she goes all in pretty fast to find out who the father is.
I have to say that I love that Lesley Nicol’s back as Margot and Rhys’s mother. In that relationship with her mother, it makes you understand Margot quite a bit. It’s a screwed up family!
I agree. It’s sort of heartbreaking to me that Margot’s father is dead. I wonder if that is her mother, what must her father have been like? But first of all, let’s just start with the fact that getting to play with Lesley Nicol and John Simm is just so, so fun. I feel enormously lucky that I left England and yet somehow all the best people from England have made their way over to the States and so I get to play with them anyway. I feel really privileged.
Then there is something in the fact that we are all English over here; I think it’s really fun. You hear it in the rhythms of how we speak to each other as actors. The rhythms are different. There’s playfulness and shorthand that you have with people speaking English with you. The jokes play differently, the rhythm changes and Allan’s so good at writing for our speech, for each individual actor. I just feel those scenes sing, the ones that I have with my family. And it’s a great dynamic, needing your mother and hating the fact that you need your mother and somehow not being able to replace her even though you long to. At the end of the day, there’s no one like your mum.
And all of that saves the audience from fully disliking Margot because you actually see she is a human being and you understand why she is who she is.
I would hope so. I love her, I love her, I love her warts and all. I think she’s so interesting and complicated and it’s so inevitable the way she turned out that she did. I’m always looking for any opportunity to give, to show a flash of vulnerability and Allan is always writing to that, as well. I also know how hard Margot finds it to be vulnerable so it’s finding those moments and then immediately recovering from them as fast as possible because it’s not a place she’s comfortable in.
Since Margot and Alice have had to spend a lot more time together this season, how does Margot feel about Alice? Is she kind of softening towards her?
What began as outright loathing and betrayal and distaste and then this sort of slightly macabre fascination that made her pose as her therapist which is as big a betrayal as you can exercise on somebody and then to this begrudging trust and recognition that shows they’re probably not that dissimilar. These are two extremely intelligent, strong minded, independent, feisty women who don’t take no for an answer and are not submissive in any way to the men in their life or the man in their life and who go after what they want.
The difference is that Margot is utterly uncompromised by morality and set to shoot for what she wants whereas Alice has a robust moral code that keeps her in check. That’s how I see it for Margot in this recognition of, “Oh, I like this woman. Oh, I get this. If I’ve got to lose Ben, it better be for someone like this.”
The Catch, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC
