‘Mayor of Kingstown’: Taylor Handley on Kyle’s ‘Absolute Panic’ in ‘Damned’

Sunday’s (November 23) segment saw Kyle learn from Mike (Jeremy Renner) that his oh-so-generous adseg neighbor is Merle Callahan (Richard Brake), head of the Aryan Brotherhood. Mike warns Kyle just how dangerous Merle is — even mentioning that he could go after Tracy (Nishi Munshi) to get to him and, by extension, Mike — and Kyle has a panic attack.

Callahan immediately intuits that Kyle is spooked and warns that he should cut off his loved ones, while Mike does his best to talk Nina Hobbs (Edie Falco) into separating his brother from his dangerous former tormentor. As leverage, he accuses Nina of having ties to the Colombians, but they get nowhere.

Mike then instructs a resentful Tracy that she has to get out of town while he figures things out. Meanwhile, Ian (Hugh Dillon) — who’s facing a grand jury indictment over the Robert (Hamish Allan-Headley) situation and goes on another side mission to intimidate and ultimately kill a witness in the case — pulls Nina over for a little intimidation game and discovers just how deep into the game she really is when he finds her “not-f**king-around” gun.

She later comes to Mike’s office and seemingly concedes victory to him, promising that she will separate Kyle and Merle, but then we learn what that really means when Kyle is thrown into genpop, with everyone staring him down. Mike was afraid Merle would be able to get to him in adseg, but now it is open season for absolutely everyone who might consider him an enemy.

To break down Kyle’s no good, very bad day in the latest episode of Mayor of Kingstown, TV Insider caught up with Taylor Handley.

In this episode, we see Kyle tell Tracy, as he’s about to go to prison, that he wants to leave Kingstown forever. Do you think he really meant that, though?

Taylor Handley: Oh, absolutely. I think after every tragedy that they have had to endure that they are ready to get out of town. And that’s a scary thing to say. I mean, it’s almost bad luck to say. Even when I was saying it as a character, I’m like, “This is not going to end well,” trying to say they’re going to get out of Kingstown. I don’t think anybody gets out of Kingstown alive, exactly.

He also says that he’s ready to face the consequences of his decision to stop Robert. Does he know what that really means?

He does. I think that Kyle’s decision keeps Robert out of hot water, and it’s to keep his brother out of hot water and anybody else who is responsible for helping them build their house of cards… and everything that they’ve done throughout the years. And just as his brother Mike is, Kyle is a protector, and he’s going to protect his loved ones.

When Kyle meets the new guard, what does he see in her, and why does he try to help her when the other inmate has stabbed himself in the neck? 

I think he sees fear. I think he sees she might not be in the right place. And I think he sees her go into a slight panic. He just wants to help out a fellow officer. Again, that protective nature that Kyle has, if you see somebody in trouble, he’s going to try to lend his hand.

When he first meets Merle, does he have any idea who this guy is?

That’s a good question. As it’s playing out this season so far up until [Episode] 4, it seems like he would know who Merle is. I’m sure that he’s heard stories or whatnot, and it’s almost odd that it hasn’t gotten to Mike yet, but the fact is that he has heard of Merle, and when he hears about who his neighbor really is in Episode 5, he’s scared, because all he’s heard is horror stories.

We see that him have that panic attack when he meets with Mike. What do you think his biggest fear is when he talks to him?

That this guy is capable of anything — anything that you can [imagine]. Any worst-case scenario you can think of, this guy can do worse. That’s how he’s been portrayed. That’s how his legend is. That’s the legend of Merle Callahan: Anything that you think is bad, he does worse.

Mike obviously points to Tracy as a potential victim of all of this. Knowing how much trouble Mike has had to protect him so far, do you think Kyle actually trusts him to take care of this?

I think his patience is wearing thin. I think you see it when they have the conversation after Carney was whacked. He’s like, “That’s my sole lifeline. You told me not to worry.” He’s like, “OK, Mike, yeah, got it, thanks. Let’s do a little better next time.”

Is he aware of the kind of resistance that Mike’s meeting, and does he feel confident that he can get past that? 

I was breaking down a scene… It might have been that Carney scene, and Kyle’s kind of freaking out, and I was watching Jeremy’s performance, and on the day, I thought, “Oh, man. He’s playing it so cool, and maybe I need to play it cool, or something like that.” But now I see that he was playing it cool because he’s trying to keep the outside world from messing with his brother’s head…. I don’t think he wants to even let on to Kyle that there’s a problem with the warden.

At the end of the episode, we see that Nina does make good on her promise to Mike to separate Kyle and Callahan. But it’s not what he wanted.

It’s very calculated. It’s very slick. I would just read the scenes. I wasn’t there when they were filming it, and I was like, “Oh, this is really good.” And then I’m seeing what Edie Falco is doing with all those scenes, and she’s just blowing my mind. She’s so good. We’re so lucky to have her. She’s just bringing such a pedigree to this show that just elevates it even more so than it’s been.

Obviously, the consequence of that is that he has to do a perp walk into genpop. What do you think is going through Kyle’s mind in this moment when he sees where he’s going?

Yeah, absolute panic. Absolute panic. And I was just talking on another interview about having to film those scenes in Episode 1 when I had to do the perp walk to adseg. There’s about 300 background artists, all cat calling, all saying some heinous s**t, I’ll tell you. I didn’t need to act scared, OK? It was just unsettling.

What do you think he’s most worried about in that situation? Is he worried that he’s not going to have anyone, or that he’s going to have to align with someone that he maybe doesn’t want to?

He’s thinking [about] how the hell is he going to survive this? He’s already gone through so much up until this point, and now you’re adding this new layer of threats. I mean, it’s just one threat after the next.

Mayor of Kingstown, Sundays, Paramount+

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