Warning: This post contains spoilers from Wednesday night’s episode of Deadly Class. Read at your own risk!
This is the Deadly Class episode fans of Rick Remender and Wes Craig’s graphic novel have been waiting for.
In Wednesday’s episode, Marcus (Benjamin Wadsworth), Saya (Lana Condor), Willie (Luke Tennie), Maria (Marìa Gabriela de Farìa), and Billy (Liam James) took a drug-filled trip to Las Vegas. However, things took a tragic and violent turn because Maria’s abusive boyfriend, Chico (Michel Duval), followed them there and walked in on Marcus (who was experiencing a very bad acid trip) and Maria right as they were hooking up.
Feeling betrayed and murderous, Chico started to attack Marcus and chased him through the streets. Their bloody brawl eventually landed in an alley. The rest of the group tried to convince Chico not to kill Marcus, but Maria realized that there was no changing his mind. So, she made the heartbreaking (for her) decision to slit Chico’s throat with her knife-fan before he could murder Marcus.
This entire episode — which also included Billy murdering his father — was an adaptation of Deadly Class #4-6, which is the climax of the series’ first volume. All of the actors knew this scene was coming and started preparing for long before it came time to shoot.
“That was my audition scene, so I was really looking forward to that,” Farìa told EW when we visited the show’s set in October.
Duval added: “I even got my buddies together and we reenacted the scene [five months before shooting it]. I have a little production house in Mexico, so I had equipment. We did everything, so I was ready.”
Unsurprisingly, this was a difficult scene to shoot because of the long hours, low temperatures, and the use of prosthetics; however, one thing that made it easier was that all of the actors had each other’s backs.
“We started shooting at 7 p.m. and we wrapped at eight in the morning. It was tough. It was very, very cold, but it was amazing because we knew how important this episode and this moment was. We were all there for each other, even if it wasn’t our coverage,” said Farìa. “It was a beautiful day. At the end of the day, we saw the sunrise. It was magical. It was tough. It was heartbreaking, but it was magical.”
“It was a really emotional moment,” said Duval. “It was a really challenging scene. Because of the prosthetics, we had to go from the end to the beginning. So we started with the death, the throat, and then we had to go to the middle, and to the beginning. So, I was so tripping out because [I was thinking], ‘How am I going to reach that emotion, and then go back and reach it again, and then go back and reach it again?’ But it worked out for the best.”
Of course, Chico’s death will have a profound effect on Maria going forward. “Everything changes after that. First, she wasn’t expecting that she would kill Chico. She does love him,” said Farìa. “Second of all, she just loses it. She can’t deal with what she did, and she doesn’t know how to live without Chico. Even though he was her captor, he also was the love of her life and her protector in a way. When he’s out of the picture, she doesn’t know who she is. What’s interesting is that she starts looking for Chico in Marcus. It’s going to get very hard for her after that.”
Deadly Class airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Syfy.
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