Necar Zadegan on Evelyn’s Decisions, Consequences, and More (Exclusive)

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for Mayor of Kingstown Season 4, Episode 4, “Sins of Omission.”]

This season, Evelyn Foley (Necar Zadegan) has become yet another force working against Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) and his cohorts, particularly Ian Ferguson (Hugh Dillon). She was the one who decided to make Kyle (Taylor Handley) do the gauntlet walk into prison for his sentence, thereby putting a target on his head, despite Mike’s pleas. After Kyle was badly beaten and nearly killed as a result, Mike told Evelyn she was “dead” to him.

Evelyn has also been pressuring Ian to turn over Robert (Hamish Allan-Headley) by threatening to take action against him with her evidence in the Morrissey murder, and on Sunday’s (November 16) new episode, she faced the consequences of standing against Ian. He threw a brick into her windshield from a bridge, leaving her with devastating injuries. While Mike stood at her side in the hospital and rekindled their friendship, that doesn’t mean she’s completely out of harm’s way.

So how does Evelyn really feel about Mike, what happened with Kyle, and how Ian reacted to her aggressions? TV Insider caught up with Necar Zadegan to find out.

Mike has this tendency to have transactional relationships with people, but do you think their relationship is also transactional, or does Evelyn have real feelings for him?

Necar Zadegan: Oh yeah, I think their relationship is so layered and such an old relationship. There’s something about the people who knew you when you were young. It’s different. And they grew up together. They grew up in this town. We talked a lot about backstory and things like that. And so the relationship is very, very layered. And I think, as transactional as these two highly toxic people try to keep it, it’s never going to be, as is evidenced by their actions.

So, given that she knows so much about Mike, does she know that using Kyle as a bargaining chip is going to be a break situation for Mike?

I think she is sick of playing their little game because it has afforded her no wins, and she’s trying to play it differently, and it’s also not working. But I don’t think her effort was to use him as a bargaining chip. I think she’s really trying to gain power in some way.

Yeah, and part of that power is having him do the perp walk. Do you think she realized how dangerous that would be and what the consequences would be?

Yeah, I think she does realize, because I think there’s always danger and consequences in this world. And I think it’s not only her big last-ditch attempt in some direction, but I think she just has to put on a brave face and have the courage to do it. Ballsy move.

Do you think she’s at all bolstered to do this move by the fact that Mike is facing resistance on the inside from Nina?

I don’t think she knows the specifics of that. I think she can gauge it, but I don’t think she I think she is so preoccupied with the unmatched power of Mike. I think it’s something that’s gotten ahold of her, professionally and in her heart.

What do you think it does to her when Mike says, “You’re dead to me”?

I think it breaks her heart a million pieces. She takes him seriously, and she can’t believe it, because they’ve been through a lot, and he’s always there, but she knows how serious this is. That’s why she doesn’t say anything, and she accepts that. She has to.

What do you think it is about Robert in particular that makes her so hellbent on getting him?

I mean, so many things, but I think that there’s — and we always talk about backstory and stuff like that, within the actors and writers — and it seems that Robert is an out-of-towner. So that’s one thing, the suspicions of the outsiders. But the other thing is, not only is he a bad cop in a lot of ways — even though he thinks he’s a good cop, but he’s a bad cop — he doesn’t have the kind of brainy thing that she connects with Mike. He’s much more active. He’s much more action-oriented. And I think that there’s an ethics, it’s just different, that she recognizes. But moreover, we found out who the bad cop is as a viewer. We know it’s Ian, but she doesn’t know it. I think she’s really — it’s hard to want to blame somebody. It’s hard to even see, even though maybe this guy that would do those things, but it’s hard to see when it’s that close. Sometimes, keep your enemies closer… and so I think she’s really put a lot of guilt on Robert, which he definitely deserves, but maybe not to the degree that she’s under the impression of.

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Speaking of Ian, I mean, she’s pretty open about her basically twisting his arm and being like, “It’s you or him.” Why do you think she’s so outspoken about that and willing to put her own morality on the line?

With Ian, they have a history. And I think she’s been playing ball. She’s been non-stop playing ball, and she’s not against playing ball. And I think she understood, because she’s grown up in it, the rules of the world. So I think she doesn’t want to throw the hammer down. She wants it to be a cohesive reckoning.

Do you think she knows that it was Ian who threw the brick in her window? Do you think she knows it’s him, or she thinks Robert?

I don’t think she knows it’s Ian. Maybe Robert, but I don’t think she knows it’s Ian.

What does it do for her when she wakes up, and Mike is still there for her after the accident, and he’s basically like, “I may not love you anymore, but I don’t want you dead.”

I think it overwhelms her sense of love. I think it overwhelms her heart. She’s a character who’s been trying to protect her heart and protect herself with all these walls that over so many years, she’s building and building and building, but at that point when she’s so vulnerable in that hospital bed, and when your body takes a hit like that, it’s hard to protect yourself emotionally, and she can’t. And I think she’s so grateful, and she’s so happy to see him, but it’s so complicated, too, that it’s not a reunion of that kind. But I mean, he’s the only one who shows up, and he does show up after what happened between them, and I think it’s such a colossal relief that at the end of the day, they’ll still be there for each other totally.

Now, going forward after this – obviously, this was a devastation for her — do you think it will give her pause in her pursuits here?

No, no, … It’s also all she has. She’s a woman who’s put a lot aside and has been focused on a mission for a really long time. So I think there’s a sense of emboldening, if anything.

Is there anything else you can tease about the rest of Season 4 after this episode?

I mean, there’s, it’s just so many more layers to come to just build and build. And it’s kind of just whatever you don’t expect will definitely happen.

Mayor of Kingstown, Sundays, Paramount+