‘Murder in a Small Town’ Boss & Star Rossif Sutherland Talk Episode 9’s Shocking Developments

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for Murder in a Small Town Season 2 Episode 9, “Fall of Holman.”]

Christy Holman (Marcia Gay Harden) was the victim and the perpetrator of crimes in the latest episode of Murder in a Small Town. As the title indicates, the episode saw Holman fall — both in the literal sense and the figurative one.

In the episode, Cassandra (Kristin Kreuk) approached Christy with the leaked emails she’d received anonymously and told her it was her responsibility, as councilwoman, to release those to the public. Though Christy was defiant at first, threatening legal action even, she ultimately asked Cassandra for a grace period to get her affairs in order, and Cassandra agreed. As it turned out, though, the mayor just wanted time to lay down her apparent “get out of jail free” card by resigning.

After her announcement party, though, Christy was brutally attacked in her yard, which meant Karl Alberg (Rossif Sutherland) had to track down the perpetrator. After a series of interviews, he discovered that Christy’s son-in-law, who also helped run her family business, was stealing from the public funds, and in retaliation for her resignation, he attacked her. Interestingly, Christy was only saved from being murdered by another foe — the scorned woman whose husband the mayor had been having an affair with — driving up to confront her and inadvertently scaring the guy away from hurting her more. The upshot of all of this is that Christy’s wayward son, Brett (Jacob Shoemay), who was the one to leak the documents to force his mother’s early retirement from public life, seemed ready to get his own act together after nearly losing her.

Elsewhere in the episode, we learned that Karl had been planning to propose to Cassandra when Holly (Dakota Guppy) found his family engagement ring stuffed in his sock drawer, and she gave him her enthusiastic blessing for it. However, the couple hit another point of friction when a person from Cassandra’s past named Warren came along. Apparently, Warren was someone she’d been friendly with in Sacramento, but when she refused his advances for something more, he convinced all of her friends she’d done him wrong, which is why she moved back to Gibsons. Though Cassandra, with the help of an observant and protective Todd (Joshua Close), was able to dispense with her stalker, she was miffed when Karl admitted he already knew about Warren because he’d looked into her past before.

To dissect all of these big events of the episode, TV Insider spoke to both creator Ian Weir and Rossif Sutherland (in separately conducted interviews, combined here)!

Karl has to interrogate Cassandra a little bit and take her prints. Is he ticking the boxes of responsibility, or is he actually seriously considering that in that moment? 

Rossif Sutherland: That she’s a suspect? No, no, no, he’s just ticking the boxes. There were some takes in there, which were quite playful and jokey between the two of them. He’s doing his job ultimately, but the reason why he takes his prints is to be able to count her out. That’s all. But he has no doubts as to who she is.

With Christy, there was some criminality to what she did, so I’m just wondering if you think that’s gone away, or do you hope to have Marcia back next season, if there is one? 

Ian Weir: I would dearly love to have Marcia back in, if there were to be a third season. It was wonderful working with her. The character, I loved. I mean, there were a couple of large ifs in that sentence. I mean, if we’re so lucky as to have a third season, and if we’re so lucky to have a situation in which Marcia’s schedule were able to accommodate her coming back, and … if Marcia sees something that would work for her, yeah, I would love to tell more stories.

Kailey Schwerman / FOX

How do you think Karl internally reacts to finding out that Cassandra is the interim mayor? Her political stuff has always kind of been a tension this season. Do you think it’s gonna be better or cause even more problems? 

Sutherland: Ultimately, I think better, not because the job description has changed. I just think that all of this conflict has made them — or at least certainly, Karl — mature. I think Cassandra had less of a journey in that department than Karl did. I think Karl has a great pride in her and sees such a future for her. I mean, I would imagine Karl thinks that Cassandra can do anything she puts her mind to, and so now the opportunity has come. But, yes, as far as being surprised, he lives in the world of surprise. The things that shock other people don’t shock him, so I think he expects to be surprised.

It seems like that would be a resolution to the staffing issues that Karl’s been facing, right? 

Weir: One would certainly hope. Although if the police chief is the boyfriend of the mayor, all of a sudden, a whole bunch of other things become fraught and difficult because, especially in a situation where there has been such controversy over Christy Holman’s family dealings, how would Karl and Cassandra negotiate that? I’d be fascinated to explore that. I think Karl would be quite clear-eyed about that. I think Cassandra — not that she’s not highly intelligent and knows exactly how these things work… it would be interesting for her to be in a situation where people were questioning her motives. I don’t think that’s something that she would necessarily handle very well, the sense of being doubted, being questioned. Whereas Karl is a police chief. I think Karl was absolutely used to people doubting him every step of the way.

When Holly finds the ring, it seems like she instantly approves. How much does it mean to Karl that his daughter is so immediately on board with this idea? 

Sutherland: It means the world to him. I mean, ultimately, it’s this idea of building a family, and I can’t build that family that I dream of with the disapproval of my daughter. The relationship between Karl and Holly, at least from the beginning of the first season, I think they’re very much alike, but because they’re so alike, they sometimes butt heads, and she could have gone back and lived with her mom, but she chose to stay with her dad. I’m not sure that when they divorced whose side she was on, but I’m guessing it was her mom’s side. This was quite a journey for them to actually want to share a roof, and then, for Cassandra to be in that house too with them, it was quite a journey, but this project that they had together, also the fact that Cassandra is such a lovely, caring, intelligent, curious person — yes, it’s a testament that they like each other, that she likes her, that this future that I dream of is not insanity.

Kailey Schwerman / FOX

We find out that there’s a person from Cassandra’s past, this guy Warren, who seems to be dangerous. What does it mean to Karl that she doesn’t want to tell him about that, and that she gets upset when he finds out? 

Sutherland: Again, it’s this theme of keeping things silent, of keeping things as secrets, and we have secrets to protect the other person. We also have secrets to protect ourselves. That’s the illusion sometimes, but he’s pressing as far as her revealing her secrets, but he’s not very good at revealing his own. I mean, he loves her. He’s a protector. He’s a fixer. He’s somebody who just puts things into action. That’s how he exists in the world. So he doesn’t understand why she would keep it a secret, but she had good reason to. But as this relationship of theirs progresses, I imagine there’ll be less and less of this. But in order for that to be achieved, they’re gonna have to talk.

What does it mean that Karl is willing to share that protective detail with Todd? 

Sutherland: I think he said that lightly. I think he has affection for Todd. I think he’s realized at this point that he was wrong, that Cassandra was right. Because that, too, was a moment of conflict between the two of them, where Karl, in a slightly reactive and slightly righteous way, was quick to judge Cassandra’s judgment about a situation that oftentimes, police officers don’t know how to handle. But yes, ultimately, that character wants to do what Karl wants to do, which is to protect Cassandra, and as far as Karl is concerned, protecting is an act of love, and so they share a love for Cassandra. And because of that, then therefore, Karl has affection for him.

The situation with Warren, I felt like that was a really good expository tool to showcase Cassandra’s past and also those tensions with Karl, that lack of openness. Do you think that particular storyline will continue, or do you think that was a one-and-done with that character? 

Weir: I would love to explore that character some more. I mean, yeah, as you say it, exactly, it opens up a dimension of Cassandra and her past that we, as an audience, haven’t seen, and it opens up new terrain, vis a vis Carl. I think it is really intriguing to the both of them. But I liked the character of Warren a lot, and I also really liked the actor who played Warren. I thought he did a lovely job for us. So I would be fascinated to see if we could explore that character a bit more.

Murder in a Small Town, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox