‘Murder in a Small Town’: Jaden Rain Shares Hopeful View of Character’s Sad Outcome

Karl Alberg (Rossif Sutherland) dealt with one of his most difficult cases yet on this week’s edition of Murder in a Small Town and expressed his dismay that it wasn’t a happy ending for some of the most vulnerable characters involved.

In the case, young Elliott (portrayed by guest star Jaden Rain) was the one who found a dying man on the side of the road and helped get him the help he needed to survive his injuries. That might’ve been a heroic move, but he also made the massive mistake of stealing the gun he found near the victim and keeping it for himself.

At the time, Elliott was grappling with problems on multiple fronts. As a foster child, he had a difficult time connecting with and trusting people — even his foster mother and his doting kid foster brother Greg (Roman Kinsella) — and on top of that, he was being violently bullied at school by a kid named Brett (Jacob Shoemay).

After Greg witnessed Brett accosting Elliott in the halls of school once again, he took the gun from Elliott’s locker and pointed it at Brett, putting them all in serious danger and, well, legal trouble. We soon discovered that Brett was the son of Mayor Christy Holman (Marcia Gay Harden), which made a bad situation even worse.

In the end, Karl advised Elliott that while he was going to be punished for his crime of bringing a weapon to his school, and hinted that little Greg would be in trouble, too, he expressed hope that he might turn his life around and finally accept the love his foster mother was trying to give him.

Though the ending is rather tragic for Elliott, the actor portraying him thinks there’s reason to have hope for the teen boy. TV Insider talked to Jaden Rain about his character’s fate, below.

Your character, Elliot, is being bullied in the episode, after he’s dealt with so much, but he takes it with an air of stoicism. Can you just talk about getting into the headspace of this child?

Jaden Rain: Yeah. I think the first thing I realized with him is, he really feels like life is coming at him, as opposed to he’s taking, really, any kind of control of life. I think before the episode starts, we meet him, and life has treated him in a way that we find him in sort of deflated. And I think throughout the episode, what’s interesting to me is that he actually connects with people throughout the episode.. It’s funny because we leave him in sort of a sad place again, but at the same time, I think throughout the episode, we do find some light for him that he’s able to connect with after the bullying. And so I think getting into that headspace for me was trying to find the light in every situation for him, because I think it’s not it’s not fun to watch someone who’s given up completely. And I think that’s the trick with him, was to not deflate completely in a character that seemed given up on himself, in a sense.

At first, he’s presented as a kind of hero figure because he is the one who found Jack and got some help before it’s too late. But then we do find out what he has this secret, which was that he grabbed the gun from the crime scene. What do you think he was actually thinking in the moment when he did that?

It’s interesting. I think in the moment, he doesn’t actually know. But I think when he sees it, especially because it’s right after we see him get pretty intensely bullied, I think all he knows in that moment is that he feels utterly passive. He sees for this glimpse of a moment. It’s just power. That’s all it really represents in my head. And I think when he gets it, it just comes from a place of, it just really represents him feeling like he has some kind of control. So I think it’s more a protection thing, but I don’t think he’s fully aware of what he’s taking himself from. I don’t think he intends to use it to really harm somebody, but I do think it’s there in the back of his head, so I don’t think he’s really fully figured that out, but I do think that he’s scared, and that’s why he takes it.

Digging into his relationship with Greg, what was it like for you to establish that bond with your co-star? Because it felt very authentic, and it almost felt brotherly. I know that you said — and we saw — that Elliot can’t connect with people. It does seem like he has a different relationship with Greg than anyone else.

Yeah, definitely. And I think, doing it with Roman was definitely easy, the connection you’re talking about, because he really is such an adorable kid. So all the scenes where I kind of have to push him away were definitely a little more difficult, because he’s just so nice. But yeah, I think what’s different about his character, to me — the backstory I’ve pictured for Elliot — is it’s a lot of rejection, unfortunately, leading up to the episode. And I think Greg’s character is one of the few people that is very persistent, even when Elliot pushes him away, I think in the past, people have rejected him. Now, he rejects people first. And I think Greg is somebody that annoyingly, but also really wholesomely, keeps pushing at him. And I think that is a lot of the arc of his character throughout the episode, again, with connecting with people. I actually think the end of the episode shows a lot of that hope before him as well. When [foster mother] Nancy says she agrees to take him back, I think that really shows that later on, he’ll feel a little bit more accepted in the world. I think that’ll help him, subconsciously, knowing someone wants him back.

There’s a tragic arc in the sense of what becomes of Greg when he has that standoff with Elliot’s bully, and then we find out that that’s the mayor’s son. That’s a big twist. So what was it like for you to discover that your arc was part of this reveal that the mayor, who always seems in control of everything, has an out-of-control son?

Well, I think it’s interesting in the sense of it kind of mirrors life in a way. We don’t expect the bullies to be really people of public figures like that, and we don’t expect the people that are getting bullied to be characters that are honestly as sympathetic as mine, in that sense. So I think it’s always interesting finding out something like that when you’re reading it. But to me, it honestly makes total sense, and I think it’s kind of unfortunate, too, because it shows you again, a little bit of another reality, that at the end, my character, he might have good intentions, but at the end of the day, it’s your actions that really have the consequences. And the bully’s consequences aren’t nearly as bad, considering he’s just kind of not a great dude compared to stealing a gun.

You alluded to this earlier, but at the end of the episode, Karl says this story doesn’t have a happy ending, but then we see, like you said, the foster mother being willing to take him back. Do you imagine him taking that advice and turning his life around from here?

I do, yeah. I don’t think at the time it’s happening, he’s really thinking that far ahead. I think it ends really with a focus on Greg, of kind of that guilt. But in my head, I think he’ll definitely see Greg again. I think he’ll see Nancy again. And I don’t think directly he’ll be listening and thinking about all the advice that’s probably going to come his way, but I do think just seeing how people are handling the situation at the end of the episode, opposed to how he’s treated normally, I definitely do think he’s going to have some kind of change.

Kailey Schwerman / Fox

Can you just talk a little bit about what drew to the series to begin with, and what was it like to work with Rossif, who’s got legendary vibes on set? 

Yeah, no, it was great, I was really excited coming into this, especially because shooting it was in B.C., shooting in Gibsons, B.C., which I never expected, but it was such a great place to shoot in. Everyone, the cast and crew, everyone was so nice and happy to be working. I think coming on, it wasn’t totally knowing what to expect, but everybody was just so great. So I was all excited. Working with Rossif, it was really great. He’s an intimidating guy, not because of anything he does, but I think, like you said, yeah, he’s a very big presence on the show, and as well in real life, he’s physically a very big person. I’m a pretty small guy. So he’s definitely a little intimidating, but he’s such a nice person, and he’s very grounded, which makes it really easy to bounce off him and scenes and everything, and I think that really comes across and most he has on the show. So it was, it was really nice to work with him.

This is a procedural, which means there are cases of the week, but we have seen characters return. Do you have any hope or ambition for your character to make a comeback later, either in this season or beyond?

Yeah, I think it’s awesome. I think it would be really cool to see a follow-up. I think there’s, there’s more story there to be had. If the writers decided that’s something they wanted to do, I definitely think so.

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