[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Lowdown, Season 1 Episode 5, “This Land?”]
The Lowdown‘s fifth installment continues to see truthstorian Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke) search for answers surrounding the Washberg family, especially after the shocking death of Allen Murphy (Scott Shepherd), but an unexpected visitor threw things off kilter as Wendell (Peter Dinklage) showed up at the book shop Lee calls home.
Wendell, it turns out, is one of Lee’s old friends and a former business co-owner, who is there to celebrate their late friend Jesus. But as the episode logline teases, Lee spends the day with his “worst enemy,” as their tense dynamic is immediately apparent. In truth, Hawke and Dinklage are quite close in real life.
“It’s been a dream to work with Peter for a long time, and when dreaming of the story of the season… [I] brought the character up to Ethan, Peter’s name came out, and it became more solidified and inspired when his name came up,” series creator and showrunner Sterlin Harjo tells TV Insider. “They have such a history together.”
FX
“I met Peter Dinklage in 1990, and his hair was so long it was dragging on the ground, and he’s been an inspiration,” Hawke adds. According to the actor, Dinklage was a fan of Reservation Dogs, “had met Sterlin, loved Sterlin, and so we both kind of started texting Peter like, ‘Hey buddy, you wanna come to Tulsa?’ And Sterlin wrote him this incredible part.”
“They got to use our friendship,” Hawke adds, noting how their offscreen friendship informed their onscreen dynamic. “Peter and I were part of a theater company, we know this world and these men, and I think it gives the show a subtext… Everything becomes a little deeper because it has some personal attachments to it.”
That was felt as the men ragged on one another throughout the episode, but ultimately, Wendell helps Lee track down some town records and investigate the mystery of what company is buying up Tulsa land. According to their investigation, it appears that recent land purchases can be traced back to politician Donald (Kyle MacLachlan), and Lee’s digging leads to an eerie confrontation in the episode’s final moments.
But before that, Lee and Wendell take time to remember their friend Jesus, who is no longer with them, and admit that despite their indifferent feelings toward one another, there’s a love there, and they don’t want to see anything bad happen to the other. “I think you feel those personal attachments, and I think you feel the history of Ethan and Peter in those characters,” Harjo adds. “You can feel that magic happening outside of the words, outside of what you’re seeing as you feel it.”
See what else they are sharing in the full video, above, alongside Keith David, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Maclachlan, as they break down the latest storylines for Marty, Betty Jo, and Donald. And stay tuned as the mystery Lee tries to untangle continues onscreen.
The Lowdown, Tuesdays, 9/8c, FX