What To Know
- The Abandons finale features an intense, unresolved fight between Gillian Anderson’s and Lena Headey’s characters and a major cliffhanger.
- Anderson and Headey play Constance and Fiona, matriarchs of two rival families in 1854 Washington Territory, whose feud is fueled by violence, secrets, and the struggle for land and power.
- Anderson and Headey address the possibility of coming back for an Abandons Season 2.
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Abandons Season 1 finale.]
Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey spent an entire day beating each other up while filming The Abandons finale, and they’d “do it again any day,” Anderson tells TV Insider in the video above, laughing alongside Headey. The X-Files and Game of Thrones stars got to go full tilt into the rageful rivalry between their characters, Constance Van Ness (Anderson) and Fiona Nolan (Headey), in the Netflix western, which premiered in full on December 4. It was the explosive culmination of seven episodes’ worth of slow-burning tension and increasing hatred.
The Abandons was created by Kurt Sutter, the creator of Sons of Anarchy. Set in Washington Territory in 1854, Anderson and Headey star as the matriarchs of two very different families — one of wealth and privilege bound by blood (the Van Ness family, led by Constance), the other a found family of orphans and outcasts bound by love and necessity (led by Fiona). They find their fates linked by two crimes, an awful secret, a star-crossed love, and a piece of land with silver underneath. The collision echoes the American struggle of the haves and have-nots, in a place just beyond the reach of justice.
The first of those two crimes was the sexual assault of Fiona’s daughter, Dahlia (Diana Silvers), by Constance’s eldest son, Willem (Toby Hemingway). Dahlia stabbed him in the back with a pitchfork after her siblings saved her. The family attempted to save his life, but Fiona killed him in the middle of the night by stepping on his throat until he died. She took on the burden of the murder so her daughter would never have to say she killed a man, and Fiona never regretted her decision.
The family buried Willem’s remains deep underground, several feet below the remains of their neighbor’s beloved dog that was killed by the Van Ness’s men. Secrets and lies and attempted truces were abundant from that point on. There was a chance for the families to get out of this conflict alive, and Fiona’s fellow tenants of the land Constance craved, voted to sell part of it to her in an act of survival. But Fiona rejected Constance’s final offer. Garrett Van Ness (Lucas Till) convinced a neighbor’s daughter to divulge all of Fiona’s secrets, and then, kaboom.
The family of The Abandons ranch and the Van Ness crew battled it out on the grounds of Constance’s home, where she had been torturing Dahlia for hours after learning of what she did to Willem. To save her daughter, Fiona told Constance with vicious glee that she killed Willem, and then the mothers went to blows inside the mansion as it was actively burning to the ground. Anderson reveals that the fiery fight scene was filmed one or two months after production wrapped. They filmed it in one day and had stunt doubles show them the ropes. After that, they did all the fighting themselves. Headey wryly says it was “really good fun.”
The finale ended on a massive cliffhanger. There was no clear winner in their fight, but one of them was seen walking out of the burning building in the season’s final seconds. You can’t tell if it’s Fiona or Constance, and you don’t know if the other one is dead or alive somewhere in the house. Headey and Anderson themselves don’t know who survived, but they do confirm their interest in a second season, so these burning questions can get answers.
Have the stars and creators of The Abandons discussed a potential Season 2? Anderson says, “No, I don’t think there will be until we know what the response is.” Headey gives a resounding “yes” when asked if she’s interested in coming back. As for Anderson, she says, “We shall see.”
Learn more about The Abandons in the full video interview above.
The Abandons, Season 1, Netflix