Grotesquerie: Niecy Nash-Betts unpacks the finale

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the finale of FX’s Grotesquerie.

Looks like Lois might never make it to Florida after all.

The finale of FXs Grotesquerie in some ways felt like the 10 episodes came full circle, with Niecy Nash-Betts putting aside her plan to start over in Tarpon Springs in favor of donning her detective hat again to try to solve the same gruesome crimes, she had been investigating in her liminal state—except this time, they were happening in real life.

After Lois is called to the scene of a family brutally murdered and delicately placed around their kitchen table, she begins to grow suspicious. But when she finds herself back at the church altar, staring at a bloody reenactment of the Last Supper, this time with her doctor (who was the church’s priest and ultimately the killer in the events that unfolded while she was in her coma ), in the center, she knows she can’t escape to Tarpon Springs until she gets to the bottom of this.

Meanwhile, the doctor, who has been interviewing Lois about her liminal state, tries to convince her that she is the one who kills this time. After all, she has lost track of time. And who else would even know about the nature of the murders from her comatose imagination besides the two of them?

For the record, Nash-Betts wants answers to all of these questions and more.

She tells Deadline that “everything if it’s perfect, we’d have a season 2 to wrap it up. If not, that means I’m sitting at dinner with Ryan (Murphy) for hours telling me where he intended this story to go.”

In the interview below, Nash-Betts unpacks the final episode with Deadline, speculates on season 2 and reflects on Grotesquerie‘s social commentary explaining why Lois is “one and the same” with Vice President Kamala Harris.

DEADLINE: The finale really casts doubt on Lois’ reality again. What do you think about it? Is she really awake and alive?

NIECY NASH-BETTS: Yes, I believe everything that happened up until episode 7 was in Lois’ coma. On the other side of that, of her waking up from a coma, someone, a copycat killer, has started living out her dreams.

DEADLINE: So you don’t think Lois is the killer?

NASH BET: No, I didn’t say that! I didn’t say who I think the killer is.

DEADLINE: Do you have a theory?

NASH BET: You know, I think in the Ryan Murphy universe, you always expect the unexpected.

DEADLINE: Very cryptic. What was your reaction to the final chapters when you read them for the first time?

NASH BET: Oh, I loved it because as an artist, everyone in the cast got to play this duality. My daughter, played by Raven Goodwin, was portrayed as a way – her mother wasn’t proud of her and she was wasting her life away, when in reality she’s this high-functioning doctor with dual degrees. The same was roughly true for every character. Sister Megan, played by Micaela Diamond, was a nun. And in real life she is a police chief. So we all got to live in this world where the dream as an actor is to be able to play multiple sides of a character. So this was absolutely delicious for us.

DEADLINE: What was it like ramping up the dynamic between all these characters halfway through the season? They all have completely different relationships than what was first presented.

NASH BET: Let me tell you, we loved it. What we love most about it is giving Travis Kelce a hard time with that mullet. Everyone thought (Eddie) was so cute and so cool, but it was like, ‘Uh uh. Not in real life.’

DEADLINE: Now that you can fully talk about his character, what was it like working with him in those kinds of dual roles?

NASH BET: Oh, it’s great to be able to lean into the duality of it all. I am definitely a strong supporter of Travis and any new actor. You want them to win. You root for them. So just being able to see him looking at himself and looking so different… I posted a little BTS of him and his cowboy boots and his mullet. I thought, “Boy, you look like you should be riding the tractor.”

DEADLINE: How did you navigate figuring out what type of person Lois is after coming out of this coma?

NASH BET: Lots of conversations with Ryan Murphy to understand her mental state where she is now. What does all that mean? Does she still drink? Or is she on the mend? So many things had to be unpacked. What causes her to feel like she’s going crazy and check herself into the mental hospital? All those things, we just had to have a lot of conversations about them to make sure we hit the right altitude for Lois and her waking life.

DEADLINE: I thought Lois and Marshall’s relationship was so interesting. It’s so contentious after she wakes up. How did you work with Courtney (B. Vance) to figure all that out?

NASH BET: It’s interesting because not only Courtney, but Lesley Manville, who also played Nurse Redd. We have very different relationships in our waking lives. You think Marshall is on life support and in a coma, only to find out that it’s Lois who’s in a coma – and how contentious his relationship with her is, and how he really views her. Courtney is such a good guy, the times when he used to say mean things to me, I just want to start laughing because I’m like, ‘Who are you? You’re not even this person.’ We have a great time together. We’ve worked together on a few projects before, but we’ve never had to be mean to each other. So when we were going to be mean, we were always like, ‘Are you okay? Are you good?’ Because it just didn’t even feel right.

DEADLINE: So in the finale, Marshall suggests to Lois that she and Redd all move in together.

NASH BET: Did you see that?!

DEADLINE: What did you think of that scene?

NASH BET: I thought, ‘What’s going on?’ But you never know. Some people probably live that life. I just know that for Lois, in that moment, she was like, “Everybody, get the hell out of here.” In all sincerity her husband said in his waking life, ‘Can we all live here together?’ You know, it was crazy.

DEADLINE: I find it really exciting that the audience, even at the end, is still left to question what is real and what is not.

NASH BET: I’ve had so many people call me and say, ‘What’s going on? I don’t understand what happened. Wait a moment. Is this real? Isn’t that right? Wait, what happened?’ So I’ve had a lot of people try to wrap their minds around it and theorize what they’re thinking. There are some groups that are all dialed in and have these big chat rooms dedicated to the show and their theories on the show. I feel like we’re definitely setting our ending on a season 2 so the audience can stay for the ride.

DEADLINE: So you think there’s room for more?

NASH BET: Absolutely. You don’t even know who Grotesquerie is yet. That’s a huge unanswered question.

DEADLINE: Are there any unanswered questions that you want answered in a potential Season 2?

NASH BET: The main thing I think I’m looking forward to is who is Grotesquerie, because right now in therapy the doctor is saying that Grotesquerie is an amalgamation of all the evil that has happened in the world in (her) mind, but then these crimes begin to happen, literally. So wait a minute. So what does that mean? There are still a few questions I’m waiting to be answered and everything is perfect then we would have a season 2 to wrap it up. If not, that means sitting at dinner with Ryan for hours telling me where he intended this story to go.

DEADLINE: So you don’t think Lois is going to Florida?

NASH BET: I don’t do that. I don’t think so, not after she’s flat-footed after coming out of the mental hospital and tells Cranburn and tells Megan, ‘Meet me in my old office. I know who the killer is.’ I don’t think she’s ever going to Tarpon Springs anytime soon.

DEADLINE: How was your experience as an executive producer being able to provide more creative input to the series?

NASH BET: Ryan is a wonderful collaborator. So we worked together on everything from storyline thoughts to casting to maybe reshaping things after we shot something. And it’s like, ‘Wait a minute, this is pointing me in this direction’ or ‘Maybe there’s a shift we can make here.’ What are Lois’ levels of drunk? Is she plastered? Is she hungover? Where is she in her illness? So we were hand in hand and collaborated quite a bit. I love that I’m Ryan’s new muse.

DEADLINE: What were a few of your favorite hints or Easter eggs about Lois being in a coma before the reveal?

NASH BET: The two that stand out to me are when my daughter Merritt is filming her video for a TV show and you see an orderly walking through the frame. It distracts Lois. And then she says, ‘Wait, what?’ And then when she’s having a conversation at her desk with sister Megan, and the beep from the printer sounds like the beep from the machine she was connected to.

DEADLINE: This series is filled with commentary on the current state of the world. How does it feel to have the finale on the air just a week before a very close presidential election?

NASH BET: We touch on many topics. We touch on climate change. We touch on the fact that women have freedom of action over their own bodies. We touch on different types of evils that exist in the world. And in many ways I feel that Lois and Kamala (Harris) are one and the same, both trying to save the world from evil.