‘Mr. Mercedes’ Season 3: How Lou Deals with What She Did to Brady
If you’re not caught up on Mr. Mercedes yet, then this story contains major spoilers for season 2. Season 3 is about to start, but you still have some time to catch up. If you are caught up, then you surely can’t wait to see how season 3 deals with the season finale. Fortunately, Breeda Wool spoke with Showbiz Cheat Sheet about where season 3 of Mr. Mercedes picks up, after a panel for the Television Critics Association.
Lou Linklatter (Wool) was friends with Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadaway). They were both social outcasts, but Brady was a murderer. He was the Mr. Mercedes killer actually. At the end of season 2, Lou couldn’t let Brady continue to terrorize people, so she 3D printed a gun and brought it to court to finish him off. Mr. Mercedes returns Tuesday, September 10 at 10 p.m. on AT&T Audience Network.
What Lou and Brady had in common
One of the frightening aspects of Mr. Mercedes is how similar characters like Brady and Lou are. What makes Brady turn to murder and Lou to kindness?
“Brady and I were very similar in the story,” Wool said. “Brady comes from not a very supportive family. We learn in season 2 that I’m part of the foster system. I didn’t have a good relationship with my folks. I’m this sort of forgotten person who’s very bright. Brady Hartsfield and I are very smart, intelligent and this sort of wasted talents.”
It’s not even a nature vs. nurture argument, because neither Brady nor Lou were nurtured.
“I was also pushed to the corner and to the edge,” Wool said. “There’s a side that’s like what’s the difference between me and Brady? He is radicalized into extreme violence and psychopathic tendencies, but in this story, Lou has come down a rough road as well. So what prevents me from acting out? What prevents me from having acts of violence?”
What drove Lou to violence in ‘Mr. Mercedes’
Perhaps it is only a matter of time for people like Brady and Lou to be pushed to violence. It just took Lou longer to get there.
“I think when I shoot Brady in the head, I cross over the line,” Wool said. “I cross over that line that says how am I different from Brady? The line is a lot less clear to me now because I used to say he’s this terrible guy. He’s this horrible person. He’s a person who kills. But as soon as I put that bullet in his eye, I’m a person who kills too.”
Some might say the ends justify the means, removing a mass murderer from the world.
“Brady Hartsfield killed a baby, a mother and her child,” Wool said. “Essentially, in this story, I felt like jail was not going to hold Brady Hartsfield. I had a justification for murdering him. It wasn’t just this vengeance. He’s my best friend in the story and I stare right into his eyes as he leaves this realm. The infection of violence that is Brady Hartsfield, am I infected or not? I don’t know. We’ll have to wait to find out.”
Lou is in prison in ‘Mr. Mercedes’ season 3
Whatever the reason, you can’t shoot a person in the middle of a courtroom and walk away. Lou is now in prison herself awaiting trial for Brady’s murder.
“Hannah Bender, our costume designer, and ,put together this incredible look over the years,” Wool said. “We just made Lou Linklatetr’s look over the years and then to be in that jumpsuit for so many episodes, it was definitely a bummer but also kind of as an actor, you can wear very uncomfortable clothes. To wear a pair of orange scrubs for a while is okay by me.”
