Imogen saves the world, Adilah dies

SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from “The Cottage,” the season finale of FX’s “The Veil,” now streaming on Hulu.

Whoever says you can’t go home again probably watched “The Veil.”

In the finale of the FX spy series, Imogen (Elisabeth Moss) reluctantly heads to the last place she ever wanted to be: the home of Michael Althorp (James Purefoy), her late father’s friend, her former lover/mentor and the kind of English rich man who can turn or start the tide of wars. This mysterious man, who has only appeared in flashbacks until now, is Imogen’s only hope of getting new passports for Adilah (Yumna Marwan), from whom she is still trying to obtain information about the impending ISIS bombing of an American ship.

The series has worked on a global scale so far, but the finale is almost claustrophobic due to its focus on the mind games between Imogen and Michael, who has taught her everything she knows. He’s the only person who can shake her off her deep-rooted ashes, something he does as soon as they arrive at his modest cottage –– which is to say, the largest estate you’ve seen this side of Downton Abbey.

“But what’s really exciting to me is that you constantly have the feeling and thought in the back of your mind that she was always heading to that house from the beginning – and I love that,” Moss says. Variety. “Like, the whole time I always wondered if that was her design.”

Imogen will only hand over the passports of Adilah and her daughter Yasmin after she has coughed up details about the ISIS plan, of which Adilah still has the detonator. Meanwhile, Michael seems only interested in making Imogen squirm a little just to show her he can still do it, saying phrases like “silly girl” and her real name, Violet – both of which make her visible disarm.

But his tricks also encourage her to finally speak up and take the opportunity to confirm her recent suspicions that her MI6 father’s death was not a random tragedy. It was an assassination attempt, ordered because he was a double agent who had betrayed his country for Russia. His protégé Michael has adopted a similarly deceptive worldview, showing that he supports ISIS’s plan as a means to cause some kind of chaos that purifies humanity.

Imogen recognizes that she can push his buttons too and seduces Michael all the way to the bedroom, where they nearly kill each other. But Malik (Dali Benssalah), Imogen’s current flame and French DGSE agent, storms the castle and kills Michael instead. Imogen flees with Adilah, in a last attempt to reunite mother and daughter, but Michael’s brutal driver/henchman Patrick (Brian Milliagn) shoots and kills Adilah before they can leave. Distraught by the realization of how much she truly cared for Adilah, Imogen collapses before seeing that Adilah had written Provadia, the name of the intended ship, on the windshield before she died.

The world is saved and Imogen sends Adliah’s daughter to safety before heading to her next assignment in Athens. But not before she finds out that her nefarious father is not only still alive, but also keeping an eye on her. For what reason, a fiery Imogen seems determined to find out why.

FX announced “The Veil” as a limited series, but Moss and her production partner Denise Di Novi spoke with Variety about what the finale could mean for Imogen – including why this was Moss’ favorite episode of the season and what the loss of Adliah will mean for her.

This show has been spread throughout Europe, but the finale is largely limited to Michael’s house. Why was it important for Imogen to meet her maker at this point in the show?

Elisabeth Mos: I like the finale. If I may be biased, episode 6 is my favorite episode. I think every episode leads to her arriving at Michael’s house. And what makes me so excited is that there is a plot reason why she has to go to Michael’s house with Adilah, which is all fine and dandy. But what’s really exciting to me is that you constantly have this feeling and thought in the back of your mind that she was always heading to that house from the beginning, and I love that. For example, I always wondered the whole time if that was her intention – to somehow get back to that house and get her questions about her father and Michael answered.

She has an ulterior motive, and she is in no way your perfect heroine. She makes a huge mistake: she goes to that house. But she has to. She is forced to do this because of these very deep reasons that drive her to find out the truth about her father and her life. To me that’s a kiss from the chef. It’s exactly why you sign up for something like this. That’s so, so wonderful.

It’s the first time we see Imogen scared. You have said you knew her better than most characters you’ve played. Did you sense how dangerous it was for her to return to Michael?

Moss: Of course. Michael is her kryptonite. He is her Achilles heel who she knows has power over her and can bring her to her knees a little. To see how this enigmatic and strong, physically and mentally character in Imogen can be manipulated and controlled in this way is simply fascinating and a lot of fun to play. I love that, despite all these episodes, you present a character who is so on top of things and in control of her job and Adilah, and she is always one step ahead. But there’s one figure in her life she just can’t get a handle on, and that’s Michael.

Denise di Novi: As Lizzie says, I think he’s an incredible invention of a character. Much has been made of his world philosophy, and it gives us a window into another danger we have heard about, suspected, and seen the consequences of. He also gives us another chance to show how Imogen is once again fearless and indomitable. We always said that Imogen’s theme is that she never folds. She never gives up. And here she meets her kryptonite person at the end and things come full circle for her. She is the victor, and she will not let him win or manipulate her anymore. I love watching it.

But it does have a price. If Adilah is taken to that house, she will be killed. Their story together is really beautifully bookended because it starts and ends in a car. What does it mean for Imogen to lose the person she risked everything for?

Moss: Oh God. I think it’s one of those things that I don’t know you can ever recover from, honestly. Imogen is so good at what she does, and it’s not the first time she’s bonded with someone. And certainly not the first time she’s had to curry favor with someone to find out the truth about whatever case she’s on. But I think Adilah is different for her. They become friends; there is a deep connection there between these two souls.

I don’t know if I’m allowed to speculate about a future that hasn’t been written yet, but I don’t think she’ll recover from this. I don’t think she will get over this mistake and this loss. She may be very good at dealing with things like that, but I don’t know how you can move forward with this. It shouldn’t have happened. I think she really believed that she would save Adilah and reunite her with her daughter, and that’s all she wants in the world. So to lose her and fail in that regard, I don’t think you come back from that.

Di Novi: I agree, and in a strange way the greatest love stories are always the unrequited ones. I think the tragic ending makes it clear that this is kind of the nature of the life Imogen has chosen. It was her job to get this information, but as Lizzie just said, saving Adilah and reuniting her with her daughter became just as important. But in the end, she did the job she was given and did it brilliantly, and that’s what her life is. Now she has to move forward.

Do you think this mission and the revelations in this final episode, namely that her father is still alive, have taken the burden off Imogen at all? She actually goes through all five stages of grief when she talks to her father at the end, even though he’s not there.

Moss: Oh my God, that scene was just everything. I loved doing that scene because there’s so much going on. First of all, you discovered that your father is still alive, which is good news because you have mourned his death for years. There is joy and happiness there, but it is followed very quickly by the betrayal of the fact that he lived and followed her. Watching her from a distance and not being part of her life. So there are incredibly large, quite Shakespearean stakes at stake, all in this one scene.

And I don’t think it liberates her or unburdens her, I think it sets her on fire. I think it gives her a whole new purpose in life to now expose this part of her existence that she knew nothing about. And answer the question: why did he do it? I think it sets her on fire, but that’s part of who she is as a character. She’s not a character who really sits back.

Di Novi: It definitely starts a new chapter of maybe finding him or figuring it all out, and it’s exciting in a way. You can see it in her face at the end when she goes to Athens. That’s kind of what she’s going for.

Moss: And it’s satisfying to know she was right. Because I think she always knew something was wrong. She always knew there was something she was being lied to about. So there is deep satisfaction in what she finds.

We finally get confirmation that Imogen had a daughter, who has since died, with Michael. It feels like sharing would have been the best way to connect with Adilah from the beginning, and she gets every opportunity to take advantage of that. Why do you think she guards what could have been her greatest asset?

Moss: Good question. I think it’s just too deep. It’s too painful, that’s the simple answer. To live the life she has to live, to play the 100 strangers and be adventurous, easy and fast and everything she needs to be good at her job, that’s the only thing that’s too painful to give away to this world. It ties in with how I see Imogen as an actor. It’s about what you want to use and what you don’t use. Sometimes things are just too close to give away.

This interview has been edited and condensed.