Thom Allison Talks Killjoys “Cherchez La Bitch” [Exclusive] 

[Warning: Spoilers for tonight’s episode.]

See? Told you tonight’s Killjoys “Cherchez La Bitch” was chock full of so many delicious nuggets. And if you’re like me, you have so many questions. And Turin better be OK. And what exactly was that vibe with Zeph and him, or was that me? And that callback to the pilot when Johnny leaned over to get the knife from Dutch’s boot and D’av’s mind imploded. So. Much. Good.

The episode was also particularly Pree-tastic, so earlier this week I jumped on the phone with Thom Allison to talk about it, starting with that completely random, and awesome, Zeph and Pree hike in the sand. Allison says that was his best day ever on the show.

“It’s a chance to see Pree come back, the shade comes back. He’s all glamorous, Lawrence of Arabia…Pree of Arabia. Kelly [McCormack] and I became really great friends after Season 3 and really clicked and they started to see our chemistry on screen. That whole scene is my favorite of the season for sure and maybe of the entire run of the show,” he says.

“Kelly is fantastic and hilarious and a good pal. We laughed the whole time, and the crew laughed so hard and we were in this quarry and it was a beautiful day. We could barely get the scenes done. We’re taking these fun pictures, imagining this was Pree and Zeph’s great road movie and coming up with new things to try.”

“That day in particular we had a great time. This was our post-apocalyptic road movie with the two weirdest characters [ever]. We had great chemistry and could do this all the time. The writers even knew this might be one of our favorite scenes ever.”

Skewering the gender politics of Zeph needing help was an added bonus. “That was Michelle [Lovretta]. The whole thing was making it about, ‘Get on me. It’s not some thing, some weird connected thing. It’s just a friend helping a friend,’” he says.

“Kelly delivered everything. It was just such heaven. Everyone on the show is so great, but when you have a scene partner who’s so alive…She’s got an amazing mind in how she works. The weirder she went, the more straight I went with it and was more serious and serious and then it went sweet and loving at the end with ‘space butterfly.’”

“It was such a goldmine. We hoped it wouldn’t get cut because it could have been cut. We were dying to do this episode. We couldn’t believe it was going to be a year before people could see this.”

Then the goodness just piles on when the pair expands to include Turin as they do their version of, “What’s in the box???” Allison says that delivered more shenanigans and an appreciation for the technical aspects of creating the suspense. “Patrick [Garrow] is so different in many ways. He’s got a dry humor but he’s not nearly as rough as Turin. We had to figure out so many technical things,” he shares.

“That friggin’ box with the smoke inside, and [we had to] time it. Those two are great. It’s such fun to play with them.  It was one of the best days again and I loved that we got to spend so much time together. We were also aware, all the time, of fans seeing this and how they were going to react. It’s fun for us. We could just imagine fans watching all of us and wondering why this doesn’t happen all the time. This is the spinoff. Add Fancy Lee and Gared and we have a show.”

“It’s basically a riding crop with dreadlocks on a stick and a guy on his back under the table moving it. [The jumps] were completely random. We had rough timing. But he kept doing things randomly and we reacted. We filmed it over and over like eight times as we tried different things.”

“I’m sure there are all these outtakes screaming trying to get the lines out. It’s one of those days where you think, ‘I love what I do for a living and who I do it with. It was so joyful and funny and stupid and awesome. Fun technical stuff and fun with each other. It was a long shooting day for not a very log scene.”

Allison was thrilled to have Gared and Pree still together, in a manner of speaking, regardless of the memory matrix, and when they got to episode 507 with the reveal of the dual betrayal, it was as heartbreaking for him to film as it was for us to watch.

“What was thrilling is that our relationship has come to mean so much to so many people—gay, straight, those who are undecided. In Michelle’s world, and in sci-fi in general, there’s such a freedom and a life that can be liquid, which is great. The fact that their love is unstoppable…when I read that, I thought it was the best thing ever. It’s great for the fans, great for the story, and great for the greater universe,” he explains.

“They couldn’t stay away from each other. Even though The Lady tried to separate them and have them forget each other, they found a way to come together again. It’s fantastic. It creates a mythical love story between them that withstands the most dire circumstances. I love mythology.”

“I loved so much that it kept the mythology of their love affair as a shining little beacon. You know they’re going to work it out, because it has to. You can’t have [one] happen and not have [the other]. If the love is that strong, it’s got to withstand anything.”

“[The conversation in 507] was a such a sad thing. We waited so long to clear the air and get everything out and [for] this reunion and then it’s going so wrong. You could feel us getting later in the show and toward the end. Those two being unhappy is so sad.”

“Their love affair has been so sweet and sort of ridiculous. Gavin [Fox] is a lovely guy. You look at him and think he’s all ego and bravado but he’s the softest lamb. That is crazy. We have this great friendship and working relationship and are so available to everything.”

“To point a gun at him was so heartbreaking even pretending was so awful, And then the fight and looking into his sweet eyes and sad Gared and he’s giving it so earnestly. It was overwhelming. But we had a great time because [Gavin and I] care about each other as people and we were able to make the stakes high enough so you really feel how hurt they are at the betrayal and how desperately they want this to be OK but not knowing how.”

“It was lovely and weird and hard. In one scene I broke down because it hit me so real. As actors, acting you really have got to believe it to come across and so you drop into those dark moments and it gets dark. But it was lovely to have it work out in the end. It was great to have that diffusion about ‘your equal.’ As an actor, it’s fun to do those things.”

Dialing it back, that scene starts off with Gared realizing Pree looks different, shedding the look, and hair, he’d had since the beginning of the season. Allison says getting to the memory matrix version of Pree was a collaborative effort and almost worked too well as a disguise. “[Coming up with it] was one of those things [where we had to] eliminate what we had done already and [ask] how could we make it more different,” he recalls.

“I knew it would be so great. We played with it to see what it would look like and I had to grow out the sides of my hair to fill in the wig. We couldn’t believe how well it all came together. The studio lost their minds. The first day [Gavin] saw he me he said, “Oh my God, I don’t know who I’m looking at.’ There were a few crew people who walked past me all day and didn’t recognize me. It was hilarious. It didn’t land for them [even in the scene with Gavin] that I was Thom.”

Next up, Allison is back for a third season of his Canadian variety series, Your All Time Classic Hit Parade. “It’s been an unexpected gig the last two years,” he shares. “It’s taken off and had an audience and been a juggernaut.”

Killjoys airs Fridays at 10 pm/9c on Space Channel and Syfy. All of our Killjoys coverage is here. You can catch all four seasons and the first six Season 5 episodes on demand on the Space Go app and Syfy app and website. This episode should be available online tomorrow.

Images courtesy of Syfy.