“Motherland: Fort Salem” Exclusive: Diana Pavlovská Discusses That Cliffhanger & Teases What’s to Come
In Motherland: Fort Salem‘s Season 2 episode “Irrevocable,” Willa Collar made the life-changing sacrifice of her own life in order to save Raelle’s. “It’s the mother lifting the car to save the baby; it’s the grizzly bear doing whatever she can to make sure that her baby is safe,” Diana Pavlovská (Willa) told PopWire in a previous interview.
Mama Collar makes her return in the latest episode of the Freeform drama, and PopWire followed up with the actress to get her thoughts on her and her character’s comeback.
When filming had wrapped for Diana Pavlovská back in the series’ sophomore season, she reveals that what they had told her on her last day had given her a good idea that her character was not gone for good. “They said, ‘Well, that’s not a show wrap, that’s just a season wrap,'” she tells us. “So I said, ‘Great! From your lips to everybody’s ears.’
“I think there was some possibility, some ideas about me coming back, but as always, they take shape as they start writing and figuring out what that’s going to look like. So I didn’t know for sure.” When she got the official word that her “strong-minded, tough, and very family-oriented” character was in the books to return in Season 3, she says that she was “thrilled beyond thrilled.”
Returning to Motherland: Fort Salem‘s Vancouver set and filming with her on-screen daughter Taylor Hickson, Pavlovská shares that they “jumped right back into it like peas and carrots. It’s so nice having had the time to work together prior and establish who we were to one another or who we were even if we didn’t get to meet until the very end — the characters.
“It was just like walking into a comfortable pair of jeans,” she continues. “The crew was there, the cast was there, and we just picked right up where we left off. It was so great to jump right back into it with Taylor because we connected on such an emotional level in Season 2. We found that sweet spot and we just kept going with it. It was wonderful.”
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In the closing moments of “The Price of Work,” Raelle is transported back into an alternate version of her bedroom from her Chippewa Cession home. She rises from her bed, surveys her familiar-but-slightly-skewed room, and notices that right there, standing in the doorway, is her mother. Willa rushes to her daughter’s side. “Mother is going to take care of you from now on.”
Diana says that it’s “great” to be part of the episode’s cliffhanger. “It’s like they say, ‘Always leave them wanting more.’ It’s thrilling because you know it piques your interest and curiosity. And then to be in such an interesting cliffhanger and not understand what is happening in that moment, not quite understand what’s going on with their relationship, what’s going on with the world. It’s great.”
There is a lot to learn about this Mycelium world and the effects that it will have due to Hearst’s poisonous actions. As Diana Pavlovská previews, what’s to come will be riveting. “What will be interesting is to come to understand what is going on in that world and why it is happening that way. It’s an interesting world right now that Willa and Raelle are in and it will be interesting to see how that unfolds.”
Motherland: Fort Salem airs Tuesdays at 10pm on Freeform.