[Ed. note: This post contains some light spoilers for events in episode 6 of Mrs. Davis.]
It’s not often that you have sex and then magically get transported to the restaurant where your husband is working. Then again, it’s not often you’re a nun in search of the Holy Grail, having sex with your ex-boyfriend, only to be magically transported to the spiritual restaurant where you meet your husband, Jesus Christ. That’s what makes the love triangle the centerpiece Mrs. Davis so tricky.
In Episode 6, Simone (Betty Gilpin), née Lizzie, is at her wit’s end after encountering an obstacle in her quest, and ends up having sex with Wiley (Jake McDorman), her ex-boyfriend. During the act, she is transported to the restaurant where she usually meets Jay (Andy McQueen), also known as Jesus Christ. Although she regularly goes to the restaurant, it is the first time she is there in the middle of coitus. The result is classic Mrs. Davis: wacky, sincere, unexpected, and possibly vaguely sacrilegious. For Gilpin, it’s exactly what she wanted for Simone.
“I think modern writing is sometimes overly correct: if a woman wants to be badass, she always has to have the answers, always have status in the scene, and be super sarcastic and dry all the time. Nothing fragile about her – to make up for all the years of our sobbing and vesting No answers and only vulnerability,” says Gilpin. She sees Simone’s backstory as very much in line with that. But her faith really broke down at least one of those walls, forcing her against the fibers of her being to love the world and love Jesus and have this attachment and connection to the things she might have rejected .”
Still: How do you sell a love story with Jesus Christ? By playing it as straight as possible.
“I just saw it as a love story; I saw everything that happened within the walls of the falafel restaurant as something in itself,” says McQueen.
Photo: Elizabeth Morris/Pauw
That means that even when she comes between sex, Jay still treats her with the same glowing warmth as always. The falafel tent – and, interestingly enough, even the king of kings himself – is a safe haven away from all the madness of the rest of the show.
“When we see all these different worlds and see how they work and how they collide, I feel like it’s so balanced, and it feels like it’s time to take a breath when you get to falafel,” he says. “And it’s this moment when everything kind of wishes away and you’re just here with these two people.”
Of course, the complication in Episode 6 is that it’s not just two people: Wiley is there too, a little. And in this case, he’s not too happy about letting his partner see god while they’re having sex. McDorman, on the other hand, loved it.
Photo: Sophie Kohler/Pauw
“I like the idea of the archetypal hero, who isn’t the hero of this story, but really thinks he is and wants to be, and is constantly reminded that he’s not,” McDorman tells Polygon.
While Wiley’s arc often jump roped with the humor and pathos of his life story, in Episode 6 he comes to the crushing realization that “the love of his life” may actually be devoted to another man: the one and only Jesus Christ. In this case, too, McDorman says showrunners Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof encouraged him to “really” take even the craziest twist.
“Like, it would Real be devastating when the love of your life is married to God!” says McDorman. “Or, there is no god and she is crazy. Neither are good scenarios for Wiley.”
Photo: Greg Gayne/Pauw
Of course, this all goes back to the heart of the show: what can you believe in? Is there a higher power really, and is an algorithm better to believe in than a god? Mrs. Davis, at his best, ponders these questions through his characters, causing them to stumble and work their way toward answers. While “a love triangle involving my childhood friend and Jesus Christ himself” may seem ridiculous on paper (and – at least some of the time – it’s still one of the more ambitiously absurd parts of the series), it’s also the heart of the show, the fall of the wacky rollercoaster ride that is Mrs. Davis.
For Gilpin, it was the “ultimate acting exercise” to read lines in the first few episodes that nodded to the identity of Simone’s lover without fully revealing it. But Gilpin has gone further, describing Simone as the type of character she’s been waiting for, one who showed her “what it feels like to be alive,” and the tender core at the root of all of the show’s Looney Tunes mayhem — even when she just spiritually invades her husband while her ex-boyfriend puts her down.
“She has proof of Jesus’ existence — there’s no faith for her, there’s no risk, really, as there is for Mother Superior,” says Gilpin. “And I think she’s learning that being alive and loving someone — you have to consider the possibility that they’re not always going to be there, or that it’s not just comfort and just security. And I think that’s being a nun, and that’s being a person. And I think she learned that lesson the hard way.