Warning: Contains SPOILERS for the Accused season 2 premiere.
Season 2 of Fox’s crime anthology,Accused, returned to the network on October 8 with an intriguingly unconventional case. The premiere is titled “Lorraine’s Story” and follows a psychic medium (Felicity Huffman,Desperate Housewives) who claims she can see visions of missing child, Rory Conley. Lorraine convinces the boy’s father of her psychic abilities, but his mother, Melissa, remains skeptical. Desperate to find their son, the Conleys house Lorraine and pay for her bills, hoping she can help the police find a lead.
In a devastating turn of events, a man confesses to Rory’s murder during an interrogation, and Lorraine is brought to court and charged for fraud. The trial divides Melissa and her husband, with the latter insisting that their son is still alive. Lorraine is found innocent by the jury, and Rory’s body is never located. The series lets viewers draw their own conclusions after the case has ended, and actor Isabel Arraiza (Outer Range), who portrays Melissa, has several predictions about the characters' futures.
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The trailer for Accused season 2 reveals the big guest actors to come for the Fox crime drama, including star Patrick J. Adams and many more.
Screen Rantinterviews Arraiza about portraying a grieving mother, Lorraine’s psychic abilities, the premiere’s alternate ending, and working withFelicity HuffmanonAccused.
Arraiza Shares What Happened To The Characters In The Original “Lorraine’s Story” Script
“I love that they leave it open-ended, and I love this ending as well. I think it’s very powerful.”
Screen Rant:Accusedhas a unique story every episode, so what stood out to you about this case in particular?
Isabel Arraiza: I think the writing was so compelling. When I first got the episode, I was just so moved by the writing and the challenge of playing a character like Melissa in those very extreme circumstances. The whole plot I thought was very compelling and interesting and raw and emotional. I cried when I first read it, and it had a different ending, which destroyed me.
In the actual episode, when it was written, we see what happens a couple of years later, and we see that my character is pregnant again. There’s this camera pan, and you see it’s a different husband, and then you see Felicity’s character get a vision of another girl, and then she shuts it down. And then you see this bachelor apartment, and this guy’s super disheveled, and you realize it’s my ex-husband now. These little kids go trick or treating to his house, and he’s still looking for their missing child. I just kept crying. I was so sad.
That is sad. I was even going to ask you if you thought that their marriage made it.
Isabel Arraiza: I love that they leave it open-ended, and I love this ending as well. I think it’s very powerful, and I think we get to draw our own conclusions as audience members, but I don’t know how you recover from something like that. I like to think that they did with a lot of therapy, but it was hard for me to get in that mindset once I read the original script, and I was like, “They don’t make it.” I still don’t know. In my heart, I want to believe they made it, but I think it’s up to the audience to decide.
“For the character’s peace of mind, it’s easier to believe. I know it’s contradictory to say that, but it’s easier to believe that he’s not alive, and you need to accept that in your heart so you can move on.”
Do you personally believe that their son is still alive?
Isabel Arraiza: I don’t think so. I actually based my character on my neighbor when I was growing up in Puerto Rico. I grew up next to this older couple, and they were just so wonderful. They were sort of surrogate grandparents. I never met my grandparents and they lost their youngest son when he was nine years old, and I remember the stories. Their son passed away in the ’60s or early ’70s, and their marriage survived.
But my father, who grew up next to them, used to talk about the toll that took on their relationship, and they were able to survive and heal the wound, which never really heals. But with enough time, they could sort of overcome this tragic event in their story because the wife was so strong. She kind of held the ground, but the husband had to sort of accept it and come to terms with it. And that’s exactly who I was thinking when I was creating Melissa. Maybe because that story was so present in my mind I just thought, “No, I don’t think so.”
Maybe it’s easier to believe that he’s not alive. I think it’s worse when you don’t have a body or you don’t know anything. The missing child just disappears into thin air. For the character’s peace of mind, it’s easier to believe. I know it’s contradictory to say that, but it’s easier to believe that he’s not alive, and you need to accept that in your heart so you can move on. I think if you are constantly thinking, “He’s there somewhere,” it’s harder.
Accusedisn’t even movie-length, so you have a very limited amount of time to get to know this character. Was it difficult to do that for a forty-minute episode?
Isabel Arraiza: I prepared for a while. Once I knew I got the episode and I read it, I just thought, “You need to prepare yourself both psychologically and emotionally.” It doesn’t matter if it’s a play or a 40-minute episode or a movie, you’ve got to prepare to the best of your ability, even if it’s 40 minutes. I don’t think about it like it’s a 40-minute episode. You just prepare with as many tools as you may like you would for any other character, whether it’s a play or it’s a film. I attempt to gear myself up in all the ways that I can to deliver, I hope, the most truthful performance that I can.
If you found yourself in the same situation as Melisssa and a psychic came into your life, would you react in a similar way?
Isabel Arraiza: No, that’s the problem. I think I’m a little bit superstitious and gullible, and I think, especially if I’m in a really broken emotional state, and I need answers, I would totally buy it. I think there’s something attached to it because you need the hope. You’re in such a vulnerable state. So when I read it, I believed the psychic. I was like, “Yeah, absolutely. She’s telling the truth.” I never questioned it as an actor or as a person reading it. But as my character, I thought, “I have to find the logical reasons as to why not.”
It’s funny, my dad doesn’t believe in anything and my mom does. I grew up with both narratives that really shaped my idea of the world. There is a side of me that is, in a way, non-believing, or “You have to prove it somehow.” And then there’s this other side of me, which is incredibly gullible. Sometimes you’re superstitious and very open to these invisible forces that we can’t explain. I have a nice balance when it comes to that, but I think in Melissa’s situation, if it’s me, Isabel, yeah, a hundred percent. I’d be like, “Sure, take all my money and tell me where my child is.” I hate to admit that. [Laughs]
Working With Felicity Huffman Was A Learning Experience For Arraiza
“She’s just such a good storyteller, a wonderful professional, knows what she’s doing, and she knows the most effective way to tell the story.”
You and Felicity Huffman have a lot of emotional moments in this episode, but the motel scene really stands out. Did you have to do multiple takes to get the intensity where it needed to be?
Isabel Arraiza: Yeah, that was the last scene that we shot. That was the last scene of the entire episode. At that point, I was personally exhausted just from doing this for 14 days, and Felicity doesn’t reveal her choices until the camera’s there. I think that’s one of the things that make her so brilliant as an actor. For standard television, we do a wide shot, and then we do closeups. And so I had my first closeup, I did my scene, and she’s with me, but the second that they did the camera shot on her, she really put it out there in a way that was shocking to me.
I did not see it coming. She has this incredible ability of surprising you when you’re filming, so you’re getting a real reaction in real-time. I love that because I was always on my toes. I am somebody who will show you in rehersal what I’m going to do. I started eight years ago, and I’m still sort of learning. It always feels like whenever I’m on set, I just keep learning from all these incredible actors, and Felicity is one of them. I just thought, “That’s brilliant.” I just reveal my cards. She would change it up slightly within the circumstances and the structure of the scene, but she has this ability to keep it fresh, to keep it active, and so what you get in that scene is my real reaction to both her work and what she’s saying to me.
That was really mind boggling to me. I was just so surprised. I watched the scene, and I was like, “That’s a real reaction. I’m definitely scared right there.” It was incredible. She’s just such a good storyteller, a wonderful professional, knows what she’s doing, and she knows the most effective way to tell the story. She was very quiet when we were rehearsing, and, all of a sudden, “action”, and there it was. What you’re getting is a real moment, that magic that happens when you’re connected and really listening. I learned so much working with her. It was great.
What projects do you have coming up afterAccused?
Isabel Arraiza: I just premiered a movie that came out two weeks ago, Notice To Quit, directed by Simon Hacker, and it’s this beautiful indie shot in 35-millimeter. It’s a very New York movie, and it stars Michael Zegen, Kasey Bella Suarez, Robert Klein, and myself, and I think it’s still showing in theaters, so that’s pretty cool. We are doing The Merchant of Venice in Edinburgh, Scotland. I actually have a reading later today to dive back in because this was a production that we did in New York City in 2022, and it was quite successful. We’re remounting it and taking it to Europe, so that’s exciting.
About Fox’s Anthology Accused
Created by Howard Gordon and Jimmy McGovern
Accused is a collection of 15 intense, topical, and exquisitely human stories of crime and punishment. Each episode is a fast-paced provocative thriller, exploring a different crime, in a different city, with an entirely original cast. Based on the BBC’s BAFTA-winning crime anthology, each episode opens in a courtroom on the defendant, with viewers knowing nothing about their crime or how they ended up on trial.
Told from the defendant’s point of view through flashbacks, the show holds a mirror up to current times with evocative and emotional stories. In the end, audiences will discover how an ordinary person gets caught up in extraordinary circumstances, and how one impulsive decision can impact the course of that life – and the lives of others – forever.
Accusedairs Tuesdays on FOX at 8pm ET/PT.
Accused
Accused is a legal drama series that delves into the complexities of criminal cases from the perspectives of both the accused and the accusers. Each standalone episode presents a new case, exploring the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by the characters involved. The series aims to offer a nuanced portrayal of the criminal justice system, highlighting the intricacies and challenges inherent in each case.
