THE SECRET CIRCLE: Andrew Miller Teases Fallout From Nick’s Death, Triangles and More

Now that THE SECRET CIRCLE has killed off one of its lead characters, what comes next?

I talked with TSC executive producer Andrew Miller about the now un-bound circle will cope in light of Nick’s death, the arrival of newbie (to us), Jake, new love triangles and much more.

Take a look!

I have to say, I was convinced there was no way you’d kill off anyone so soon, but I’m also incredibly impressed that none of your cast members let anything slip about it when I was on set earlier this month. They were great.
Andrew Miller: Yeah, they’re amazing. I mean…part of the surprise [element] is what we were going for, obviously, but I think it’s just that the show, at its core, is about the strength of friendship and the strength of togetherness and while we have all the stuff about binding the circle, on one level it’s complicated mythology and there’s ancient rules and a binding ceremony and there [are] all those things, but even beneath that, the idea has always been to me that it’s you don’t need a binding ceremony to form a group and be strong as a group and that’s why it was kind of important to sort of turn that on its head right off the top — which, is yes, there’s a binding ceremony and yes, it’s important and yes, the six of them together are as strong a force as you can have, but you know there are consequences to their actions. They’re literally playing with fire; the things that they are doing are dangerous. Even the Heather Barnes episode to begin with, the idea of a bunch of kids doing a spell to unlock something that they don’t know anything about, is so reckless and so tempting and there just need to be consequences that that kind of behavior and, unfortunately, this is what it led to.

Along the way, I think what we’re most proud of is this idea of Nick starts as just some dumb shirtless guy in the window, he becomes a hero to me. Because not only does he try to save Melissa, but he becomes a great guy and he saves Melissa, to me, from the demon, but more than anything he saves her from Faye because his love for Melissa, the way he opens himself up to Melissa, allows her to become someone that I don’t know how she would have become without him. And to step out of Faye’s shadow and become an empowered woman and that’s his greatest gift, even with him gone from the show. Who Melissa is now is because of Nick and that’s just kind of beautiful to me.

Right. We’ve scene these characters so intertwined the first few episodes, so how are they going to be dealing with the fallout from Nick’s death? Are they going to take a step back a little bit from magic and be like, “Maybe we should be a little more careful at this?”
AM: I think they’re all going to react differently and that’s what’s so fun about our circle is that they’re almost never going to have the same opinion as one another, even with tragedy. And in this next episode, they way they deal with death is going to vary dramatically from person to person. Some people will deal with it the way we expect people to deal with it and others will deal with it completely inappropriately. And similarly, I think [as they] continue with the circle, the idea of responsibility and what their power means and how it should be used becomes very, very different in light of Nick’s death, because of Nick’s death but, you know, it will change the way they see each other in the circle for sure.

And obviously Chris Zylka is joining the show in tonight’s episode. He’s playing Nick’s brother, Jake, correct?
AM: Yes.

Is there going to be talk about whether they can rebind the circle now that there’s another family member of Nick’s in town?
AM: Yeah, it’s definitely brought up. I mean, without Nick, they are broken, they’re weaker and [Jake] is there for Nick’s funeral, but they — and we — don’t know if he’s a witch or if he knows they’re witches or anything. All we know is that they hate him because when he was here two years ago, he was a complete jerk and used to piss everyone in the circle off except for Cassie who didn’t know him at the time.

It sounds like there’s going to be a little triangle brewing with his character, Cassie and Faye…
AM: Yeah, it’s a show about a circle, but it’s completely…it’s comprised of a lot of triangles and Jake comes in and sort of sets off two triangles immediately. One is between Cassie, him and Faye because before he left, we find out that he and Faye had a really intense relationship that ended very badly for Faye, who’s been harboring a grudge for two years and been planning the perfect outfit to wear when she finally gets the chance to confront him — which happens in a time and place that she’s not expecting.

But he responds to Cassie for reasons we don’t totally understand but they [have] this link because both their parents have passed away and she’s the only one who sees him for who he is now and he is telling us and everyone else that he’s not the same guy he was two years ago. And it’s not easy for the rest of them to believe that but Cassie doesn’t know who he was two years ago so she’s kind of just taking him for who he is now and it makes their relationship special. [Laughs] And that specialness makes Faye very angry. And additionally, you know, Adam — who’s trying desperately trying to put Cassie out of his mind and in episode five was making pretty great strides with Diana, who’s really trying to win him back — seeing Cassie respond to Jake in a way that she does is going to be a huge problem for him and sort of ignite things that shouldn’t be ignited.

Literally ignite or figuratively ignite? Because with this show, we need to make sure.
AM: [Laughs] On this show it’s hard, but in this case, figuratively.

Okay, just wanted to make sure. You know, we’ve seen what their chemistry can do.
AM: Yep, no, it’s true. It’s a good question. Jake and Cassie’s chemistry will ignite all kinds of other things, but that will have to wait until episode seven.

There’s gonna be fun stuff coming for the fans. Before I let you go, obviously Charles was responsible for Nick’s death. How is that going to play out and will the kids be kind of wondering whether Nick died of such natural causes in the near future?
AM: Yes, they will be wondering that and how it [impacts] Charles is really significant to his character. Because you know, he and Dawn believe that they’re at the same place with this plan of theirs and what this death will do is kind of shine a light on their relationship and show the tremendous differences between them. He reacts to Nick’s death in a very different way from Dawn and it’s gonna cause a lot of problems between the two of them.

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Make sure to check back with Give Me My Remote later today for another THE SECRET CIRCLE interview!

Related:

THE SECRET CIRCLE: Andrew Miller Talks About Fan Reaction to the Big Death
THE SECRET CIRCLE: Britt Robertson, Thomas Dekker, Phoebe Tonkin and Shelley Hennig Tease What’s to Come
THE SECRET CIRCLE: Britt Robertson, Thomas Dekker, Phoebe Tonkin and Shelley Hennig Preview ‘Heather’

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