THE EQUALIZER Post-Mortem: Tory Kittles on Dante’s ‘Milestone Moment’ in the Season 4 Premiere

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Sunday, February 18 season premiere of THE EQUALIZER.]

The good news for THE EQUALIZER’s Mel (Liza Lapira), Harry (Adam Goldberg), and Dante (Tory Kittles): They survived Robyn’s (Queen Latifah) CIA friend-turned-accidental nemesis Michelle’s (Ilfenesh Hadera)—brutal—attempt on their lives. The bad news? Though Michelle was temporarily captured by the end of the hour, she managed to escape.

Thankfully for the entire team, one thing did go undeniably right: In the aftermath of Dante being suspended last season due to his proximity to a suspicious death, Harry was able to find video proof to clear the detective’s name…which allowed Dante to rejoin the force. (This also came after the team allowed Dante to see their HQ, AKA The Sanctum, and he got a glimpse of how the team had been doing their work for years.)

But what comes next? Kittles spoke with Give Me My Remote about what fans can expect in season 4 of the CBS drama…

Dante was finally invited into The Sanctum! What did that moment mean for you as an actor and for Dante as a character?
Since we’ve been shooting the show, I would be in the precinct, and every now and then I would run into Mel [or] McCall and I would meet outside of the precinct. And just from a behind-the-scenes point of view, all of the crew will be like, “Yeah, we’re going to The Sanctum.” And I’d be like, “The Sanctum?! I never get to go to The Sanctum.” And so, finally—finally!—I entered The Sanctum.

And I gotta say, it was a really cool feeling. And I was like, this is where Harry and Mel and McCall get down. And I just thought it was so cool to be inside of that…[for] the team to let Dante into that world, especially starting from where we began that relationship. And, now, they’ve gotten so close where they become family; they trust him and he trusts them. So being in The Sanctum was a milestone moment where it’s like, “This is how it happens.”

What was it like exploring that new set?
Well, there was so much going on with all of the different screens; it’s very easy to get distracted in The Sanctum. It’s sort of a peek into how Harry’s brain works and how he triangulates all these different forms of information. It’s like pulling from here and pulling from there. I thought what the designers did with that set, it’s incredible and it speaks to the artistic nature and their ability [along with the] showrunners in building this thing the way that they built it. It’s really a big space, too—there’s a lot going on, but you can easily get lost into the nooks and crannies of the building [on the way] into that set. So it was cool…it was a fun day, the first time I got to go inside the set.

Now that he’s been there, is he getting to go back when necessary? Or was it a one-time thing?
You know, I haven’t been back…[Joking] You think that means that they don’t like me? But we have so many other cases going on in the season.

[And even with McCall, the] two of them have to figure out what they’re going to do with this relationship. They’re gonna move forward into it, but it comes to a point where Robyn’s going to have to take a leap of faith and the both of them are going to have to make some big decisions.

Well, to jump to the Dante/Robyn relationship: He confessed his love for her (thanks to truth serum) in the finale, but they didn’t really have a chance to talk about it in the premiere. He sent her flowers during her hospital stay, but when will they talk about what he said?
We’re gonna jump right back to it in the next episode. It’s something that’s weighing on Dante—what did he say and how much did he say? Him and Harry have a conversation about it, and then he has to talk to Robyn about it. So we’re gonna get right into it pretty quickly. And then we’ll figure out where we go from there.



It’s been lovely seeing his relationship with Harry grow, too. What does it mean for Dante to be so accepted into the team?
It’s an honor to be a part of what they’re doing, but still, it’s a conflict for Dante…[in the past, he] almost loses his badge for defying one of his superiors; he puts his career in jeopardy for trying to help the team. So walking that line, it’s a tightrope for him. 

But he has a moral compass; he knows what he’s trying to do. So he knows his reasons for doing it. But he has to be very careful because he’s still operating within the system of the law.

Now that he has his job back, how does the latest suspension impact his approach to being a cop? And how will his loyalty to the team impact his desire to avoid being suspended again?
At this point in their relationship, McCall and Dante, there’s no denying the good that she does. And that’s something that makes him feel really good when he can be a part of that. The conflict does come from his obligation to his job, and his badge, and how they do things. 

So, this season, he is in the middle of, “Okay, how far can I go? Are we going to push the envelope? And does getting justice this way outweigh what it could possibly cost?”

There’s a new captain that comes in who’s sort of riding Dante; he has to deal with that this season, as well. What does it cost? And is it worth it? Is it worth it to do this? Is it worth it to do that? And I think that’s something where, more than not, he feels like what McCall and the team are doing is something that’s worth those sacrifices.

He also just survived a close call with Michelle—and she’s still out there. How much of an immediate danger is she to him? 
I think she’s very dangerous. If someone is gonna burn you up, if someone’s gonna pour kerosene on you and burn you up and you don’t catch them, it’s a good chance that they may try that again. 

She’s always lurking throughout the season. How it ends up, you’ll have to watch to find out. But, yeah, she’s a loop that needs to be closed. 

But, also… McCall understands where she’s coming from because she hears her story, she hears how she was left and how her husband died while holding her hand. There’s an empathy that comes along with that. But there’s still a line of “You’ve now tried to kill my family. And so no matter how you justify it, you tried to kill my family.” Once you’ve crossed that line, there’s no coming back from it.

From what you’ve filmed so far, what is your favorite Dante episode that’s coming up?
I know this sounds so ridiculous, but they’re all great when I get to go to work with Queen Latifah. I just love working with her. She’s an amazing person to be in a scene with; she’s always challenging me. I get to challenge her; we’re comfortable in a way that I can push her, she can push me, because we want what’s best to come out for the audience. And so we’re always sort of digging to find those little magical drops. So all of them have been really great. 

And we have such a wonderful cast: Adam Goldberg, Liza Lapira, Laya DeLeon Hayes, and Lorraine Toussaint. We get to shoot in New York City. And we have an amazing casting team of Julie Tucker and Ross Meyerson, and they bring in these incredible guest stars who come every episode and play. And then we have wonderful directors, who have great experience in episodic television that come in and play with us. 

I think one of the things about being away because of the strikes…you really are reminded of the importance of it. And it’s this whole organism of being on set. Being with our crew, everybody collectively working to make something that’s wonderful, that the audiences are responding to. We’re doing 10 million viewers per episode with the number one primetime drama with African-Americans. Just the fact that we get to do it,  to me, is the most amazing thing.

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