The women of the hit Netflix true-crime series sat down with co-creator Ryan Murphy to share their theories about the show.
The Watcher, Netflix's hit true-crime series based on the bizarre real story about a mysterious stalker who sent cryptic letters to the new owners of a longtime Westfield, New Jersey, home, may have drawn its own conclusions about the source behind the unwanted correspondence. But in real life, the case remains unsolved, with no one held responsible for harassing the family out of moving into their dream house.
In a special roundtable hosted by co-creator Ryan Murphy, the women of the limited series share their own thoughts about who among their many, many characters may have been responsible for the letters and ideas for a hypothetical second season while Murphy reveals the series intentionally left audiences guessing because they were always getting new information about the ongoing investigation surrounding the real home.
"The interesting thing about the writing and the making of it is, you know, it's many things. It's a horror, it's a thriller, it's a story about a marriage, it's a story about friendships, but it's also something that I loved about it, which is the whodunnit aspect of it," Murphy says.
"And that to me was so interesting. When we got the rights to the [New York magazine] article, and even when we were shooting it, there would be things coming out on Reddit, where it's like, 'Here's a new suspect, here's another idea, here's another thing,'" he continues. "So, we'd be putting – it was like working on something that was alive and adding in characters."
He adds, "We would get tips, like, 'Here's another suspect.' I would get anonymous emails, 'Don't forget this suspect.' And then I would fall into the wormhole of this person. And, of course, you know, some identities have been changed as one does."
Murphy then says that by design, at the end of every episode he wanted the audience to think they had figured it out. "The person who wrote the letters, their motivation for the letters," he says, before revealing there was a cliffhanger aspect written into it.
He then turns to Naomi Watts, Jennifer Coolidge, Mia Farrow, Noma Dumezweni and Margo Martindale about who they think The Watcher actually is. "Who would you point the finger at?" he asks.
"I'd point my finger at everybody," says Martindale, who portrayed a contentious neighbor named Mo, before directly pointing at Watts, who played one-half of the Brannock couple that spent all their money buying the expensive home, and then Coolidge, who plays a superior real estate agent aptly named Karen. "I've pointed my finger at you."
When it came to filming the series, none of the cast really knew who was responsible -- even on the show. "I liked working in that way, where you don't know," Watts shares. "Once you know the rules of what it is you're doing, 'No, we don't have the ending written out for us' and 'We can't prep for this type of character and we just have to find out as we go.'"
However, Farrow, who played another suspicious resident named Pearl Winslow, adds that they weren't sure if their characters were ever "lying or manipulating or telling [the truth]." But for Martindale, "It was fun to know, 'Could we be acting?'" she shares, adding that the whole experience "was so much fun."
As for a second season, which could follow Coolidge's character after she eventually bought the house and then promptly moved out after her own scary encounter with a mysterious figure on the property, Murphy wants to know what the actress thinks about where it could go.
"So, Jennifer, how do you feel about The Watcher 2? Are you excited? The further adventures of Karen Calhoun? Don't you think she takes over the Darren Dunn agency? I think she's the boss of the town," he offers.
"I hope she gets to sleep with Darren Dunn," Coolidge replies, referring to the character played by Matthew Del Negro.
"I could make that happen," Murphy responds, before Farrow chimes in that she should "get to sleep with Darren."
"Maybe everybody sleeps with Darren Dunn and that's the show," Murphy concludes.
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