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Does Mrs. Davis Have a Happy Ending? Not For JQ, Chris Diamantopoulos Says
Chris Diamantopoulos, who plays the former leader of the Resistance on the Peacock show, says JQ's ending isn't so rosy.
After eight of the most bonkers episodes of television in recent memory, Mrs. Davis has come to an end. The finale of the Peacock series is now streaming, and it brings the story of Sister Simone’s quest for the Holy Grail in an attempt to destroy the titular, world-dominating benevolent A.I., to a close. And — hooray! — it’s a happy ending. Well, maybe not for one character. And maybe not at all, as Chris Diamantopoulos, who plays the suspender-clad Resistance leader JQ, told SYFY WIRE.
Warning: This post contains spoilers for all of Mrs. Davis.
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JQ only appears in one scene of the finale, which otherwise is primarily about Simone’s final efforts to destroy the Grail and Mrs. Davis, and Wiley’s reckoning with his expiration date. But, Simone does destroy the Grail, saying goodbye to her husband Jay (who is Jesus) in the process. True to her word, Mrs. Davis shuts herself down, and she and Wiley (who was not killed) ride off together.
As for JQ, a former elite-level poker player who lost everything he cared about when Mrs. Davis made his skills obsolete? “He's burnt out. It looks like he's, he hasn't slept for days, and he just looks absolutely terrible,” Diamantopoulos explained. In Episode 7, Wiley lied to JQ and the rest of the resistance, telling them that they needed to blow up the Resistance’s secret base headquarters that they’d worked so hard to create. Mrs. Davis was hiding in their servers, he said. But, he was lying, and after JQ pressed the trigger, Wiley vanished. He had knowingly done Mrs. Davis’ bidding in taking out the Resistance, but he did it in order to free Wiley and his fellow freedom fighters from their seemingly quixotic quest. It was, in a way, an act of mercy and love, but JQ doesn’t see it that way.
“JQ was betrayed by the man he loved. Wiley loved him,” Diamantopoulos continued. “I don't know that it was romantic love. Maybe JQ doesn't even know what it was, but he loved Wiley. Wiley was everything to him. And he gets betrayed by Wiley. He doesn't do it in a nefarious way. He actually does it to preserve and save JQ. There's almost a benevolence to what Wiley does, but he does betray him.”
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But, there’s a chance of a grace note for JQ at the episode’s end. He’s at a rinky-dink backdoor poker place, but he gets a surge of life back in him when he sees all of the other players at the table’s phones buzz. Mrs. Davis has been shut down. With the entity that essentially took away the one thing that gave his life meaning no longer in the picture, JQ’s back in the game.
“He goes all in, and we don't really know what happens. But, It's just this sort of neat little moment there,” Diamantopoulos said, though he has doubts about JQ’s long-term future, even with poker back in his life.
“JQ would have a very, very good reason to resurface his anger and vengeance. So I don't think it's a very happy ending for him,” he said. “I do think it's a pretty darn happy ending for Simone and Wiley — although that really only depends on if Mrs. Davis is in fact completely shut down.”
Ah yes, that’s the million-dollar question. The last shot of the series shows a kitschy little windmill near the donut shop Simone frequents start to turn again. Earlier in the episode, Mrs. Davis explained that the formerly broken windmill was spinning again because she was having her users take shifts on a stationary bike. That it’s turning again either means the cyclist is back at the pedals of his own accord, or that Mrs. Davis didn’t actually shut down.
“There's the question of, you know, or has she?” Diamantopoulos teased. “Or, has she simply decided to come out a different way?”
He didn't provide an answer. If you watched The Leftovers or Watchmen, you know that Mrs. Davis’ co-creator Damon Lindelof loves an open-ended finale. What exactly happened to Mrs. Davis remains an intentional bit of mystery, as does JQ’s ultimate fate — even if Diamantopoulos is a little pessimistic on that front.
All eight episodes of Mrs. Davis are now streaming on Peacock.
