SPOILER ALERT: This text accommodates major spoilers from the Season 1 finale of “Teacup,” now streaming on Peacock.
Everyone remembers that infamous teacup scene from Jordan Peele’s “Get Out.” Missy stirs her cup of tea and Chris experiences a surrealist body hypnosis into “the sunken place.” Peacock’s latest horror series, aptly titled “Teacup,” could also be even creepier. On this show, probably the most terrifying threat shouldn’t be any singular person or group, but fairly, the monsters inside us.
Produced by James Wan under his Atomic Monster banner, the series from creator Ian McCulloch (“Yellowstone”) is loosely based on Robert R. McCammon’s bestselling novel “Stinger.” “Teacup,” which concluded its first season on Oct. 31, follows a gaggle of neighbors in rural Georgia who unite within the face of a mysterious presence endangering their community and an assassin-like host taking control of their bodies.
The show revolves across the Chenoweth family: James (Scott Speedman), Maggie (Yvonne Strahovski) and their two children, Meryl (Émilie Bierre) and Arlo (Caleb Dolden). Once we meet these characters, James and Maggie’s marriage is reeling from the invention that he has been having an affair.
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Shortly after, a horse is found mysteriously dripping blood across its face; Arlo ventures into the woods and returns, modified, speaking concerning the danger that lies ahead; a stranger in a gas mask spray-paints a blue line across town and offers warnings through cryptic messages on a whiteboard. As these developments intensify, the Chenoweth clan is forced to shelter with their neighbors. This just so happens to be the family of the very woman James’ infidelity occurred with, resulting in palpable tension.
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“We desired to drop people right in the course of that situation,” McCulloch says. “The concept Maggie knows, but she doesn’t know who with — and who’s the worst person you’re bringing into their environment, but the lady who [her husband] was having an affair with?”
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The group must work together to learn concerning the ominous presence affecting their community. Nonetheless, since the “assassin” can possess anyone at any given moment, the lines quickly blur between who’s telling the reality and who’s searching for to kill those around them. By the season finale, nearly every character has turned on one another, struggling to discover whether anyone will be trusted.
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When the assassin enters Meryl within the finale, her parents successfully expel the creature from their daughter’s body, just for it to decide on her father as its next victim. James, influenced by the assassin, attacks Maggie, who stabs him within the leg with a knife. When he dislodges the knife and attempts to strike her again, James falls right into a large freezer container. “We don’t need to win. We just need to trap you,” Maggie tells her husband before closing the lid and sealing him in. James tries screaming and pushing the container open, drawing the eye of others, who stack pillows over the container to forestall his escape.
Meryl is the one character who protests the remainder of the group’s decision. “He’ll die, mom. He’ll die,” she says as her mother restrains her and the container stops shaking, signaling her father’s death. The scene ends with the remaining members of the Chenoweth clan: Maggie, Meryl and Arlo sobbing as they embrace one another and fall to the bottom.
“It was intense and emotional and wild,” Speedman says of his character’s fate within the finale. “I just feel like that is going to be a crazy ride — really satisfying at a genre level, and an emotional level.”
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McCulloch adds that James’ death felt satisfying from a storytelling perspective, due to the narrative arc his character undergoes throughout Season 1. He details how James becomes proactive as a father and husband, together with his journey tied to creating up for his past mistakes and redeeming himself within the eyes of his family.
“His redemption story ends before he becomes assassin,” McCulloch says. “By the point we get to Episode 8, I believe James has grown as much as he’s going to grow.”
“[Ian McCulloch] really had a particular vision,” Strahovski says. “He desired to lean into the character of it, and the relationships.”
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McCulloch says although members of the writers’ room made the case for James’ survival, the showrunner at all times knew the character was going to die within the finale.
“James’s story is a redemption arc,” McCulloch says. “Scott did a lot work over the course of the season to win people over and to turn out to be a personality that you simply cared about. I believe then taking that character away, to me, is a extremely good technique to keep your audience on their toes.”
