Parish’s Giancarlo Esposito Details That ‘Explosive’ Finale Confrontation, Teases ‘Deeper, Darker World’ for Season 2
As the proverb states: Revenge is a dish best served cold. In Sunday’s season finale of Parish, Giancarlo Esposito‘s quick-witted driver finally got some of the answers he was searching for, and yes, a bit of sweet, sweet justice, too.
Gray spent the entire six-episode run caught in the middle of the Tongai operation’s beef with fellow human trafficker Anton Valmont. In the final hour, not only did Parish track down the man responsible for his son’s death — the ex-husband of a woman running for attorney general — but he also learned that Anton helped Maddox’s killer cover up the murder. Thanks to the recording given to him by Shepherd Tongai and a little help from an old associate, Gray abducted the guilty party at gunpoint from a grief counseling group. It didn’t take long for him to squeal, confirming that his ex-wife gave him Anton’s number for help after he shot Maddox dead for trying to break into his truck.
Gray mercifully let the guy live (the man later went public with his confession), but Anton wasn’t so lucky. After following him to a junkyard and waiting for his associates to scram, an enraged Parish crashed his car into Anton’s, trapping him inside his vehicle which quickly lit on fire from the impact. “No one came for my son and they won’t come for you either,” Gray seethed before walking away and letting his enemy die in the explosion.
“I remember being disgusted with Anton because he had this flippant attitude about [Maddox’s death] and didn’t take responsibility,” Esposito tells TVLine, reflecting on the finale’s tense climax. “Part of this show is about taking responsibility for your actions and somehow owning up to what you do and what you’ve done. It’s a real theme for me. But when I look about our world, that’s rarely practiced now. We pass the buck. We put it somewhere else. We don’t take responsibility that, ‘I did that and I want to make a correction now.’
“That scene was going to become explosive with each moment that I got at him with those car hits,” he continues. “There was that anger and frustration that not only is he not telling me the truth, but he’s responsible for that loss. He’s connected to it. It created a multiple effect of sadness and excitement, and it propels Parish into a darker, deeper world. It doesn’t give him the peace that he was hoping it would, [but] it’s going to propel him into a few more seasons of trying to find out who he really is. Hopefully we will pick that up at another time.”
While the AMC crime drama hasn’t officially been renewed yet, the finale left plenty of loose threads to explore, from the mysterious “man in Chicago” to Colin working with the cops to take down the Tongais. Then, of course, there’s Shepherd, Zenzo and Shamiso’s father, who flew in from Africa to reclaim his operation and get the family’s affairs back on track. He was disappointed with his offspring’s “incompetence” and demanded to know where the man who “destroyed his family” was. If that wasn’t enough to chew on, we still don’t know the whole story behind Gray’s criminal past, which leaves the series with plenty to unravel in a potential second season.
“I love Ryan Maldonado and Eduardo Canto, our showrunners and writers,” says Esposito. “We have conversations about what Season 2 could hold ahead of a positive pickup, and we’re hopeful and inviting for that to happen. We’re talking about all of these loose ends and how we bring another very powerful season of Parish to our audience. What are the things that root and ground him, and what is he looking for? What is his next journey to learn from? What is the next thing he’s gonna get crushed by? What is the information that we don’t know? In order for him to heal his present and future, he’s got to heal his past, and he’s still not looking at that past completely because we don’t, as an audience, know all about it and his family doesn’t either.
“We want Parish to transform so that you can transform as an audience, too,” the actor adds. “We’ve got to love what he’s doing. We’ve got to love his nefarious ways and then we’ve got to hate him for it. We’ve got to see him hate himself for it. Then we’ve got see him say, ‘No, I’m better than this. My moral compass won’t let me. I take responsibility, but I can’t do that again, right? Never make the same mistake twice.’ Some other character I played said that, right?” he says with a smile, tipping his hat to his villainous Breaking Bad character, Gus Fring.
“So it’s moving into that zone, and that’s what we love about a crime drama with an, ‘Am I a good man?’ concept at its core. We want you to take this journey with Parish so that you can be encouraged and inspired to look back into your past and clean it up. He’s not ready to clean it up. He has to get in a little deeper. To layer our story with all of that in our second season creates a real boiling point for Parish that I think is necessary.”
Did Parish’s finale go out with a bang? Grade the episode and season below, then light up the comments!
Please renew Parish!!!! Such a great show!!! Giancarlo Esposito at his best!!!! Please bring it back!!!!
Show was phenomenal, intriguing and kept you on the edge of your seat. Giancarlo Esposito is an excellent actor who deserves more credit and recognition. I hope it’s renewed. The Tongsai’s are an interesting, dangerous and determined bunch..at times a bit too cruel but they keep you watching and are indeed believable.
Please renew! The storyline is one the very few of substance that isn’t predictable. The cast is refreshing and the writing/characters keep one perplexed while navigating good vs evil. I hope Nyasha doesn’t go in the police station. I’m rooting for Gray no matter what he does!
Like the show but sound quality is terrible. Can’t understand dialoque sometimes and music too loud.
Please make another season! This series was not advertised nearly enough!!! I stumbled across this and can’t get enough!!! Everyone I told about it loves it! You have to make another season!!!
Strong script and actors. Giancarlo Esposito is excellent. Riveting. Love the setting and story. And not too many episodes – kept it tight. Season 2 please!
Maybe I missed it… what happened to his wife and daughter?
This was a show I wasn’t expecting to like as much as I did. I think the critics are wrong about this one. I throughly enjoyed it for the 6 Sunday nights it was on and Giancarlo Esposito was amazing in the lead role. I’d be down watching a few seasons of Gray just f’n up everybody in his way. I hope it gets renewed. Knowing the modern day TV industry probably not, but I remain hopeful nonetheless.
🙏 praying for a renewal bc Parish was superb, kept me on the edge of my seat and I can’t wait to see what Giancarlo does with Parish!!!
Very disappointed in this series. AMC has had some Peak TV series and this is not one of them. The story is an old theme and the revenge that Parish has for his son’s death became overdone and repetitive. I have always loved Esposito and has lost some respect for his acting choice in this series. We will not be watching Season 2. We couldn’t wait for this season 1 to end.
I love Esposito! At first I didn’t think I would like it. It episodes were great with anticipation. Now I want another season to watch! Why is Esposito so dark complexion in this movie? He needs a different wife on screen (she can’t act) Her affect is FLAT! Please bring this series back! Esposito is on his A-game. Love you GIANCARLO I ALWAYS HAVE ❤️ since “Do The Right Thing “
We don’t know which of the Tongai brothers was shot in the confrontation at the end, and we don’t know if Grey’s family left of their own accord or were taken by the Chicago men. Those are big plot points to leave dangling if there is no season two.
Season 2, please!