BWW Interviews: Ditch Davey Previews Two-Part BLACK BOX Finale
By: Matt Tamanini Jul. 24, 2014
The first season of the exciting medical drama BLACK BOX wraps up tonight with a two-hour Season Finale. Hour One is entitled "Fear," while the second is "Consequences." The episodes deal with Drs. Catherine Black (Kelly Reilly) and Ian Bickman (Ditch Davey) facing the things they fear the most; vulnerability, lose of control, and their growing feelings for each other.
Recently, I spoke with Davey about the two-hour season finale airing on ABC tonight at 8/7 CT. He told me about Dr. Bickman's multiple crisises of confidence, and what we can expect from a resolution between him and Catherine.
BWW: With everything that's happened to Dr. Bickman lately on the show, he has had a bit of a crisis of confidence. Not something that he used to.
Davey: Yea, absolutely. That was a really cool part of his character to expose towards the end of the season. You know, he starts the season and he's a very confident man, and declares on one hand that he is God, that he's that good. And then to see the decline, and to see the human behind the mask, it was a really lovely thing to be able to expose for that character; to show that human side. I think it's really scary for him, it's uncharted territory, because he's never questioned himself before, so this is a really scary moment for him.
Obviously, botching the surgery was difficult for him, but so was coming to grips with, and admitting, his feelings for Catherine. That seemed to be as much of a turning point for him personally as Joey's surgery was for him professionally.
Well, that's right. I think for Bickman, he's got such a... his way is very staged. He knows what he is, he knows what he does. He's never been good at relationships, he's always been the player, the womanizer, but he doesn't go too much deeper into that, and as soon as he does, he's in uncharted territory. Falling in love, and admitting love, that's, as you said, a turning point in his life, because up until this point, he's done whatever he can to deny all of that. Probably because he believes he's not worthy of it, so it's a pivotal moment for his character.
Someone as technically proficient as Dr. Bickman, eventually I imagine he will get his professional confidence back, will that mean that we see some renewed confidence in his personal life?
Yea, you definitely do. There's a bit of a time jump (between tonight's two episodes), I think it's about a month. So, his confidence is restored. It's funny, Catherine to him is the thing he loves so most, but is most dangerous to him. So (he tries) to put the mask back up, and patch up all of the holes, and regain his confidence again, because she completely takes the mask away from him; she sees right through it. So, yes, you see more of the old Bickman back, but in a more learned way.
What's been most interesting for me following this show is that the storylines of the characters have not gone along the traditional TV arcs. They've been a bit out there, Bickman hasn't been the typical womanizer who falls in love and becomes the romantic gooey mess that we see on other shows. So how have you seen his trajectory go over the course of the season?
Well, I think that's right. To start off when we started the series, I wanted to build him in a non-flattering way. I didn't want him to be the likeable womanizing doctor. I wanted him to be a real guy, and for some people to find him abrasive, but I wanted him to be a three-dimensional character. To set the character up like that and to go into some of those darker areas that are scary; to me that was very exciting. Rather than, as you said, the traditional player that's a likeable doctor. I think he genuinely was scared, and to play with all of that, you start to be able to expose the softer side, the darker side, the more scared character, and I found what I tapped into in the later episodes, was his little boy. The little boy that he was always trying to get away from; to be the big man, but his little boy comes out, and he does get frightened, and he does get exposed, and because he doesn't have his network of people, he has to deal with that on his own. I found that very interesting to play, and I loved the opportunity to do that.
You talk about fear and being scared, and "Fear" is not only the name of Thursday's first episode, but it is also the prevailing theme, both from the case of the week aspect, but also with Ian and Catherine. Can you tell me a little about what is going on for Dr. Bickman in the first part of the finale.
The first part is the resolution to his post-traumatic stress disorder after the surgery on his friend, and on Joey, and I think he's really trying to claw his way back out of the abyss that he is in. The post-traumatic stress, the whole idea of it, for me, I kind of think it as associated with war, but to see it in this part of the community, it was real, and I had to get my head around it. This is his war, it's his business, and it means that much to him. So, he is really trying to claw his way out of that, and he's got some added pressure from one of the nurses, Carlotta, so I think he's being put in a bit of a vice with these girls (laughs). It's probably never happened to him before. (laughs)
Yea, definitely uncharted territory for him.
Now he's being sandwiched between two formidable women.
Looking at this two-part season finale, do we get a resolution for either Catherine or Ian individually, or as a couple?
Well, touching on what you said earlier, this show doesn't go along the traditional lines. There is a resolution, and we get a version of a resolution, but it is as life is, fairly messy; so there is a resolution to the journey, but it's not, maybe, as you think it would be.
Not the traditional TV cliché, then?
No, it's not traditional. It's a Black Box version (laughs).
The two-hour Season Finale of BLACK BOX airs tonight at 8:00pm ET on ABC. For more information on BLACK BOX, visit the show's Official Website. Also, check out my previous conversations with Davey (click here) and Reilly (click here) about the first season of BLACK BOX. Do you want to see Catherine get her life together and end up with Ian? Or do you want her to get back with Will? Let me know your hopes for the finale in the comments below, or on Twitter @BWWMatt.
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