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'Homecoming' Director On Walter Cruz's Dark, Deadly Turn in Season 2

“He’s being deeply haunted by something,” director Kyle Patrick Alvarez tells TheWrap

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(The following story contains spoilers for the entire second of Amazon Prime’s “Homecoming”)

“Homecoming” ends its second season much less ambiguously than the Sam Esmail-directed freshman run. And in much, much deadlier fashion, thanks to Walter Cruz (Stephan James).

It turns out Cruz wasn’t the mellowed out, seemingly-happy guy that Heidi Bergman (Julia Roberts) believed him to be when she caught up with him in that diner three years after he was experimented on at the Homecoming facility. It turns out, according to director Kyle Patrick Alvarez, that having parts of your mind wiped has some long-term consequences, especially when you find out who is responsible.

“I always saw and felt Heidi understood that Walter had become this idealistic version of himself. That he was here, he was in his happy place in a way,” Alvarez told TheWrap. “I think what the season does, it says ‘No, he’s being deeply haunted by something and it’s driving him to a really dark and angry place.'”

That “angry place” manifests itself in the finale, when Walter, with the help of pushed-out Geist Group founder Leonard Geist, commits mass murder after serving everyone poison. That included Alex/Jackie’s (Janelle Monae) girlfriend Audrey Temple (Hong Chau), as well as Francine Bunda (Joan Cusack).

Alvarez said it was the combination of Walter not only figuring out why he couldn’t remember most of his service time — he is led to believe it’s because of brain surgery — but also that “Jackie” was going to do it to him again. And then he met with Leonard at his farm, who told him that Geist was going to start dosing others with this memory-loss drug (remember, the Homecoming project had long-been shut down by this point). That confluence of events led Walter to think “we have an emergency we need to do something about.”

And since Leonard, who had effectively been pushed out of his own company (he wanted to destroy the berries that cause the memory-loss effect), was “already off the deep end,” that’s how you get to an “alchemy where you can believe that these people would take some dire actions and somewhat even, arguably, absurdist actions to handle the situation,” Alvarez explains.

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Summer is less than a month away and with everyone staying at home as much as possible to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we’re imagining your plans for June, July and August have more to do with TV listings than usual. Luckily, dozens of new and returning shows are premiering this summer, even though there are fewer than usual due to pandemic-forced production shutdowns. But the list still includes some big titles like “The Twilight Zone” and “The Umbrella Academy,” plus original shows for upcoming streaming services HBO Max and Peacock. Click through TheWrap’s gallery to see which series will be premiering this summer and when.HBO/Disney+/We TV/CBS All Access
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Series: “NOS4A2”    Net: AMC/BBC America    Premiere Date: Sunday, June 21   Time: 9 p.m.AMC
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Series: “Yellowstone”    Net: Paramount Network    Premiere Date: Sunday, June 21    Time: 9 p.m.Paramount Network
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Series:  “The Twilight Zone”    Net: CBS All Access   Premiere Date: Thursday, June 25    Time: N/ACBS All Access
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Series:  “Black Monday”   Net: Showtime   Premiere Date:   Sunday, June 28  Time: 8 p.m.Showtime
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Series:  “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark”    Net: HBO    Premiere Date:  Sunday, June 28   Time: 10 p.m.HBO
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Series:  “Marriage Boot Camp”    Net: We TV    Premiere Date: Thursday, July 2    Time: 9 p.m.We TV
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Series:  “The Baby-Sitters Club”    Net: Netflix    Premiere Date: Friday, July 3    Time: N/ANetflix
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Series:  “Hanna”    Net: Amazon Prime Video    Premiere Date:  Friday, July 3   Time: N/AAmazon Prime Video
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Series:  “Tough as Nails”    Net: CBS    Premiere Date: Wednesday, July 8     Time: 9 p.m.CBS
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Series:  “Close Enough”    Net: HBO Max    Premiere Date:  Thursday, July 9      Time: N/AHBO Max
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Series:  “Expecting Amy”   Net: HBO Max    Premiere Date:  Thursday, July 9     Time: N/AHBO Max
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Series:  “Greatness Code”    Net: Apple TV+    Premiere Date:    Friday, July 10     Time: N/AApple TV+
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Series:  "Little Voice"    Net: Apple TV+    Premiere Date:    Friday, July 10     Time: N/AApple TV+
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Series:  “P-Valley”    Net: Starz    Premiere Date: Sunday, July 12     Time: 8 p.m.Starz
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Series:  “Brave New World”    Net: Peacock    Premiere Date:     Wednesday, July 15    Time: N/APeacock
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Series:  “The Capture”    Net: Peacock    Premiere Date:   Wednesday, July 15    Time: N/APeacock
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Series:  “In Deep With Ryan Lochte”    Net: Peacock     Premiere Date:  Wednesday, July 15    Time: N/APeacock
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Series:  “Intelligence”    Net: Peacock    Premiere Date: Wednesday, July 15    Time: N/APeacock
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Series:  “The House of Ho”  Net: HBO Max    Premiere Date:   Thursday, July 16   Time: N/AHBO Max
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Series:  “Room 104”     Net: HBO     Premiere Date:     Friday, July 24    Time: 11 p.m.HBO
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Series:  "The Alienist: Angel of Darkness"    Net:  TNT    Premiere Date: Sunday, July 26     Time: 9 p.m.TNT
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Series:  “The Dog House"   Net: HBO Max     Premiere Date: Thursday, July 30    Time: N/AHBO Max
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Series:   “The Frayed”   Net: HBO Max    Premiere Date:  Thursday, July 30    Time: N/AHBO Max
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Series:  “Muppets Now”     Net: Disney+     Premiere Date: Friday, July 31     Time: N/ADisney+
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Series:  “The Umbrella Academy”     Net: Netflix     Premiere Date: Friday, July 31    Time: N/ANetflix
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Series:  "Selling Sunset"    Net:  Netflix    Premiere Date: Friday, Aug. 7     Time: N/ANetflix
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Series:  “The Good Lord Bird”     Net: Showtime     Premiere Date: Sunday, Aug. 9     Time: 10 p.m.Showtime
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Series:  “Love Fraud”     Net: Showtime     Premiere Date: Sunday, Aug. 30   Time: 9 p.m.Showtime
Summer TV 2020: Premiere Dates for New and Returning Shows (Photos)
Here’s when 34 broadcast, cable and streaming series debut and come back
View In Gallery