When we last saw Jack Porter, he was being hauled off to the police station for questioning about Charlotte’s kidnapping. When Revenge Season 4 premieres, he’ll be wearing a uniform, but instead of prison orange, he’ll be in cop blues.
Nick Wechsler discusses Jack’s new career, doomed relationship with Margaux and the future of Jack’s relationship with Emily. Read on for edited excerpts of our conversation.
Revenge Season 4 Premiere Photos: Emily’s Party and Victoria’s New Advantage
When we last saw Jack he was being hauled off for Charlotte’s kidnapping. Where do we find him when the season begins?
Photos have leaked of me as a cop. I’m not just a stripper. He’s become a cop this season. He wasn’t charged with the crime Charlotte accused him of. I think all of it just added up to him being like, “Fuck this. I want to take control of my destiny. I’m sick of people getting away with hurting the people I love and other people, just people in general, that there’s people getting away with awful injustice in the world and I don’t have any power to really do anything about it.” So he decides to become a police officer.
This puts him both at odds with Emily with what she does. Though she’s completed her revenge, so presumably she doesn’t need to do it now, but my guess is she’ll have to again. So she’ll get drawn back into some stuff, but it puts him a little bit at odds with her but also means he sort of — it’s also kind of his way of doing what she was doing. All be it a little late. [laughs]
He could have become a cop when it would have helped him take down Grayson and helped him take down the people who fucked him over. But, he’s doing kind of — he’s trying to right wrongs. He’s trying to create repercussions for bad people through the season. He just wants to do it legally.
Does he have specific people who he’s targeting and going after? Or is it more that he’s trying to correct injustices in general?
In general. I think when he started, it would be if someone hurt him or he’d have a wall of people at his back, but he doesn’t have the legal right to respond with a certain amount of force. I think from this point it’s for justice in general.
What does this mean for the Stowaway? With his father and brother gone, is he giving up the Stowaway?
He’s not giving it up. It’s still there. That place was never his dream exactly anyway. He took it over because his dad passed away and he needed to take care of his brother. It’s always been sort of in and out of profitability. He’s keeping it.
The idea of Jack becoming a cop, sort of the desire of the writers and frankly myself to kind of get Jack out from behind the bar. His job as a cop is eventually going to completely take that over. The bar will be less and less of an issue as the show goes on.
[Video] Revenge Season 4 Trailer: Victoria Tells Her Side of the Story
Jack’s been through a lot with Emily. Now that he’s a cop, you mentioned their relationship may be strained, what’s the tone of their relationship? Is there any romantic connection left or has that been killed?
No, there’s a romantic connection left. I think on his end there is. I don’t think currently there is on her end at all. I think there will always be on his end. Even when he was furious with her all last season, he was trying to move on with this new girl. …
My take on that is that even his relationship with Margaux was in a roundabout way about his feelings for Emily. It was actually that he was trying desperately– he was moving really fast with her. He asked her to move in with him right away. He was just kinda nuts and then it just fell apart. Frankly, there was an incompatibility that he didn’t see and he’s like, “Oh, shit. I guess I didn’t know this about you and I should have if I was going to ask you to move in with me.”
My take is that he was rushing and sort of fast tracking a relationship with someone else because he was trying desperately to get past Emily cause it’s like, “Look, I’m crazy about you. I’m crazy about Emily, but I don’t want to be because she’s already destroyed my life and frankly I still have feelings for her, but she chooses this other path. I don’t want to keep putting it on the line and have her choose the other thing over me again and again and again. I just need to find someone else.”
So he tried and it didn’t work. And now that the anger as surfaced, it did last season when he almost lost her. When she almost died from then on the switch was flipped to like I’m not mad at you anymore. Nothing clears up a grudge like almost losing someone. So that’s that and then she lost Aiden and now he’s like, “I’m not going — I’m especially not going to be with her. now.”
So all the anger has faded and now he’s left with, “Oh fuck, you’re that girl I’ve always wanted.” We don’t see him talking about that much or anything, but that’s where he’s at. She’s just too stuck on Aiden being just being this huge love and presence in her life — well, absence now, this huge hole in her heart. He’s just giving her whatever room she needs and kind of feels like what is the chance that she’s ever going to love me again?
Will we get to see any Jack and Nolan in the first few episodes?
I feel like we do surprisingly few scenes together this season, but there are a couple. There’s one in a bar and we’re just hanging out talking and lamenting getting drawn back into things, back into Emily’s shit and devising a plan on how to handle it. We have one or two little scenes here and there.
We could always use more. … It’s funny. You would think there would be more given that Jack’s a bit more involved now that I’m getting out from behind the bar and I’m not just a bartender. I can be more involved in the storylines, but I’m working more with — they created a role for Brian Hallisay, who’s playing my partner. So most of my scenes are with him, my cop partner.
On hope for Jack and Emily
There really is a change in tone [this season]. We’re seeing the same characters that we know and love in a new light. Jack’s path is most clearly different this season. He’s trying to empower himself.
At the risk of sounding crass, I know that Aiden just passed, but obviously this being television, melodrama, we’re slowing building back up to reconnecting Jack and Emily. Currently the only obstacle is her devastation over Aiden. If I was watching the show from the beginning, which I have for work purposes, that would be the most significantly thing that could hook people. It’s the question I get the most. When are they going to get together?
Revenge airs Sundays at 10pm ET on ABC.
(Image courtesy of ABC.)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Contributing Editor and Writer for Collider, BuddyTV, TV Fanatic, CliqueClack, and other publications. TV criticism, reviews, interviews with actors and producers, and other related content. Founder of TV Diehard.
