In the penultimate episode of season 1 of Boston Blue, airing Friday, May 15th on CBS, Mae (Gloria Reuben) tells Lena (Sonequa Martin-Green) the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about her father. The two sit in the interrogation room for this crucial conversation (Mae realizes the irony), and Lena leaves with a little more faith in her mother. But while things are peaceful at home for the Boston district attorney, work pressure mounts as Mae faces a rival in her re-election campaign. Warning: Spoilers for episode 19 of season 1 of Boston Blue are present.
The May 1st episode of Boston Blue (Episode 17) reveals that Erik King is actually Lena’s biological father, Chris Williams, and her half-sister, Kristina Reed (Alisha Wainwright), whom Lena never knew. Mae knows about Kristina, but never tells Lena. She also never tells Lena that her father wanted a relationship with her, but Mae doesn’t allow it. Episode 19 reveals that Mae is rebuilding her life with her late husband, Ben, and teenage Lena is just getting used to Ben as her father when Chris reappears. Chris is also in a new relationship and is expecting a daughter, Kristina. A decision has been made to keep the families of the two daughters a secret.
Lena strongly disagreed with her mother’s decision and wished she had known about her dad and sister sooner. Reuben tells TV Insider that Lena didn’t change Mae’s mind about whether she made the right choice back then.
“I don’t think there’s any changing Mae’s mind at all because she truly believed that she did the right thing at that time,” Reuben explains. “Because Lena’s father, he was incarcerated and he was in service overseas. When they did reconnect, he was married and expecting [Kristina]. It was a mutual decision for them to just go on individually with their own lives.”
“Now, it doesn’t mean that Mae doesn’t think back and wonder, ‘Well, gosh, what if I did make the decision to allow Chris?’ But what would that look like?” Reuben continues. “It’s a rabbit hole we all can go down when we question choices that we made as younger people in such difficult, challenging situations. Yet at the same time, I feel very strongly that Mae really felt it was the right thing to do for her daughter, and also, Mae had met the man who was to become her husband, and Lena was just beginning to think of this man, Ben, as her father. So, Mae had anticipated a lot more chaos than calm if the full truth had come out at that time.”
In previous episodes, Mae had plenty of opportunities to tell Lena all the details about her father, but what Reuben loved about this storyline was how Mae’s past with her mother complicated things. Earlier this season, Mae learned the life-changing truth that her mother had committed suicide, not died in a car accident as she had believed since childhood. Her sister, Jill (Holly Robinson Peete), knew the truth because she was the one who found their mother’s body. Jill and their father, Pastor Peters (Ernie Hudson), had lied to protect Mae for years, but the truth was accidentally revealed. Mae inadvertently allowed the same thing to happen to her daughter when it came to Kristina.
Mae was willing to tell Lena the truth earlier when she came asking about her dad, but the weight of the truth about Mae’s mother was too much to carry that day.
“Right around that time of Mae finding out the truth about how her mother died, Mae’s daughter comes to her and says, ‘Tell me about the real truth about my father,’” Reuben explains. “She literally says, ‘Trust me, I will tell you, but I can’t tonight. I can’t.’ She just didn’t have enough in the tank to hit another major life decision, and the ramifications that the full truth of it would have on her daughter and on their relationship.”
Reuben loves that this issue is “complex,” but also that Mae tells her the truth matter-of-factly when it’s finally time.
“Just acknowledging and saying the truth is the most respectful thing to do,” Reuben says. “Lena is an adult woman. She can make her choices as she sees fit. She might not like Mae or might hold grudges. Mae has no control over that.”
It was time for Mae to let go of the burden of the secret, because it was impacting her relationship with her family too much.
“In my perspective on things, a secret is wrapped in shame in one way or another,” Reuben explains. “I find shame, no matter the situation or the circumstance, it’s corrosive. It’s like a rust that eats away at things in one way or another. There’s a freedom in telling [the truth].”
Mae’s commitment to truth is demonstrated through her daily work. In this episode, she directs a lawyer in her office to charge a teenager with manslaughter instead of murder. This lawyer, played by Ward Horton from The Gilded Age, defies her instructions and files a murder charge anyway. This is a clever opening move in a campaign to oust Mae from her position as prosecutor.
Reuben explains the importance of having a character like Mae on broadcast television, a powerful woman who consistently displays a commitment to criminal justice reform.
“I think it’s vital for this role to be happening right now for [reasons of] criminal justice and also for other aspects of the portrayal of a woman who is a full-on adult woman,” Reuben says. “Who is District Attorney, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, who is multiracial, multi-religious, Baptist and Jewish. She converted to Judaism for her husband, her deceased husband. She is fit and fierce and funny and sexy. She is at the beginning of a new stage in her life, personally and professionally. She is a mother of three grown children. And she is also her own person. So I think it’s absolutely fantastic.”
“I’m so glad that I was asked to do this role,” she continues, “because I’m all those things as well, except I’m not a mother and I’m not a district attorney, but the other aspects of the chapter in my life I’m embarking upon. And I like that a lot.”
Will we see Mae join the campaign in Boston Blue season 2 as she faces a rival in the election, or will this conflict be resolved in the episode next weekend? Reuben smiled and joked, “Stay tuned.”
Boston Blue, Season 1 Finale, Friday, May 22, 10/9c, CBS