In the third episode of Bloodline, the sprawling story focuses on Linda Cardellini’s conflicted character, Meg Rayburn (right), with an ominous flash-forward that seemingly places her at the helm of a mysterious dark event.Saeed Adyani
Linda Cardellini has her own name for the third episode of her Netflix drama Bloodline.
The Megisode.
That's when the sprawling story focuses on her conflicted character, Meg Rayburn, with an ominous flash-forward that seemingly places her at the helm of a mysterious dark event.
The unknown tragedy is teased from the opening lines of the searing family drama, when older brother John (played by Kyle Chandler) intones in a voice-over: "Something is going to go terribly wrong."
Viewers who haven't progressed much further may want to stop reading here, since Cardellini notes that all assumptions about Meg start to be dispelled as the episode unfolds.
Hence the nickname.
"That's [why] I call episode 3 the Megisode," Cardellini says laughing.
"Meg's the youngest, her father describes her as the sunshine of the family, which I think from the outside, that's what she appears to be – somebody who sort of keeps an optimistic eye on everything.
"But I think that she actually has a lot more going on than that and I think because of other people's expectations she hasn't quite understood her own expectations of her own feelings about herself and what she wants to do and her place in the world."
Indeed, there is turmoil brewing in Meg's professional and personal lives: She's disregarded her father's instructions on how to handle his will, it turns out her affair with a client is just the latest in a lifelong string of rotating men, and she's haunted by a here-to-fore unmentioned fifth Rayburn child.
And her allegiance to black sheep Danny – the eldest brother whose sudden return home seems to set each character down a disastrous path – is tested when he threatens to blow up her relationship with boyfriend Marco.
"Which I think is really telling of her character and of Danny's character – that she's the one who wants to give him a chance and he turns on her first," says the versatile actress, whose other roles include Mad Men, ER, and in the short-lived cult favourite Freaks and Geeks.
Secrets abound, and Cardellini says that's at the heart of this clan's bitter dysfunction.
Set in the sweltering Florida Keys, the psychological thriller is rife with tensions both immediate and long-simmering, not the least of which come from the Rayburn matriarch and patriarch, played by Sissy Spacek and Sam Shepard.
"The lies are what are decaying the family. It turns out to be the one thing that can erode what they have."
Cardellini says she's loving the show's slow burn, noting that could only be possible with a 13-episode commitment from Netflix. The series debuted March 20.