‘Finding Carter’ Season 2 Finale: Alex Saxon Talks About ‘That’ OMG Moment

Spoiler alert! Don’t read further if you haven’t watched the Season 2 finale of Finding Carter.

A lot happened in the two-hour season finale of Finding Carter. For starters, we had another character die. Carter’s (Kathryn Prescott) terrible relationship with Jared (Jackson Rathbone) is definitely over, especially now that his brains have spilled all over the floor of the bar he tried so hard to protect and maintain. What was most shocking of all was the person responsible for the heinous crime: our lovable Zen master Max (Alex Saxon). As Saxon puts it, “There are many fractured lives by the end of the finale.” (No kidding.) Between Carter’s anxiety for feeling responsible, Ben’s (Ben Winchell) possibility of getting thrown back into the system and Taylor’s (Anna Jacoby-Heron) refusal to let Max give himself in, it’s clear there will be a lot of tension if and when the show returns.

We spoke to Saxon about Max’s interesting developments, what could happen next and if he would shave his head for the show.

How did you feel when you found out Max was the killer?
I knew there would have to be a really good reason for Max to go there. It kind of came full circle with what had happened with his mom, and Taylor having that incident at the college party, and then the interaction with his Dad having gotten out of jail. All these things lined up to this situation where an impulse could strike. He sees Carter being hurt and just reacted in a way that I guess we wouldn’t typically expect of a conscious Max.

How was it filming the scene where you smash the bottle on Jared?
It was fun because it was a new experience for me. I love stunts and I love the physical stuff. This was definitely the first time I’d ever broken a bottle on someone’s head. I’ve thrown quite a few on-screen punches, so I sort of knew how to throw the bottle in a way that it would break, without smacking the stunt actor upside the head. We only had to do it a couple different times from a couple of different angles.

Do you think Max will actually stay in jail?
I hope!

You hope so? Why?
I think there’s a reality to it. I’m speaking out of turn–I don’t write the show–as somebody who plays him, though, I think there’s a lot to be explored about what would happen if Max went to jail and went where his Dad has spent much of Max’s life: how he would interact with people in there, what it would do to him, how he would grow, how he would regress and how he would change. I’d like to think part of why Max is so empathetic to everybody around him and conscious of taking care of people and not hurting anybody is because he knows the evil, the darkness, that’s out there. Now he can actually really embrace that stuff, as opposed to always just playing in the light.

How do you think Taylor’s going to handle Max turning himself in?
She obviously doesn’t want him to go to jail and have his life shattered anymore. She’s also relatively rational and knows right from wrong, I think. There’s probably a part of her that knows that was the right thing to do. I don’t think she’s so selfish to think that she just needs to keep Max out.

And Taylor and Lori (Milena Govich) have a great moment as a result of her refusal to let him go, when she goes to see Lori in the jail cell.
If you look at what’s going on in it, Taylor’s going to say that Max can’t take the fall for this, but Lori’s there and you see her agree like, ‘Yeah I know. That’s why I’m here, that’s why I’m doing this.’ I was interested to see how that would play out because Taylor’s went there expecting some disagreement but found that Lori was really on her side.

I’m interested in Max’s previous life, like flashbacks of him living with Carter and Lori, especially why Lori’s willing to take the fall for him. There must be a lot of love there.
There’s much more left to be explored. You even saw in Season 1, with Lori coming back, she was out of sorts, but she was coming to Max to get back to Carter. Max grew up with Carter and with Lori in their house, with her as the surrogate mother.

We also had Crash (Caleb Ruminer) come back for the finale. What’s behind Max’s advice to him about being Carter’s friend?
I think Max is, for better or worse, always giving Carter the benefit of the doubt, that maybe she’s going through something, she’s confused. You can obviously see that Crash loves her. The point is getting him to hold out long enough for Carter to come to that conclusion herself.

RELATED: Finding Carter‘s Caleb Ruminer on Crash’s Return

What was the most shocking moment for you in the finale, besides Max being the murderer?
Not to be self-centered about it, but I was shocked that Max left the scene in the first place. That was the first thing that sort of threw me, that I wouldn’t have expected from him.

Well, maybe now we’ll get to see Max behind bars.
Maybe. What if he shaves his head?

Would you do that though? There would be a lot of disappointed fans.
I’m pretty game for anything. When the story calls for it, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.