‘Mayfair Witches’: Tongayi Chirisa Teases What’s Next for Cip & Rowan

Mayfair Witches Season 1 Episode 5, “The Thrall,” changed everything for Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) and Ciprien (Tongayi Chirisa).

Lasher (Jack Huston) trapped them in a Groundhog Day-style time loop designed to make them forget Cip was dying from a fatal stab wound inflicted by Carlotta (Beth Grant). But they caught wise, and Rowan was able to barter for Cip’s safe departure from the house where he could get supernatural medical aid from Talamasca colleagues. Chirisa tells TV Insider that this dangerous adventure has brought Cip and Rowan together for good.

“Oh, it’s huge,” he tells us of Episode 5’s impact moving forward, adding with a laugh, “This is a psychological damage right here.”

“Issues of the heart are so complicated already, and everyone is doing it from a place of love,” he says. “When we do things from a place of love, where we don’t understand that our actions may actually be hurting more than helping, a lot of times we tend to realize that when it’s too late.”

Alfonso Bresciani/AMC

“With that situation in the house, and when they come out of it, they actually realize ‘OK, we are on two different paths. We want the same thing, but how to get there is completely different,'” Chirisa continues. “Intrinsically, they’re both longing for a home and a place where they can have love, but the external circumstances of how to navigate that and get one to believe one’s vision is where the conflict of interest starts to play out.”

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Rowan is new to the supernatural world, but is slowly growing confident in her abilities, which by everyone else’s treatment of her, certainly seem to be wondrous. Cip has a unique, “empathic” power of his own, as Chirisa describes it, but he also has the gift of time and experience in this realm as part of the Talamasca. His years with the agency align with how he views his own powers: control the magic, or else.

“He sees [his powers of touch] as a curse,” Chirisa shares, and he thinks Rowan should see hers as such as well. “He’s trying to have Rowan do the same thing that he’s done: control it. Don’t let it get the best of you, otherwise it will consume you. In a way, I feel that it traps him. It’s his own prison. The gift that he has, instead of really allowing it to be what it should be, he’s limiting it.”

“It’s going to be interesting to see how that’s resolved, because certainly it’s just taken a whole nother level of, ‘Do you trust me? If you trust me, let’s do it this way.’ And, you know, that’s Rowan,” he explains. “She’s like, ‘Look, I want this.’ And Cip is like, ‘Do you trust me to tell you that this thing isn’t good for you? It’s not good for us, it’s not good for your family. We need to get rid of it.’ And that emotional attachment is often very violent in the most beautiful way.”

The “it” here is Lasher, who’s magically bound to each Mayfair Designee. Chirisa hints that Cip is not the only one with powers in his own family.

Alfonso Bresciani/AMC

While we’ve met Cip’s sister, Odette (Keyara Milliner), we haven’t heard much about their mother in the series thus far. Chirisa notably brings her up, saying that how he feels about his powers are influenced by “his past and how his mom was treated,” hinting that the Talamasca may have ulterior motives when it comes to encouraging Cip to dilute his abilities.

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“The Talamasca have groomed him into this individual that has to constantly be restrained,” the actor explains. “As the Talamasca, they’re supposed to just observe and watch. And I think on some psychological level, he’s doing the same thing where he has to maintain some sort of reservation and not really, fully embrace the powers that he has.”

Given that, would Cip ever go against company orders, or is he more likely to toe the party line? He’s already shown signs of disobedience.

“That’s his internal struggle,” Chirisa replies. “Because as the story develops, there are certain things he starts to uncover about the Talamasca and what he was led to believe they are.”

“To some degree, Cip does start to take things into his own hands,” he continues, adding that “from a Talamasca point of view, it could look like he is disobeying rules or has gone rogue. But I think in the grander scheme of things, he’s trying to do what’s best in the worst of the situation from work and from a love perspective. It’s an interesting dichotomy that he faces, and he does what he can.”

Mayfair Witches, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC, Thursdays, AMC+