‘The Irrational’: Ron Canada Talks ‘Emotionally Difficult’ Alec and Father Scene, Potential Return

Ron Canada as Eli Mercer, Jesse L. Martin as Alec Mercer — 'The Irrational' Season 2 Episode 11
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NBC

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Irrational Season 2 Episode 11 “Ghost Ship.”]

Thanks to a case, Alec (Jesse L. Martin) and his dad Eli (Ron Canada) are able to get very honest with one another — and it leaves their relationship in a much better place by the end of the latest episode of The Irrational.

When Alec heads to his hometown to help with a case, he calls his father out on not visiting him in the hospital after the bombing that left him scarred. Though Eli doesn’t defend himself at first, at the end, he reveals why he wasn’t there: He’d relapsed. He’d been five years sober the day he got that call, and the thought of his son suffering broke him. Cops pulled him out of the gutter, took him to detox, and he never drank again. He never told anyone until now. Then, Alec asks his father if he’d get rid of scars like his if he could. (He’d figured his father would think he should get the surgery.) To his surprise, Eli tells him to do what makes him happy and that people with the most scars have the biggest hearts.

Below, Canada takes us inside filming those two key father-son scenes and shares if we’ll see him again.

There are two very significant scenes for father and son: first, Alec calling Eli out on not being at the hospital after the bombing, and then Eli’s confession about relapsing. Talk about filming those.

Ron Canada: The first one was shot in the set of my home, and when we get into it, what’s bubbling under the surface, that’s when we finally locked into what the contention, what our issues are, what his issues are with me. And it was, as I said, when you’re working with a great actor, no matter how difficult the material is, because you’re both after the same, you’re both pursuing your objectives in a scene and you’re both after quality and you’re both locked into each other, then as difficult as it may be emotionally, it becomes easy to do. It got very quiet in there on the set. And when you’re doing that kind of work and it’s going, you are aware of it because you can hear the proverbial pin drop when you’re working. And that’s the way it was in that first scene where Jesse, without being over the top in that truthful way that he has, addresses his grievances against his dad. The meat of the conflict between them is expressed in that scene.

And then the last scene out on the beautiful shoreline in Vancouver where we shot, it had a great sense of resolution to it, at least from my character’s point of view. And I think it was the thing that maybe distinguishes this show from a lot of procedurals and whodunnits is there’s a deep — it always an attempt to find the human relationships in every episode that I’ve been able to watch. So it was gratifying. And again, when you have a great dance partner, it’s easy, even though the material itself emotionally is difficult.

Do you think Eli would’ve ever told Alec why he wasn’t at the hospital if he hadn’t been pushed by their fight earlier in the episode? Because he said he never told anyone until then.

No, I think that circumstances worked out. So that — but let me think about that because sometimes, as the show says, we have irrational motivations that we don’t understand. So ostensibly I get my son, the expert, down to help solve this crime, but I’m not sure that — on some subconscious level, Eli’s certainly looking to reconcile. But some part of him doesn’t want to come clean, even though consciously that may not be on his agenda. But the name of the show and the part of the theme of the show is the irrational things that motivate us.

How do you think Eli and Alec’s relationship is going forward? Did it feel like the start of a new chapter at the end of the episode to you?

Absolutely. The best stories of all of dramatic literature and comedy even are about renewal, redemptive love. That is the theme. That’s what makes Shakespeare great. That’s what makes all the great storytellers work, is the ones that last the test of time usually have an element — not always, I mean, there is The Sopranos — of redemptive love. That always makes for a good story. And I think what’s great about this episode for me is that father and son redeem their relationship by coming clean with each other and being open to each other’s humanity and not falling into, “And I’m the father” and “I don’t listen to you, dad.” I mean, just staying locked in that position. They grow. And again, that seems to be part of the whole arc of the series with Jesse’s character, with Alec. Alec, who’s challenged as we know by his injuries and he’s growing, he’s seeking growth all the time and encouraging others to grow because, after all, he is a psychologist.

Will we see you again after this episode this season?

I have no idea. Forty-seven years or so, you can see all the guest stars on the resume. So I’m a “have gun will travel” guy as a lot of character guys are and my contemporaries and peers who do the same kinds of things that I do, create context for the lead characters. As I like to say, they’re the jewels and we’re the setting. And that’s not in my hands. I try to go to work and do the best I can on that episode… because the character’s still alive, he could be brought back. But I’ve learned not to go beyond my guest star role in a given episode unless it’s a contractual thing that’s already been arranged. So wouldn’t mind. Love Canada. Love Vancouver. But it is what it is.

The Irrational, Tuesdays, 10/9c, NBC

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