‘Countdown’: Jessica Camacho Says Oliveras Is Just Thinking About Surviving After Finale Cliffhanger

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Countdown Season 1 finale, “Your People Are in Danger.”]

“I have to survive this.” That’s what’s going through Oliveras’ mind in the final moments of Countdown Season 1, according to Jessica Camacho.

Oliveras is the unfortunate member of the task force kidnapped by Todd (Grant Harvey), the sniper targeting a political official, and as the finale ends, he has her start running across a field … just like he had a dog do earlier in the season. Uh-oh!

Below, Jessica Camacho breaks down the finale and shares her hopes for Season 2. (Plus, watch Jensen Ackles talk about the finale and Season 2 here, and read what creator Derek Haas had to say about what could be next here.)

You’ve said that Oliveras craves the simplicity, but that doesn’t work for her. And that made me think of that moment when she’s looking around the kitchen at the beginning, Julio’s (Eddie Aguirre) going out for a run, and it feels like that life and even just this space isn’t really her, right?

Jessica Camacho: Yeah. Everything is just in its place. Everything is just nice and shiny and bright and organized, and everything has a place and everything is just so, and that is just not how she’s used to looking at the world. She doesn’t see through that lens. And I think she knows, this is not me. And I think that that realization starts to choke her, like a suffocating, horrible dawning where you’re like, “This is not — What am I doing? I should want this. Why don’t I?” So yeah, that kind of gnawing discomfort, we get to see her sit in that.

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But then she’s kidnapped, so more important things are going on. Talk about filming those scenes of her being kidnapped and held in the closet and then the ending.

They were so fun. [Laughs] I mean, it’s so fun to put yourself in that scenario. It would not be fun in real life, horrifying. But to kind of go through to the what if, and to play that scenario out, it’s exciting. You’re like, oh my God. As an actor, as a human, you’re like, “What would I really do? What would I really be feeling right now?” And it is terrifying. It’s terrifying. But Grant is so great, who I did those scenes with. He is such a talented, giving actor. And so, I don’t know, we just dove into the experience. I felt like the real adrenaline, you feel your survival instinct as a human. You feel in touch with it. It’s exciting to tap into that.

What’s her impression of Todd at the point of the finale as she’s running away from him? Has she gotten any sense of who this guy is that she didn’t have before just looking at what they’ve been gathering evidence wise?

I think at that point it’s about, survive. I think it’s gone beyond observations and putting the puzzle pieces together. I think at that point, it’s every cell in her body is screaming, “I must survive this. I must survive this. Survive.” So it’s a very different experience for her. It’s very real. It’s just very real.

So with that in mind, does she think she’s about to get shot in the back? Has she had any time at all to begin planning her next move?

I think she’s always kind of like, “Where do I go? What’s available to me? What resources do I have?” I think Oliveras is always trying to put a plan together. I think she’s always noticing how and what and where and what will I do. But I think in that, she’s facing this field wide open. What do you do? You run, you run, you run, you run. And yeah, at that point it’s just, “How will I survive this? Help me survive this. I have to survive this.” That’s it. I don’t know. Beyond that, I don’t know. It’s her. What’s that part of us as human beings? It’s like that survival instinct. It’s just instinct, pure animal instinct at that point.

Meachum’s (Jensen Ackles) “this is magic” little speech is kind of played off like a joke, but is that what she wants to hear from him for real?

Wouldn’t you? [Laughs] Wouldn’t you want to hear those words? I think just like her, he’s navigating these feelings, thoughts, emotions, desires, complex urges, this complexity of this thing between them. And I think just like her, he wants to say all these things and he wants to put it out there, and he’s scared. I think he’s scared. I think they’re both scared. I think this is out of their depth. This is not their wheelhouse. This is not in their list of special skills. This is navigating the complexity of vulnerability and putting your feelings out there. And it’s terrifying to them.

Elizabeth Morris / Prime

There needs to be a second season, especially after that ending. Assuming there is, what would you like to explore with Oliveras, both on and off the job, beyond obviously surviving that cliffhanger?

I’d like to see how all of this really affects her. I’d like to see more of that. I think that’s so interesting, how the things that we engage with, the real toll they take. I’d like to see that in a way that is palpable, in a way that allows people to feel less alone as they struggle with their own things, the audience members, as people are watching it.

I want to explore the difficulty of showing up in these really hard jobs and these roles, these pursuits that so few people do, that kind of a very rare kind of person is drawn to, and you justify it because in your head you’re like, “I’m on the right side of the battle lines. I believe in what I’m doing. I want to get this darkness out of the world, off the streets, away from people.” So there’s this huge sense of deep, deep purpose, but also what is the real weight of that and how does that show up in the darkness of your room when you’re alone at home? I love that kind of stuff. That stuff, to me as an actor, is the good stuff, the real struggles of that are not about the glory and the adrenaline and solving the case. What is left with you after the case is solved? What stays with you? I don’t know. I like that kind of complex stuff, so more of that would be great

Also, because she has a better support system now than she did when she was coming back from being undercover and when she had to use drugs. So the contrast of that could be fun to see.

Totally. Yeah. Maybe now it’s like, “Okay, can I come hang out with you because I don’t want to be alone?” You know how hard it would be for her to say that? When you finally realize you don’t have to necessarily navigate these things alone, but you don’t necessarily know how to show up with and for people also, and put yourself out like, “Hey, I might need some help.” I think that would be a really hard sentence for her to say, but how beautiful to get to explore that with her. That would be amazing. So yeah, more of those struggles. And also, I can’t wait to see what happens with her and Meachum. And I mean, I’m curious. I want to know.

I mean, the slow burn is so good.

The slow burn is so good. It’s so painful and you just want to get there. But it’s so good. You got to enjoy it.

But now there’s also the question of would she even be ready for a relationship like this after what she’s been going through now because of Todd?

Yeah, totally. On top of everything else, you know what I mean? It’s like how does that change her? What happens to her during that process? Does she just want to leave everything? Does she just want to say enough? I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know.

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