(This story contains major spoilers for the season finale of sweet pea.)

Starzthe black comedy-drama of sweet pea is based on the book series of the same name by English author CJ Skuse. But the TV series starring Ella Purnell is not so much an adaptation of the novels as a prequel detailing how its protagonist Rhiannon Lewis transforms from a meek administrative assistant who feels invisible to a calculated journalist who uses her work to The Gazette journal to keep her colleagues and law enforcement off her trail when her pent-up rage and grief leaves a string of murder victims behind.

“In the book, she really is a serial killer in her own right,” says screenwriter and executive producer Kirstie Swain. The Hollywood Reporter in the conversation below. “You don’t see any buildup on it, she’s (already) done it before. So we wanted to tell the story of what brought her to this point, what pushes her over the edge. What would happen if in the UK it was Dawn The office — but if Pam The office lashed out because she was just tired of being neglected?

The answer to that question is to kill – but only the bad guys who deserve it. At least that’s how Rhiannon justified the three murders she carried out in the first five episodes of the series. But when AJ (Calam Lynch), Rhiannon’s co-worker and the only character on the show who actually sees her, becomes her fourth victim in the shocking season finale, it reveals a new part of Rhiannon’s identity that she will now have to face. with – if the show continues.

“I think the part of Rhiannon that scares her a little bit does that,” Swain says. “So far, none of the murders have really cost him anything. They all helped her feel better about herself and her life, and helped her thrive, grow, and succeed. We needed one of these murders to really cost him.

Below, Swain talks about creating Rhiannon’s origin story, changing the characters in Skuse’s book, and the critical response to the first season while looking ahead to what the future might hold.

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How did you approach the adaptation and what are the biggest changes between the book and the series?

It was a very long process. It kind of coincided with COVID, so that’s what made it take a long time. I started reading the book, then putting it aside and just writing, looking for what I could get out of it, what I could leave behind. We went through quite a bit of process trying to get the story right, because it ended up being a bit of a rape revenge (plot) for a while, and we moved away from that because I have the impression that it had been done. We saw a lot of women being sexually assaulted on screen and we wanted to get away from that. We got to a point where we wanted to tell her origin story because in the book she really is a serial killer in her own right. You don’t see any buildup on this, she’s done it before. So we wanted to tell the story of what brought her to this point, what pushes her over the edge. What would happen if in the UK it was Dawn The office — but it’s Pam from The office lashed out because she was just tired of being neglected?

The show really depends on the audience identifying with and sympathizing with Rhiannon. How do you think you achieved this?

We were able to see her as an outsider. I think a lot of people identify with the idea of ​​being overlooked. I certainly felt that way. My partner felt it. My mother felt it. I’m sure everyone has had this experience. And to be able to tell this story of her going from just a normal person to someone extraordinary, but not in the best way, was a gift. Hopefully the audience stays with her because she does some pretty questionable things. And I think that also makes the public question themselves.

Julia (Nicôle Lecky), Rhiannon’s high school enemy, is the source of her anxiety. She also has a sister who isn’t the nicest to her, and there’s a store clerk who treats her badly as well, but neither of them become one of the victims of Rhiannon’s murder. Why does she only kill men?

I think that the people who meet her at that moment are men. I don’t think she’s only targeting them, because she was planning on doing it to Julia as well. So it was just the people who got in his way at that time who turned out to be men. She never meant for it to be hatred against men or even people, it’s just people who deserve it. It’s not men who deserve it, people.

Is Julia’s character from the book and her abusive relationship true to the book?

No, I think in the book she also had a really nice husband and kids. We tried it with kids, and it was just kind of like “oh my God,” so we’re definitely not going there with Rhiannon. I think as soon as there are children involved, we’re not really on Rhiannon’s side. Julia wasn’t in my first draft. She was coming back slowly. I think in the book there were many reasons why Rhiannon did what she did, but she told herself that it was all Julia’s fault. And that really opened something up for us because Julia didn’t see her, but in a weird way Rhiannon didn’t see her focusing all her attention on Julia and that eroded her self-esteem. In the book, Julia isn’t there as long as she is on the show. But I wanted to tell the story of two women together, not in some sort of catfight because I don’t think that’s how it is. It’s about two women learning about each other as adults after knowing each other too well as children, in the wrong way. It’s their sort of re-education of themselves, which was really a bit meaty and nutty.

Marina (Leah Harvey) is another interesting character. Can you talk about the beginning of episode four with her talking about the people she wants to kill instead of Rhiannon being the introductory narrator like she usually is??

We played with the split POV throughout the development process, as it was initially a single protagonist POV for the entire series. But then I thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to see Marina’s point of view and see Rhiannon as she doesn’t see herself? The whole idea of ​​the unreliable narrator. She says to herself: I do this because people deserve it, they can’t get away with it. But then Marina says: You are breaking the law. It doesn’t matter if they deserve it, maybe they do, but you can’t just kill them. So it’s kind of a game of cat and mouse in a different way, because I was very aware of the cat and mouse idea of ​​the characters in Kill Eve. You don’t want to be derivative, so just do it in a new way.

I thought the shared experience of their neglect would make Marina soft on Rhiannon, but she seems even more determined to make her pay for her crimes because of it.

I think she thinks it was Rhiannon who ran away. There’s an element where Marina doesn’t feel seen and feels underappreciated by Rhiannon, that’s sort of another nail in the coffin. It’s sort of an account of his relationship with Detective Inspector Diana.

AJ is the only person, naively, in Rhiannon’s corner until the end. What does it say about her and who she has become when she stabs him in the finale?

I think the part of Rhiannon that she’s a little afraid of does that. So far, none of the murders had really cost him anything. They all helped her feel better about herself and her life and helped her thrive, grow and succeed. We needed one of these murders to really cost him. And that’s why, I’m afraid, it was AJ. I received so many messages about him. Sorry! He’s such a charming character. It was really difficult to film for everyone. The prop master has theories on how to bring it back if there was a season two. It really affected people. So it’s this part of her that’s awakened and we wanted to make it seem like it’s not going anywhere. That he’s there no matter if she pushes him down. She said, “I won’t do that again,” but she can’t hold back the beast; it’s a beast.

The murders are pretty graphic. What conversations did you have about how you wanted to approach these scenes?

Ella Jones, the director, had such a vision from the start of what it would look like, and we thought it needed to be explicit, because female violence on screen is something that is often avoided. You don’t see the graphic you’re making if it’s a man killing. So we didn’t want to just shoot the camera every time she did these really despicable things. We wanted the audience to say, “Whoa, this is really, really disturbing. “Because it’s disturbing and I think because you get into her mind and you feel quite empathetic with her, quite sympathetic, I think you have to be shocked in those moments.

We also talked a lot Barry And Fargo as well as in terms of these kinds of scenes and the lucid feeling of it all, how you don’t know whether to be sick or laugh. We always talked about this scene in Fargo where they put a leg in the shredder and it’s so disgusting but actually that’s what you’d have to do if you were trying to dispose of a body. So the stab in the neck at the beginning of the first episode is what would happen. And I had written a lot of that into the script too, in terms of the details, particularly of that scene and how, I think, quite viscerally, seeing all the blood and all that, it’s like there’s had real consequences. to do something like that. It’s not clinical, it’s very complicated and you have to live with the consequences.

How much of the book series have you covered in the TV series so far?

So in the first season, it’s almost like a prequel to the book. So, many more things to come. He’s an incredible character, what a gift, and there are so many sources too.

Have you already written a season two or beyond?

No, no, no, not yet. I don’t know if I can talk about it.

Critics’ and audiences’ reactions to the series have been mixed. Have you read any reviews? What do you think of the answer?

THE the response was incredible. I think with anything you can’t please everyone, right? So, I try to ignore the less nice ones and continue to reread the nicer ones (laughter). Everyone has an opinion, right? And it’s a show that you can have opinions on because it’s about some really uncomfortable stuff. But it’s just amazing that people are watching it. It’s everything you hope for. You just hope that people will watch your show, enjoy it, be interested and maybe think of something.

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sweet pea now broadcasts all episodes on the Starz application. Read THRInterview with Ella Purnell.