When a criminal mastermind is put up against an FBI agent, the sides are supposed to be easy: Black and white, good and bad. But in “The Endgame,” a New York City-set heist drama series that premiered Monday on NBC, everything is a little gray.
The cat-and-mouse thriller opens with the arrest of international arms dealer Elena Federova, played by Morena Baccarin, loyal only to herself. On the other side of the table is FBI Agent Val Turner, brought to life by Ryan Michelle Bathé, so loyal to her own moral code that she turned her husband in for a bribe.
And in an underground holding cell in Queens, the two dance around each other, all while Elena manipulates seven simultaneous bank heists around the city.
“You see these two women who are true to themselves for very different reasons and who ultimately want the same things, even though they’re going about it in very different ways,” Baccarin told the Daily News.
Elena’s motivations, at least at the beginning, are unclear. Everything about her, from her relaxed attitude toward being in federal custody to her untraceable accent, which Baccarin melded from Russian, Ukrainian, Estonian, British and Brazilian pronunciations, seems designed to confuse.
What’s clear, though, is that Elena is the one in charge here.
“She knows what’s coming and nobody else does,” said the Brazilian-born Baccarin, 42.
From inside her cell, Elena implements her plan. She doles out just enough information to continue whatever game she’s playing: Some blackmail, some hints, some clear manipulation to get her to the next step. Her success, whatever that may look like, seems inevitable.
What’s also unclear is exactly what role Val plays in Elena’s plan. She’s involved somehow, “The Endgame” implies, but seemingly without her knowledge or consent. That dynamic, Baccarin said, is what drew her to the show.
“Two females at the helm without it being specifically a hormone show or a girlie show,” said the actress known for “Homeland” and the “Deadpool” movies.
Elena is not a world-renowned and feared arms dealer because of or in spite of her being a woman, just as Val is not great at her job because she is a woman. They just happen to be.
“Obviously I’ve gone about things in a different way with the international illegal arms deals of it all and perhaps killing a few people along the way, but we have a common goal of truth and honesty and rooting out corruption and people who are self-motivated in a bad way, who are stomping on the little people,” Baccarin said.
The mystery of “The Endgame” is in just how many mysteries there are. Don’t worry about knowing the answers, as it’s impossible to even know what questions to ask. But Elena and Val are on a collision course, Baccarin said, “connected by grief and loss.”
Elena, for as many crimes as she has committed, can always justify her actions. Whether or not that makes it better is up for debate, but she believes she has a reason and that the reason will carry her through to the next job.
“She’s doing these things that you would never in a million years dream of doing, but you identify with her motivations. You’ve felt wronged by somebody at some point,” Baccarin said. “Would you like to orchestrate a bank heist to prove your point? Sure. Will you? No.”
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