'Reign' Interview: Torrance Coombs Talks Bash's Plague-Induced Transition From Skeptic to Believer

The talented Torrance Coombs opens up to JJJ about tonight’s season two premiere of Reign in this brand new interview!

The 31-year-old Canadian actor talks to us about Bash’s mission to “maintain order among the chaos” in wake of The Plague that sweeps the castle.

Meanwhile Torrance also teases some brotherly moments ahead, as Francis (Toby Regbo) begins to lean on Bash even more amid pressures of being king. Check it out!

Reign returns TONIGHT, October 2 @ 9PM on The CW!

JustJaredJr.com: With the arrival of the plague, is it safe to say everyone is in danger?

Torrance Coombs: Yeah, certainly everyone is in danger. If not from the plague then from the devious people trying to take advantage of the plague/hide their crimes. With Francis being out of the castle, Bash is very directly responsible for all the stuff that’s going down in the castle. He’s just trying to maintain order among the chaos. We have these “plague rooms” and we have to put 10 people in these rooms, and maybe the wrong people are in the rooms. Or maybe you put un-sick people in the room and then they get sick. Sometimes you’re just going to come into contact with some sick people, and you have to hope for the best.

Click inside to read the rest of our interview with Torrance Coombs…

JustJaredJr.com Interview – Torrance Coombs

JJJ: Because he was warned about it and killed The Darkness anyway, is Bash feeling any guilt?

TC: Yeah, that’s an interesting thing because on the one hand, how stupid is it to think the guy doing a blood sacrifice could cause the plague. The idea that Bash killing The Darkness would cause the plague is ludicrous, but at the same time, it just happened. So we got a character who has always been a skeptic. The Darkness is just a guy spreading fear. And with Clarissa, for example, it turns out she’s not just haunting the castle, she’s Catherine’s daughter. She’s disfigured and we explained it all. But now, what’s happening is the skeptic is starting to become a bit of a believer. With all these dead souls around the castle, it starts to become haunted by various apparitions. Are these fever dreams? Are these all in people’s heads as they are affected with the plague. Or are the real? Are they restless spirits that came back to seek vengeance? So that transition from skeptic to believer is something that happens with Bash this season.

JJJ: With Francis gone and this hysteria going on, does Mary lose control of everything?

TC: Francis just learned that he has a baby, so that’s a lot for him to deal with. And yeah, Mary is obviously very worried about him, but at the moment, she doesn’t really have a lot of control over what’s going on. So it’s up to Bash to look after the castle for a bit.

JJJ: Does Mary lean on Bash at all?

TC: You know what? Not particularly. But Francis starts to lean very heavily on Bash, to the point that he’s like his deputy, to help him with some of the dirty business he can’t carry out himself – and to be his eyes and ears on the ground, and watch his back.

JJJ: We saw a nice hug between Francis and Bash in the finale. Will we see more brotherly bonding moments ahead?

TC: Yeah, I’ll go ahead and spoil that, yeah. Francis needs to trust Bash with his life. He doesn’t have a lot of friends to turn to that he can really, truly trust. And especially if these powerful nobles start to rise up and take advantage of the situation. Francis is trying to be a good king. He has strong ideas of how he wants to be different than his father, but he quickly realizes that once you’re in power, there are deals that have to be brokered with various underhanded people So Bash is there to help him deal with those a–holes.

JJJ: Does Henry’s death still weight heavily on him?

TC: Yes, and that is a huge secret that carries. Because regicide is the worst crime that he can possibly commit. He can’t tell Mary because she would be implicated and he has to be very, very careful with that secret. He has to decide whether to carry that burden himself or whether to reveal it to someone. And that’s a big part of Francis’ journey.

JJJ: We saw Bash and Kenna share “I love you’s” in the finale. Where to we find them in the premiere?

TC: They get separated when the plague breaks out. It’s scary business. They don’t feel particularly safe, but they are still very much in love. Things are going well with their relationship. Going forward, it’s hard to say. But they’re still somewhat incompatible personalities. Bash’s business with Francis means he has to secretly run off into the woods for weeks at a time. He’s not really allowed to tell Kenna his affairs at stake and what he’s up to. Meanwhile, Kenna still has ambitions for fancier things. That could be cause to reconcile.

JJJ: What is Catherine up to during all of this?

TC: She is still exercising her influence. She doesn’t like not having any real power, so she just has to be sneakier about it. She’s still a very powerful woman. And she’s a master manipulator, so we still get to see a lot of scheming Catherine. She just can’t command guards to behead somebody anymore. But it’s that thing where she likes to offer a lot of motherly advice to Mary. It’s that thing where somebody takes your old job. “That’s how you’re going to do that? That’s not how I would have done it.” So we see that dynamic well.

JJJ: If you could give Bash any piece of advice going into season two, what would it be?

TC: I would tell him that things aren’t morally as black and white as he wants them to be. That sometimes there are gray areas that maybe he should anticipate a little better. It’s not always good versus evil, or right and wrong. I think he just needs to understand shades of gray a little better.