When two deputies mistake Dante for a suspect they are looking for, one of the deputies uses excessive force before realizing he’s a fellow cop. Fearing reprisal, the panicked deputies abduct Dante. Alone and injured, Dante experiences hallucinations that reveal his complicated childhood. Lee Tergesen guest stars as Deputy Barnes, one of the officers who abducts Detective Dante. Ever so excellent at playing a baddie, Tergesen has had recurring roles on a variety of shows including Homicide: Life on the Streets, Oz and Longmire. Writer and executive producer Joe Wilson spoke about this week’s episode and why it was important to tell this story on The Equalizer. “I think when you have a platform you have a responsibility. Our first job is to entertain, but the beautiful thing about what we do is that we get to weigh in on what’s going on in the zeitgeist. Pushing it as far as we did was 1.) to really dive into who Detective Dante is, what he’s dealing with, and what makes him tick, and 2.) We wanted to really show how horrific these scenarios can be so the part of the world who doesn’t deal with this can understand. Empathy and understanding.” Wilson hopes to bring awareness with this episode. “This is how a huge portion of the population feels and what we deal with. If you didn’t know, you will after this episode. I wanted to pull the curtain back and show it for what it is. And it’s not pretty.” Tory Kittles, who stars as Detective Dante, spoke about working with Wilson and director Slick Naim on this episode, “Joe wrote this incredible multi-dimensional layered script! It was so exciting, but also terrifying because I knew what it would take to really dig into this story and tell it right. I knew it was going to hurt.” New episodes of The Equalizer premiere on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and is available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+. Next, The Equalizer‘s Lorraine Toussaint on Keeping Secrets, Law & Order and Black Lives Matter
