- Warning: There are massive spoilers ahead for "
The Walking Dead " season 10, episode 20. - Paola Lázaro spoke with Insider about "TWD's" Princess-centric episode.
Sunday's "The Walking Dead" delivers a powerful deep dive into the psyche and background of one of the show's newest characters, Juanita "Princess" Sanchez (Paola Lázaro), as she's trapped solo in a train car at the hands of the show's intimidating new Commonwealth militia.
It's one of the show's most personal and beautiful character introspectives yet. The series is currently airing six bonus episodes filmed during the pandemic last fall. The main focus of season 10, episode 18, "Splinter," takes a look into Princess's tortured past life pre-apocalypse and lingering unresolved trauma.
About halfway through the episode, Ezekiel (Khary Payton) joins Princess to help execute an escape from the soldiers to save their friends.
There's just one problem. You later learn Ezekiel isn't real, but just a figment of Princess's imagination as she copes with mounting anxiety while trapped.
"It took me by surprise, too, when I was reading it the first time," Lázaro told Insider of the episode's heartbreaking twist.
Insider caught up with Lázaro on Thursday for the first time since the pandemic started to discuss how it informed her interpretation of the character, rapping the US capitals in alphabetical order, and whether or not Princess regrets trusting that Commonwealth soldier at the episode's end (she does).
Lázaro doesn't regret putting herself in a self-imposed quarantine pre-pandemic to land her 'TWD' role
Paola Lázaro: Hi Kirsten. How are you?
Kirsten Acuna: Hi Paola. I'm hanging in there. How are you doing?
Lázaro: I'm hanging in there, too. I can't complain. I'm with my family right now. We're going to watch the episode together, so I'm very thankful. It's good to talk to you again.
Acuna: Yeah! Likewise. I'm so glad, by the way, that you're with your family right now, because you told me if there was ever a zombie apocalypse, you would go and be with them.
Lázaro: Right.
Acuna: When we last spoke, you had told me you were basically in quarantine studying and prepping in 2019, to land this role. Do you have any regrets over a self-imposed quarantine since we've all been in quarantine for about a year now?
Lázaro: No regrets at all. None at all. I'm very happy with how everything turned out and I'm glad I quarantined myself for this role, self-quarantined, to study this role. I have no regrets at all.
The pandemic helped inform how Lázaro would play the role even more
Acuna: When Princess arrived on the show a lot of people gravitated to her immediately because she embodied what a lot of us may have felt like we were going through in quarantine or how we'd feel getting out of quarantine. She was so excited to see people again for the first time in years. I know you did a lot of research and prep for this character, but did the last year help inform how you play this character even more? Do you feel like you have a better understanding of her now?
Lázaro: Absolutely. And I think the fact that I spent so much time with my family. I haven't lived with my family since I was 17 years old. So the fact that I've been back with them has helped me resolve a lot of childhood trauma. So I think now I can come at this character with an understanding that there is another side and a light after trauma, you know?
Acuna: Absolutely. If you're spending that much time with people, yeah.
Lázaro: You try to learn to navigate those relationships and work on them. So it has definitely fed how I play this character.
On how the bonus six episodes are allowing the show to do deep dives on long-time characters that we likely wouldn't have received otherwise
Acuna: I wanted to speak with you this week because I thought this episode was a beautiful introspective on the anxieties and PTSD and loneliness that people have experienced during the pandemic. I have to imagine we wouldn't have had this episode if it wasn't for the pandemic, or at least, we wouldn't have seen the show dive as deeply.
Lázaro: I don't know if they were planning to do that at some point in one of the episodes in the future. But something that's been really interesting to see is like with these COVID episodes has been character development and how deeply they delve into different characters. As a fan of the show, getting to spend time with those characters, for me, it's just exciting.
You've fallen in love, through time, with these characters and you just want to be with them. My character is new, but I'm talking about characters that have been on for years and getting to spend more time with them. Last week's episode was awesome, just to have a drink with Father Gabriel and Aaron. I don't think we would have had the chance to really sit down with the characters if it hadn't been for COVID, you know? I mean, I'm sure we would've, but not in the way that we have because of the pandemic.
Lázaro learned the US capitals in alphabetical order by rapping them as a song for Sunday's episode
Acuna: On Sunday's episode, Princess uses some mnemonic devices. She lists the capitals of cities in alphabetical order. She counts the floor spaces. That's all to calm her down, to help her refocus and keep her sane. I wondered if someone had conversations with you about why she uses those. I thought it was brilliant to recognize that's a tool that some people use.
Lázaro: Nobody had a conversation with me about it. I think with everything that we've all been through, I think as soon as I read it, I was like, "OK, I get it." Some people use counting. This is just a tool to have control over something when you feel like you have no control over anything around you. I think we were all on the same page. Obviously, Princess does it in her own way, kind of like a rap song. That's her way of calming herself down. We were all on the same page.
Acuna: Did you have to sit and learn the capitals in that order? Did you know that song growing up?
Lázaro: No.
Acuna: OK. I was just going to say, I had to learn all of the states in alphabetical order growing up.
Lázaro: No, I learned it like a song, like a rap song. Then I was like, "Oh, that's actually how Princess will learn it, too." It kind of soothes her that it's a song. It has a rhythm and it has control and that helps with, with what it is, which is a mechanism to calm down the anxiety.
Princess regrets trusting the Commonwealth soldier by the episode's end
Acuna: At the episode's end, Princess is let out of the train car and sees her friends' heads covered in black bags. What is she thinking? Does Princess regret trusting this Commonwealth soldier?
Lázaro: Absolutely. Absolutely. She is thinking, "I should have killed him. I should have grabbed his gun and his armor. I should have grabbed everything." And you know, in that moment, she's like, "My instinct was right to fight, to fight, to fight." She's definitely regretting it and then the bag gets thrown over her head. So it's like, "What are we going to do now?"
Lázaro cried a little when she learned the show's 11th season would be its final one
Acuna: Tell me about the final season. Where were you and what was your reaction when you learned that season 11 would be the final one for the show?
Lázaro: I was actually in New York. I cried a little bit. I checked in with my castmates because some of them have been on this for many years, so it's very deep. It's very deep for them. I checked in with everybody. We're ready and we're excited that we get one more year to really put the best that we can out there. We're mostly just excited and we love what we do and we'll deal with saying our goodbye later.
You can follow along with our "Walking Dead" coverage here.