Warning: Spoilers forThe Beautyseason 1 two-part finale, which aired on March 4, at 9 p.m. ET, on FX and Hulu
NEED TO KNOW
Evan Peters discusses the cliffhanger at the end of The Beauty season 1 finale
The actor says it "beautifully" sets up season 2 and he's excited to see where things go
Peters also looks back on the twists and turns for his character, FBI agent Cooper Madsen
After 11 wildly entertaining episodes,season 1 ofThe Beautyhas come to a close. As with many ofRyan Murphy's TV productions, the season finale included a number of twists and turns — with a notable cliffhanger involvingEvan Peters' character, FBI agent Cooper Madsen, leaving the actor excited to see what's in store for a potential season 2.
WithByron Frost (Ashton Kutcher)facing mounting lawsuits and pressure from his board of directors, he decides to stop the sale of his miracle body enhancement drug and invest in an antidote.
Seeing an opportunity, Byron's son (Ray Nicholson) is determined to take over the business and put an end to his father's corporate greed for good. Initiating a succession plan, Cooper is enlisted to assassinate Byron, but only if he can get the antidote — which has been developed with nanotech — to reverse the effects of the virus that changed him into a teen and become "normal" again.
The finale then ends with Cooper taking the drug and going through the transformation. While it's unclear what the results are, a version of the FBI agent is seen emerging from his cocoon, with what seemingly appears to be Peters' hand poking out while everyone looks shocked and frightened by what has happened.
"It's a classic cliffhanger," Peters, 39, tells PEOPLE. "I feel like it's what Ryan does best. And it sets things up beautifully — forget the pun — for a season 2 to explore a world that hasThe Beautyunleashed on a larger scale."
He adds, "It made me want to read and then watch what's gonna happen in season 2 just that much more."
When it comes to the series overall, Peters says he was really impressed with what Murphy, 60, and co-creator Matthew Hodgson came up with — especially considering his last collaboration with the prolific TV producer wasDahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Storyon Netflix and follows a number of villainous appearances on various installments ofAmerican Horror Story.
"He's incredible in that he just gives you so many opportunities," the actor says, joking that "just when you think that you're kind of toast, he is like, 'Why don't we make you the guy in this?' "
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Not only was the "good guy" role a notable change of pace for Peters,The Beautyalso let him try some other things on-screen. In addition tolearning several foreign languagesfor the role, "we had some really long action sequences. And then, I have this romantic storyline," he says, adding that "I've never really done that, especially in the Ryan world, so I was pretty thrilled to jump on board with this one."
That romance included the evolving dynamic that unfolded between Cooper and fellow FBI agent Jordan Bennett (firstplayed by Rebecca Hall before Jessica Alexander took overthe role) over the course of season 1. While Jordan kept Cooper at arms length despite having a sexual relationship, which included hooking up while on assignment together, things took a turn after she was unexpectedly infected with the virus and went through her own body transformation.
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Afraid that she would suffer the same fate as the fashion models, whose gruesome deaths kickstarted their international investigation into the origins of the virus, Cooper was determined to figure out what was going on — and save her from dying.
"He was trying to fix it," Peters says of his character's motivation. "He loves her so much and he wants her to not explode. So, I think the love that he feels for her amplified the need to solve that case and maybe do it in ways that he couldn't have done following the straight and narrow or official way."
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The actor adds, "He had to go rogue to try to fix the situation and make sure the love of his life survives."
That ultimately led Cooper to take drastic measures of his own, including forming an alliance with one of Byron's corporate competitors, Diana (Ari Graynor), and letting himself get infected with the virus in order to get past Frost's security. The latter move, however, led to an unexpected transformation of his own. Unfortunately for Cooper, he was turned into a teenager (with Hudson Barry taking over the role in episode 9).
"In the early days, Ryan left it open-ended and he was like, 'I'm not sure if he is or not,' " Peters says of his knowledge about his character getting infected and the actor going through a body swap with Barry. "I was always curious how Cooper was gonna solve the situation, whether he was gonna get the antidote or stop the Corporation or what it was gonna be and how it was gonna happen."
"As the episodes came out, I started to become more aware of what was gonna happen," he continues, recalling, "Like, 'Oh, I think he's gonna have to get the beauty in order to figure out the situation and infiltrate the Corporation's corporation.' "
After Hall, 43, jokes that there's "arguably no better way to do it than as an 11-year-old," Peters quips, "That's right. I envisioned him doing a bunch of backflips like Yoda andStar Wars. But that didn't happen."
As for those horrific transformation moments seen throughout the series, first with Jaquel Spivey turning into Jeremy Pope, then followed by Hall becoming Alexander, 26, as well as Peters eventually becoming Barry,The Studioguest star says that "there was a lot of twisting."
"They worked very, very hard and were very specific, and Ryan was very specific and there was a lot of back and forth and fine-tuning of how it ended up being," Peters adds. "It was a real journey and I think what you see on-screen is a pretty painful, violent transformation sequence."
The Beautyseason 1 is now streaming on Hulu.
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