So Help Me Todd returned for its midseason premiere tonight on CBS and after months of build-up with audiences wondering just who is the mysterious ex that ruined the life of our scrappy titular hero played by the charming Skylar Astin, we finally met Veronica — the elusive, femme fatale ex brought to life by the magnetic Eliza Coupe. In Thursday night’s episode, “The Devil You Know,” Margaret’s (Marcia Gay Harden) desperation in solving a dead-end case prompts her son Todd to secretly seek help from his imprisoned ex-girlfriend, Veronica even after everything she put him through.

As fans might recall from previous conversations sprinkled throughout the season, there was a lot of drama stirring between the pair. Veronica was the one who not only seduced Todd and led him to making some poor choices over the years, but she also deceived him by claiming they’d be equal partners in their own detective agency. Yet, her plan all along was to make him the fall guy in her illegal wiretapping and forgery case. Naturally, Todd’s overbearing yet well-connected mother managed to keep him out of jail, but he was unfortunately stripped of his license. To ensure he stays out of trouble, the mother-of-three hired her youngest to work as an investigator at the law firm, helping her with cases.
COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY
But if tonight’s episode is any indicator with Veronica now out of prison much to Todd and his mother’s assumptions, hell is about to be raised, and oh, it will be fiery. In an exclusive with Collider ahead of the episode’s must-watch premiere (now streaming on Paramount+), Coupe breaks down those final moments and teases what audiences can expect from Veronica now that she is a free woman.

Image via Paramount

Collider: Congrats on this episode! So Help Me Todd has been such a fun show and one of the best new dramedies on CBS this season. Did you watch the series before being cast?

ELIZA COUPE: I did not, but when the offer came in, I checked it out and was like, ‘Oh my God, this is amazing!’ And I love Skylar [Astin]. And of course, Marcia Gay [Harden] is amazing, and everyone else involved in the cast is wonderful. I don’t have scenes with them — I really only have scenes with Skylar for this first episode, but I really look forward to when I go back having scenes with Marcia and others.

By the end of the episode, we see your character, Veronica, out of prison. She’s no longer serving her eight-year sentence, which means we’ll be seeing more of you. What can we expect from this character now that she’s out? She feels trouble.

COUPE: Oh, she’s going to cause so much trouble. I think we can expect to see her just completely f— s— up [laughs].

You play a big role in Todd’s life; you leave him in penniless, homeless, basically out in the cold. How would you describe Veronica to fans? Because clearly, there’s been a narrative built around her and as these episodes unfold, there’s another side of her that we don’t know.

COUPE: [Veronica] is a master of disguise when it comes to her true feelings and emotions. I feel like her true feelings and emotions are kind of what you would think — she’s kind of a narcissistic sociopath. She is one of those people where I’ve met many — well, not many — I’ve known a few narcissists quite personally, and one of the narcissists that I know, I always say, they are a narcissist masquerading as an empath. And it’s like, that is the most brilliant way to be a narcissist or a sociopath or something, because it’s like they’re really good at making you think and feel like they actually give a sh— and that they really do care and feel things, but they don’t. They really don’t. They have just mimicked that behavior in others, they have just mimicked that energy. So, I mean, Veronica is just an Oscar-winning empathetic person.

Image via Hulu

That is the perfect description and honestly, every time she kept saying to him, “I want to make it up to you,” I thought that was such an interesting dialogue because he is putty in her hands. He kind of believes it and that’s why he kept calling her. She’s very manipulative.

COUPE: She’s extremely, extremely manipulative, and it’s so fun to play that because she’s just a breath away from being a psycho. But she’s very controlled; she’s very calculated. I mean, she’s brilliant in her emotional assassination towards Todd.

There is an interesting juxtaposition between Todd and Veronica that I think fans are going to wonder about. Does it mean Todd has a dark side, or does it mean Veronica has a soft side? Because there are moments that did border tender. But again, she’s manipulative, so we’re not sure. Is that just a clear thrill on her side trying to play to him or is he smart now, and he’s playing to her?

COUPE: I think that it has zero to do with Todd having a dark side. No, she never even let him see that until she completely f—ed him over. So that’s what I mean, when she’s a master of disguise. Whoever her mark is, she will then become everything that they need her to be. So she’ll become the dream girl for Todd. Or if it were someone, I don’t know — Machine Gun Kelly, she’d become the dream girl for him. She would just become whoever she needed to be, and so she’d play into either the dark side of somebody or she’d play into the light side of somebody, therefore making them feel as though, ‘Oh my God, I found my soulmate. This is the real person for me.’ When really, she’s just playing a character that is completely meticulously designed to fit every dream and fantasy that they’ve ever had.

You’ve played bad asses before, outside this character. I’m wondering of all the femme fatales, what makes Veronica so much more of a spark plug?

COUPE: She’s just so ruthless in her efforts to convince people that she is what she is. So, I mean, I’ve played badasses and all that, but I’ve been pretty straightforward. Like my character in Future Man, she’s not really manipulating. She’s just like, ‘I’ll f—ing kill you if you don’t do what I want you to do!’ She’s straightforward with it and all my other characters are pretty outward with, ‘This is who I am, this is what I want, this is what I’m going to get, and this is what you’re going to give me.’ They’re very, very on a comedic sense, but then, this character is conniving; she’s strategic. You never know what she’s thinking – you never know. And she’s never going to come right out and ask for what she wants. [Veronica] is going to do it in the most manipulative way to make the person she’s talking to think that they were the ones that came up with it.

Image via Paramount

The scenes between you and Skylar are so much fun. I think it’s great to see how Veronica adds this layer to him. But what was it like working with Skylar on these scenes, and can you tell us more about the pair’s connection coming up?

COUPE: Skylar was so fun. I think he’s just such a wonderful, wonderful person and beautiful soul, and I love working with him. We had so much fun together. Truly, it was just easy. We just clicked, and it was beautiful; just wonderful, really great. We’re going to have a lot of fun together, especially since our characters, the dynamic between us is — the way his character is, it could not be more opposite than my character, so it’s great, and I love that. It’s always fun to play with those opposites.

It’s all very layered, even Todd’s mom played by the amazing Marcia Gay Harden. You did talk about having some scenes with her. Can you tease us about what we’re going to see? Because I feel like that will be very feisty and oh, so very fun…

COUPE: Oh, I have a feeling it’s going to get — I mean, because Marcia Gay Harden is so brilliant and this character is very, very smart and very fiery and also just decisive and clear and intentional, and I feel like they could really go head-to-head. Just wait and see!

So Help Me Todd airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST on CBS and streams on Paramount+.