Irish Blood's Alicia Silverstone Breaks Down the Finale Twist: Fiona Can't 'Put Any of This to Rest'

Ireland is known for its stunning cliffside vistas, from which many a protagonist has stared out over the sea and pondered the choices they made in life as they stand on the precipice of something big. So it is only fitting that one such cliff is where the season finale of Acorn TV's Irish Blood finally unfurls the answer to the ongoing mystery of who killed Declan Murphy (Jason O'Mara).

Unfortunately for his intrepid daughter Fiona (Alicia Silverstone), the culprit hits a lot closer to home than she wanted. Thanks to a clue tucked away in a knockoff Transformers action figure (TurboClash in this world) left behind by her father, Fiona slowly comes to realize the person who connects an increasingly convoluted string of deaths, blackmail, and lies is none other than her aunt and Declan's sister, Una (Simone Kirby). Confronting her on the very cliff from which he plummeted to his death, Fiona doesn't have to say much for Una to come clean that she was there the day Declan died and accidentally pushed him over the side.

To keep it simple, let's just say that Una was seeing the now-one-eyed Johnny McIntyre (Vincent Walsh), who was involved in the plot to kill a local couple and eventually the efforts to silence Fiona when she came digging into everyone's business after the death of her absentee father. What Fiona doesn't know is that pulling the strings behind everything is the wealthy Donovan family, who have pretended to be her allies thus far. Una crucially leaves that bit out of her confession, even though Declan knew the real big bads behind the scenes. When he blames multiple deaths on her relationship with Johnny, she pushed Declan not realizing he was by the edge. It was her first, admittedly unintentional, kill. Her second was Johnny in the finale, whom she has led straight to Fiona to try and scare her off the trail. But in playing her defensive aunt part of the charade, she inadvertently killed her lover and it finally proved too much to bear. When Una attempts to take her secrets and leap off what is quickly becoming known as the Murphy Family Cliff, Fiona stops her. But Silverstone tells TV Guide her empathy for Una isn't just because they are blood related.

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"It's useless to her if Una is dead," she says. "I do think there is this sort of practical thought that 'I can't have you die because I need to know more.' She's a lawyer.
She needs more. She wants to focus on what her dad is trying to show her. I think in that scene, she finds that he was trying to show her who he was, and she's trying to get to the bottom of why he led me to Una. What else does she know?"

In Una, Fiona finds a tether to her father that she has only recently gotten back by being in Ireland. Despite all of the threats to her life and even the brighter spots like her budding relationship with Musa (Leonardo Taiwo), maintaining that connection is her primary focus and she sees Declan in everyone who knew him.

"Each of these people are her dad," Silverstone says. "It's like each person is an incarnation of her dad, and it's what drives everything she does. It's why she has empathy for Una despite Una killing her father."

Finding the truth is only half the journey for Fiona in the finale, though. Prior to Una's cliffside confession, Fiona's run-in with Johnny left the Los Angeles lawyer unconscious on a warehouse floor. It's there she retreats once more to the subconscious memory of her 10th birthday party, the one scaringly interrupted by Declan's sudden and permanent departure from her life. Only this time, he does show up with the TurboClash she wanted, but it isn't enough. Young Fantasy Fiona (Faith Delaney) hits her father and demands to know why he left and why he never came back. But Adult Fiona stops her and assures her that they can't keep living with that anger. "If I only loved perfect people, I wouldn't love anyone," she says. (Acorn, you need to put that on a t-shirt or a bumper sticker STAT!) Then the family, including her mother Mary (Wendy Crewson), finally cut the cake she has waited more than 20 years to get a slice of.

"I love that scene so much," Silverstone says. "I remember crying when I read it because it's such a beautiful thing to see the inside of a little girl's hope and hurt. Those are the things she's still longing for. Fiona is still that 10-year-old girl, but she has to move on from it."

Part of moving on by season's end was embracing this new family and the many forms it comes in. Sure, her aunt turned out to be the one who pushed her father off a cliff. But they still bonded before all that came out! She also found an advocate in her grandmother Isadora (Dearbhla Molloy), though it remains to be seen how she will take the news that her daughter was carted off in handcuffs for killing her son.

Then there's the found family formed with Róisín (Ruth Codd), her garda partner and trusted ally who helped her crack the case, oftentimes to the detriment of her safety. "I think that Fiona helped empower Róisín to follow what she's interested in and to have a voice and to not listen to these bozos that are her bosses because she obviously has great instincts," Silverstone says. "But Róisín is also very silly. It's Fiona finally having a funny sister or someone that you have to tell to 'pay attention!'"

But it's her mother Mary that Fiona remains closest with, a relationship that is tested in the final scene when the diabolical Father Al (Stuart Graham), who recently disappeared after seducing Mary, shows up at her bakery in Los Angeles. From thousands of miles away, the unholy priest not-so-subtly threatens Fiona. He seems to offer Mary a not-yet-revealed proposal she likely won't have a chance to refuse, leaving Fiona helpless to stop the consequences of her actions.

The morning that Acorn TV aired the Season 1 finale, it officially renewed Irish Blood for a second season, which makes sense as the series stands as the highest-rated premiere in the streaming service's history. So expect Fiona to book a return flight to Ireland. But Silverstone remains tightlipped about what exactly could await Fiona, save for one certainty.

"I don't know that Fiona's gonna put any of this to rest," she says. "I don't think she's gonna walk away from what's happening because there is nothing in the world more important to her than her mother's safety. She can't lose her mom too."

Irish Blood Season 1 is now streaming on Acorn TV.