Sarah Michelle Gellar Breaks Down Wolf Pack’s Season 1 Finale and That Ramsey Shocker

After just eight episodes, the first season of Paramount+’s Wolf Pack series has come to an end with the aptly titled “Trophic Cascade,” and it certainly went out with a bang. The mystery arsonist was revealed to be none other than Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Kristin Ramsey, who we now also know is the mother of Harlan (Tyler Lawrence Gray), Luna (Chloe Rose Robertson), and the series’ big bad wolf Baron (Chase Liefeld), and has spent the entire season attempting to bring her family back together. The heart-pounding finale left the series’ central pack of teens all in precarious places—with Harlan under arrest for murder, Everett (Armani Jackson) being admitted to the hospital by his father due to his mental state, Blake (Bella Shepard) nearly being carted off by social services and separated from her brother Danny (Nevada Jose), and Luna losing faith in the pack—but no one’s fate is as uncertain as that of Garrett’s (Rodrigo Santoro), as the episode’s final moments found him staring down both Ramsey and Baron as her plan to turn him into a werewolf comes to light. 

After an episode jam-packed with heart-pounding intensity and shocking twists, Paste sat down with Gellar to break down this final episode and discuss the season as a whole. 

Note: The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

Paste Magazine: Recently, the internet has dubbed you Mother (fittingly, of course), how amazing of a coincidence is it that, at the same time, the twist of Wolf Pack was that you were, quite literally, mother?

Sarah Michelle Gellar: [Laughs] The mother—I know, it made me laugh when it started. I was like “if they only knew!” It definitely made me laugh, but I’m so honored though. I like this whole mother moniker, I’m into it. 

Paste: On that note, how much of that twist did you end up playing into in the beginning of the season, because the reveal doesn’t happen until the last two episodes? 

Gellar: Yeah it’s funny, when I was even giving interviews at the beginning it was—you know, I kept trying to be like “you have to wait it out!” But it was almost like playing two characters, because I had to make it work in the beginning when you didn’t know, but if you watch it now, there has to be some clues where you actually see what was going on, right? So it was tricky, in that sense. It was fun, it was a fun challenge.  

Paste: It is cool to look back on those early scenes, especially in Episodes 1 and 2, where Ramsey sticks her hand out to shake Blake, Everett, and Danny’s hand, which we now know meant she was protecting them. It was such a pointed moment, and to have it come full circle in Episode 8 was great. 

Gellar: A lot of people said “[the handshake] means something, but I don’t know what.” And that’s how Jeff (Davis, series creator)—he’s really smart with how he leaves his breadcrumbs because everything is there for a reason, you just have to wait it all out to figure out how it all goes together. 

Paste: Some of my favorite elements of the show are the dream sequences, what was it like to step into the shoes of Blake and Everett’s parents with Rodrigo (Santoro) at the beginning of Episode 8? 

Gellar: Rodrigo and I had so much fun, honestly, we were mad we didn’t get to do more of them and play everybody else—we would’ve done them all! As an actor, you like the challenges, and it is [a challenge], because even though we don’t look like them, there has to be enough similarities in how they deliver lines. We were really excited about that, both Rod and I were. 

Paste: Working with Rodrigo, what was it like to build the dynamic between Ramsey and Garrett, especially since it changes so much throughout the season? 

Gellar: I was so lucky, I couldn’t ask for a better partner. We went through a lot to get him, there was a lot of trouble getting his Visas. At one point the studio was like “we need to move on,” and both Jeff and I were like “no, we want Rodrigo, please!” And it was going out on a limb because Rod and I didn’t know each other, I just felt like he was the right one for the project, and he brings a seriousness—it shows that it’s not just about pretty young kids, right? The show is going to have some gravitas, it’s going to have serious performances. We joke all the time because we have very different styles in terms of how we work, but it was like from day one they blended together so perfectly. He was just so easy to work with, we really enjoyed working together. 

Paste: That’s awesome, and you can definitely see it on screen!

Gellar: I think it does show! The one thing I’ll say is that everybody had such a great time making this show, and I think it shows. 

Paste: Speaking of Ramsey and Garrett’s connection, the most tense moment of the finale is when Ramsey’s plan to turn Garrett into a werewolf becomes clear in those final moments. Is Garrett just a means to an end at that point, or do you think there’s a real connection between them? 

Gellar: No, there’s a real connection. Originally, she was just going to kill him. Once she found where her kids were, I think she was ready to take him out. But then when she started to watch, she realized what a caring and good man he was—and she said multiple times that the kids’ father was not a good man—she was like “wait, I want to keep him, but I want it on my terms.” That’s the animal predator in her, she’s like “no, I want to keep you, and I want us to be a family, this is what I want, but you have to do it my way.” That’s the animal in her. 

Paste: This episode revealed that Ramsey was both the cause of the fire and complicit in the death and destruction Baron caused. How do you approach that type of character, who is ultimately so complex and morally ambiguous, but still sympathetic? 

Gellar: I have to look at it like—when people say “is she good or is she bad?” the answer is: she’s an apex predator. So she does bad things for sure, but they’re in the name of good. They’re in the name of her child. But that’s what a predator does, right? A predator preys, that’s the way the animal kingdom is set up. And the same way that, you know, there are fish in the ocean that are just there to feed the other fish, right? They know that they’re basically there to die, but that’s what their job is. And so I think that, I don’t think she’s even looking for sympathy, but I think people understand what lengths someone will go to to protect their family, and have their family be safe. I think we all know that. We would all do anything for the people we love. 

Paste: In her final confrontation with Garrett, she’s a bit scary, but you also want to root for her. 

Gellar: Because she’s telling you the truth, right? Trophic cascade is a real issue that they’re having as the homes of these animals—they’re on fire, they’re clearing the forest out, deforestation, all of these things that are happening, that we’re doing, are affecting this kingdom. We have to be aware that there are other beings on our planet, the animals have their own world, and we’re affecting that world. There’s repercussions for all of that, and I love that statement on how we’re treating our Earth right now, and that’s one of the bigger stories that we wanted to tell. 

Paste: In the finale, it became clear that Ramsey also views Blake, Everett, and even Danny as a part of her pack and her family. With the FBI coming in and so many things changing, what do you imagine her next move will be in the aftermath of this episode? 

Gellar: She’ll come out on top. I’m not worried for her. You know, like we said, we’ll do anything to protect our pack, and so if you’re a part of her pack, she will figure it out. And she does consider them [a part of her family], she does want to make their lives better. And by the way, she also knows ways to do it, that’s what a parent is, right? We have the experience and the knowledge to know what actually is better for the children, is essentially what she’s saying. Which is true, like when my kids will say to me “you’re so strict!” It’s because I know what’s best. And that’s what she’s basically saying, I know what’s best for you guys, and I will do anything for you because I love you, and some of those things might be very bad things. 

Paste: You have a few fight sequences on the show in these last two episodes, one of them being Ramsey’s fight in the woods the night she lost Baron, what was that like to film on the day? 

Gellar: Well… part of it I was at Comic Con, so I missed part of it, I had to come in and do my parts later because the schedule was what it was. [Laughs] But it was beautiful—I mean fire is a really beautiful danger, right? It starts out as this little flick and it seems so innocent and so pretty and it causes such destruction. But at the same time, it’s also majestically beautiful. I mean, I don’t obviously condone arson, but you understand a fascination with fire and the power that it holds. You kind of understand it. 

Paste: In Episode 8, you have another fight sequence at the end of the episode that’s more hand-to-hand, what was it like to shoot that scene on the day? 

Gellar: It was really fun. I mean, it had been so long since I’d done one of those, and I’m like “I hope I still remember how to do this.” Then we did the first take and I was like “oh yeah! I do remember how to do this!” And everyone started clapping and I was like “oh, okay, this is fun!” I mean, it hurts differently the next day than it used to. 

Paste: Is that something you would like to do more in a potential next season, have more action sequences? 

Gellar: Yeah, I definitely would like that, I think so. But I think it was fun to make everybody wait for it. 

Paste: I have one question that’s a bit silly, but if you’ll humor me: If Kristin Ramsey and Buffy Summers were to go head-to-head in a fight, who would win? 

Gellar: …You know they’re not real, right? [Laughs] Just making sure. I have no idea, I have no idea. 

Paste: When coming back to the supernatural genre, did you see elements of Buffy in Kristin, or were you looking for a character that was completely different? 

Gellar: Obviously, [Ramsey] is a strong female character, so you could take that, but their motivations are entirely different. One is a reluctant child who the fate of the world is put on her shoulders, literally, and one is an apex predator. They’re so different. 

Paste: Blake, in Episode 8, actually reminded me of Buffy and her reluctance when she wanted to let Baron die so she could return to normal. 

Gellar: Right, I mean you understand that—teenagers just want to be like everybody else, you don’t want to be different. You want to have that normal life, and that’s what she wants. So you understand that that is a very true motivation for kids of that age.

Paste: With so much still up in the air, what would you like to see in a potential second season? 

Gellar: Now she has to get her pack back together, and she’s also gotta figure out who the voice on the phone is, because she’s the predator, she’s not the prey, and in that situation, she becomes the prey, and I know she’s not down with that. 

Paste: As an executive producer on this show, what has it been like to watch the season roll-out, and now have it out in the world in its entirety? 

Gellar: This is the fun part. This is the part where you get to share what you’ve been working on. I kept telling everybody to wait—I know some people in the beginning were like “well, you’re barely in it!” I was like “just wait, just wait, Episode 5.” And it was so much fun, my kids—all the kids in our neighborhood are like obsessed with the show so they all come over here to watch it when it comes out on Thursdays, and it’s so cute because they don’t know what’s happening, so when I hit that guy over the head, they were like “wait, what?!” They were yelling, it was so much fun. And they’re the reason we do this, we do this show for the audience to enjoy, and the fact that they’re enjoying it as much as they have—it’s hard to launch a new show now, and there’s so much on, and the fact that week after week more people are finding it… I’m excited. I’m very proud of the show, and I really enjoyed making the show. I just want people to watch it and like it and have fun. 

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Anna Govert is an entertainment writer based in middle-of-nowhere Indiana. For any and all thoughts about TV, film, and the wonderful insanity of Riverdale, you can follow her @annagovert.

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