‘Boston Blue’: Gloria Reuben Explains the Real Story About Lena’s Dad (Exclusive)

Mae (Gloria Reuben) told Lena (Sonequa Martin-Green) the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about her father in the penultimate episode of Boston Blue Season 1, which aired on Friday, May 15, on CBS. The mother and daughter were sitting in an interrogation room for this important conversation (the irony wasn’t lost on Mae), and Lena walked away trusting her mother a little bit more. But while things settled at home for the Boston District Attorney, the stakes were raised at work when Mae found herself a challenger in her reelection. Warning: Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 19 spoilers ahead.

The May 1 episode of Boston Blue (Episode 17) revealed Erik King as Lena’s father, Chris Williams, and the half-sister she never knew she had, Kristina Reed (Alisha Wainwright). Mae knew about Kristina, but never told Lena. She also never told Lena that her father wanted a relationship with her, but Mae didn’t allow it. Episode 19 revealed that Mae was making a life with her late husband, Ben, and the teenage Lena was just getting used to seeing Ben as her father when Chris came back into the picture. Chris was also in a new relationship and expecting his daughter, Kristina. A decision was made to keep the daughters in the dark about their extended families.

Lena strongly disagreed with her mother’s decision and wished she had known about her dad and sister sooner. Reuben tells TV Insider that Lena didn’t change Mae’s mind about whether she made the right choice back then.

“I don’t think there’s any changing Mae’s mind at all because she truly believed that she did the right thing at that time,” Reuben explains. “Because Lena’s father, he was incarcerated and he was in service overseas. When they did reconnect, he was married and expecting [Kristina]. It was a mutual decision for them to just go on individually with their own lives.”

“Now, it doesn’t mean that Mae doesn’t think back and wonder, ‘Well, gosh, what if I did make the decision to allow Chris?’ But what would that look like?” Reuben continues. “It’s a rabbit hole we all can go down when we question choices that we made as younger people in such difficult, challenging situations. Yet at the same time, I feel very strongly that Mae really felt it was the right thing to do for her daughter, and also, Mae had met the man who was to become her husband, and Lena was just beginning to think of this man, Ben, as her father. So, Mae had anticipated a lot more chaos than calm if the full truth had come out at that time.”

Mae had multiple opportunities to tell Lena all of the details about her dad in previous episodes, but what Reuben loves about this storyline is how Mae’s history with her own mother complicates it. Earlier this season, Mae learned the life-changing information that her mother died by suicide, not in a car accident like she was led to believe since she was a child. Her older sister, Jill (Holly Robinson Peete), knew the truth because she was the one to find their mom. Jill and their father, Reverend Peters (Ernie Hudson), told a protective lie for Mae’s sake for years, but the truth came out by accident. Mae inadvertently let the same thing happen to her own daughter when it came to Kristina.

Mae was willing to tell Lena the truth earlier when she came asking about her dad, but the weight of the truth about Mae’s mother was too much to carry that day.

“Right around that time of Mae finding out the truth about how her mother died, Mae’s daughter comes to her and says, ‘Tell me about the real truth about my father,’” Reuben explains. “She literally says, ‘Trust me, I will tell you, but I can’t tonight. I can’t.’ She just didn’t have enough in the tank to hit another major life decision, and the ramifications that the full truth of it would have on her daughter and on their relationship.”

Reuben loves that this issue is “complex,” but also that Mae tells her the truth matter-of-factly when it’s finally time.

“Just acknowledging and saying the truth is the most respectful thing to do,” Reuben says. “Lena is an adult woman. She can make her choices as she sees fit. She might not like Mae or might hold grudges. Mae has no control over that.”

It was time for Mae to let go of the burden of the secret, because it was impacting her relationship with her family too much.

“In my perspective on things, a secret is wrapped in shame in one way or another,” Reuben explains. “I find shame, no matter the situation or the circumstance, it’s corrosive. It’s like a rust that eats away at things in one way or another. There’s a freedom in telling [the truth].”

Ian Watson / CBS

Mae’s commitment to truth is reflected in her work every day. In this episode, she instructed one of the attorneys in her office to charge a teenager with involuntary manslaughter instead of murder. The lawyer, played by The Gilded Age‘s Ward Horton, went rogue and filed the murder charge anyway. It was a subtle launch of his campaign to unseat Mae as D.A.

Reuben explains the importance of having a character like Mae on broadcast television, a powerful woman who consistently displays a commitment to criminal justice reform.

“I think it’s vital for this role to be happening right now for [reasons of] criminal justice and also for other aspects of the portrayal of a woman who is a full-on adult woman,” Reuben says. “Who is District Attorney, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, who is multiracial, multi-religious, Baptist and Jewish. She converted to Judaism for her husband, her deceased husband. She is fit and fierce and funny and sexy. She is at the beginning of a new stage in her life, personally and professionally. She is a mother of three grown children. And she is also her own person. So I think it’s absolutely fantastic.”

“I’m so glad that I was asked to do this role,” she continues, “because I’m all those things as well, except I’m not a mother and I’m not a district attorney, but the other aspects of the chapter in my life I’m embarking upon. And I like that a lot.”

Will we see Mae on the campaign trail in Boston Blue Season 2 now that she has a challenger in her election, or will this conflict be wrapped up in next week’s finale? Reuben smiles as she teases, “Stay tuned.”

Boston Blue, Season 1 Finale, Friday, May 22, 10/9c, CBS