Ryan Michelle Bathé is officially part of the Paradise family, and her role plays a pivotal part in the backstory of one of the Hulu show’s most complex characters.
Bathé is introduced in Episode 6 of the second season of the hit Hulu series. The episode, titled “Jane,” gives viewers a deeper look into the unpredictable and often cold-blooded Agent Jane Driscoll (Nicole Brydon Bloom).
Who is Stacy?
“Stacy is a deeply grounded individual, and I think she has to be in the CIA as a woman, a Black woman, a smaller-statured Black woman, you know, like, short. I don’t consider myself short, but I can only imagine that in a field where not only is your brain incredibly important in the CIA, but your body is as well, that she has had to learn any number of tactics and ways to compensate for what people would consider her shortcomings,” Bathé said of her character in a recent interview with Blavity’s Shadow and Act “And I think she has done that by being incredibly grounded.”
Throughout the episode, viewers learn that Stacy is essentially the final hurdle for Jane to officially become a CIA agent. She is also responsible for teaching Jane meditation practices and introducing her to the Wii — something fans may remember as a hint in Season 1 when Jane’s obsession with the game was first revealed.
The episode also hints that Jane may be connected to something supernatural. Shortly after her birth, a strange man in a parking lot calls her a killer as her mother prepares to take her home.
Jane feels seen by Stacy
It becomes clear that a young, eager Jane feels seen by Bathé’s character, Stacy. However, the larger question is whether that recognition ultimately helps Jane or contributes to the person she becomes later in the bunker.
“I don’t know that it hinders her so much that I think Stacy, it’s like you know you can only see what you know to be true in the world, right? Stacy is dealing with a young woman who is so much more complex and complicated than she can even imagine. Simply because Jane might have some supernatural stuff going on. We don’t really know at this point, because we see the episode, and the man comes, and there’s a message from beyond, like, a lot of crazy stuff happens around her birth. And the little ‘Climy’ voice, that’s not a voice, that’s a… possession, or something we don’t know, but I think you don’t know what you don’t know.”
She added, “You only have an imagination, but you’re never going to be a CIA-trained person and look at somebody and be like, ‘I wonder if they got a demon named Climy.’ So I think she truly believes that she sees all of Jane, and that’s where I think Jane gets hindered, because she doesn’t see all of Jane, because she can’t see all of Jane, like, she quite literally can’t, because she can’t even conceive and imagine it. In that first scene, when she’s like, ‘I used to hear voices,’ she probably thinks she’s just a little girl who made up a voice for comfort, which is what anyone would think. Especially if you’re CIA-trained in psychology and human psychology, and so I think what truly hinders Jane the most is Stacy’s profound and sad inability to actually see the whole Jane.”
A mentor Jane needed
At the end of the day, Stacy is one of the first mentors Jane encounters before eventually coming under Sinatra’s (Julianne Nicholson) guidance. The episode explores the parallels between the two figures in Jane’s life.
For Bathé, the inspiration for Stacy came from the mentors she wished she had encountered in her own career.
“I had some lovely teachers in high school, but outside of being 16 or 17, I can honestly say I’ve never had that experience of having a true mentor and someone in my field being able to give me advice, help pull me along. I’ve seen it happen for others — Lord, I’ve seen what you do for others — but I’m okay, please don’t cry for me, Argentina,” Bathé joked.
“I dated this guy once, and he used to say, ‘You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?’ That’s the only good bit of advice, but it’s true. I mean, I do have so much. I have so many other things in my life. I have so many other ways in which people have poured into me. That’s just not something I’ve ever truly had in a real way,” she continued. “So I tried to make Stacy — and my best friend’s name is Staci — and I think that if anybody has poured into me, it’s been my peers, my friends, the people who love me, my dear friend Staci, my sandz, my sorors. I really do think that I thought to myself, ‘What would I want someone to say to me, and how would I want them to say it?’ And that’s how I think I thought about Stacy the most.”
Paradise Season 2, Episodes 1 through 6 are now streaming on Hulu, with weekly episode premieres continuing until the finale on March 30.
The post Who Is Stacy On ‘Paradise’ And What’s Her Connection To Jane? Ryan Michelle Bathé Breaks Down Character appeared first on Blavity.
