WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for A Discovery of Witches‘ series finale, now streaming on Shudder.
After three action-packed and magic-fueled seasons, A Discovery of Witches has come to an empowering end. Fans of the bestselling book series by Deborah Harkness won’t be surprised as to how the supernatural series lands its final moments. However, it’s no less joyful to watch Diana Bishop fulfill her destiny and reclaim the lore that was lost to Creatures. Season 3 saw Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer) tackle a lot — from learning how to wield all 10 magical Weaver knots to balancing the challenges of motherhood amidst an ongoing supernatural revolution.
Ahead of A Discovery of Witches‘ final episode, CBR sat with Teresa Palmer for an exclusive interview. Palmer celebrated the series’ central message of approaching life from a place of “compassion” and holding community values. While the book on Diana Bishop is closed for now, Palmer imagined where her character and Matthew De Clairmont go next.
CBR: In the series finale, Diana finally learns the 10th knot! I would love to hear about what went into that moment and the work you did for it with your movement coach Sarah Perry.
Teresa Palmer: Oh, my goodness, so much went into it. When I first started learning my knots in Season 2. It wasn’t until Season 3 that we took it up a notch. I had printouts, so I’d say it was really like being at university. I was learning the rhythms, the movement. Sarah would film 15-minute videos of herself, with close-ups of her hands, and showing me the weaves and she would actually tie a proper knot. So I could see the way the knot actually physically looked as well as even when it was like 3D. Some of them are very, very intricate. I still remember quite a lot of them now. But it was like learning a dance, really. It’s such choreography. So we worked on it, I would say collectively, probably spent 25 hours on it. Just working and working and working. And then she would come when she could the days that I was doing big knot sequences, like, obviously, the finale. I was doing them so much that by that day, it became second nature. I could just do them without even thinking.
Diana Bishop becomes the Book of Life in the last episode! Since it’s such an important moment in the series, what did you want to make sure got across in your performance?
Oh, it was so tricky to figure out how exactly to play being The Book of Life. [laughs] It was like, “What are we going for here?” Am I in my body? Am I sort of pretending I’m in a different world? And we landed in a place where it oscillates between like being here in this real world and then being lost in the, what I called it, the outside world. For me, it was about like, where I was focusing visually. You know when you fall into a daydream and you’re sort of staring off?
Mmm…
So we folded in a lot of that sort of thing. But I just made sure that there was something going on behind my eyes. I really envisioned the words and the intricacies and the people and the history. Whenever I was playing that I was in the book, or that the book was me, I had this rich visual life that I was really thinking about. It’s quite remarkable to be able to play a character who also turns into a book. [laughs] So it’s not something I could just draw from personal experience, so we just had to make it up in a way that felt real, like, “How would this actually look if it was happening to someone in front of you?” I worked with Sarah on things like that as well, too. She was just my wonderful go-to. I would call her and ask her for various tips on how to be in my body or how to breathe when I’m in that state. She was an invaluable tool to have.
ADOW‘s series finale shows Diana Bishop finally facing off against Satu. I would love to hear — since you know the character better than anyone — why do you think Diana chooses to bind her and not kill her?
I think the trail behind us has been so much death and violence already. So much tragedy. I think there’s that woman-to-woman thing where you might expect that final altercation with Satu and Diana to be really violent and brutal and hardcore. But actually, Diana’s landed in such a beautiful place within herself that she has compassion, such compassion and love and understanding for Satu. So that’s why — and I’m not sure if you noticed it — that that scene, I was really specific about us not playing it in a heightened way. We played it in a woman-to-woman, quieter way.
It was a good juxtaposition to what you were about to see with the knots and Benjamin. There’s been so much violence between the men that it was like, “Wow, what a beautiful contrast to see that when the women come together, and there’s an altercation, that actually, we can almost talk it out.” So it was quite a lovely way to play that scene. We both felt pretty strongly about that. And the director really loved that idea. He was like, “Let’s go for it. Let’s make it a little bit softer.” And, I love that she chooses that, that she chooses to bind her instead. Satu can’t be trusted with the powers that she has. She’s innately broken in so many ways — she’s leaning so much into her shadow-self, rather than being in the light. And this is a way where she might actually have a sense of freedom. She can go about her life without having to be in this dark place where she’s causing so much turmoil for people.
I love how ADOW, in general, discusses what does it mean to have power. Who wields it? Why? I’ve been loving watching everyone’s journey with exploring those questions. Is there any message that you’ve taken from the show — as someone who has acted in this world for so long — that you feel like you’re going to carry into your life?
I’m all about togetherness. I think that I learned so much from the show and from the books that we are just better together. We really are. We are meant to have each other and be with one another, and the separatism that we’ve seen — and so much separatism over the last couple of years, actual physical separatism as well — can break your spirit to be feeling isolated and to be on your own. In A Discovery of Witches, I think that last sequence where you see her with the congregation, the messaging is so beautiful. It really is like enough of the divisiveness. Like, let’s come together as a community. How do we work through this? That’s really my takeaway is togetherness. Meeting people from a place of love and compassion first and foremost. And, how can we stay together? How do we stay together?
There are a lot of goodbyes in the final episode, but who do you wish Diana could have had some more time with in the last episode?
Hamish. [laughs] I love me some Hamis. He’s just the best. He really shows up for Diana and he’s such a good friend to Matthew. He’s a really loyal, beautiful solid friend. We never saw enough of him. I think Diana would like to say thank you. I think she would like to have a moment of saying thank you and acknowledge what a loyal beautiful solid friend he’s been throughout this entire experience. It’s turned his life upside down too — it’s mayhem. He’s really stuck by Matthew and been such a loyal and amazing confidant. I just also love Greg [McHugh]. He’s just a laugh and a half, so it would have been nice to spend some more time with him.
I have to ask about Matthew, obviously! In the final episode, Diana is the one who saves the day, not Matthew. How do you imagine this will change their relationship going forward and their future adventures?
When I think about what their life would look like, I almost hope that they choose a simple life. I hope that they get their beautiful little English country house with vines at the side, and they have their organic garden, and the kids run about, and they have more of them. They see their friends. They see their family. They enjoy good wine together, and it’s just beautifully romantic. And I’m sure, it’s filled with all the things that marriage is filled with, the ups and the downs, but I really hope that if they can, they choose the quiet life.
Someone asked me that on Facebook during a Q&A I was doing. [laughs] I came up with this whole thing — about how they would take walks at night time along the beach, and they would talk about things, and they would grow old together, even though he’s a vampire and he’s gonna be staying that one age. [laughs] It was wild to think about what does the future hold for Matthew and Diana but, who knows? There may be more. We may see them back together one day.
Fall back in love with Diana Bishop and Matthew De Clairmont’s journey in A Discovery of Witches, streaming in its entirety on Shudder, AMC+, and Sundance Now.
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