Apples Never FallStar Jake Lacy on the Show’s 'Wild' Twist and What's Next for Troy: 'Hopefully Therapy' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

The cast of ‘Apples Never Fall’ (from left): Alison Brie, Jake Lacy, Sam Neill, Annette Bening, Essie Randles and Conor Merrigan Turner.Photo:Art Streiber/Peacock

Art Streiber/Peacock

Warning: This post contains spoilers fromApples Never Fall.

Jake Lacyis breaking down all the shocking twists and turns onApples Never Fall.

Peacock’snewest limited series - which premiered on Thursday - take viewers down a “who dunnit” rabbit hole after Joy Delaney (Annette Bening) mysteriously disappears. The four siblings in the Delaney family begin to question what they know to be true about themselves and their family, and all look to their dad Stan (Sam Neill) as their predominant suspect.

The end of episode 6 left viewers with the shocking realization that Joy was alive and well, having left on her own accord. She was hoping to give her family, who had been icing her out due to an argument, “a taste of their own medicine.”

However, things got out of hand when Savannah (Georgia Flood), a con artist who had plans to break up the Delaney family and keep Joy as her own mother, manipulated Joy into staying. After recognizing something was wrong, Joy fought to return home, and it took Savannah nearly killing her in a car crash to do so.

While the family of six reunited in the end, each member of the Delaney family had to face their greatest mistakes and secrets along the way, while also learning something new about themselves and their relationships with one another.

Below, Lacy, 39, speaks with PEOPLE to break down the shocking ending, the relationships between the members of the Delaney family, his behind-the-scenes chemistry with the cast and what’s next for his character, Troy.

Apples Never Fall.Peacock

Peacock

PEOPLE: What does the title of the show,Apples Never Fall, represent?

JAKE LACY: I think there’s the unresolved pain that we carry with us and gets handed off to people, and at least the relationship between Troy and Stan is an example of that. Stan’s pushing down of fear and resentment and emotions has handed itself off to Troy, and now he is more like his father. We learned that Joy had stepped out of their marriage and they found a way back together. But Troy also has been, there’s some infidelity in his marriage that leads to this divorce. So I think that it’s hard to escape the pattern, and that’s what the title is getting at.

Why do you think that it took longer for Brooke and Logan to believe their dad had killed their mom?

JL: There’s an eight-year difference between the younger siblings and the older siblings. We grew up with two very different versions of the same man. Neither is emotionally accessible, but one is one you could believe would snap and do something this aggressive, and the other just seems like a guy who had a bad day at the office. So I think that’s why Amy and Troy are more willing to see the circumstantial evidence as adding up to Stan’s guilt and that Brooke and Logan are slower to arrive there, but eventually with no one else to point to, they come on board as well.

From left: Conor Merrigan-Turner, Essie Randles, Jake Lacy and Alison Brie on ‘Apples Never Fall’.Jasin Boland/PEACOCK

Jasin Boland/PEACOCK

How was your experience working with incredible actors like Annette Bening, Sam Neill and Alison Brie?

JL: Well, Sam and Annette were signed on when the project was sent to me, and that’s already 85% of the way to saying yes. Whoever’s leading that show really sets the tone, and I don’t have enough good things to say about Sam and Annette — both onset [with] their work to build these relationships, but then also, we’re shooting in Australia. None of us have friends or family on the Gold Coast, and so we ended up spending a lot of time together and Sam would spearhead, we had a little Annette Benning film society. Stuff like that, that outside of work, they also fostered this really welcoming, warm environment that you felt like a peer and not a weird fan.

The Delaneys are impressive tennis players. How did you train for the tennis scenes?

JL: They provided us with some wonderful coaches and pros for about three or four weeks leading up to the start of production so that we could just look as plausible as possible in the filming of it. And then we also had tennis doubles and fancy camera work and editing, and I think Sam described it as “Jurassic Parklevel CGI” to make us look like a family that’s played tennis competitively for 25, 30 years.

Annette Bening (left) and Jake Lacy in ‘Apples Never Fall’.Vince Valitutti/PEACOCK

Vince Valitutti/PEACOCK

Why do you think the show was set in West Palm Beach and that tennis was the chosen sport?

JL: There’s kind of a faux glamor to the Delaneys. They live in a very nice, well-appointed suburban home, but they’re not billionaires. For Troy, at least, it feels like you’re on the outside looking in at what else is out there. He has done his best to break free of that as if it were a prison and go across the bridge and make a lot of money, but it’s like he sort of has this ungrateful perspective of what his life has been and doing everything to overcome that and finds out that the outside is not going to fix the inside.

The show leaves viewers with some unanswered questions, specifically about Troy, whose boss just learned he was having an affair with his wife. What do you think is next for Troy?

JL: Hopefully therapy. In the end, it just feels like maybe he’s taken his foot off the gas a little bit in terms of thinking, “I need a relationship to make me feel better. I need this job. I need the chaos that comes with dating a person who’s married.” And so my hope would be that he goes to therapy, but I also think that he likes nice things. I think he’s going to open a new business or get involved with somebody else and continue to make as much money as he can and have this well-appointed life, but maybe starting to break free of the notion that it’s somehow going to be a replacement for a relationship to himself and to others.

Jake Lacy on ‘Apples Never Fall’.Jasin Boland/PEACOCK

Do you ever wish you could just play a really nice guy?

JL: When I first started, my first decade of jobs was like, “he’s very sweet.” A lot of jobs that I’ve loved doing and was very lucky to be a part of, there were more layers, and yes, after this, I’m like, “It’d be nice to do something that’s like, he’s the stable, kind boyfriend or husband,” but it’s fully job-to-job. It kind of just builds as it builds.

The show takes a turn in episode 6 when it is revealed that Joy is alive and well. Can you break down that surprise?

JL: I guess the thing that interests me is sort of this wild juxtaposition of how bad things have gotten at home. Stan’s in jail, the kids are mourning their mother, the loss of their mother trying to come to grips with what self-involved brats they’ve been, and then this cuts to Joy who kind of is living her best life in a lot of ways.

Is your relationship with your brother similar to the siblings in the Delaney family?

JL: I have a younger brother. We’re like, six years apart and our parents are lovely, so no. I have two sons, 4 and 6,  and they’re just shy of two years apart, and I see how they will be best friends and enemies maybe for the rest of their days, or some ever-changing version of that because they’re so close in age to one another.

From left: Georgia Flood, Essie Randles, Sam Neill, Annette Bening, Jake Lacy and Conor Merrigan-Turner of ‘Apples Never Fall’ at the Academy Museum on March 12, 2024.Todd Williamson/Peacock

Todd Williamson/Peacock

It seems that all of the Delaneys learned something about themselves through Joy’s disappearance. Who do you think had the most growth from start to finish?

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Apples Never Fallis now streaming on Peacock.

source: people.com