‘Devious Maids’ EXCLUSIVE: Will Nick Survive? Mark Deklin Talks Nick’s Future & His Other ‘Horrible’ Secret

Gather ‘round, ‘Devious Maids’ fans, as we’ve got lots of great scoop about the hit Lifetime series and Nicholas Deering, played by the handsome and talented Mark Deklin.

Early this morning, TVRage chatted with Deklin about last week’s shocking episode, where Nick was hit by a car thanks to his dark and twisted maid Opal (Joanna Adler). What’s Nick’s survival rate? Does he have a future on this show and with Marisol (Ana Ortiz)? You’ll have to tune in to find out, but until then check out what Deklin revealed.

TVRage: To start, last week’s episode left us with Opal running over Nick and leaving him in the middle of the street. Can you tease about Nick’s status? What’s his survival rate? I know you probably can’t give too much away.

Mark Deklin: Right, and I appreciate you not wanting me to spoil. I can tell you that he is fighting for his life. He did not die on the street, as Opal drove away. He’s in the hospital. He’s fighting for his life. I can’t tell you beyond that, but we’re going to see Nick beat up and in a bad way and about to go into a possibly life-threatening surgery. It’s going to be a catalyst for him to possibly move to a resolution in his mystery. (laughs) Was that cagey enough?

TVRage: Yes, that’s actually more than I thought you were going to give, so I appreciate that much.

Deklin: I actually contacted the network to ask, ‘Listen, what do I need to keep under wraps? What am I allowed to reveal?’ They basically told me feel free to reveal that you’re still alive, but fighting for your life.

TVRage: As we’ve seen, Opal killed Dahlia and is willing to do whatever it takes to protect herself and her son. But, Nick isn’t innocent in the situation either. He’s been keeping this secret and covering up what Opal did. Why do you think he became an accomplice in the murder of his own wife? Do you think part of Nick wanted Dahlia dead, since she was unfaithful?

Deklin: That might come into play, and, in fact, I can tell you the episode coming up there’s going to be another flashback. It will be interesting to see how that comes off, in terms of how Nick feels about Dahlia being dead. I think he has mixed feelings. I think he loved her, and he’s probably quite shaken by that death. He didn’t go to that bridge to murder her or to see her murdered. … There might be some secret part of him that’s like, ‘Well, that’s a problem solved.’ (laughs) And, it’s a little deeper than that without giving too much away. … It was interesting when Nick got run over by the car. My Twitter feed blew up for a minute with people saying, ‘Oh my God, is he dead?’ But, what was really fascinating was it came in waves. The first wave was, ‘Oh poor Nick. He was innocent all along.’ But, then it was like people took a breath and said, ‘Hold on a minute. If he was innocent, why he is protecting Opal? She’s got something deeper on him.’ It was really fun for me to see the light bulb go off, because people were collectively going, ‘Wait a second. There’s a deeper mystery here and it has nothing to do with Dahlia. It’s something older and darker than that.’

TVRage: Absolutely. Remnants of that have been popping up throughout the season. There’s definitely something more there, and I look forward to seeing what else this mystery contains.

Deklin: My template for this character is -- I sort of took a mirror, for me, of ‘Breaking Bad,’ and I decided Nick is ‘Breaking Good.’ Nick is a guy with a horrible [secret]. It’s horrible. I can’t tell you what it is, but what Nick did is horrible. He regrets it. He’s wracked with guilt. If he could change it, he would. If he could confess to Marisol, he would. It’s just that he doesn’t believe that what he did could ever be forgivable. He just wants to bury it in the past and build a new life. He wants to be a good man, but the past has a funny way of coming back to haunt us.

TVRage: Now, this bad thing that Nick did. Does it have anything to do with Opal lying to Marisol about Ethan’s father? Because, Opal said what Nick told her to say, and after all Nick is leaving Ethan money, which a lot of people are curious about.

Deklin: As far as I know, and, again, I want to be careful that I’m not spoiling this here. At this moment, it has not been revealed to me that Nick is Ethan’s father. As far as I know, he was telling the truth -- about that. (laughs) With that said, we could come back next season and reveal yes, in fact, Ethan was Nick’s son all along. The way I see it, Nick is leaving that money for really two reasons. One is it’s hush money and he struck a deal with Opal, and that’s part of their deal. And, two, again, one of the things in this nest of lies, one of the things I’ve looked for all along is what are the truths? Everything that comes out of his mouth can’t be a lie. So what are the things that really are true? One of the things that really is true is he is indeed madly, truly, deeply in love with Marisol. That’s real. Another thing that’s true is, as far as I know, that Ethan is not his son. Maybe I’ll get fooled by that. (laughs). But, another thing, as we saw in an episode or two ago, Nick said to Marisol, ‘I care about Ethan. He grew up in this house. Is it so crazy that I’d care about him?’ And, I think that, at least in the way that I chose to play it, I think that was sincere. I think there is a part of Nick that really does have these sort of paternal feelings...this is the little kid that we watched grow up. And, of course, that little kid witnessed that death on that bridge. So you gotta feel bad for this kid. Yeah, I think there’s a part of [Nick] that looks at Ethan as the son he never had.

TVRage: I want to go back real quick to Dahlia’s death. As we’ve seen, Nick has quite the temper and can get extremely angry. Do you think if Opal hadn’t killed Dahlia, Nick would have? Or, do you think he loved her too much to do something like that?

Deklin: I don’t know the answer to that, but in terms of the character I built and what I’ve been playing, no, I don’t think Nick had murder on his mind. I don’t think it was he was about to do it, but Opal stepped in and did it first. I don’t. In fact, I can be honest with you that in some ways that moment that we saw, when Nick got angry and jealous, it was a little bit of a red herring, because we're still setting up the mystery of, ‘Oh my God. Nick killed Dahlia,’ and ‘Run, Marisol, because he’ll throw you off the bridge next.’ So we wanted to show that flare of anger to feed that mystery. Ultimately, I can tell you that his anger isn’t really an issue and [Marisol’s] not in any danger from him. He would hurt himself, before he would hurt her.

TVRage: Speaking of Nick and Marisol. If/when Marisol learns the entire truth, how do you think she’ll react? I’m assuming she’ll be shocked and won’t be too happy.

Deklin: Without question. If/when she learns what he did, no matter what ultimate decision she makes, she will be furious. She will be sad. She’ll be disappointed. The question, though, is can she get past that and forgive him? For Nick, that is the big question. That is the crux of the whole thing. She might not, but, at some point, he’s gonna have to face the truth. He’s gonna have to realize that he can’t hide the truth and it will find a way to get out. But, also, he’s lying to her with good intentions. He thinks he’s protecting the relationship and protecting her. He’s gonna have to have this realization that ‘you’re still lying to her.’ At the end of the day, you cannot have a healthy, good relationship that’s built on lies -- even if you think the lies are well-intentioned. I think he’s going to realize that. Again, I think he so desperately wants to be truthful with her, he’s just terrified. He doesn’t think he can. He’s quite certain that if she knew the truth, that she would despise him and he would have nothing.

Remember, this is a guy who secluded himself for 15 years. This is a guy who made a choice to say, 'I don’t deserve to be a part of humanity. I’m literally going to cut myself off of from happiness and life and human joy. I’m just going to exist up in this weird mansion with my weird maid.' That was a choice he made. He checked out of life. And, it was only because there he was at his favorite bookstore quietly reading and this woman approached him and began talking to him and, the way I feel it, he wasn’t even flirting with her. He wasn’t looking for love. He didn’t feel he deserved love. But, there it was. … He’s reinvigorated. Life has given him a second chance. So, he’s trying to take that second chance, but it might not work out.

TVRage: If Nick survives, if any, what kind of revenge do you think Nick will seek out on Opal? Do you think he’ll get revenge, or do you think he’ll come clean and try to start fresh?

Deklin: That’s an interesting question, because I think it can go either way. Going back to your earlier question about Nick’s anger and his possible capability for violence, I don’t think that would ever be a threat to Marisol. But, yeah, is it possible that Nick -- if he could never walk again, if he never recovers -- might he find some way to get Opal back? Yes, I think that’s entirely possible. But, I also think it’s possible because he’s so desperate to bury the past. Getting revenge on someone, that digs up the past. There might be a part of him that almost wants to say to Opal, ‘OK, fine. We’re even. You crippled me for life. You ran me over with a car. Now can we let it go? Now can we move on? Now can I forget you ever existed and get on with my life?’ (laughs)

TVRage: Lastly, you keep mentioning what Nick’s done is absolutely terrible. There’s this thing that still hasn’t been revealed. How do you think fans are going to react when they learn this big secret?

Deklin: I have no idea. I can tell you, I’m almost, à la Nick, I’m almost a little scared. I’m very interested to see. I could get the gamut of reactions. I know there are going to be people who will still defend me...who will want to take Nick’s side. … There will definitely be people who will take Nicholas’ side. I think there will be people who will be somewhere in the middle and feel like, ‘Yeah, I know he tried, but I can’t forgive that.’ And, there are going to be people who are going to say, ‘Oh my God! What a turd. He needs to die a slow, painful death.’ There are certainly going to be people who, at the moment, like Nick, who are going to turn on him when they find out what he did.

‘Devious Maids’ airs Sundays at 10/9c on Lifetime.