So Help Me Todd is showing different sides of Lyle this season—we just met his mother, played by the always fantastic Jenifer Lewis!—and Tristen J. Winger couldn’t be happier.
“We get to see this romantic side of Lyle. We get to see a little bit of Lyle’s history to see why he is the way that he is, because a person like Lyle just doesn’t get involved in secret missions or in a CIA or the NSA, and he isn’t a Mensa scholar. That doesn’t happen by accident, he’s not a genius on accident,” he tells TV Insider. So to see his history come in, to give us some insight into how he became who he is, and then also how he romances as well in his relationship with Alex [Vinessa Antoine] is a pleasure to play as well.”
Below, Winger teases what else is ahead, including some upcoming pranks with Todd (Skylar Astin) and the firm’s financial troubles.
What are you enjoying most about who Lyle is this season?
Tristen J. Winger: Lyle is going out a lot more on these capers, on these missions, which is something that I wanted to see. If we’re seeing how Todd does his missions and he investigates, how does Lyle investigate? Is he just in the office doing his research, or is he getting out in the field? And the answer is he’s getting out in the field and this season’s he’s getting his hands dirty. He’s putting on fake name tags at the bank. He’s going out there, he’s going undercover. I’m loving that, and that’s what I know I want to see more of, and I’m sure that’s what a lot of our fans and our audience want to see more of as well.
When I spoke with Skylar, he mentioned a heavy Lyle-Todd feud with pranks involved coming up. What can you preview?
We just had April Fools’, so just imagine a world in which Todd and Lyle on an April Fools’-like day, on April Fools’, if you will, where they’re just going back and forth pulling pranks on one another, trying to one up one another, and it’s on. It’s game on until it’s not and it’s not funny anymore. But when it’s funny, it is hilarious and the pranks are ridiculous. Shout out to our stunt coordinators who set everything up. Shout out to our props team who set everything up. There are some hijinks happening in that episode that’s going to be a ridiculous amount of fun and maybe even a little heartbreaking at the end.
When is Lyle going to find out about the firm’s financial troubles?
Oh, that may be part of the heartbreak.
What can you say about how he’ll get involved there?
In my opinion, Lyle is the investigator at the law firm. So he’s on the case, and as much as he is someone who is a type A personality who dots his Is and crosses his T’s, he wants to make sure that this place that he is working at and his employer and Margaret [Marcia Gay Harden] and his partner and Todd, he wants to make sure that the ship doesn’t go down without a fight. So he’s going to do everything that he can to make sure that they stay afloat.
Does that mean some good Lyle and Margaret scenes coming up? They had a really great one with his mom around.
Thank you, that was a very sweet moment. But yeah, there’s definitely some more Lyle and Margaret moments happening.
What else is coming up for Lyle?
We saw in Episode 3 that Alex, his love interest, is back. So we get to see some more of Alex and we get to see more of their relationship and how their relationship develops and where that goes over the season, which is a beautiful arc as well for Lyle. His arc with Alex is heartwarming and then some.
So Help Me Todd, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS
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