‘A Tale of Two Cities’ Star Breaks Down the Finale’s Heartbreaking “Gut Punch Beyond Words”

Published Oct 4, 2026, 10:15 PM EDT

Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for A Tale of Two Cities.

Summary

• In the MGM+ series, 'A Tale of Two Cities,' Lucie Manette is a woman ahead of her time, studying medicine, defying norms, and initiating intimacy.
• A small, unscripted laugh during an intimate moment between Lucie and Sydney gives a rare moment of joy amid the show's heartbreak.
• Sydney's ultimate sacrifice reunites Lucie with Charles, the joy and unbearable grief entwined in the story's final moments.

At the core of the MGM+ series A Tale of Two Cities is a love triangle that sees Lucie Manette (Mirren Mack) torn between Charles Darnay (François Civil), an aristocrat who has renounced his heritage, and Sydney Carton (Kit Harington), a disillusioned lawyer struggling with his own personal demons. After Charles left Lucie behind with no explanation, she decided to voice her feelings to Sydney, but he wasn’t in a place where he could give her the love she deserved. She continues to be torn between the two men until Charles ultimately steps up, and they build a life together until that life is threatened by his arrest in Paris at the height of the Revolution. When a trial uncovers shocking revelations that tear him away from a pregnant Lucie and sentences him to death, Sydney decides to make the ultimate sacrifice.

After watching the season of this classic adaptation, Collider got the opportunity to chat with Mack about the story’s tortured love triangle, the moment that Lucie initiates intimacy with Sydney and the little bit of improvisation they shared, shooting the heartbreaking scene when their relationship fell apart, and the gut punch when Lucie realized that reuniting with Charles meant that Sydney sacrificed himself.

Mirren Mack Was Excited To Play This More Modernized Version of Lucie Manette in ‘A Tale of Two Cities’

"She takes her life into her own hands, even from the very beginning."

COLLIDER: You have a tortured love triangle in this series, but it feels like all romance was tortured during this time period. I actually love that Lucie is the one to go to Sydney and initiate their intimacy. How did you feel about that? What do you think that says about her?

MIRREN MACK: When I read the script, I was so excited to play this version of Lucie because she takes her life into her own hands, even from the very beginning. She’s studying medicine illegally, pulling cadavers out of the river to practice surgery on. She’s pretty rock and roll. She doesn’t wait for things to happen. She’s not accepting the social norms and the life that’s carved out for her. Instead, she’s chasing the truth, trying to find her father again.

With Sydney, she sees the heart underneath this brilliant, very charismatic, difficult, dark, humorous man. She sees a man worthy of so much love and who’s so kind, and she sees that he doesn’t believe in himself and that he’s worthy of that love. She goes, “I’m taking matters into my own hands. Let’s do this.” And with Charles, she waited for him to make the first move, and it didn’t happen. And so, I think she’s like, “Okay, I’m going to chase the things that I want and think I deserve.

A Small Moment of Joy in the Heartbreaking ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ Was Unscripted

"That came out of the moment."

Image via MGM+

I also love the moment when Sydney pulls at Lucie’s clothing to get her undressed and you laugh. Was that scripted? Was that something you talked about? Did that just come out of the moment? It was so interesting to see her have that moment of joy amid all the serious things that are going on.

MACK: Yes. We spoke about it, but it wasn’t in the script. This is a new thing for Lucie. As much as she comes into it going, “Let’s do this,” it’s messy and gentle and all the different words that can be ascribed to being intimate and vulnerable with someone. That came out of the moment. For me, it was a joyful thing that was happening. I’m really glad that you picked up on that and that you found that a moment of joy in this show. It is a heartbreaking story. The world that they’re in has so much oppression and injustice that’s been ignored for so long. The world is really being torn apart. And then, within that, you have these individual relationships. For me, playing Lucie, I got to explore them with François [Civil] and Kit [Harington]. But then, there’s also the characters of Hester and Dr. Manette. There are these little heartbreaks everywhere to be found.

There’s the moment in Episode 3 where Sydney tells Lucie that he wants her and that he can be better for her and that she’s all that he needs. It’s lovely to have the man you love say that he’ll give anything and everything for you, but it takes something away from that when you put the pressure of being the one to save you on someone else. How did you feel about that moment? What was that like to find between the two of you?

MACK: Kit and I discussed a lot that with Sydney’s addictive qualities, he’s transferred that Lucie will fix him. If he can have her, that will make everything better. Lucie even says, “I can’t be the one to fix you. You can’t ask me to do this. I can’t be your reason to live. It’s too much.” It’s heartbreaking because she does love him, but she knows that life and that path, choosing him, will have a lot of pain in it. He can’t love himself in the way she needs him to. It was really hard. I remember reading the script and my heart started falling out of itself, going, “I’m not looking forward to doing that scene because it’s going to be painful.” Kit is extraordinary. He just was so easy to stand across from and break your heart over. So was François. I’m the luckiest person, getting to work with them both.

The Ending of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ Is Really the Best and Worst Thing To Happen to Lucie

"In this story, every single character does something selfless for another person."

Image via MGM+

How did you feel about the reunion between Lucie and her husband, with that moment of realization of the sacrifice that Sydney made? How did she even deal with all of that at once?

MACK: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. At the end, in that moment, my love is back. Something I thought impossible has happened and he’s in front of me. That’s disbelief, ecstasy, and joy. It’s a gut punch beyond words. And then, to realize how that’s happened, when she’s feeling his coat and she realizes that it’s come at the cost of this other person that she loves. It’s both the best thing in the world and the worst thing in the world, at the same time. It’s such an amazing ending because it’s completely heartbreaking and also so beautiful.

In this story, every single character does something selfless for another person. Just thinking about the world that we’re in just now, it feels very selfish in many ways at times. The people at the top in their ivory towers are acting so terrifyingly and not thinking of their fellow people in the world. Seeing this story with so much selflessness is so moving. I hope we, as a people, can hold onto it. There are people across the world doing selfless acts every day for their families and for the people they love, absolutely. For me, it was exciting to see that on screen.

A Tale of Two Cities is available to stream on MGM+.