Between “Orphan Black” and her debut in the MCU as She-Hulk, Tatiana Maslany took a leading role in the first season of HBO’s “Perry Mason.” Her character, Sister Alice McKeegan, was perhaps even more complex than some of the clones she played in her previous show.
“Perry Mason” revolved around Matthew Rhys’ title character, but Alice had a significant presence in Season 1 as the charismatic preacher for the Radiant Assembly of God. The people who followed Alice put their faith in her and they considered her to be touched by the divine. One of her followers was Perry’s client Emily Dodson (Gayle Rankin), a woman who stood accused of the death of her infant child, Charlie.
Sister Alice’s role in the series came to a head in the penultimate episode of Season 1 when she made a public attempt to resurrect Charlie that revealed his grave was empty. Alice’s followers revolted and she refused to play along when her mother, Birdy McKeegan (Lili Taylor), attempted to salvage the situation. Instead, Alice ran off and left her old life behind.
The closing moments of “Perry Mason” Season 1 revealed Alice had reinvented herself as a waitress, but she hadn’t given up on her faith. She even seemed to have a connection with Perry after he tracked her down, which implied the possibility of something deeper when they both expressed their loneliness.
Alice doesn’t live here anymore
Shortly after “Perry Mason” Season 1 concluded, Tatiana Maslany shared her belief that Alice’s story would continue now that she had a fresh start.
“I think it’s the first chapter,” Maslany told Collider. “I think she’s finally working to emancipate herself from all of the things that have defined her and controlled her up until this point. … She’s reimagined by the end of it, similarly to Perry in a very different place, devoid of all the things she knew to be true. All of the markers of her identity, her mother, the church, her faith, her connection to Emily, all of it is stripped away. And she’s in a way, starting again.”
Less than a month after that interview was published, word broke that Maslany had been cast as the lead of Marvel’s “She-Hulk,” which was later renamed “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law.”
In April 2021, HBO confirmed that Maslany would not return for “Perry Mason” Season 2, and a network representative told TVLine that Sister Alice’s “arc came to an end as planned in the Season 1 finale.”
“Perry Mason” was canceled in 2023 after two seasons. Maslany’s “She-Hulk” series debuted on Disney+ in 2022, but the actress has yet to make any further appearances as the heroine.
