Lauren Cohan Talks About Her Upcoming Arc on Chuck (SPOILERS)

WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

Lauren Cohan, last seen on The Vampire Diaries as vampire Rose, will next appear in a five-episode arc on Chuck as Vivian, an Oxford scholar with a father who turns out to be a criminal mastermind. Much has been speculated about this character, especially with tantalizing clues dropping like “she shares more in common with Chuck than he expected.” Is she Volkoff’s daughter? Chuck’s half-sister? In an interview with EW, Lauren shed some light on her role:

“This character’s fun. She’s actually been such a nice departure from the dark ages,” she jokes. “She’s not quite bumbling. She’s a well-educated person with no purpose, who just kinda gets unwittingly wrenched into this CIA world. This girl is kinda like, ‘I don’t know what to do with my life,’ and then the CIA arrives, and they’re like, ‘You have all these skills, come with us.’ We don’t actually know what her role is gonna be. The CIA comes to protect her, and then events turn.” Cohan says those skills involve weaponry, languages, and karate, and that Vivian is also an equestrian. Fortunately, Cohan is a quick learner. “It was really funny because in the break down, it said, ‘Must be an experienced horse rider,’ and I went for the audition and I booked the job, and I called them, and I said, ‘They do know that I couldn’t just jump on a horse and, like, run, right?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s fine.’ In the end, they don’t want any of their actors doing the really dangerous stuff anyway. They teach you as much as they can, and then they have amazing pros do the other stuff.”

From the paragraph above, it sounds like Vivian becomes a CIA asset, which certainly gives her something in common with Chuck. It also means her father probably won’t be happy when he finds out she’s working for the CIA. Earlier in the article, she’s identified as Vivian McArthur, which doesn’t completely rule out Volkoff as her father, but does keep us guessing. (Yes, we know she’s listed as Vivian Volkoff at IMDb. Anyone can submit information there, without verifying it, so for now we’re not calling that definitive.)

Lauren Cohan first appears in episode 4.16, “Chuck vs. the Masquerade”, airing February 21.