SPOILERS ahead for East of Eden, now streaming with a Netflix subscription.
Ever since I found out a book-to-screen adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden was on the 2026 TV schedule, I've been curious to see the classic get the miniseries treatment. Now that it’s here and I've binged it, wow! There are so many standout moments in the show, but I need to talk about one scene in the final episode where we learned a shocking behind-the-scenes fact from the cast about meeting Florence Pugh’s Cathy on set.
Much of East of Eden is building to the moment when Aron Trask learns that his mother is alive and the owner of a brothel named Kate’s, after her alias. It happens after Caleb spent most of his life protecting his brother from the difficult truth, and Aron concocting a perfect picture in his head of who his mother was. But when Caleb is fueled with rage, the same evening he presents their father with the money he’s earned from war profiteering (which Chris Abbott’s Adam vehemently declines), he decides to take Aron to Kate’s. Here’s how the actor behind Caleb, Joseph Zada, recalled the moment on set to CinemaBlend:
It was the first scene we ever filmed. And, we spent three weeks in rehearsals being kept apart from Florence. So neither of us had seen Florence at all. They set it up so there were 50 extras in the room. There was live music. There were naked women. There were men in five-piece suits. There was real cigarette smoke. And the camera comes and follows us in. And the first time we see Florence is in that moment that you see on screen. It's like Joe and I are making eye contact with Florence, who is entirely Cathy at that moment too. The crazy makeup and the crazy veil. That was an insane moment. And it was nuts, and she touches Joe's face. And I remember watching that.
The scene where Aron and Cathy meet for the first time is stirring. Aron has no idea what he’s walking into when Caleb brings him into the brothel. And when he lays his eyes on his mother, you get the feeling that every bright and shiny thing he imagined about her has died all at once. Then, when he runs away without saying a word, you can see the hurt in Cathy’s eyes over being rejected by her own son.
As I learned from the East of Eden cast, the scene was actually Zada and Joe Anders' first day on set and the first time they got to meet Florence Pugh. Anders, who plays Aron, told us this:
Yeah, that was an insane moment. I mean, because it was the first day, I was so nervous about that because it's obviously the end of my character's story specifically. That was really hard for me to shoot just because I was obviously a part of something so wonderful and sort of grand with all of these unbelievably talented, wonderful people I was working with.
It’s certainly a massive moment in East of Eden because it’s the last time we see Aron in the show. Once he sees Cathy, he storms out of the brothel. He sees his brother one last time and punches him clear in the face in his anger.
The next time we hear about Aron is through a letter where he tells his family he’s enlisted in the army, which leads Adam to have a stroke. As the show ends, the Trask family learns that Aron has died in battle. It’s such a tragic ending, but at least Caleb gets a moment with his dad where he forgives him for inspiring Aron to leave his family just before Adam dies, too.
It’s a heartbreaking story, and I imagine the production’s decision to stage the scene to make it the first time Anders and Zada (who’s also in the new Hunger Games movie coming next month) see Pugh made it even more effective. Netflix's East of Eden series is truly the best show I've seen this year, and learning this behind-the-scenes moment only strengthens the memorable scene for me.
