Keegan Allen previews Liam's 'breaking point' as Walker returns

After a short hiatus, Walker is back, and a storm is about to hit Austin… in more ways than one.

With a tornado approaching, Walker (Jared Padalecki) will find himself battling Mother Nature, but for his brother, Liam (Keegan Allen), this week is about grappling with a major decision: Does he tell Walker about Emily's (Genevieve Padalecki) murderer? And furthermore, after his trip to Mexico came to an explosive conclusion, is he still in danger?

EW has an exclusive clip from Thursday's episode above. Below, we talk with Allen about playing Liam and what's in store post-Mexico.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did you feel like you had a good understanding of who Liam was from the pilot?

KEEGAN ALLEN: I really loved the character from the pilot. I could see how [showrunner] Anna Fricke carefully constructed this character. It's not as simple as "it's Walker's brother." There are so many elements to Liam and such a depth to what he stands for, who he is. He very much cares to help people, so that weighs heavy on him. He's a family man, someone who really cares for his family and for Cordell's children and for Cordell and his parents. To me that was always at the forefront of Anna Fricke's character creation. And there is so much about Liam that the audience doesn't know yet, and they'll continue to learn.

What I like about this episode is I felt like I learned a lot about who Liam is at his core.

Obviously we all make mistakes in our lives that are of different magnitudes, but I love that we put Liam in a situation where he's literally at a breaking point, and what he does at that point is so fascinating to me. I love what they've done with this character.

Did you know Jared Padalecki before Walker?

A little bit. I was on Pretty Little Liars for years and he was on Supernatural, and we would go to these conventions and I was always hot on his heels. We'd get in there after the Supernatural boys and they'd blow through, like, Paris, so much so that there would be a Jared Padalecki headshot rolling like a tumbleweed through the middle of the Champs-Élysées. [Laughs] So many times Supernatural fans would stick around for the PLL convention, and every time, without fail, fans would say, "Does anybody ever tell you you look like Jared Padalecki's younger brother?" We would wear our hair the same way, we both grow beards within an hour of waking up. So it was no surprise that when I did get the job, I got a call from him and we talked as if we'd known each other for years. We were on the phone for three and a half hours. I've never met someone that I've looked up to so much and feel like I've known them my whole life. It's a very realistic brotherly bond; he's the brother I always felt like I needed in my life.

This week, Liam is coming off a traumatizing trip to Mexico, and he now knows that Walker was right about Carlos Mendoza. How is he handling all that?

There's a huge vulnerability there. This character has to be precise, there's a precision in the law. Being an assistant district attorney is a huge undertaking and an immense responsibility. There's people's lives at risk. It's remarkable that he had overlooked this simply because there was no evidence to make him think otherwise. We saw the fight in [episode 2] of Liam telling his brother, "You're chasing ghosts. " A lot of fans of Supernatural loved that I screamed that. [Laughs] I loved it too. And then suddenly the tables are turned and Liam has to face the reality that not only was Liam duped, but Cordell's world is completely vulnerable. That's what's equally as heartbreaking, is we see Cordell start to have some semblance of a normal life.

And then they also have a tornado to deal with.

When I read the episode, it felt like this wonderful metaphor was taking place. We get a taste of this real-life storm brewing and wreaking havoc on all the people in the Walker universe. They're all affected by the storm in different ways. But what we don't see, what we feel, as we watch it is this storm brewing within each of these characters and what that does. This force of emotion that's going on within each of the characters doesn't end when the storm clears. In episodes 9, 10, and on, the storm continues to grow. It's very, very intense.

Walker airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on the CW.

Related content:

• Walker star Coby Bell previews what's next for Captain James and Liam's investigation
• Walker star Jared Padalecki on how his character differs from Sam on Supernatural
• Genevieve Padalecki discusses her return to acting with Walker