Exclusive Interview
‘Cruel Intentions’ Stars React to Shocking Finale Twist, Reveal Season 2 Hopes (VIDEO)
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Cruel Intentions Season 1.]
Lucien Belmont (Zac Burgess) saved his most savage move for the Cruel Intentions finale. In the final leg of his ongoing competition (and seductive game) with stepsister Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook), he sticks the knife right in her back by sleeping with her mother/his stepmother, Claudia (Claire Forlani). Swooon spoke with the show’s stars about Lucien’s power play and what it means moving forward.
“In Australia, we would say that’s a dog move,” Burgess said. The actor acknowledged that Lucien sleeping with Claudia was the worst thing he could do to hurt Caroline. “Lucien knows, through and through, the relationship that Caroline has with Claudia, and [this] is to rip her down and to absolutely pull it apart,” he stressed.
Hook acknowledged that Caroline’s mother is her character’s “sensitive spot,” to which Burgess quipped, “I think pretty much the only sensitive spot.” In the final moments of the episode, Lucien can be seen driving away with a devilish smirk on his face, wearing Caroline’s cross necklace, and ignoring everyone.
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“All Caroline wants is her mother’s love and approval, and her mother has made it very clear that she loves Lucien more,” co-showrunner Sara Goodman told Swooon. “I think once he sees in her eyes that she actually has feelings for him, there is nothing more hurtful. By the way, not just to her, but to himself. He’s really destroying himself when he does that, and I think that’s why we love him because there’s this self-destructive part of him I think we all feel for. It’s not just to hurt her, it’s to blow everything up.”
The ending of the first season feels like just the beginning for the Cruel Intentions crew at Manchester College. The cast revealed what they’d most like to explore in Season 2.
“Towards the end of the season, you see so much more of his depth,” Burgess said about Lucien. “He is far more emotional. You see that he actually does have attachment to certain things, as opposed to the disregard that he had previously. I would be extremely excited to be able to explore that emotional depth and that real hatred. I think that is beginning to build.”
Hook added, “I think it would be so interesting to look deeper into Lucien’s parents, like his biological parents, and what happened with his mom. If we were to meet his dad, Caroline’s stepdad, I think that would add a fun layer to it. Not fun, but quite grim layer, potentially.”
The actress also pointed out that she wants to see Cece’s (Sara Silva) room in Season 2. “We never see her in her little lair, but we just imagine it’s covered in sticky notes and stuff. I just kind of want to see her bedroom and what the inside of her mind kind of looks like in bedroom form,” Hook said.
As for Annie, Savannah Lee Smith hopes her character will “reconnect” with Beatrice (Brooke Lena Johnson), which we catch a glimpse of at the end of the season. “I’m interested to see where they go and what they do with this reconnection and this friendship, especially because Lucien’s still around, so what are we gonna do about him?” she said.
Professor Chadwick’s (Sean Patrick Thomas) certainly gotten himself into some risky business by the end of the season. “He’s at a point where things could go really, really, really sideways. He could lose his job. He could maybe go to jail, or whatever it is. It’s a big deal, so hopefully Season 2 will shed light on all of that,” Thomas revealed.
What would you want to see in Cruel Intentions Season 2? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Cruel Intentions, Season 1, Streaming Now, Prime Video
