Exclusive Interview
‘Ransom Canyon’ Season 2 Couples Scoop: EP Talks Quinn & Staten’s Future and More
[Warning: This post contains MAJOR spoilers for Ransom Canyon Season 1.]
The fight over love is just as intense as the fight over land in Netflix’s Ransom Canyon. The new series, based on Jodi Thomas’ book of the same name, is the perfect mix of cowboy drama and epic romances.
Showrunner April Blair told TV Insider that the Ransom Canyon Season 2 writers’ room is already underway, even though the show hasn’t been renewed. The ending of the first season left a number of relationships in limbo.
From Quinn (Minka Kelly) and Staten’s (Josh Duhamel) breakup—he left behind his matching bracelet at the bar!—to Yancy’s (Jack Schumacher) secret wife reveal, loving someone is never easy in this small Texas town. Blair opened up to Swooon about what’s next for your favorite Ransom Canyon couples, and also hinted at rekindling some romances from years past. (Don’t think we didn’t notice the chemistry between Kai and Ellie!)
Scroll down to get all the Ransom Canyon couples scoop, and let us know what you’d like to see on the romance front in a potential Season 2.
Ransom Canyon, Season 1, Streaming Now, Netflix
Staten & Quinn
At the end of the season, Quinn and Staten have seemingly gone their separate ways. Staten is staying in Ransom, while Quinn is headed off to New York City for six months to play for the New York Philharmonic. These two finally admitted their feelings for each other after years of yearning, but fate and family drama have pulled them apart once again.
Blair told Swooon that she’s curious if Quinn needs to “have a little more love and a little bit of a different type of love before they’re ready to be together,” hinting at a possible new love interest. “He had this whole life before her, and I always say, we have these choose-your-own-adventure relationships. Staten’s the man you want to fix. Yancy’s the bad boy you should stay away from, and Lucas is the high school sweetheart you deserved but probably didn’t have. In the Staten category, I think their issue throughout the season is that he has a really hard time communicating.”
The showrunner admitted that so much heartache could have been avoided if Staten had just been open about his feelings for Quinn. “There’s the end of the episode when she pours her heart out, and she puts everything on the line and is like, ‘Why do you care what I do?’ And we know how much he cares and that he loves her, and he just says, ‘I don’t,’ because he’s so broken and guarded and won’t communicate his feelings.”
There’s also the flashback to Quinn and Staten’s teen years during the tornado episode. “We see that moment that he came to ask Quinn to dance and gets blocked by Amalah, who’s played by Reese Witherspoon’s daughter,” Blair noted. “He could have said what he felt, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean you. I mean Quinn.’ He’s constantly caught up in this thing where he can’t talk about how he feels or say what he wants, so he ends up in these positions. If these two people would just talk, so much would be solved, but that’s the thing that’s constantly getting in the way for them.”
Davis & Paula Jo
Paula Jo (Meta Golding), Davis’ (Eoin Macken) ex-wife, comes in like a fireball in Episode 5. These two have their issues, but their intimate and emotional shower moment is a clear indication that these two still have feelings for each other.
“Both Meta and Eoin are just really good at taking what could be a much more one dimensional antagonist and giving them humanity and nuance,” Blair revealed. “No one’s the villain of their own story, and to these people, they’re not villains. They’re wounded, emotional people, too, and with their romance, there’s more to do with them.”
Yancy & Ellie
Just when Yancy and Ellie (Marianly Tejada) are about to embark on their life together, a game-changing twist blows into town. Yancy’s waiting for Ellie to show up and marry him, but she runs right into his secret wife at Gracie’s Dance Hall. Her face is never shown, but Ellie’s stunned face says it all.
“Little tidbit: My friend, who was the lead actress on my very first show, Jane By Design, the girl who played Jane [Erica Dasher], was visiting me and on set, and I was like, ‘Oh, do you want to be the back of Yancy’s wife’s head?’ Her head made a cameo. We weren’t at the place where we were ready to cast that yet, and we wanted to also add a little air of mystery, but definitely a Season 2 would answer that very quickly, and we find out what was behind Yancy’s lie and all that.”
Will Yancy’s wife quickly head back out of town? Probably not. Blair teased that Yancy’s wife will be a major player in a potential second season.
Ellie & Kai
Kai (Justin Johnson Cortez) clearly still harbors love for Ellie, and he’s always making sure that she’s okay. Blair told Swooon that Cortez actually came up with a backstory for Kai and Ellie that’s now canon.
“I love a love triangle. I feel like Ellie and Yancy and Kai are in a love triangle, but only he’s aware of it,” Blair said. “I think Kai is still madly in love with her. Justin Johnson Cortez pitched me his backstory. He’s like, ‘In my mind, Ellie and Kai used to date, and I was no good. It was before I joined the police department, and I was a bad guy before. Ellie’s kind of drawn to those kind of guys. They ended things, and he’s turned his life around, but he still feels this need to protect her and make up to her for being the first bad guy who broke her heart.’ When he told me that, I was like, ‘Can I just use that? That’s beautiful.’ Moving forward, that’s a love triangle we’d like to explore, too. It was just we had a lot of them.”
Lucas & Lauren
Lucas (Garrett Wareing) and Lauren’s (Lizzy Greene) relationship was initially a secret because her dad (Philip Winchester) wouldn’t approve, and she also had a semi-thing with Reid Collins (Andrew Liner). This teen couple only got stronger as they both dedicated themselves to getting out of Ransom Canyon. However, when Lucas’ brother, Kit (Casey W. Johnson), gets arrested over Randall Kirkland’s death, their relationship is turned upside down. Lucas is convinced his brother wasn’t driving the car that caused Randall to crash, and he’s right.
Kit’s affair with Margaret Brigman (Sarah Minnich), Lauren’s mother, is exposed. Turns out, she was the one driving the car that night. Lucas and Lauren seem stable at the end of season, especially after his sweet declaration of love at the dance hall, but Blair warned Swooon that it won’t be smooth sailing. And there’s also the possibility that Reid could emerge as a contender for Lauren’s heart once again.
“I think Reid has a lot of growing up to do,” Blair said. “We also have these themes of fathers and sons. I think there’s a story to tell there, and the love story that needs to be told is between Reid and his father. That needs to be healed and mended. And I think until he does that and grows up, I don’t know that he can be a contender for Lauren, but definitely in future seasons, for sure.”
