[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Irrational Season 2 finale “The Exchange.”]
Uh-oh, someone’s been watching Alec (Jesse L. Martin)! That’s how The Irrational ends its second season, with the professor giving his girlfriend Rose (Karen David) her first case; she’s opening her own agency in D.C.
In addition to that twist, the finale sees Alec decide not to have the surgery to remove his scars, Marisa (Maahra Hill) ready to move on by moving, and Kylie (Travina Springer) decide that becoming an agent and a job offer from an old friend aren’t what she wants. Below, executive producer Arika Lisanne Mittman breaks down those moments from the finale and more and teases what we could see in a third season.
What had you wanted to do this season when it came to Alec’s scars and whether or not he’d have the surgery? How much did the conversation with his father ultimately play a role in the decision?
Arika Lisanne Mittman: That was a story that we definitely wanted to play out through the whole season, so we wanted it to take twists and turns and not be kind of a straight line. We didn’t want it to just be like, he thinks about it, he decides and he ultimately decides to not do it. We wanted it to be a very real journey for him and to kind of be leaning one way or another. And it kind of looks like in Episode 6 he is like, you know what? We’re not going to do it. I’m not going to do it. I’ve decided I don’t think so. And he shies away from it and then he reconsiders it because he’s getting deep in this relationship with Rose and he’s realizing not that Rose has an issue with his scars, but he’s realizing his own insecurities, his own shame about it, and his own discomfort with his body, and that makes him think about it again. And then the conversation with his dad really makes him sort of put all out in perspective. So yeah, I think that’s definitely a big part of the journey.
What’s interesting is the start of the series, the question was obviously if Alec and Marisa would find their way back together, but you’ve very much built Alec and Rose’s relationship as this loving, stable one that we’re rooting for, happy that she’s staying. But where did you want to leave them this season, especially after that shocking husband reveal?
Two things I like about this alleged love triangle. I like the idea that a divorced couple can be friends and can move forward and can continue to have a good relationship. It’s all very adult, and that’s what I liked about this story is that they behave not like people on a soap opera, like, oh my God, I’m so jealous. I hate you. Where they have to be broken up for a while because she had something she didn’t tell him. Rose and Alec deal with the situation in a very adult way in terms of her having a husband. Alec has to grapple with it. What does this mean? And we see that in the beginning of the finale, and ultimately, he realizes, okay, this person is not a threat to our current relationship.
And the same with how Rose sees Marisa. She’s not like, “Oh, he’s still involved with his ex. Okay, that’s competition for me.” She doesn’t see it that way. She sees it as he and his ex have a great working relationship and Marisa sees it as like, “You know what? We’re not married anymore, but we have a great relationship at work. Let’s keep that. Let’s keep the good things about our relationship.” And she is happy for him to be in a new relationship with Rose because she still genuinely cares about him and wants him to be in a good relationship. And all these things I think are very real and they’re what I see anyway in adult relationships in the real world.
What made the tease that someone is following Alec the right cliffhanger to end on?
I wanted to have a lot of things at the end of the episode. I wanted to have sort of new beginnings for the characters of Marisa and Kylie, and I wanted to have something that finished this Rose-Alec arc that begins at the beginning of the season where she runs away, where the beginning of the season he saves her or helps her save herself really from this kidnapping situation. And the first thing she does is bolt. She’s like, I’m leaving, I’m gone. And I really wanted to bookend that with the end of the season being I’m staying. So I had that in my head for a very long time. But then also we want to tease something about, “Hey, next season there’s going to be more intriguing mysteries, more to uncover, this doesn’t mean the story’s over.” So I wanted to make sure to give everybody something else to chew on a little bit before next season.
What can you say about that mystery and who has been following Alec?
Oh, I can’t say much yet. That’s the thing we’ll have to get a Season 3 pickup to find out, otherwise no one will ever know.
Marisa’s ready to move and move on. What does that look like for her? Does she have any idea besides putting that for sale sign out?
Yeah, I think it was time for her to put that house to bed. This came from a conversation that Maahra Hill and I had, which after the beginning of Season 2, she was like, “Am I still staying in that house after Jace was murdered there?” And I gave that a lot of thought because obviously practicalities of production are like, that’s the set we have. And so we had that set and we justified it our own way, her staying there. But it was something that stayed with me all season when she said that because I was like, “Not only is that the house where her boyfriend was murdered, but it’s the house that she built a life and a marriage with Alec.” And so the more I thought about it, the more I felt like Marisa’s arc for the season needs to be putting that behind her, putting these relationships behind her, dealing with the reality of Jace’s death, and moving forward for her character. And so when I told her about it, I was like, “You’re going to love what we do in the finale,” and she was very excited about it. So we really felt like it was time to put that house behind her and see what new beginnings for her will look like.
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Speaking of new beginnings, Kylie’s decided she’s not becoming a federal agent or taking that other job offer, but she’s going to continue to work with the FBI, right? Staying in the position she was this season, but then figuring out what’s next at the same time, is that the plan?
I think so. For now, I mean, without saying too much because we don’t have a Season 3 yet, and so I want to get all of our writers back in the room to break these stories for Kylie. But I think we wanted to give Kylie something that felt like she has options because Kylie is such a great character and there’s so much that she could be doing, and we wanted to give her this crossroads and kind of come to the conclusion that, I’m not sure either of those things is right for me and maybe there’s something else on the horizon. So we may do something else. We may keep her in the FBI. We’re thinking about that, too, where we’re going to situate her, but we really liked putting her in the FBI and getting her out of the apartment, first of all. So whatever she does next season is going to be out of the apartment. That’s my rule
The Kylie and Marisa scenes are always great.
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And they have great chemistry, so they’re likely to continue working together. We really want to always give Kylie more to do.
When Alec checks on Rizwan (Arash DeMaxi) after Phoebe (Molly Kunz) and Simon (Max Lloyd-Jones) disclosed their relationship, he says he hired Simon, so he thinks of them as two people who found each other because of him, but how does he really feel?
[Laughs] That is such a great question. And we had multiple different takes. Our wonderful actor, Arash did a bunch of different versions of that line, and there were versions of it that made it really sound like he was sort of choking through it, almost like, that it wasn’t true at all. And then there was the version that we used, which was earnest, because I think for a part of him that’s really true, and I think a part of him feels a little bit sad because he built this really strong friendship with Phoebe and he built this really strong friendship with Simon, and now they have something that he’s not a part of. I think there’s always going to be a world where that’s a little bit hard for him. I wrote it very straightforward, to be honest. When I wrote the line, it was very straightforward. I’m like, he means it. Then after talking to Arash, I’m like, no, you’re right. You’re right. I get it. I hear you. It’s a bit of a mix and that’s what having great actors does for these stories.
How are you feeling about a third season? Would everyone be back in the same capacity series regular versus recurring?
Those are decisions that haven’t been made yet. I wish I could answer them, but I can’t yet. We’d have to get a Season 3 pickup for all of that to work out. So we’re really hopeful. My hope is yes, to have everybody back in the same capacity, but we’ll see.
Is there anything you can tease about what we could see in a Season 3?
The only thing I will say is we definitely opened the door to Rose staying and to Rose being a more permanent fixture of the season and for her, having this new agency, of having her own little detective agency, if you will, having something that’s not always high-end crisis management. I like the idea going forward of Alec getting — he gets some of his cases from the FBI, He gets some of them from different random places like friends of his, and he can also get some cases from Rose as he has before, but of Rose not just being attached to sort of high-end wealthy people’s sort of fixer problems. For her Being able to have a whole different variety of cases with different kinds of people.
I have to say the musical episode was fantastic and I love that you got Jesse singing finally.
Thank you. Thank you. That is one of my favorite things that I’ve ever gotten to do in my whole career.
Do you think we’d see him singing again?
If I had my druthers, yes, but, what Jesse and I agree on is it has to be organic for the story and organic for the character of Alec. We can’t just throw in Jesse Martin singing. It has to make sense just like it did in the musical episode that we did.
The Irrational, Streaming now, Peacock