[WARNING: This post contains MAJOR spoilers from Season 1 of Happy Face.]
Season 1 of Blissful Face ended on a cliffhanger that left the door open for a possible second season, and showrunner Jennifer Cacicio is able to inform extra of the story if she will get the prospect.
“I’m placing collectively a Season 2 pitch, and hopefully we’ll get a renewal,” Cacicio instructed TV Insider.
The present ended with Melissa’s (Annaleigh Ashford) husband Ben (James Wolk) getting a threatening name from her father, serial killer Keith Jesperson (Dennis Quaid), from behind bars. Behind Melissa’s again, Ben had taken a success out on Keith, and though he finally had second ideas, the plan was put into movement. Keith had a coronary heart assault earlier than the shanking occurred, however known as Ben as much as inform him that he knew all about what he was plotting.
The timing of the guts assault was virtually too excellent, as Keith dropped to the bottom simply as a fellow inmate was approaching him with a knife. Nonetheless, Cacicio confirmed that it was a “coincidental” medical challenge … to an extent (Keith really did have a coronary heart assault whereas the present was being written, and he survived.)
“In my thoughts, I had talked to a few medical doctors about this, and so they mentioned when you’re near a coronary heart assault and also you’re already having well being points, that in a second of maximum stress, it could set off the occasion,” Cacicio defined. “In order that was my considering. In the event you return over the season, there’s just a few occasions he’s clutching his arm and saying he has heartburn and stuff, so we positioned that in there to steer as much as it. The thought is that he already has some well being points happening, then he sees the knife, he is aware of what’s occurring, and it type of triggers this occasion.”
Scroll down for our full chat with the EP, the place she breaks down her plans for Season 2 and divulges whether or not Melissa has closure along with her dad. Plus, which components of the story had been really pulled from Melissa Moore’s (whose dad is Keith IRL) life?
The storyline with Ben and Keith units up the potential for extra story to inform. Did you’ve gotten Season 2 concepts in your thoughts once you ended it with that telephone name?
Jennifer Cacicio: Yeah, positively. I simply had a Zoom with Melissa the opposite day type of selecting her mind in regards to the totally different circumstances she’s labored on and all the pieces that’s occurred along with her dad … each single time I discuss to her I’m similar to, ‘God, there’s a wealth of fabric right here.’ The story simply retains unfolding. He’s nonetheless making an attempt to attach along with her, she nonetheless has different folks, like third events, reaching out along with her and making an attempt to speak along with her for him. I’ve folks reaching out to me making an attempt to speak to me. It’s type of unfolding, and a variety of the circumstances that she covers, he finds a approach to attempt to type of get entangled, as nicely. There’s loads in her podcast and in her memoir that we haven’t even touched on. She’s actually had this wild life and I really feel like, positively, it has legs. There’s a variety of totally different instructions we might go. I’ve at all times seen it as a multi-season present, positively.
It’s so fascinating that he’s nonetheless reaching out to her in actual life, as a result of on the present, their last scene within the hospital was such a strong scene. Ought to the present finish right here, do you assume the character of Melissa had closure from that dialog?
I believe so. With the true Melissa, what she shared with me is that it’s cyclical. At occasions she seems like she will get just a little little bit of closure and he or she feels good about her option to not have any contact with him and he or she’s moved on. After which one thing will occur or she’ll get one other letter or she’ll discover one thing out. Your life adjustments and your temper adjustments. Then she’ll simply have a interval the place she second-guesses that. I do know when her mother handed away a few years in the past, she actually was contemplating speaking to her dad once more as a result of she needed to listen to extra tales about her mother and he or she type of felt like he was the holder to these tales. However in the end she determined to not. I believe it type of ebbs and flows. I might be okay with [it ending this way]. I really feel like this season closed the loop. I believe she obtained closure for this story. I believe when she walks out of there, she has each intention to by no means see him once more. In fact, if we had a Season 2, that wouldn’t be the case.
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Proper, possibly she had closure in that second, however there’s this entire secret that’s being saved from her [about Ben taking a hit out on her father]. How do you assume Melissa would have reacted if she knew about that?
It’s positively one thing I might wish to discover. Clearly, that didn’t occur in actual life. That’s simply one thing that developed within the author’s room and it was simply too juicy to not do. Actually, I believe her ex-husband and her present husband, they haven’t any love for Keith. All he’s completed is torture their spouse. I believe she can be actually upset, although. I believe deep down she does nonetheless love him. So there’s that ingredient, after which there’s this different ingredient of, the character Melissa … she married the great man. She married the alternative of her dad. Or so she thinks. However now this man is able to one thing fairly darkish, despite the fact that the motivation is to guard his household, it does make you surprise if that might change the way in which she feels about him.
Do you’ve gotten an thought in your thoughts or do you hope to discover in a second season how precisely Keith discovered in regards to the hit?
Sure. I believe so. I don’t understand how far we’d get into that, however positively, Keith’s revenge in opposition to Ben can be a narrative and we’d in all probability learn the way he discovered.
Are there some other characters from the primary season you want you’d gotten to discover just a little bit extra or possibly wish to discover extra in Season 2?
One of many characters I might like to see extra of is Jillian, who performs his girlfriend, his quirky girlfriend. The actress is Jenn Lyon. I simply assume she brings such a special power to the present. A bit of little bit of humor, just a little little bit of quirkiness, and I simply assume she’s such an awesome actress. And I believe we’d in all probability see extra of Melissa’s mother in a Season 2, positively. I’d additionally prefer to see, presumably, extra of her brother. I actually love the connection between them. And, , a personality that was kind of talked about however we by no means meet in Season 1 is their sister, their youngest sister who you see in flashbacks. So I at all times had behind my thoughts that she would seem in Season 2 and alter up the dynamic.
Melissa’s podcast has a Season 2 that dives into one other related story, and the present ends along with her getting her personal true crime section. Have you considered weaving that second podcast story into one other season of the present?
I’m exploring a few totally different concepts. I don’t wish to say which one I’m leaning in the direction of. She’s labored on so many desirable and well-known true crime circumstances, so there’s virtually a wealth of the way you’ll be able to go. However I believe it might be related the place it’s actually in regards to the emotional story, particularly the household and the way in which the household is affected can be a giant a part of Season 2. Keith’s revenge on Ben would have an effect on everyone. However there can be some kind of contemporary case that Melissa’s overlaying as a journalist and he or she type of will get pulled into it, and we’d have to tug Keith into it someway as nicely.
I really feel like some individuals are possibly not sure about how a lot of the story was actual and the way a lot you place into it. Are you able to make clear what was really actual?
All of the flashbacks are just about actual. Melissa did was a make-up artist after which she’s additionally labored on discuss exhibits, so we type of simply smushed these collectively. Principally, we’ve her rights, we shouldn’t have the rights … we really do have her youngsters rights, however I by no means actually needed to write down about her youngsters. I needed to type of defend their privateness. We don’t get too far into Keith’s victims. I used to be actually curious about Melissa’s emotional story, however I at all times knew that the present wanted just a little bit extra of an engine to make it a drama with suspense and thrills and stuff. The podcast is so emotionally, , provocative, but it surely’s probably not … there’s no plot, actually. Keith did confess to a different crime within the ‘90s that one other man was in jail for after which it turned out that Keith really didn’t do it. So after I learn that, I used to be like, ‘Oh, Okay I’m going to take this story and I’m going to make a fictionalized model of it so I’ve full artistic freedom, I’m not messing with anybody’s actual life.” The main points of the true murders that we do point out are true. I perceive it’s just a little little bit of a hodgepodge, so some viewers are delay by that, however I believe it was actually simply … it’s actually about staying true to the spirit of the present and Melissa’s story and Melissa’s journey. In that sense, it’s utterly true. It wasn’t ever meant to be a play-by-play of precisely what her life is. Something that was fictionalized was pulled from the world of actuality and constructed off of from there.