PRODIGAL SON Bosses on Potentially Exploring Romance in Season 2

In the midst of murder, conspiracies, deliciously twisted family dynamics, and a whole lot of trauma, PRODIGAL SON’s first season also set the groundwork for two potential couplings.

For profiler Malcolm Bright (Tom Payne) and Detective Dani Powell (Aurora Perrineau), they were brought together by Bright’s mentor/quasi-father figure Detective Gil Arroyo (Lou Diamond Phillips), who recruited an all-too-willing Bright to work with Gil’s team. And while it took a while for the duo to land in a comfortable rhythm, but the end of the season, they were in a good place. So what comes next?

“Bright and Dani, it’s something we explored going back to episode five, ‘The Trip,'” PRODIGAL SON co-creator Sam Sklaver says. “But I think what’s very interesting about Bright and Dani is beyond the romance, neither of them are really that great at making friends. And being friends with someone as an adult is sometimes just as hard as being a romantic partner with someone. So the friendship angle for Bright and Dani, is what I’m always most interested in—and, also, because great relationships, great romantic relationships often comes from friendship.”

“Bright and Dani, we’ve seen a lot of trust issues that they’ve had with each other, especially towards the end [when she had to arrest him for murder] and getting past them,” he continues. “Going forward to season 2, when you put two brilliant actors together like Aurora and Tom, they both light up the screen so much you want to see them together. I’m just as interested in them being friends and seeing how that would work in their life.”

Arguably even more complicated is Gil’s relationship with Malcolm’s mother, Jessica Whitly (Bellamy Young). The duo met when Gil helped capture Jessica’s husband (and Malcolm’s father), Martin Whitly (Michael Sheen)…a notorious serial killer. While much of their history is still a mystery—and their future is slightly in doubt given Gil was stabbed at the end of season 1—Jessica and Gil did share a kiss in the season’s penultimate episode.

“One of the things that we’ve been most excited about with the show is that is not a classic procedural,” co-creator Chris Fedak says. “This is a show that’s about relationships and it’s about family. And I think that, for us, watching the kind of chemistry between Aurora and Tom and between Bellamy and Lou, it seems obvious [there might be something there], but you never quite know how chemistry is going to work. That’s definitely the magic of television that we’re always looking forward to exploring it. That chemistry is something that evolved over season 1 and we’ll definitely be kind of heading into those waters again in season 2.”

RELATED:

• PRODIGAL SON Post-Mortem: Chris Fedak and Sam Sklaver Break Down Long-Planned Finale
• PRODIGAL SON Bosses Tease the Season 1 Finale: ‘No One is Going to See it Coming’
• Daily Dose of Joy: PRODIGAL SON…As a Family Comedy?
• PRODIGAL SON Bosses Break Down the Fall Finale Twists
• PRODIGAL SON Bosses on Gil and Jessica’s Connection
• PRODIGAL SON: Lou Diamond Phillips on Gil’s Paternal Relationship with the Team, ‘Complex’ History with Jessica
• PRODIGAL SON Boss Teases Bringing the ‘Most Insane Crimes and Criminals’ to TV

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