How THAT Happy’s Place Finale Scene Sets Up A Key Season 2 Arc Explained By Showrunner
Warning: Contains SPOILERS for the season 1 finale of Happy’s Place.
After eighteen episodes, NBC’s Happy’s Place wrapped up its first season on Friday, March 21 at 8 p.m. ET. The finale’s official synopsis reads: “When Isabella requests Emmett’s help getting a security system installed, Bobbie claims she can protect her sister better than any alarm or man, leading to Bobbie and Emmett having a competition over who’s the better protector.” However, it doesn’t take long for Isabella to realize that the two are trying to repress their feelings for one another.
In a comedic turn of events, viewers learn that the bar staff has been trying to keep Bobbie and Emmett apart for the last decade. Isabella forces them together during a showdown at the arcade, leading the duo to become aware of their obvious sparks. While Bobbie and Emmett aren’t quite ready to take the next step, “Alarm Bells” concludes on a hopeful note. In lieu of a home security system, the cook asks Bobbie if he can check in on her for his own peace of mind.
ScreenRant interviews co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer Kevin Abbott about what that ending scene means for Bobbie and Emmett. He also discusses which guest stars will return to the series and what fans can expect now that Happy’s Place has been renewed for season 2.
Abbott Has Always Wanted To Give Reba’s Character A Satisfying Love Story
“That’s the one thing that never popped. The chemistry wasn’t working.”
ScreenRant: The finale focused on Bobbie and Emmett’s feelings for each other. How early on in the creative process did you realize that was the direction you wanted to take with these characters?
Kevin Abbott: It was always a possibility that those two would be love interests, before we had Rex in the breaking of the story and everything. That was always a potential love interest. With the old Reba show, the one area that we just never did well was the love interest for the old Reba character. I’m sure I am much harsher on it than the audience, but for me, it was always like, “Eh, I don’t buy it. I don’t believe it at all.”
And we tried it a couple of times, and it just never worked for me. So I’ve always kind of wanted to be able to tell some of those stories with Reba. She can do almost anything. That’s the one thing that never popped. The chemistry wasn’t working. So then when we brought Rex on, I thought, “Well, maybe this is the key. Maybe she’s got to actually be attracted to this guy.” Because the one person she had a little spark with was James Denton.
She was a little attracted to James Denton. Rex and she, I don’t know how you felt, but that moment in the pilot, I just loved that. It just tickled me. I had such a good time watching it. That has been in the works. The season 1 finale, if I’d known and could plan out the entire thing, would’ve been in a different place. There’d be more to this. But because we didn’t get the pick-up until later on, I didn’t know how many episodes we were going to have.
I couldn’t plan out all the steps to get to where I originally wanted to go. So this is earlier on in this entire arc. We’re going to go to more places that I know of already, but the two of them have been great. That’s a minefield you wouldn’t necessarily walk into willingly, but it’s been great so far.
Bobbie and Emmett are still not together at the end of the finale. Would you say there’s been an acknowledgment of feelings on both sides?
Kevin Abbott: Yeah, what I’d like the audience to walk away with, what I hope they do, is that we know that they both have feelings for each other and that there’s a possibility there now. Nobody has said whether or not they’ve decided to overcome the possible negatives of being together and the risk that is being taken. But that’s what Isabella is there for—to push Bobbie and to push for love.
So hopefully what this does is promise something for season 2 that we’re going to be getting into, not just an episode about this, but it’ll be an arc. There’ll be a number of episodes that deal with this issue and to see where the two of them wind up because I’m kind of fascinated by it. Like I said, that was the one area that I really didn’t get to tell stories about in the original Reba—love interest stories. I’m really excited to see it. She’s charming. She’s absolutely charming when she plays in love. How can you not love her?
Isabella’s Role Is To Open Bobbie Up To Possibilities
“This is the honeymoon period when Bobbie and Isabella both want to have a sister and make it work.”
Gabby and Steve have been trying to keep Bobbie and Emmett apart for 10 years. Going back to what you said before, why was it important for Isabella to bring them together?
Kevin Abbott: One of the things I thought was interesting about telling this story, and obviously TV’s done this a lot, but because it’s interesting, people in love are interesting, I really liked the scene where we find out that the rest of the people in the bar have been keeping them apart because there’s a huge downside. What you don’t hear a lot of in these relationship things is, “Well, what’s the downside if they actually have a relationship?” There’s a huge risk for everybody else involved.
So I like that notion because that’s there. I think that having Isabella do it, her role in the show really is to open up Bobbie to possibilities. One of the reasons Happy did this, that we will find out, is he did have a plan. He didn’t just stick them together. Bobbie has a tendency to close down. When she lost her husband, Travis, she kind of closed down. That’s why he brought her to start working in the bar—to keep her open.When he passed away, he knew that she’d need somebody to help keep her open to life and open to possibilities. And that’s Isabella.
What Bobbie brings to Isabella is foundational strength. You have a home, you have people you can come to when you need it. So the two of them feed each other, hopefully, in positive ways. And it also will put Isabella a little bit more at odds with some of the people in the bar. One of the things we wanted to do this season was make certain that the audience grew to really care for Isabella, as well. That she’s a part of this before we start causing a lot of problems.
This is the honeymoon period. This is the honeymoon period when Bobbie and Isabella both want to have a sister and make it work. Now we’re going to get into the marriage part of it. Maybe it’s a little bit more work. There’s a little bit more things. The little things start to bug you a little bit more. So I think that’s where we’re going to be heading with all of this, so that Isabella having something that she feels really strongly about, that the people in the bar feel differently about it. I think it’s an interesting dynamic that I want to get to in season 2.
In that same vein, with Bobbie and Isabella being at odds in the pilot, was there a specific place you wanted them to land by the end of season 1?
Kevin Abbott: Originally, I had that dynamic working a little bit differently. People love Reba, for whatever reason. I don’t know. I don’t get it. But they love her, and they don’t like people that she doesn’t like. [Laughs] I used to tell her that you could punch a nun in the throat, and people would say that the sister had it coming. That’s who Reba is.
So I changed my mind and went, “Okay, I want to make certain that they’re bonded first. That the audience knows that Reba loves this character before we get into some of the difficulties.” Because otherwise, Isabella’s going to have a really hard time winning the audience over. So that’s what the plan became. We’re going to bond them quicker upfront and then play with it more on the backend, versus having them be at odds more upfront and then having them grow gradually closer together.
That became the arc on that. I think it’s correct. Now, we can start to have a little bit more conflict between the two of them because I think that the essence of the relationship is set. She’s not just going to leave. Isabelle’s not just going to go home again. She’s going to stick around—that she’s found a place. So we want to make certain that she was planted before we started digging at the roots of this stuff.
Abbott Plans To Bring Maritza And Gracie Back For Happy’s Place Season 2
“Their chemistry with our cast was marvelous, and the backstory behind them is going to be really interesting.”
I loved meeting Bobbie’s daughter, played by Emma Kenney. Could she return in season 2?
Kevin Abbott: Yeah, absolutely. Season 1, I wanted to keep the guest cast small. There’s only so much real estate for our characters, and I wanted our characters to have all the dialogue and whatnot, so I wanted the audience to get to know them. Season 2, we get to branch out a little bit more, and we saw Maritza, we saw Isabelle’s mom, we saw Gracie, Bobbie’s daughter, we saw Steve, we saw Chris.
Those two, especially Maritza and Gracie, are going to come back because I love the actresses. They were phenomenal. Their chemistry with our cast was marvelous, and the backstory behind them is going to be really interesting. I think there are stories to be told between Maritza and Bobbie and Gracie and Isabella. We plan on having them back. We plan on having a couple of other guest cast hopefully too, if they pan out. Some fun people to explore other areas of our characters’ lives.
Was there a specific plotline you wanted to fit into season 1 that you weren’t able to do in these 18 episodes?
Kevin Abbott: Yeah. It was going to be the season finale if I had time to lay it in. There are two plotlines that I wanted to do that I wasn’t able to do, both along the Bobbie and Emmett arc. I’m not going to give it away because I’m going to do them in season 2, but they’re surprising. They’re very surprising, I think.
I don’t think the audience is going to see it coming, but I really like them. I really like them. We also wanted to do a Dios de los Muertos episode that was really interesting as well. Maybe we can do it this year, but we couldn’t do it in time for actual Dios de los Muertos, so it would’ve seemed odd doing it otherwise. Maybe next year we’ll do that one.
Where are you in terms of writing season 2? Do you have a filming window?
Kevin Abbott: So season 2, we’re actually starting up early. We’ll probably start pre-production mid-April because of Reba’s schedule on The Voice. We have to work around that. So we will start shooting again beginning of June. We do have leftover ideas from what would’ve been season 1 that we didn’t get to. So we definitely have those, and I’ll start up with the writers next week.
We’ve got a couple of new writers coming on, so I want to be open to any ideas that they might have to take these characters places. And I’d like to take a week or two off just to let my brain rest from living with these people. They’re noisy. But I have a lot more energy for season 2 already than I would normally have at the end of a season. And really, this cast has been marvelous. It’s been a fun season doing this show with these guys.
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About Happy’s Place Season 1 On NBC
Writer Kevin Abbott Executive Produces With Reba McEntire, Michael Hanel, Mindy Schultheis, Matt Berry And Pamela Fryman
Happy’s Place is a TV show that follows the story of Happy, a charismatic and enigmatic figure who runs a mysterious establishment where individuals can come to escape their troubles. As Happy’s Place gains popularity, its patrons must navigate the blurred lines between reality and fantasy, leading to unexpected consequences.
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