Rooster‘s Season 1 finale saw Ludlow reach its winter break, and promises some major changes for the school when the HBO comedy returns for Season 2. Warning: Spoilers for the Rooster Season 1 finaleahead!
As viewers witnessed in the episode, “Songs for Raisa,” Greg (Steve Carell) had reached the end of his time serving at the school, and as he prepared for his major farewell, parallels to It’s a Wonderful Life gave the author pause as he reflected on the positive impact he’d had on the school. Greg’s daughter Katie (Charly Clive) ultimately forgave him for helping her get and keep her job at the school as she went through a bit of self-reflection herself in the finale.
In the end, the professor went back on her decision to reunite with her cheating husband, Archie (Phil Dunster), and opted to stick by school and prove she was capable of what she thought her parents weren’t sure she could do on her own. The crux? It turns out that Katie will not be joined by only Greg, who decided to extend his run at the school, but also by her mother, Elizabeth (Connie Britton), who will take over as president for the next academic school year, following the forthcoming semester.
The news of Elizabeth’s hiring was shared with Greg by Walt (John C. McGinley), who is going to lose the gig as Ludlow’s president as a result. “Connie made it inevitable because she’s so good at crafting a character, and she’s beloved for a reason,” series cocreator Bill Lawrence says of expanding her role in the comedy for Season 2. “She made this choice to play this character as unabashedly and unapologetically selfish and somehow still likable, and so the second we realized she’s such a conflict for Walt and Katie, we wanted to make sure that she’s back in this world as a catalyst for conflict.”
HBO
As for where the show will pick up for Season 2, Lawrence teases, “The show does start on returning from Christmas break, and so we’re going to have Connie in as much as we possibly can, but it buys us that transition year of her coming by, looking at the office to furnish it, while Walt’s having to process what it means to leave, it’s too delicious for us.”
But rest assured, the Walt-Elizabeth president role drama is just the tip of the iceberg as fellow cocreator Matt Tarses adds, “That’s not the only conflict that Greg’s going to be facing as the year goes on.” One of those elements, Lawrence says, is, “[Greg] thinking he’s returning as a conquering hero just gives us the chuckles.”
As for when fans can anticipate the show getting back to production, Lawrence reveals, “We’re gonna start shooting it in mid-to-late August. HBO, in a great way, really wants to make sure that we get it on within a year, if not sooner, so we’re gonna make sure we do that.”
Meanwhile, when it came to the It’s a Wonderful Life inclusion for the finale, Tarses shares, “We sort of unconsciously were always writing that story a little bit, and it occurred to us at the end that when we were getting into the finale, it was around Christmas time, and we thought, why aren’t we actually calling this out? And it gave the episode a little bit of a frame… This guy, who felt like he was alone, realized that he had this community; it was always the journey we wanted to take Greg on.”
As for where Walt is mentally at following the realization that his job is running on borrowed time as Elizabeth prepares to move him out, Lawrence says, “Walt was intentionally set up as a guy that did feel like the world might be leaving him behind, but was trying his best to keep up, even when he had to let his friend go and saying, ‘I’m at least trying.’ But he’s got a really cool journey about what does his life look like, if the thing that he defined himself by [was gone].”
While Katie may have made a choice regarding her marriage to Archie, her parents will continue to be an overarching aspect of her journey in Season 2, as Tarses points out, “I think any smart viewer knew that Greg was not gonna leave at the end. So, if there was any surprising thing, it was that by the end of it, Katie was able to tell him it was OK to stay. So they’re gonna continue to have comic conflict, going forward. The bigger thing that isn’t quite figured out yet is her relationship with her mom.”
Stay tuned to see how things play out when Rooster returns for Season 2, and let us know what you thought of the finale twists in the comments section below.
Commented