Ryan Robbins has two words to describe Pure‘s Season 2 finale, broadcast this Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on Super Channel: “Holy shit.”
A pretty strong reaction from an actor who has seen his character, Noah Funk—not to mention Noah’s family—go through some major stuff over the last two seasons. In the first go-round, newly-elected Mennonite paster Noah, his wife Anna (Alex Paxton-Beesley), and his brother Abel (Gord Rand) are pulled into the world of shipping drugs between Mexico and the United States. After dispatching that season’s big bad, Eli Voss (Peter Outerbridge), Noah left his family behind.
Season 2 caught up with everyone a year later, with Noah avoiding his family, them dealing with the aftermath of his actions and Anna picking up the pieces to care for son Isaak (Dylan Everett) and Tina (Jessica Clement). Anna was quickly drawn into the drug trade again thanks to Hector Estrada (Victor Gomez) and when she’s not organizing that she’s been chased by Augustus Nickel (Christopher Heyerdahl), who wants to marry her. Last week, viewers witnessed Anna’s world coming apart as she was arrested, Auggie’s business was being searched and Isaak was fully under Hector’s power.
We spoke to Robbins ahead of Tuesday’s finale to get a taste of what’s to come.
I was shocked when Michael Amo told me Noah and Anna wouldn’t reunite until Episode 3 of Season 2. Were you?
Ryan Robbins: I was and I wasn’t. We got the Breaking Bad comparison and joked that Anna was always more Heisenberg than Noah was. We always intended to pick up a year later and that just seemed the most logical scenario to kick off with Anna this time. It was very challenging and weird because during Season 1 we all spent so much time filming together and then in Season 2, having those duelling storylines was strange because we didn’t work together. We had alternate shooting schedules and barely saw each other in passing for the first half of the season.
In fact, I actually got there a week after they started filming, for a few reasons. One, I was finishing up my commitment on another show and two, when I talked to [executive producer] Ken Girotti and [creator] Michael Amo, we also agreed that it might be a good dynamic for me not to be there from the very beginning, the cast and crew dinner, and for me to come in after everyone had reconnected. To return as the outsider. It did make a lot of sense and it was difficult because I had to reintegrate myself with everyone one at a time. It was a totally different dynamic this time around.
I was thrilled that Gord Rand returned to the show as Abel.
RR: What I love about the way Michael wrote it is the subtle flip, even to the point of me fussing with that baseball cap the way I did. That was a very specific and intentional homage to Abel and his ball cap in Season 1. To show that Abel is kind of leading the way and Noah is the lost sheep in that dynamic. I enjoyed that very much and I think many writers might have steered clear of that, Michael went with it and I think it was wonderful. When I read the scene where Noah and Abel reunited, I cried. When we shot the scene, those were real tears and when I watched the scene I cried again. There is something about that guy, Gord Rand, he’s a special guy. Every time Noah reunited with a family member, those were tough scenes.
The scene between Auggie and Noah was a powerful one this past week. Noah wanted to punch Auggie but was disarmed with a hug. Abel asks who Noah was talking to and is told, ‘It was a salesman.’ I may be reading too much into it, but Noah is right: Auggie is selling something.
RR: I can’t speak for how it was written but I’m glad you said that. It’s absolutely what I was feeling when I was delivering that line. That way my intention and I assumed it was written that way. All of the writers are very clever that way in they say so much with so little. The writing becomes quite intelligent and quite clever. We’re a show that tries to avoid exposition with our dialogue. I always wonder if people pick up on that.
What can you say about the Season 2 finale? How will the fans react?
RR: Two words: Holy shit. Holyyy shit. I don’t know how the fans will react. If you thought that the end of Season 1 caused some controversy, the end of Season 2 … I know this is such a typical thing to say but I don’t think people have any idea what’s going to happen in the season finale. When we all got that script, we literally all WTFed all over the place. I called Michael Amo and said, ‘Is this for real?’ And he said, ‘Oh yeah, this is happening.’ It’s definitely something we couldn’t have done in Season 1.
Pure‘s second season finale airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on Super Channel.
Images courtesy of Super Channel.
