When we last left Saint-Pierre‘s Arch (Josephine Jobert) and Fitz (Allan Hawco), things were dire straits. The duo—he a Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Inspector and she a Parisian Deputy Chief—faced off against smuggler-all-around-bad guy Gallagher (James Purefoy) in a graveyard. The final scene, set up beautifully using Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” was capped off by several gunshots, leaving viewers to wonder who lived and who didn’t.
Thankfully, we’ll learn all that right off the bat in the Season 2 debut. Airing Monday at 9 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem, we spoke with Saint-Pierre co-creator and co-showrunner Robina Lord-Stafford (Macy Murdoch) about all that and more.
How was it filming this second season? Was there a lot more comfort because you and Allan, and everybody worked together and got a full season under your belt on location filming? Did it feel like you got the characters going into the second season, and was maybe a little easier?
Robina Lord-Stafford: 100 per cent. And I would say that even working with the actors and the first season, I was there every single day on set with the actors and just even listening to their cadence, the way they speak, the way they delivered the line.
When we were writing for them in Season 2, it was like I had Josephine in my head when I was writing it. And I had obviously Allan and all the others, especially our core cast, I just feel like I know them all so well. And it was definitely easier, smoother. And then when they were delivering them on the floor this time, it was like they would look at me. It was really sweet. They’d read the scripts, and they’d say, ‘Thank you. You see us!’ They all too understand who their characters are. So we all grew after a season, like getting to know who they are and what the special flavours they each bring and how distinct their voices are.
It underscores how difficult it is when you’re creating a show from scratch and you don’t have a cast yet because you are literally trying to figure out what the voices of these people are with no human being attached to them yet.
RLS: It is. And it’s like we’re creating out of nothing, and then you get surprises along the way. For instance, when we first crafted the character Renuf [played by Jean-Michel Le Gal], we imagined him being this kind of gruff guy who clocked in, clocked out, was just kind of going through the motions and we gave a taste of that in Season 1, but then as we got to know the actor playing him and as he brought this different kind of nuance to the character, it’s like his character really evolved through Season 1. In Episode 107, he took initiative, and then Arch and Fitz kind of went, ‘Way to go, you did a great job.’ And it almost seemed like this was the first time Renuf had ever been given kudos for his work as a cop. And then it was almost like a dopamine hit for him. And it’s like, ‘You know what? I want to be a better cop. I can learn from these two. I’m not going to be that guy who’s going to be questioning Arch’s authority anymore. I can learn from her.’ And so we really saw an evolution of his character.
And in Season 2, it goes even further. You can see that he is eager to be a good police officer, and he also reflects on things he may have done in his past because we kind of weave in that he was a customs officer in the past, and he let things slide, or he looked the other way, and it’s a bit of a redemptive arc from his past.
Any other characters that kind of made an evolution that way as we go into the second season?
RLS: Definitely Patty [played by Erika Prevost], we get to see a little bit of edge to Patty. We kind of established that she and Arch are kind of really good friends, and so there’s going to be a little sand put into that oyster. We’re going to convey this analogy, and then you’re going to see the pearl that will emerge by the end of the season. Erika’s such a great actress, and she plays Patty so delightfully. So it’s really nice to see her have a little grit and a little edge and a little friction between her and Arch. And you’ll see why, but you also see a beautiful resolution to that in their friendship. So that’s cool. And of course, Arch and Fitz, we get to know a little bit more about Fitz’s backstory, including why Fitz sleepwalks.
I wanted to ask about Maxim Roy because she was posting on Instagram a lot while she was in the middle of filming. What can you tell me about her character and how she impacts the team?
RLS: Well, Maxim’s character is the prefect, and the prefect in Saint-Pierre is basically the person who is the President’s eyes, arms, ears, their head of law enforcement.
In Season 1, we kind of referenced the prefect in one of the episodes, and then as we were reflecting, we were like, ‘Well, that could be a really cool person to bring a little bit of friction because we’re used to Marcus being the boss.’ What happens if we meet Marcus’ boss? And who is that person going to be? So the writers and our writers room came up with Prefect Charlotte Diard and that she’s originally from Saint-Pierre, but because she solved this huge crime back in the day, she kind of got a boost to become chief and it was quite a thing because it was a woman in the role and she was the first woman to have be the chief of police in our lore of Saint-Pierre Police. And then from there she got promoted to go to Paris, and now she’s back as the prefect of the island. And she steps in because we ended our finale with a bit of a shootout in the graveyard.
She is there to say, ‘I need to know what exactly went down. This is a big thing, this is making news.’ She’s a bit of a pebble in an artistic shoe this season.
Speaking of the season finale, I loved how you used Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” as Arch and Fitz were driving to the graveyard, in a nod to Miami Vice.
RLS: I had my sister and my nephew-in-law reaching out, going, ‘Did you guys do this on purpose?’ I’m like, ‘Of course we did this on purpose.’ We’re kids of the ’80s who grew up watching Miami Vice, and we were like, ‘How cool. And if we can get that song…’ And actually, because I wrote that sequence, and as I was writing it, I was playing in my ear to just to make sure the beats were tied out down to the gunshots and everything. And our music supervisor, who’s also our post producer, Wayne Warren, we said, ‘What are the chances?’ And so initially we were thinking we’d have to get a cover or something, but we’re not going to get Phil Collins. And he said, ‘Well, can you write me up a little something about why you want this song?’ I wrote what scene would be that we were going to be playing as much of the song as we possibly could. It was going to go over a number of sequences, and it’s culminating and all that exciting stuff. And then his people said yes. And we were like, ‘What?’ So yeah, we were thrilled to get that song.
We’ve got some incredible needle drops this season, too. Allan and I love music, and it’s really a part of the soul of Saint-Pierre that we can have some really cool, recognizable songs.
Saint-Pierre airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.
Show image courtesy of CBC. Robina Lord-Stafford image courtesy of Derm Carberry.
