TV LINE: One thing’s for sure: When the Faking It gang returns to Hester High for the MTV comedy’s third season, it’s going to be a totally different ball game.
Monday’s finale introduced a whole mess of changes for our floundering faves: Liam (via Zita) discovered the identity of his biological father, Felix (Parker Mack) revealed that he’s a recovering alcoholic, Karma and Shane learned they’ll be forced to spend the summer together and Amy — whose mom is amicably divorcing Lauren’s dad — left town… with Reagan! (And Reagan’s live-in girlfriend, but whatever.)
Below, executive producer Carter Covington discusses tonight’s biggest bombshells, then previews what — and who! — we can expect from Season 3.
TVLINE | Let’s start with Felix: I was not expecting that. Was it always part of your plan to make him an alcoholic?
We loved the way Theo’s arc laid out in our last finale when we revealed he was a narc, and when we brought Felix on, we thought it would be really fun to build to a reveal in the finale about his character. Having him be a recovering alcoholic popped up as we were arcing the story, and if you back and watch the season, you can see hints of it — like when Karma asks how he got over his mom dying, he says, “Take it one day at a time.”
TVLINE | Please tell me we’ll get more of him next season.
Felix’s story with Amy will continue in Season 3, so rest assured.
TVLINE | And how much of Season 3 will be about Liam’s paternity drama?
We’re opening Season 3 at the end of summer, so we’ll fast forward through that and see what happened to everyone over break. Liam’s dad question gets answered, and it becomes a big force for his storyline.
TVLINE | I also ended up loving Zita a lot more than I thought I would. Can we look forward to more of her as well?
She will be back, yes. I was so thrilled with Chloe Bridges and Parker Mack [who plays Felix]. They’re both really nuanced actors who got the tone of the show, and they’re really nice people we enjoy being around, so it was kind of a win-win.
TVLINE | Another thing I wasn’t expecting was Lauren and Amy’s parents’ split.
We have a lot of fun thinking about Bruce and Farrah. They’re impetuous in their love lives, which wreaks havoc on their children, so we thought that’d be a fun way for us to play with the deepening relationship between Amy and Lauren. That’s something we’re going to explore in Season 3: They were starting to feel like sisters, so how is that going to change now that their parents aren’t married?
TVLINE | I’m glad Lauren is staying with Amy, but how will her life change without her dad around?
Her idea of family is going to start to change in Season 3. She’s a character who always has her walls up, and she struggles to let people in. We’re going to show how much she wants to let Amy in, but how difficult it is for her to do that. Her parents getting divorced forces her to look at her relationship with Amy and decide if she still wants her in her life now that she isn’t being forced.
TVLINE | Should we expect Karma and Shane’s relationship to improve or worsen over the summer?
Shane and Karma’s relationship changes in a really unexpected way, and that’s all I can say, because that reveal is going to be really fun in the premiere. Over the summer, their relationship evolves.
TVLINE | Amy’s big goodbye was heartbreaking. What went into that decision?
We started to think about how difficult it would be if you were in love with someone who didn’t love you back, especially if it was a friend. When you want to stay best friends, how do you fix that? So we thought, “You’d need to get away. You’d need some time and space to get over that person.” … They’ve always pledged that they can get through anything together, so Amy leaving and saying she needs to do this without Karma is really hurtful. We hope fans will see both sides of the dilemma, how both of them feel like they’re at a crossroads.
TVLINE | Do you honestly envision a day where Karma could reciprocate Amy’s feelings, or will it be more about Amy finding a middle ground?
I’ve always believed that Karma is not as introspective as Amy, and she hasn’t looked at her strong affection and love for Amy in any other light than a friendship. I really want to get to a point where she does look at that — and then we can figure out what that means for her. I have in my head an idea of how I’d like for all of that to unfold, so I’m just hoping we have the episodes to do it.