The Irrational EP Explains Why Alec and Rose’s Big Step Took Place in the Fall Finale: ‘I Had to Restrain Myself From Putting It in Episode 3!’
Don’t worry about The Irrational‘s Alec during the NBC drama’s winter hiatus: After this week’s fall finale, he’s got his love to keep him warm.
The hour starts off with an investigation into the murder of a K-pop (aka Korean pop music) superfan but winds up with Jesse L. Martin’s Alec and Karen David’s Rose saying the L-word to each other for the first time.
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The cozy moment is a monumental one for Dr. Mercer, who seems to be looking to the future after so many years of living in the past. While you wait for the series’ winter premiere (Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 10/9c), check out our chat with showrunner Arika Lisanne Mittman, who confesses that she wanted to get Rose and Alec on the “love” train a whole lot sooner.
TVLINE | I have more important questions than this, but I need to know: Why was Rizwan the character you decided would be a K-pop fan?
[Laughs] Oh my gosh. I think it was Kirk Moore, the writer of the episode, who brought up the idea of K-pop. We definitely wanted somebody in our world to be a K-pop fan. So, I guess, why not Rizwan?
TVLINE | I enjoyed how deep into the fandom he is.
We wanted it to be a little bit of a love letter to K-pop. We wanted to make sure that we didn’t, in any way, look like we were making fun of K-pop or K-pop fans. We wanted the representation with one of our characters who was like, “I love this,” because we’re also going to see when fan bases go wrong, or parasocial relationships and when being a fan can be detrimental in some ways. We wanted to show like, “Hey there are also totally normal happy fans of K-pop.” So, one of our characters represented that.
TVLINE | OK, now the big stuff. We get a huge moment at the end for Rose and Alec, when they exchange “I love you”s. Talk to me about why now, why her, and what we can expect as we move forward.
You know, it’s funny. We cast Karen David back in the beginning of last season, Episode 4, and we just couldn’t let her go. She was so fun, the chemistry between Alec and Rose was great from the get-go, and Karen David is such a wonderful actress. The two of them are so great together that we were like, “OK, let’s have them go on a date and let’s see how that goes.” … The character of their relationship really fit with the show in that it’s very positive. It’s a positive, hopeful show overall, and their relationship is very overall positive and hopeful. I was getting ready, like, “When are they going to say ‘I love you’?” [Laughs] I had to restrain myself from putting it in Episode 3!
… She kind of realizes in [the Season 2 premiere] that episode how much he means to her. And then in Episode 3, she’s preparing herself for, “OK, this is going to be a problem for me, because I care too much. He cares too much about me. This could put him in danger because of my past, and I’m going to let him go.” And then, kind of the way we couldn’t let Karen go, she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t let go. It’s one of my favorite scenes of the season, that scene in Episode 3 where he tells her he’s been living on borrowed time and that he wants to spend that time with people he cares about. They come right close to the edge of saying the word, but we were like, “No, no, no it’s too soon! It’s too early!” [Laughs] He’s still kind of on the heels of his divorce. We wanted to earn it a little bit more.
…What I love about that scene is… the way they played it and the way Alec sort of surprises himself to say it. He didn’t go into that episode like, “I’m going to say ‘I love you.’” It wasn’t his plan, and you can see it on his face that like he didn’t mean to.
TVLINE | I ask this question not because I want this to happen, but because I’ve seen a TV drama before: While I do not doubt that Alec means what he says about not caring about the things Rose might have to do in the course of doing her job, is there any possibility of his changing his mind about that when he’s faced with it, down the road?
There will definitely be challenges for Alec and Rose, but we’re telling a story. We’re telling the dynamic of these two in a very adult way. We’re not telling it like there’s going to be a secret that’s going to shatter the relationship. It wouldn’t be TV if we didn’t put obstacles in their path, but we’re also hopefully going to see things that don’t make you groan, like “Oh, they’re doing the thing every other TV show does.” We’re not.
We’re creating this dynamic not just between Alec and Rose, but you’ll get to see, coming up, Rose and Marisa are going to work on a case together. You’re going to see this dynamic of what does it mean to be in a relationship, post-divorce? Can you be friends with your your ex’s new partner? We’re going to ask those questions and explore that in a very grown-up way.
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