The Cleaning Lady bosses on the price Thony's family pays in the finale and the complicated journey ahead
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Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Cleaning Lady season 2 finale.
In the end it was Fiona De La Rosa (Martha Millan) who paid the price on The Cleaning Lady.
In the season 2 finale, Luca De La Rosa's (Sebastien and Valentino LaSalle) health took a turn. Fiona took him to the hospital and Thony De La Rosa (Élodie Yung) again did whatever she had to in order to save her son. This time it included going with Arman Morales (Adan Canto) to steal back the drug Luca needs from season big bad Robert Kamdar's (Naveen Andrews) men and then, along with Fiona, taking hospital equipment to give her child the non-FDA approved drug. Luca got better, but his doctor reported Thony. Garrett Miller (Oliver Hudson) was able to pull the FBI informant card to get Thony out, but Fiona's release was not as easily achieved. After Garrett was killed in a shootout in an attempt to take down Robert, it became impossible and Fiona was deported.
The action-packed finale also included the end of Robert. Armand and Nadia Morales (Eva De Dominici) succeeded in killing him so that Nadia, to whom he is still legally married, gets all of his assets. Shocking Armand, she then made it clear everything that was Robert's is now hers, not theirs, which leaves him with nothing. In the end, Armand and Thony were only left with each other as they began the journey to bring Fiona home.
EW spoke to The Cleaning Lady showrunners Miranda Kwok and Melissa Carter about killing Garrett, Thony getting more comfortable with criminality, Nadia's season-long journey of empowerment, and a potential third season.
Jeff Neumann/FOX Élodie Yung, Sean Lew, Valentino/Sebastien LaSalle, Faith Bryant and Martha Millan in 'The Cleaning Lady'
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why was Fiona the one to pay the price in Thony's family?
MELISSA CARTER: We're trying to show that in crime you can't really control the outcome. When you step over a line, you may not be the one to get punished. We also wanted to catapult to a cliffhanger where in a season 3 we see what Thony is gonna have to do to get Fiona back. It was her fault ultimately. The criminal acts were to save Luca, we wanted to show a mother who would do anything to save her son, so borrowing a piece of machinery for a medical procedure was a small step for her. Thony is very good at talking her way out of things and we wanted to show this was something she couldn't talk her way out of. The repercussions reached far beyond her to someone that she loves so deeply.
Thony is better at being a criminal in season 2, but fights with Nadia and Arman about how far she'll go. At the end of season 2, where do you think Thony falls when it comes to her comfort with criminality?
MIRANDA KWOK: She is, but she isn't and that's part of Fiona being deported. There's always this push and pull with her, she doesn't want to be a criminal and yet she has been drawn into this criminal world. A lot of it has been in the name of saving her son, so she's always justifying her actions. She's going a little further over the moral line and now there are severe consequences for Fiona. Now, what is she going to do to get her back and how much further across the moral line is she going to go? Battling with her own moral center is going to be a continuous challenge for her.
CARTER: She's not committing crimes for her own financial benefit or greed or power. She's doing all of these things and she weighs all of them. We've hoping the audience sees that every decision she's weighing whether it's going to help protect her family or her son. What is interesting is you see a comfort leaving this season where last season violence would rock her so easily. Thony now takes things in stride more, so it's not that she's delving deeper into crime as a benefit, but becoming more acclimated to it.
How did bringing JD Harris (Ryan Sands) into the picture change the dynamic within Thony and Fiona's family unit?
KWOK: We wanted to explore different facets of these relationships, especially within families with mixed statuses. One of the things in particular people assume that, especially for undocumented immigrants, is that they'll just marry for the sake of citizenship. Fiona is not that person and she wanted a relationship that was based on love, so she never communicated that she was undocumented at the time. There was a missed opportunity and JD feels like he wasn't given the option to help by the time they start to come together again. It's too late; he can't marry her now because there's a whole legal process.
CARTER: He's also fresh eyes into this world where Fiona has slowly gotten used to the crime and things Thony brings into their lives. JD comes in to ask what is going on and why their daughter is in this world of crime. He made her choose either Thony or their daughter, so that gave us great central conflict to our characters at the end that will still need to be dealt with in season 3.
Garrett Miller dies in the two-hour finale. Why was now the time for his exit?
CARTER: We love Oliver Hudson so much and we loved his character, but it started to feel like this season we wanted to show that crime does have consequences. No one is safe in this world. With Garrett we had really explored all of the different avenues that seemed realistic. He was a nemesis, then he helped Thony. They had that push and pull of where they were sort of friends. It was a cat-and-mouse game that we played for two seasons and Garrett makes that ultimate sacrifice to save Thony, which shows their growth.
KWOK: Garrett started off the series believing everything is black and white; there's good guys and bad guys with nothing in between. On this journey with Thony he learned that there are so many shades of gray. He's gone through them by killing Cortez and other choices he's made. At the end he comes to a place where he sees his own growth, but at the point it's too late. We wanted to have a tragic consequence for all of Thony's actions. She always thinks she can control everything and play all the chess pieces, and it doesn't always work that way. This is a very important lesson for her. Now she doesn't have somebody who can easily get Fiona back or someone in law enforcement who is on her side anymore. Next season she's going to have to find different resources to help her.
The other casualty is Robert Kamdar. Was the plan always to have him be in one season?
CARTER: Yes. We wanted this interesting big bad that would come in and we always knew that he was going to die. We didn't know how. We debated that in the writers' room. We wanted it to feel satisfying to Armand and Nadia. He really had them under his thumb the whole season, so we wanted it to feel satisfying that they were able to get out from under him permanently.
Jeff Neumann/FOX Adan Canto and Élodie Yung in 'The Cleaning Lady'
Nadia kills Kamdar then double crosses Armand to take over. What was her season arc meant to explore and how does it change the show moving forward?
KWOK: We wanted to take her on a journey of empowerment. She and Armand start at the bottom with nothing after Hayak dies. This season Nadia did come into her own and is no longer dependent on any man. She is also, in a lot of ways, very loyal to Armand and she's gotten the short end of the stick so many times, especially when it comes to Thony. We do feel for her. If Thony hadn't been in the picture then her marriage with Armand probably could have sustained itself. We don't know where it's going now that the power has turned, so that's exciting to explore between Nadia, Armand, and Thony.
CARTER: We always thought of Nadia as a Lady Macbeth character who ultimately doesn't need Macbeth. We want to ground all of our characters in a human way and even though Armand hasn't physically cheated on her, he's emotionally cheating on her. He does have feelings for Thony. Armand loves both women for different reasons, so it was fun to show Nadia as a badass at the end where she becomes a villain you really root for.
Armand says they are done with Thony, but after Fiona's deportation and Nadia's double cross, Thony and Armand end the season working together to keep the pipeline open and bring Fiona back. What is the status of their relationship going into a potential third season?
KWOK: They have a relationship that is so unique and it's never going to be one thing or easy. There's this chemistry that brings them together and yet all these circumstances are still going to pull them apart. The relationship is evolving and there's different directions it can go depending on how difficult it will be to get Fiona back. Or what new criminal ventures they're going to go into. There is still this interesting love triangle with Nadia. Is she going to stick around to put up with it or will she become more of a nemesis? Those are all options to explore.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
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