'Sullivan's Crossing' Season 2: Showrunner Roma Roth teases a season about 'guilt' after shocking cliffhanger
Morgan Kohan, Chad Michael Murray and Scott Patterson are back for the second season of the Canadian-filmed TV hit
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Roma Roth is the queen of creating an emotional TV cliffhanger. Fans of her hit show, Sullivan's Crossing, (filmed in Nova Scotia), starring Morgan Kohan, Chad Michael Murray and Scott Patterson, were left in shock at the end of the first season, but Sullivan's Crossing Season 2 (premiering April 14 at 9:00 p.m. ET on CTV) amps up the emotion right away.
"You want your audience to be engaged and come back," Roth told Yahoo Canada about leaving the audience in suspense. "I think that's kind of a really important piece of the equation of writing any kind of show, because you want to keep them coming back and wanting more."
Where to watch Sullivan's Crossing Season 2 on cable: CTV
Where to stream Sullivan's Crossing Season 2: CTV.ca and the CTV App
When does Sullivan's Crossing Season 2 premiere: April 14 at 9:00 p.m. ET, moving to 8:00 p.m. ET for the following weeks
Sullivan's Crossing showrunner: Roma Roth
Cast: Morgan Kohan, Chad Michael Murray, Scott Patterson, Amalia Williamson, Andrea Menard, Tom Jackson, Amalia Williamson, Lynda Boyd
Number of episodes: 10
Catch up on Sullivan's Crossing Season on Crave, with plans starting at $9.99/month
How did Season 1 of 'Sullivan's Crossing' end?
At the end of the first season of Sullivan's Crossing (based on the novels by Robyn Carr), Dr. Maggie Sullivan (Kohan) went to trial after being sued for negligence, which made her question whether she really wants to be a surgeon. Going back to Sullivan's Crossing, Cal (Murray) has left, and Lola (Amalia Williamson) was particularly sneaky, hiding a letter Cal left for Maggie.
The real drama comes when we see Maggie looking down at a positive pregnancy test, which leads her to changing her mind and telling her father, Sully (Patterson), that she's taking a job in Boston. But before she leaves, she asks her father why, after she left Sullivan's Crossing with her mother as a child, he didn't come after her.
That's when we get a shocking flashback to the day Maggie and her mom drove away from Sullivan's Crossing, seeing Sully speeding down the road behind them, and he hits a young girl on her bike. Sully is in fact the hit-and-run driver in the accident that sent Lola to the hospital as a child, which is why he's always tried to support her.
As we go back to present day, we see Sully collapsed on the floor and Maggie crying as she drives away from Sullivan's Crossing.
'Sullivan's Crossing' Season 2 is about 'guilt'
For Roth, a highlight of moving into Season 2 of Sullivan's Crossing was being able to continue to explore the relationship between Maggie and Sully.
"Just really digging into their relationship and how they're resolving their their issues that we left kind of open ended in Season 1," Roth said.
The showrunner also highlighted that a core theme for Season 2 is "guilt."
"Season 2 really revolves around guilt, guilt of past transgressions," Roth teased. "So I think Maggie, when we meet up with her, is having a lot of guilt about how she left things in the end of Season 1."
The series also continues to really explore the concept of family, whether that be biological or found.
"I just think it's nice to be able to have characters that are going through different types of family structures," Roth said. "I think that our world today isn't kind of a cookie cutter world, ... it's not just necessarily your traditional family scenario.
"I think there are all a lot of people who have been through a divorce, or in a second marriage, so I wanted to make sure that the show appealed to people by being real and representing the world as we see it today."
'Why can't you watch something that happens to be in English, but set in Canada?'
Canadians have a reason to be particularly proud of Sullivan's Crossing, not only being filmed in Canada, but also being set in Canada. With the show's success both domestically and abroad, Sullivan's Crossing has really been able to successfully expose the world to Canadian-set stories.
"I'm really excited that it is doing that, because that was what my intention was, I set out to do a Canadian content show in the first place," Roth said. "We had done Virgin River, we did it with Netflix, and it was a show set in northern California, but it is being filmed in [British Columbia].
"When I wanted to do another show with Robyn [Carr], I wanted to do a show that was as successful, or hopefully more at some point, but as successful as Virgin River, but that was set in Canada. Because if you're watching shows like Squid Games in Korean on Netflix, then why can't you watch something that happens to be in English, but set in Canada?"
Catch up on Sullivan's Crossing Season on Crave, with plans starting at $9.99/month
As a core voice in the romance-drama TV genre, Roth stressed that a significant part of the appeal to such a large audience is putting human connection at the forefront of these stories.
"I think that the genre is all about people connecting with one another," Roth said. "It's not always only romantic, it can also be paternal, maternal relationships.
"I think COVID-19, as well as political climate and what's going on in our world, from climate change to a lot of things that are maybe not as warm and fuzzy that are going on in our zeitgeist, that people want this kind of comfy warm sweater where they can connect with characters."
Additionally, Roth indicated that in a world where so many of our connections happen through screens, seeing that human connection has been even more enticing, and these shows can also link to our need to connect with ourselves.
"I feel like a lot of people in the audience, and then people in general, find it difficult to connect with themselves emotionally," Roth said. "So, providing them with a character who's kind of like a one-degree-of-separation from themselves, but are going through struggles and emotions and situations that resonate with the audience, and they can connect with, gives them a safe place to express their own emotions."
