'Outsiders' Postmortem: Showrunner Peter Mattei Talks Who's Dead, Who's in Charge, and Where Season 2 Will Begin

Warning: Storyline and character spoilers ahead for “Long Live the Bren’in,” the Season 1 finale episode of Outsiders.

Season 2 of WGN’s Outsiders is already in pre-production, but we’re going to have to wait a while to see it, which is going to make for a frustrating wait after a season finale that left viewers with cliffhangers aplenty. Is Big Foster really dead? Is his favorite son Elon, the one who was killed in the series premiere, really alive? Did G’Win manipulate her way into the Bren’in position? And what’s going to happen between her, Asa, and Lil’ Foster in Season 2? And what about Sheriff Wade, who’s finally starting to get his act together after the murder of his brother-in-law, but has just found himself in the middle of his lifelong worst nightmare when he climbs Shay Mountain to confront the Farrells… will he freak the freak out and fall back to his pharmaceutical aids once again?

Outsiders series creator and showrunner Peter Mattei broke down the finale for Yahoo TV, including hints about Big Foster, Elon, the mountain’s “black magic,” G’Win’s leadership, Wade’s reaction to finding himself in the middle of that Farrell ambush, the future of the “Sasil” relationship, and, in great news for Ryan Hurst fans — and who isn’t one? — scoop on a major storyline for Lil’ Foster in Season 2.

There are a lot of things thrown at us in the finale, a lot of things that have been hinted at throughout this season, but certainly crystallize in a big way. First of all, was the whole season filmed before you found out about the renewal for Season 2?
Oh yeah, absolutely.

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Did you plan the finale in a way so that it would give the audience some closure, some answers if there wasn’t a second season?
No. I think it makes sense to wrap some things up at the end of a season, and to put a little bit of a bow on things, but also obviously leave it open and hint at new things to come. You just move forward assuming that there will be another season, and if there isn’t, there isn’t. We just always assumed that there would be, so we were thinking about what’s going to happen to this person, and to that person. We wanted to have some really good cliffhangers for the audience so they would be worried about different characters during the off-season. That’s how it worked out.

That final scene is a good place to start, the scene with Elon. What do we make of that scene?
I think that’s a really good question, and hopefully that’s a question that viewers will start a conversation about and wonder about, because we’ve been hinting all along that maybe there’s some form of magic on that mountain that isn’t really explained by logic and rational thought. At the end, the presence of Elon could really point to that as a possibility. On the other hand, there are other possibilities, other ideas as to what that scene really is about. What do you think it’s about?

I think it does suggest that there is some form of magic on the mountain, which could really carry over, have big implications for other characters. Maybe death isn’t permanent for those who live on the mountain. Maybe Big Foster isn’t dead. Maybe Lady Ray isn’t really dead.
Yeah, I think that basically there is a magic to Shay Mountain. Whether it’s a good magic or bad magic, I don’t know. I guess it’s a combination of all of the above. Most of everything that we’ve seen, it could be interpreted as a bit of magic, but also just be explained by rational things. Here’s something that’s a little bit different and maybe throws the rest of the show into a little bit of a relief, and opens the door to all kinds of stuff that might happen in Season 2.

It could also be that this is an afterlife for Elon? Maybe he’s found some peace now that his father is dead, and the rest of his family will find peace?
That’s right. You could interpret it that way as well. I guess I would say to viewers that it’s like, “tune in for Season 2, and we will resolve these questions about him.”

What should viewers be considering about Big Foster then? He appears to be dead, but the only person who confirms he’s dead is one of the men who was working with him. Maybe he only appeared to be dead as a side effect of the poison G’Win was feeding him.
That’s true. He looks pretty dead to me. But you’re right, there could be a question about that, too.

We see G’Win become the new Bren’in. She’s been such an incredible character all season, and definitely acted as a potential leader for the family. What can you say about that going forward? What’s that going to mean for her and the family?
All along, we wanted to end the season with her in that position of power for all the reasons that you just brought up. I think in Season 2, there’s a lot of things that have to be… a lot of questions that have to be answered about her and her ability to lead. She hasn’t been in that position before. In the finale, this leadership is thrown on her, and I think there’s a big question as to whether or not that was something that she really hoped for and plotted for, and maybe manipulated her way into, or whether it was something that just befell her, that she deserves. We started the series with Lady Ray as the Bren’in. Even though it’s a very macho world, it’s on some level a matriarchy. We go to a very different Bren’in in Big Foster. Then we end again with a matriarchal choice. I think the Farrells are surprising and not very predictable in that way.

The dream Big Foster has about his dad at the beginning of the finale… he tells G’Win that he’s actually the one who shot him. So he killed both his parents?
I like your interpretation of his dream. The way I interpreted it was that that was a dream in which he killed his dad, but that wasn’t actually what happened. It could be interpreted in different ways, but I took it to be that it was a nightmare in which he had killed his father, but that wasn’t actually what happened on the day.

It’s maybe motivated then by his guilt about having killed his mother?
I would say so, yeah, and the fact that he is full of the poison from G’Win. He’s having strange dreams, let’s put it that way.

Lady Ray told Asa that there will be one person who will save the Farrells, one who will destroy. I think the assumption for a lot of viewers has been that Asa is the one who will save, and Big Foster is the demon. But it still feels like there’s some, with Asa especially, there’s some wiggle room about just how committed he is to the mountain and the family.
Yeah, I think you hit it right on the nose that it’s still an open question as to who is the return that will save them and who is the demon, and exactly what role Asa will play going forward. Again, we wanted to set some things up and then play with viewers’ expectations in terms of the story and always keep it fresh and keep it surprising. We’re leaving the end of this finale with a lot of open questions that we’re going to answer in Season 2.

I think we flip flop back and forth through the season with our feelings about the triangle of Asa and Lil’ Foster and G’Win. I love that. Lil’ Foster has been through so much with so many different characters, and it feels like he’s come to a certain peace and understanding about everything. G’Win maybe has a little more appreciation of just what a steady presence he’s been and how how far he’s willing to go for her, to protect her. Asa… he’s already proved he’ll leave her. At the end of the season, do G’Win and Lil’ Foster have a stronger relationship than ever?
I think that’s a good point. I think he is at more of a place of peace, and she does see that. I think his character, he was someone who very much… his identity, his self worth were really defined by others and how other people felt about him, whether it was his father or G’Win. I think he’s been through the ringer with all these people, with G’Win’s betrayal of him, not just with Asa, but with marrying his father. His father’s many betrayals of him. He tried to kill himself, but he’s in a very different place. I will say that in Season 2, he has a giant arc for his family and really becomes an incredibly important person to the Farrells.

Is it possible that Lil’ Foster is the one who will save them all?
I can’t give anything away, but I will say that you’re a very perceptive viewer.

I have to touch on Breece. Obviously it was a great part of the storyline, but heartbreaking to lose that character, especially at the point where we had really gotten to know him. He was really torn in a lot of different directions, and was, I think, more than anyone, trying to do the right thing.
It was absolutely the right thing for the story. But I hated losing that character, and that actor [Jeb Kreager] too, because he was just such a pleasure to work with. If it wasn’t 100 percent the right thing for the story, we would have kept him around, but we really had to show that a) Big Foster was a bit of a loose canon, and b) these cultures, when they mix… anything can happen.

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It was also a catalyst for Wade. We’ve watched him emerge throughout the season as someone who finally appears to have decided to actively participate in his life and his family, and his community, his job. What does this ending do to him, because you talked about how G’Win was thrown into leadership. Wade is thrown into his worse nightmare, with his belief that the Farrells and the mountain have this magic power. Now he’s maybe finding out that he was right.
Yeah. When his father worked for the coal company some 20-25 years earlier, he led a small group of people up the mountain to try to evict the Farrells or convince them to leave… it went wrong, and shots were fired. Someone was killed, at least one person, that being Big Foster’s father. Then this raid or whatever you want to call it came to an end, and the townie people went back down the mountain, including Wade’s dad. They just decided that it’s best to leave the situation alone. Some months later, his dad was just walking down the street, and he was hit by lightning, killed. A lot of people in that town, including his eight-year-old son, really felt that this was retribution on the part of the Farrells, that they used their black magic. Of course other people are like, “That’s absurd. He got hit by lightning.” But [the magic] has always been the fear of a young boy, and that still lives with Wade, inside of him, in a lot of ways. We’ve seen lots of evidence of that during the season. And then there he is up on that mountain, confronted by hundreds of Farrells, not just a few. It’s storming, and lightning, all around him. Yeah, it is absolutely his worst fear. Exactly what happens in that moment, we will reveal in Season 2.

Will we pick up right where we leave off in the finale for the beginning of Season 2?
We answer the major questions. We don’t jump forward too much, I don’t think. I don’t want to give anything away.

What is the sculpture garden and the hut that Wade and his men walk into? Is that a Farrell mausoleum?
It’s not 100 percent clear exactly what it is. What we wanted to do was create a space that [gave] more of a folk art vibe than anything else, so that Wade stumbles upon something that’s really strange and magical. And immediately, because, you have to remember, this is the first time that he’s seen anything of the Farrells’ world, we wanted him to stumble upon something that was both very strange, and at the same time incredibly beautiful, and not at all threatening. Perhaps a little spooky to him, but not at all threatening, actually a beautiful spot to just land with him in this different world.

Related: ‘Outsiders’ Star Jeb Kreager on Breece’s Fate

Hasil and Sally-Ann gave us some lighter moments, sometimes some incredibly violent moments, but they are a fun, sweet, sexy couple. The season didn’t end well for them, they certainly were not in a romantic place the last few episodes, but is there hope for them as a couple in the future?
I’ll say yes. I’ll say that their love goes really deep. The fans of “Sasil,” as they’re called, will have a lot to go on in Season 2.

The coal company was scared off back in Wade’s dad’s day, but it’s such a different world now. It seems very unlikely the coal company would just walk away at this point. But everyone clearly underestimated the population of the Farrells…
Absolutely. I think the big surprise at the end of the finale is just how many Farrells there are. That changes everything for Season 2. Yeah, the mission’s going to change, but basically there’s still a billion dollars of coal sitting in that mountain, as somebody said in the pilot. It’s not something they’re going to let go of right away.