All You Need to Know About Jennifer Love Hewitt's 'The Client List' Before Season 2 Premieres
Jennifer Love Hewitt is back Sunday night for Season 2 of her risky-business Lifetime drama "The Client List." The series, which follows the struggles of Riley Parks (Hewitt) as she balances her double life as a single mom trying to provide for her family and a professional masseuse who works at a parlor that offers men "extras," is more complex than the premise implies.
If you missed Season 1 (or need a quick refresh), here's what you should know before the sophomore season kicks off.
Riley was abandoned by her husband.
Riley, a mother of two, appeared to be in a perfect marriage with her high school sweetheart, Kyle (Brian Hallisay), but they were drowning in a mountain of debt. She got a lead on a job in a nearby town, Sugarland, at a spa called the Rub from friend Selena Ramos (Alicia Lagano), who's raking in the dough. Once Riley realizes that some of the men there want more than just a regular massage, she quits -- only to realize that her husband had abandoned her and their kids and left her with their debt. She goes back to the spa and says that she wants to make more money and service those on the Client List.
She offers more than just "extras."
Riley finds that a lot of the men who come in want someone to just listen to them, and she has a knack for offering her ear and her compassion, but not without risk -- as she found out when a man's wife came looking for her.
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Riley's double life is wearing her down.
Riley lies to everyone in her life who cares about her: her mom, Lynette (Cybil Shepard), her best friend, Lacey (Rebecca Field), and her husband's brother, Evan (Colin Egglesfield), who is interested in her. They're all wondering where Riley's working, but she keeps it vague. Eventually Lacey finds a stash of money and is concerned about its origins. Riley comes clean to her and almost loses her best friend. Lacey then tells Riley that Kyle had planned on leaving her.
Riley's husband had secrets of his own.
She finds out that her husband was seeing another woman, Maxine, who confesses to Riley that Kyle was hooked on painkillers, which added to their debt.
Selena is playing with fire.
Their business is risky to begin with, but when her friend and co-worker Selena tells Riley that she is seeing clients off-site, it sets up an ominous foreshadowing.
[Related: 'Client List': Jennifer Love Hewitt, Loretta Devine Spill Secrets on Season 2]
There are more fish in the sea.
Riley tries to move on and date again but decides that it's too much of a distraction and a risk. Nonetheless, romantic tension continues between her and Evan.
She has a run-in with the law.
Riley has a run-in with a police officer, and he lets her off without any charges but says that she owes him one. Later, he blackmails her by saying that as long as he gets her full menu of "services," their operation will get full protection from the law.
The Client List is hidden.
Georgia (Loretta Devine), the owner of the Rub, asks Riley to remove the Client List from the spa and hide it somewhere else, which she does.
Kyle comes back.
Riley's husband returns and wants to see the kids. She tries to shut him out and insists that his return doesn't change anything, but he is still in her life.
"The Client List" returns for Season 2 on Sunday, 3/10 at 10 PM on Lifetime.
