La Brea: Creator David Applebaum teases season two

La Brea‘s first season ended with a bang and several massive cliffhangers, including the enormous separations of the main characters, which continued to separate the central Harris family. With so much at stake, the show’s creator, David Applebaum, teases what to expect in season two.

La Brea made a splash on NBC as a growing mystery surrounding how a sinkhole in California resulted in the survivors that fell in to appear in 10,000 B.C. But, as the series grows, what will become of its central characters and the evolving world they find themselves in?

Culturess: Will season 2 expand on the world-building of 10,000 B.C.?

David Applebaum: Absolutely. There are several new groups of people that we’re going to meet in 10,000 B.C. that hadn’t been introduced in season one, and we’re also going to expand the mysteries of this world of 10,000 B.C. What’s down here? Who are the people? And ultimately, figuring out some of the answers of why these sinkholes exist in the first place.

Culturess: What does it mean now that Eve and Sam are separated from their kids?

David Applebaum: Well, it’s gonna be one of the central drives for Eve and Sam is to get them back. That’s a story that’s at the heart of season two, and figuring out how to do that is going to be one of the central stories, but it also has big emotional ramifications for Eve and Sam and how do you react to the loss of your family?

And it goes to a deeper story that we’ve been setting up since the beginning of the series about the Harris family and their quest to be reunited. They’ve been divided since the very beginning of the pilot. They were separated by a sinkhole. But now, they’re even more divided in ways they never would’ve expected, so tracking that journey of reuniting them is really at the heart of the second season.

Culturess: Will more be revealed regarding the mysterious building in the middle of the woods?

David Applebaum: Absolutely, yeah. We are going to go inside that building. We’re gonna learn who’s in there, what its purpose is. It’s a mystery that I think a lot of our audience was really intrigued by after the end of the first season, and if you are intrigued by that, you are going to get answers to that, so you should tune in if you wanna find out more about the mystery of that.

Culturess: What type of adventures await Gavin, Izzy, and Ella on their journey?

David Applebaum: The journey to get to their family in Los Angeles is going to be fraught, contending with the elements and the wildlife of 10,000 B.C. It’s gonna pose a lot of different challenges for them, and they’re not really equipped to be down here. They’re from modern times. So contending like Eve and Josh and the rest of the survivors in season one, they’re also going to have to figure out how do you, you’re from the modern world, how do you survive in 10,000 B.C.?

Culturess: What can you tease about Josh and Riley being stuck in 1988?

David Applebaum: Well, on the one hand, it’s gonna be a fun adventure story, them being in 1988, being exposed to the music and the pop culture and the fashion and the vehicles of that time period will be a lot of fun. But their story is also going to intersect with some of the central mythological stories of the show. They’re gonna meet certain characters. They’re going to help give them insight into some of the larger mysteries of the show about these sinkholes and why they exist, and if there might be a way to actually stop them.

Culturess: How will Lucas cope with the loss of his mother?

David Applebaum: It’s hard. Season two picks up the day after the events of season one, and he’s in mourning, he’s grieving and doesn’t really know where to place that grief, and it’s gonna lead him into situations that he shouldn’t be going because he’s driven by anger and by grief over what’s happened. But it’s also gonna allow him to forge some surprising emotional connections with characters that he hasn’t really interacted with before. So it’s gonna take him on a journey and really change the course of his life and change who he is at his core because he’s dealing with the death of his mom.

Culturess:  Silas has been a big mystery. What type of role will he play moving forward?

David Applebaum: Well, he’s Gavin’s grandfather, so there’s that emotional connection to Gavin and to the Harris family that’s really important. But he’s also, we learned at the end of season one, that he’s one of the scientists who’s responsible for the creation of these sinkholes. We don’t quite understand what that means in season one.

But we’re going to start to understand more of it as we get deeper into season two. So it’ll be through him and other characters that we’re gonna start to expand and understand more of the mysteries at the heart of the show. But also, at the same time, have a deep emotional connection to Gavin and his family.

Culturess: Gavin and Ella had lost their childhood memories of living in 10,000 B.C. What does that, if anything, mean for Josh and Riley?

David Applebaum: No, that’s not going to be an issue. They’re going to retain their memories.

Culturess: There have been a lot of plot twists throughout the first season. Is that something we can expect a lot of in season two?

David Applebaum: Absolutely. I think having plot twists, turning the story in unexpected directions, is really at the heart of what makes the show what it is. As well as telling a deeply emotional story about this family and about these survivors. I think bringing the story in unexpected directions is one of the hallmarks of the show, and we definitely wanna continue that idea as we go through season two, and I think that we’ve got a lot of exciting and fun places we’re gonna bring it.

Culturess: The show has been so intricately designed. What inspired the idea for creating this?

David Applebaum: The idea was really inspired by simply an image of a sinkhole opening in the middle of Los Angeles, and it was really just an image that I couldn’t shake, and I thought it might be an interesting way to open up a television show. But I didn’t really know anything else beyond that.

I didn’t know where the story would lead, but once I had that image, I started asking questions about who are the people that fall in and where they go, and what is this place that they land in, and over time you start to build out a world of characters and a world of mystery. But it really just started with an image and a lot of work after that, filling out the rest of the story.

Culturess: How do you see the show continuing to build?

David Applebaum: In a few ways. On two levels, there are the characters and the emotional stories that we’re telling. All of them have their own emotional and character arcs that we’re building throughout the season, whether it’s about the Harris family and their quest to be reunited or about, Lucas dealing with the loss of his mother, or the character of Ty struggling with his mortality and questioning whether or not he’s going to live. All the characters have their own personal stories.

But at the same time, there are also the larger mythological stories at the heart of the show, about these sinkholes and why they exist, and is there a way to actually stop them, and ultimately, is there a way for our characters to get to leave 10,000 B.C. and get back home? So those stories, I think, are going to continue to expand and will always be at the heart of the show.

Culturess: How much hope can you tease for viewers that the Harris family will eventually be reunited?

David Applebaum: Well, it’s definitely going to be their goal. It’s not going to be easy. I think they’re separated by time; also, they’re separated emotionally. Before the story began, the family was fractured by Gavin’s visions and the ultimate dissolution of his marriage with Eve. I think there are a lot of emotional wounds in the family, too, so finding their way back to each other physically and emotionally is really one of the journeys of the season.

Culturess: What are you most excited for in season two for fans to see?

David Applebaum: I think seeing unexpected places that the ensemble cast of characters will go. Seeing some of their performances. A lot of the actors have a chance to expand and do new things and branch into new emotional terrain they wouldn’t have expected in season one. So, I think uncovering new layers and seeing how great these actors are and the cool places that they’re going is one of the things I’m really excited for the audience to see.

Culturess: Where would you go if you could keep going? Would you like to bring more people down into the sinkholes?

David Applebaum: Yeah, I think that’s one of the fun parts of the premise of the show is that there are sinkholes that are opening in other time periods and other places and coming back to this area. So I think there are a lot of opportunities to discover new things, new animals, and new people; it’s a world that can keep expanding. It’s also a world that can keep expanding because of this great cast of characters.

Thirteen series regulars who all have intricate emotional lives, mysteries about who they are, and a lot of it is just we’re just really scratching the surface of them, so there are so many stories we wanna tell for many of these characters. I think finding the opportunity to tell them and also expanding the notion of what this world is and what is actually down here, I think the show has the potential to go on for a really long time.

Culturess: You’re going to 1988 this year, are there any other years that you would love to explore if given the opportunity?

David Applebaum: Not that we’ve planned for yet, but it’s certainly a possibility. But we don’t have a plan to go to other places besides 1988 right now, but you never know.

Make sure to catch La Brea on NBC. Season two premieres on Tuesday, September 27.