The specter of Eve’s possible death is balanced out by the prospect of, well, “clean new clothes for everyone!,” as NBC’s La Brea resumes its sophomore run on Tuesday, Jan. 31, with back-to-back episodes that start at 9/8c.
When last we tuned in, Eve (played by Natalie Zea), Gavin (Eoin Macken), Gavin’s mom Caroline (Melissa Neal), Josh (Jack Martin), Izzy (Zyra Gorecki), Riley (Veronica St. Clair) and Sam (Jon Seda) had outwitted a team of Lazarus agents to leap into the 1988 Hollywood sign sinkhole, so as to return to 10,000 B.C. When Season 2 resumes, they will aim to breach the Lazarus Tower and upload Caroline’s virus that will stop all sinkholes — despite knowing that this means they will never get home again. Sam and Riley, however, are resolved to squeezing in a trip back to present day L.A. before said portal gets shut down.
But just as the reunited Harris family took said leap, Gavin had his first “vision” in a while — and it wasn’t of the past, but a future moment where Eve is dying! And that is on top of a looming murder mystery that kicks off with the second episode back.
TVLine recently sat down with La Brea‘s Natalie Zea to get a taste for what the back half of Season 2 has in store….
TVLINE | Eve’s gonna die! Apparently. According to Gavin’s vision.
[Laughs] Oh, is that right?
TVLINE | Is it going to be hard for Gavin to keep that a secret?
You know, I thought it was going to be tougher, but he spills at some point. I’m not going to tell you who he spills to or how he spills, but he does spill. It’s not his secret alone.
Zea and Barber (Instagram.com/nataliezea)
TVLINE | I did ask your showrunner, David Appelbaum, if there is going to be any “science” behind why Gavin now can see the future….
And I’m sure he was like, “Let me draw you on a cocktail napkin how it all works….”
TVLINE | Speaking of, I hope you appreciated my “investigative reporting” on Eve’s shearling.
I loved it! I thought it was the cutest thing. You know, we have 20 [shearling coats]. There’s 20 of them, and Marlee [Barber], my “twin sister” who is my stunt double and my body double and who basically could sub in for me at a luncheon—
TVLINE | Wait, you’re not Marlee right now, are you?
I might be! “I’m working on my American accent….” No, but she’s got a couple [shearlings] of her own. But I’ve been told there are 20.
TVLINE | When I asked David Appelbaum how Eve got her coat back after changing into the guard clothes, he pointed me to the exact scene where, if you freeze-frame at just the right instant, you see a small bag slung over her shoulder.
I’m glad it was important to him that you know that.
TVLINE | Since Levi decided to stay in 1988, will Eve and Gavin’s fractured marriage have a chance to strengthen?
Yeah, but just because Levi is in different time and place doesn’t mean that all the problems are, too. Now [Eve and Gavin] have to actually confront each other about what happened and who’s to blame, who was really wronged and who was wrong. And when you’re doing that alongside [prehistoric] creatures and constant death-and-destruction, it adds to the stakes. It adds to the emotional stakes, too.
TVLINE | David indicated we haven’t necessarily seen the last of Nicholas Gonzalez (as Levi).
Which is kind of Nicholas Gonzalez’ M.O.? [Joking] He’s a bit of cockroach, he doesn’t go away.
TVLINE | Remind me, does Izzy at this point know everything about the accident that lost her a leg, why it happened?
Yes, because we had that talk on the car hood — and I have to say, I loved shooting that scene. I was recovering rom COVID and we’d been working around having to do some of the physical stiff, and this was my first sit-down scene. Also, I hadn’t worked with Zyra all that much prior to that, and I thought she did so so well. I really loved the honesty in that scene. I know it may be polarizing, but I was a big fan of Eve being like, “Hey, you’re adult enough, here is what happened, here’s where we are….” And I loved Izzy’s reaction of, like, “OK, well this pisses me off a bit!” It felt very, “Here we are!” It felt very mature.
TVLINE | Is anything brand new coming up in the back half?
Yes! I will spoil that there is a wardrobe change. For everyone.
TVLINE | For everyone?
Kind of. I mean, it’s temporary….
TVLINE | What, did that handy Hollywood wardrobe truck sink into a tar pit?
There’s “an event.” There’s an event, and we all change clothes.
TVLINE | So, the group’s plan is to go back to 10,000 B.C., hop into the portal, and go home….
And everything will tie itself up in a neat little bow!
TVLINE | But each time the portal is used….
Bad things happen.
TVLINE | That has to be a big dilemma for the gang.
From the get. Like, before you even know it. It does not take long for s–t to interfere.
TVLINE | Who in the group is on team Let’s Just Go For It, F–k Everybody Else?
It’s gotta be Sam, right? Sam’s, like, rabid. That’s a thread that stays very consistent, he’s very adamant [about returning to the present day]. He sees the end goal and he’s not going to waver. In the very last moment of [the fall finale], he even was fighting us.
TVLINE | You told me you’re all done filming Season 2. What can you tease about the finale?
Um, Marlee gets to work a lot. [Laughs] Theres a lot of Marlee stuff, which means there’s a lot of stunts. It’s heavy. It’s emotionally heavy, it’s stunts-heavy, it’s stakes-heavy…. It has romance, it has intrigue, and in the best possible way it’s very soap operatic. Everything’s at an 11.
TVLINE | But not, like, Passions Level 12 soap operatic.
No, nothing is Passions Level 12!
Want scoop on La Brea, or for any other show? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.
