Big Sky EP Promises 'Sparks' For Jensen Ackles' Beau (But With Whom?), Details Storytelling Change In Season 3

Big Sky closed out its second season with Cassie, Jenny and new sheriff Beau getting friendly as they knocked back some after-work drinks. And to hear showrunner Elwood Reid tell it, Season 3 — which is subtitled Deadly Trails — will be even cozier.

But for whom, exactly? "I'll leave it for interpretation," Reid teases, calling Beau (played by new series regular Jensen Ackles) "a very fun, interesting guy — and both of these women find him fun and interesting. As the season progresses, there might be some sparks on one of those sides."

Viewers will be able to start searching for those sparks when the drama returns on Wednesday (ABC, 10/9c), but Reid warns that you'll have to look closely... at least at first.

"I'm playing it very open-ended in the beginning. I don't want to tilt my hand where we're going," he tells TVLine. "Suffice to say, all my actors — but particularly Jensen — he's got chemistry with everybody."

OK, OK, enough with the heart-eyes. Isn't there a crime to solve? When we pick up a few months after the events of the Season 2 finale, a new business called Sunny Day Excursions — run by an aggressive outdoorswoman named Sunny Barnes (new series regular Reba McEntire) — is the engine behind some pretty hinky business up in the wilderness outside Helena. As Cassie is called in to look for a missing backpacker, Beau and Jenny start tracking a murder case. And we haven't even started talking about what Beau's ex-wife has to do with any of it!

Read on for a sampling of what Big Sky is serving up in Season 3!

Make no mistake: Sunny Barnes, played by series newcomer/country music superstar Reba McEntire, is the season's villain. But Reid clarifies that she's a much different creature than, say, Ronald in Season 1. "She's a woman who has a family that she'll do anything to protect," the EP tells TVLine. "The way I described her was a mama bear that is not afraid to go a little crazy once in a while. She's someone who will do things that are villainous, but she has a reason why she's doing them." He chuckles. "At least, so far."

Oh, and by the way, Reid thought he didn't even have a marshmallow's chance at a campfire in getting McEntire on his show. But when he pitched the character to the network, he was encouraged to try for the Reba star. And after a phone call with the Grammy winner herself, he had his Sunny Barnes. "It's just a dream come true," Reid says. "She's an unbelievable person and an amazing creative partner."

One big change for the Deadly Trails season: Each episode will feature a crime that is solved either by Cassie and Denise at the private investigation office or Jenny and Beau at the sheriff's department, or some combination thereof. Meanwhile, the season's overarching mystery will continue to unfold, as well. "And, like all Big Sky stuff," Reid promises, "all of it eventually ends up being intertwined in some way." (And expect some late-season additions to the Dewell & Hoyt staff, as well.)

Any chance we'll see Jesse James Keitel return to play kidnappee-turned-investigator Jerrie? "Yes. The short answer is yes," Reid says. He explains that similar to what happened with Omar Metwally — who, as TVLine reported, is no longer a series regular thanks to scheduling conflicts — Keitel has been busy with work on Queer as Folk and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. (Hence the character's extended work trip to Idaho last season.) "I knew the minute she went to somebody else, they were going to love her, too," the EP adds. "I'm hoping we can get her back. And the good thing about Big Sky is, if I haven't thrown you off a cliff or killed you, there's a good chance you could come back."

Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction, The L Word: Generation Q), who'll guest-star as Jenny's mother Virginia "Gigi" Cessna in Season 3, "comes in in a very interesting way," Reid says. From the character description, we know that Gigi is a scammer whose latest con brings her to Helena, directly into the life of the daughter she's repeatedly let down. "We meet her in Episode 3, and I don't want to give away what happens, but she's going to continue to be a bit of a presence in the show," the EP teases.

So, back to Beau and those "sparks." First, let's deal with some figures from the sheriff's romantic past: As we previously reported, Big Sky has recruited Angelique Cabral (Maggie) to play Carla, the ex-wife Beau has admitted he still loves. ("She's a firecracker," Reid says with a laugh.) And she, as well as her new husband, Avery (Lost alum Henry Ian Cusick), and Beau and Carla's daughter, Emily, will be on one of Sunny's glamping trips when things go sideways.

"It's fun to play this idea that [Beau] is a guy who truly does love this ex-wife, is in love with his ex-wife, and does really want to be there for his daughter," the EP says. But does that mean that the new lawman's easy — dare we say, flirty — rapport with both Cassie and Jenny is destined to stay strictly platonic? Reid's cagey answer is this:

"Last year, with all of the rollercoaster ride that Cassie took emotionally with the death of her father and her little affair with Lindor, and then Jenny of course with the character of Travis, it's just... I opted for a slow burn this season. And I leave it to you to see which way that ball is going to bounce."