‘Happy’s Place’ Boss on Setting Up Bobbie & Emmett’s Future Romance With Finale
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Happy’s Place Season 1 Episode 18, “Alarm Bells.”]
Happy’s Place may be ending for the season, but it’s going out with a bang of sorts as the finale installment, “Alarm Bells,” sets the stage for romance between Bobbie (Reba McEntire) and the titular bar’s in-house cook, Emmett (Rex Linn).
As a real-life couple, McEntire and Linn certainly have the right chemistry to make this pairing work, and while Bobbie’s sister Isabella (Belissa Escobedo) encourages the arrangement, the rest of the Happy’s Place team works against it, claiming at first that Bobbie and Emmett could never be a thing before admitting the duo are definitely into each other.
The fear is that allowing Bobbie and Emmett to get together, could upset the balance of the team’s metaphorical ecosystem. But what sparks the debate, to begin with? When security concerns are raised at Bobbie and Isabella’s place, Emmett offers to help, but Bobbie’s stubbornness leads to a competition of who is a better protector.
When they turn to a shooting game at the local arcade, viewers get a peek into the simmering romantic tension as Emmett attempts to teach Bobbie how to shoot in the game. While no declarations are made, nor dates scheduled, Emmett asks if he can look in on Bobbie to make sure she’s safe from time to time, the implication being that he’ll be dropping in for visits here and there at her home.
Casey Durkin / NBC
With a second season to look forward to, showrunner Kevin Abbott notes, “The season finale was always going to be about that relationship,” but he adds that in the original vision he had in mind the romance “was going to be further than this.”
Instead, he’s holding it back for future episodes, and Abbott teases that it’s something “I actually love, that I don’t think anybody’s going to see coming… So that’s coming up in Season 2.” As for exploring this romance between Bobbie and Emmett, Abbott, who previously collaborated with McEntire on Reba, acknowledges that she may have had her relationships on that series, but that they were often failures.
“For whatever reason, Reba can do almost anything, but she couldn’t do that,” Abbott says of her onscreen relationships in the previous show, “and it used to bug the heck out of me.”
Now with Emmett, there’s a chance viewers could see longevity in their relationship. “Before we had [cast] Rex, I had incorporated Emmett as a possible love interest for Bobbie, hoping… and then when Rex came into the picture it was [like] maybe this is the key we’ve been missing all along.”
As Abbott puts it, “The sparks you see in the season finale for me are just delightful and wonderful.” But when it comes to mixing work and real life, he admits, “There’s a certain amount of trepidation… [but] right now it is working marvelously, the two of them. Rex could not be more fun to work with.”
According to Abbott, Linn is quite different from his curmudgeonly onscreen persona as Emmett as he says “[They] are not the same character at all. Emmett’s a man of few words. Rex will talk your ear off and he is just this lovely man who’s not grouchy or anything.”
Bobbie has Isabella to thank for the romance because, without her intervention, she’d still be dancing around the idea of Emmett rather than facing him head-on. “Isabella’s role is to open her up, to make her take risks,” Abbott says of the character’s purpose of widening Bobbie’s scope of the world.
Likewise, Bobbie is meant to provide Isabella with a home base support. “They will each feed something important in the other, and we’ll get into a lot more of that in Season 2,” Abbott promises. Stay tuned for updates on Season 2 as it takes shape and let us know what you think of the Season 1 finale in the comments section, below.
Happy’s Place, Season 2 Premiere, TBA, NBC
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O
Love this show and putting those two together will be wonderful watching them.❤️❤️❤️
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P
Perfect, we all hoped it was heading this way,,,first clue fishing cabin, second clue, Bobby on dating app and Rex trying to eavesdrop also the hospital scene,,,thought it would take off from there...anyway,I'm HAPPY and love that Reba dropped In a Merle Haggard line and Annie Oakley!!
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O
Perfect. But get rid of the sister.
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G
I love the the show. The mix of the characters are amazing. They make me laugh and sad when they are supposed to. I always leave after I have been to “Happy’s Place!”
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G
Well done. I loved it. This show is light hearted, and just what we need.
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O
Season Finale- wonderful. The tension. Between Bobbie and Emmitt Great! Please let Bobbi (Reba) have a relationship - I watched all the seasons of Reba - and was so sad she never had a long term committed relationship- everyone else but her. Reba and Rex can make this happen start the relationship and let them work through it - maybe secretly get married please do not avoid it throughout season 2.
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P
Any show Reba plays in will be great. Not only is she a great singer but now a actress . She can anything she puts her mind to. I know this season will be great. The other actors and actress are good also. I,d give Happy Place a 10 on ratings. Please don t take it off.
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C
Now if we could only get Happy’s Place on a better day / time slot.
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O
It would be bad for the show I will stop watching it
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G
Nope. I'm out. That is not the show I want. Bobbie and her ... father's friend??? Creepy!
Yes, I know the actor is her real-life mate. I say so what? The thing about acting is being something you're NOT.
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