‘Murder in a Small Town’ Boss Teases Karl & Cassandra’s Future, New Cases & a Big Mystery in Season 2

The town of Gibsons is still going to be quite small when Murder in a Small Town returns for Season 2, but the jurisdiction covered by Karl Alberg (Rossif Sutherland) will increase significantly beyond its borders. The police chief is not the only one broadening horizons as the series returns, either; Cassandra (Kristin Kreuk) is also getting into the realm of politics by running for town council, and they’ll both have to go toe-to-toe with the newly introduced mayor, Christie Holman (portrayed by Marcia Gay Harden).

To get a sense of what we can expect from the series, TV Insider spoke with Murder in a Small Town creator Ian Weir about everything from Karl and Cassandra’s romance to the new cases they’ll tackle and beyond.

Yes, Karl and Cassandra are still totally together

In Season 1, it wasn’t clear until the finale that Karl and Cassandra would reconnect in a romantic sense after calling things off earlier in the season. After the two decided to go for it again in the finale, though, Weir suggested they won’t be breaking up again any time soon.

“We certainly wanted to be sure in Season 2, as in Season 1, that at the heart of the show is the Karl-Cassandra romance… It’s a procedural. There’s a mystery in every episode, but the absolute beating heart of the show is Karl and Cassandra,” Weir explained. “We wanted to find ways to keep delving down into the Karl-Cassandra relationship and find levels and layers in that relationship and find flash points for them, find friction points for them, without making it a season about, ‘Will they break up, or will they stay together?’ I mean, they are together now, and they are deeply committed to each other. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.”

Mayor Holman will complicate things for them, though

“Mayor Holman is a beloved figure to many in Gibsons. She is the town doctor. She’s delivered a lot of the babies who grew up in Gibsons. She’s done a lot of good for the community. Cassandra has known her all her life. Cassandra’s perspective is that she’s never been able to trust Christie Holman one inch,” Weir teased of Harden’s new role. “Karl tends to think Cassandra is overreacting to this. Cassandra is assuring Karl that he’s underestimating Christie Holman, that, yeah, Christie Holman is really formidable when she wants something.” Watch this space.

Kailey Schwerman / FOX

The central cast will expand along with the terrain

In addition to introducing Mayor Holman, there’ll be other newcomers joining the season, and the spotlight will also turn to some of the characters we’ve already met but know less about.

“We knew we wanted to build out the supporting cast and also build out their ongoing stories… We wanted to build out the investigative terrain that Karl and the police force are dealing with. Now, rather than just investigating serious crimes in Gibsons, he’s investigating serious crimes along 150 miles of the Sunshine Coast Highway, bringing four or five other communities onto the radar, which sort of opens up our geography, but it also creates problems for the police department in that they’ve got this extra territory to deal with and no extra staff at this point. In fact, they’re down one person as they start,” Weir explained.

A season-long mystery will develop early in the season

Expanding on what executive producer Jeff Wachtel told us at the end of last season, Weir teased what fans can expect from the season-long mystery arc that continues throughout Season 2.

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“It’s a mystery that begins quite early in the season,” he said. “The fun thing is … It’s not a mystery that’s being investigated by Karl. It’s not on the police radar as we begin. It arises from Cassandra’s realization that there may have been more than was known about the tragic death of one of her high school close friends many years ago. It was a girl, Lauren Park, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident. But there are things going on around that, and Cassandra and Holly [Dakota Guppy], Karl’s daughter, take an interest in that in ways which become alarming to Cassandra because she doesn’t want Holly getting involved in anything that might have any danger involved. But yeah, it becomes a police investigation at length in the season.”

There’s also a bounty of fun individual cases ahead in Season 2

Weir gave us clues about three of the crime-of-the-day cases Karl and Cassandra will be dealing with in Season 2.

First is a wedding between two feuding families. “The wedding is between the Montagues and the Capulets, as it were, two families who can’t stand each other. That’s in Episode 2,” Weir explained. “Somebody crucial is discovered dead, [and] Cassandra knows one of the people involved in the gathering.”

Next, he teased a case involving a double kidnapping. “Of all the stories in the season, that one’s the one that sort of goes at 100 miles an hour right out of the gate and just doesn’t let up. It looks like it’s a double abduction, but Karl begins to realize very early that the abduction wasn’t the point of this. There’s something else going on. What is it that’s going on? And with two kids in deadly peril. How does he find out in time what it is that’s actually happening?” he explained.

Last but not least, we’ll see a pop star who vacations in Gibsons… and things, of course, go very badly. “An element that she was trying to get away from follows her to Gibsons. That’s also the storyline in which Cassandra’s good friend Phyllis [Fiona Vroom] [is part of]. We’re going to find out more and more about Phyllis this season…. Among other things, Phyllis has a property that she’s renovated and is renting out as an Airbnb, and yeah, that’s where the pop star enters and her entourage winds up staying. So, Phyllis becomes quite more involved than Phyllis ever wanted to be. Something very traumatic happens,” he teased. As for whether the guest star playing the pop star is a big one? “Oh, yes,” Weir confirmed.

Murder in a Small Town, Season 2 Premiere, Tuesday, September 23, 8/7c, Fox